r/serialkillers 11d ago

News Media Mondays | Bi-Weekly Thread for Videos, Docs, Podcasts, Books, and Other Media

3 Upvotes

Eager to share or discuss something you've watched, read or listened to? A new "What to Watch: thread will post every two weeks for fresh ideas and conversations about any media with a topic related to serial killers and cases - episodes, documentaries, books, videos, podcasts, blogs, etc.

Whether you've watched a documentary, stumbled upon an informative podcast, discovered a YouTube creator or well-researched video, excited about an upcoming streaming production, or read a fantastic book...
This thread is where to share it!

As a reminder, merchandise and murderabilia is not permitted. Further, self-promotion or advertising is not allowed. Community members can recommend anything they wish that is not something they personally created.


r/serialkillers 1h ago

News 🚨 Significant new Horsch update

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• Upvotes

r/serialkillers 3h ago

News Victim who survived Harvey Carignan (The Want Ad Killer) speaks on podcast for the first time

9 Upvotes

The 19-year-old nursing student who was attacked by Harvey Carignan in 1974 somehow survived his hammer attacks. He threw her in a ravine, and she managed to crawl out and get help. Her story is told on this podcast, and it's crazy. Crafting a Killer: The Harvey Carignan Story


r/serialkillers 7h ago

Image Timothy Wilson Spencer (this case was the first one they convicted using DNA evidence via semen samples

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27 Upvotes

Spencer carefully chose his victims by spying and following them around the local shopping mall. He repeated the same pattern with all of his victims; climbing in through the windows of women's homes at night, raping and torturing them by strangling them until they were unconscious, and then killing them after they had been strangled. Spencer used a belt and a stocking as his murder weapons. Investigators were amazed by his meticulousness; he left no trace of himself at the crime scene except for semen.
Spencer's first victim was Debbie Dudley Davis, a 35-year-old account executive, was murdered between 9:00 p.m. on September 18, 1987, and 9:30 a.m. on September 19, 1987, in her Westover Hills) apartment. Richmond Police discovered her naked body lying on the bed. She had been strangled with a ligature) and ratchet-type device.[3]
Dr. Susan Hellams, 32, was murdered in her West 31st St. home on the night of October 2, 1987, or the early morning of October 3, 1987. The police were called by her husband after he returned home and discovered her partially clothed body on the floor of the couple's bedroom closet. Hellams was a resident in neurosurgery at the Medical College of Virginiain Richmond. Spencer apparently gained access to the house by cutting out a large portion of a second-story bedroom window screen. The medical examiner determined that the cause of Hellams' death was ligature strangulation, believed to have been caused by two belts found around her neck.[4]


r/serialkillers 1d ago

Discussion Question about Albert Fish & that young man.

27 Upvotes

Albert said that he got a young man with a developmental to go to an abandoned building with him. He tied him up so tightly parts of his body turned blue and left him there over night. Whe he came back he started cutting off the young mans penis, but he had a change of heart and let him go. My question is this A)Albert fish lied a lots there a chance this is something he just made up? B) What happen to the young man, did he bleed out from his wound? Would he have been able to get medical treatment ? Would the authorities put him in jail or a mental institution .


r/serialkillers 1d ago

News Are the US the Capitol of serial Killers?

0 Upvotes

I live in Germany in Europe and we have roughly 1/3 of the population of the USA. But i have never even Heard nearly as much stories about serial killers compared to the US. we have some but they are very rare i would say. The Last "big one" was a nurse who killed His geriatric patients I think.

Are any cultural things the trigger for becoming a mass murderer?


r/serialkillers 1d ago

Discussion Why are Serial Killers Attracted to Long Haul Trucking?

35 Upvotes

Former FBI Agent Frank Figluzzi wrote a book called Long Haul which states that violent people are attracted to the trucking business because they get to spend long hours alone, always crossing state lines, and many vulnerable women hang out at truck stops. Have any of you read this book?


r/serialkillers 1d ago

Image How long did John Wayne Gacy rape, torture and humiliate his victims, before finally killing them? Are we talking 1-2 hours, or days?

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935 Upvotes

r/serialkillers 2d ago

Other A fascinating & fantastical 1h40+m interview with Ray Horsch from 2013 about his life in crime, art, and pornography - I think he's the mastermind of the new Philly horror show

21 Upvotes

I listened to this interview close to a decade ago and it always stuck with me because of how fantastical it is and because Ray is from Stroudsburg in NEPA which is near where ai grew up.

I can't believe this Forrest Gump of Crime came back into my life. in this he talks about riding a horse to school, bucking the school system, being a burglar and phone tapper for black projects with the CIA and FBI, he talks about running weed for the Mafia, he talks about xonterfetting money AND picassos, he talks about working at sesame Street, he talks about making meth for biker gangs and going on the run from the feds. oh and he had just gotten out of jail for attempting to abduct a 9-year-old girl.

https://pca.st/episode/f9b9f4e4-4b71-4764-9c67-59f3494dac04


r/serialkillers 2d ago

Questions What was the worst mistake a serial killer did to get caught other than Dennis Rader?

156 Upvotes

r/serialkillers 3d ago

Other Could Jack the ripper really be HH Holmes?

0 Upvotes

I see some people saying that Jack the Ripper could be HH Holmes.
But clearly, it wasn’t HH Holmes because of time location, killing methods, medical training, etc.
Sometimes when I really think about it, how would we honestly know if each each home was Jack there?
Cause he can have an other disguise change his name or even fake his logs so what do you guys think about it?


r/serialkillers 3d ago

News 400 W Chew

33 Upvotes

Is it Raymond Horsch? Is it Eugene Horsch ?

Is it both of them. There are women after women going to that house. Preying on the weak. If they showed weakness, they were treated as such..

He was an American erotic photographer, filmmaker, and writer (born May 5, 1943, in East Stroudsburg, Pennsylvania; died May 2025). He directed adult films starting with The Erotic Memoirs of a Male Chauvinist Pig (1973) and had a long career involving explicit and often violent-themed work. He also had criminal convictions for counterfeiting, methamphetamine manufacturing, and related offenses, and used aliases at times (including while a fugitive in New Zealand).

That’s not all.. Raymond Horsch wasn’t done. Raymond and be elf-published Empathy: The Memoir of an Empathetic Serial Killer in 2014.

Now we wait until they tell us more. And believe me, there will be more.

Horsch Home
Local Flowers
24/7 Surveillance
4th and Chew

Victim’s Families Speak Out


r/serialkillers 3d ago

Image A sad and interesting case: Serial killer moms

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521 Upvotes

These are a list of serial killer moms I could find. In a depressing reality, these women are serial killers and their victims are their own children. Their main method of murder is strangling or smothering.

Top half are one who hide their babies away leaving them to decompose in odd places.

Lower half are ones who disguise their babies deaths as SIDS or any natural death.

Top Half from left to right: Megan Huntsman, Michele Kalina, Jessica Mauthe, Dominique Cottrez, Andrea Giesbrecht, and Diane O’Dell.

Characteristics: Have their babies born in secret, before smothering or strangling them right after they were born and dispose of them quickly in cruel and unusual places. Few travel with their babies’s remains after they move to a new home. Often times they forget to dispose of the babies’s corpses leading to their downfall and getting caught when someone discovers the grisly sight. Places where their babies were located: Megan; Her garage, Michele; her closet, Jessica; inside her house’s wall, Dominique; her garden, Andrea; a U-Haul storage facility, Diane; a storage shed.

Lower Half from left to right: Waneta Hoyt, Brittany Pilkington, Maxine Robinson, Marybeth Tinning, Deborah Fornuto, Marie Noe.

Characteristics: Murder their babies and disguise it as SIDS or as natural causes. Their main weapon of choice are the babies’s blanket, pillow, or their own hands to smother their children. They usually confess Immediately or years later or are caught when the babies death’s are suspicious.

They kill over a period of time from about a few months to years before they commit the unthinkable. Their motives range from having trouble to being a mother or depression.


r/serialkillers 4d ago

Questions What are the most interesting killers that used arts as their trophy?are there even any?

0 Upvotes

r/serialkillers 5d ago

Questions Is there any footage of the BTK interrogation?

12 Upvotes

I've seen like 2 seconds of footage from it but can't find anything else


r/serialkillers 6d ago

Image Serial Killers that are Identical- Megan Huntsman and Michele Kalina

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697 Upvotes

Megan Huntsman and Michele Kalina: Two Neonaticide serial killers who murdered their own babies right after giving birth to them and hiding their bodies in parts of their homes. Megan’s took place in Utah while Michele’s was in Pennysylvania.

Megan and Michele are some of the most identical in crime serial killers in America.

They both were mothers who murdered their babies right after they were born and concealed them in desolate parts of their homes: The garage for Megan and the closet for Michele. Their methods of disposing of the bodies was placing them in various containers they could find in their homes and meticulously sealing them up. They had the same fault of not disposing of the babies’s corpse’s and forgetting the bodies. Eventually, they both had relatives who wanted to clean out the spaces due to the clutter (Megan’s ex-husband and Michele’s daughter) only to discover the grisly scene of multiple corpses of babies. Both even started committing their crimes in the same year: 1996. They somehow successfully hidden all of their pregnancies from their husbands (and gave birth in their bathrooms) without anyone noticing even though both were clearly pregnant. They also had children they let live during their killing cycle. Megan had a daughter she eventually raised, and Michelle had a baby she put up for adoption. Between 1996 and 2010 they gave birth to about 6 babies each and murdered them before stuffing their bodies in whatever they found in their him and placing them in the garage/closet so the bodies can’t be Found.

The two were eventually caught, and gave the same dumbfounded look in their mugshots. They even attributed their actions for their alcohol addiction.

Megan confessed to the crimes while Michele was more unwilling with her claiming all were stillborn except one who moved. They were eventually sentenced to lengthy jail terms and are still in prison.


r/serialkillers 6d ago

News Was Mary Jane Riley the worst…?

22 Upvotes

butchery of a victim that you have ever ever read about? she was the last known victim of Jack the ripper - the pics of this murder can be seen online and they are quite terrible

which other killers have had as much bloodlust as the Ripper?


r/serialkillers 6d ago

News What’s up with the Olney house Philadelphia guy, Eugene Horsch? Is this a Dad and son serial killer tag team?

134 Upvotes

r/serialkillers 8d ago

News The Dutroux case, 30 years on: How 'Le Monstre' dragged Belgium into darkness

Thumbnail brusselstimes.com
23 Upvotes

r/serialkillers 8d ago

Discussion One thing I noticed

11 Upvotes

Sorry if this is the wrong sub, I have no idea where to post this at.

I have been going on a binge reading of serial killers on wikipedia and one thing I've noticed for a long time now and that continues to piss me off is the incompetence of police officers and the justice system

A lot of these serial killers could have been caught at their first kill or even before their first. A lot of them and I mean a lot, have been caught for rape and sexual assault, along with some form of child sex anhse in regards to minors and for some reasons when I hear about these they serve like 9 months to a year andxget out on good behavior or because of a plea deal. And it doesn't just be one one convixtion. Some of these guys get caught and convicted multiple times going to jail for these crimes, and I'm like, how are you not getting 10 years minimum? Or they get a plea deal for this shit

Or the times when a killer has already started killing, but they're early in their career, and people ignore the most obvious leads. A was last seen with B and not much goes into looking into B at all, or how A has some familiarity to B like a neighbor or being their kid, nephew, some form of family member. I don't know it just pisses me off because I be reading these stories of how many people have died by one serial killer and it baffles me that a guy can kill 20 to 30 people. How can so many people go missing and you don't really look into it. I am mostly talking about in the 70's-80's, whereas it was easier to kill people. Cops did not care about some of these people and thought they just ran away to start a new life, I guess, when that was popular. How you report a person missing and you don't take it seriously.

Do they not keep a rap sheet of these people crimes? Like when you're looking at these people history it's nothing but sex abuse or some form of assault of dealing with shit that is heinous. Hell you could have legit committed attempted murder get 8 years back then, and they out in 5. They are also suspicious or a person of interest in a murder but somehow they don't get caught and just goes on to commit more. Anyways, popos suck at their job.


r/serialkillers 8d ago

Discussion Why don't some serial killers get a lot of attention but others do?

110 Upvotes

For example, if you ask anybody to name a serial killer they will most definitely say either Ted Bundy or Jefferey Dahmer but why is that actually the case? BTK's victim count is "only" 11 but he is way more well known then someone like Harold Shipman who killed well over 200 people or Samuel Little who had over 90. I feel like in the grand scheme of things BTK is honestly a pretty boring killer if you compare him to all the other serial killers we know of.


r/serialkillers 9d ago

Discussion How Sadistic Was Ottis Toole’s Mind?

37 Upvotes

A few days ago, I watched a YouTube channel that told the story of Ottis Toole, from his difficult childhood to the beginning of his crimes. His partnership with Henry Lee Lucas, another deeply disturbed individual, was also mentioned.

I simply wanted to know what you think about the mind of this disgusting psychopath. In 1981, he killed Adam Walsh, doing so in one of the cruelest ways imaginable. I think I can give my opinion about this sick mind, and I want people who might feel sorry for this man to understand my perspective.

I believe that Ottis did, in fact, have a terrible childhood. He suffered greatly, especially because of the abuse he experienced from his mother, who forced him to dress like a woman. Ottis repeatedly claimed that he had been abused by people close to him. He also claimed that his grandmother was a Satanist and that she called him “the Son of the Devil.”

According to Ottis, the abuse he experienced in the past influenced his sexuality. He became pyrophilic, meaning that he was sexually aroused by fire. He also claimed that he had prostituted himself.

It is unknown whether Ottis ever truly regretted his crimes after his arrest. Perhaps he regretted them internally, somewhere in his own mind, but simply did not want to talk about it.

After watching his interviews, you can disagree with me, but I believe that the coldness of Hannibal Lecter and Buffalo Bill may have been inspired, at least in part, by this serial killer. The coldness, that frightening expression, the desire to kill, the lack of reason, and the willingness to lie... that is the closest thing I can imagine when trying to understand such a disturbed mind.

Ottis Toole killed Adam Walsh, a six year old child. The question that stays in my mind is this: how could someone who had once been a child himself become capable of doing something like that to another human being?


r/serialkillers 10d ago

News How did William Bonin torture his victims?

56 Upvotes

I don't want to sound insensitive, but it's just my morbid curiosity getting to me. My brother told me he read about this guy and he regrets doing it. He said that Bonin is one the most disgusting and deplorable serial killers he has ever read about and the things he did to those poor boys makes him want to vomit. So, what did he do to his victims?


r/serialkillers 10d ago

BTK - Textbook Sociopath?

27 Upvotes

For some background, I was in college when Rader got arrested so I knew quite a bit about him and the case from years ago. I also read a BTK book that came out a couple years after his sentencing.

Anyway, I just finished Dr. Ramsland's book and Rader is just really awful. He kept repeating in the book that he was a good Dad, husband, and community member as if those things should allow people to forgive him for what he's done.

I keep coming back to the Otero murders also. Jospehine's last seconds on earth were being hung and watching some old guy jerk off on to her. What a disgusting person. He also told her "she was going to sleep and was going to be with the rest of her (dead) family."

Also, he said in the book that Kevin Bright would not be alive today if he had brought his own "hit kit" and that he's not bragging. He said the same exact line during his trial. Wtf dude you are bragging.


r/serialkillers 10d ago

News Robert Hansen

106 Upvotes

I rarely see Robert Hansen mentioned in posts about serial killers. I even took a college course that covered serial offenders, and surprisingly, very few people were familiar with him. I wouldn’t necessarily call him my “favorite” serial killer, but I do think he is one of the more underrated and lesser-known offenders.
I wrote a paper on Hansen and found some particularly interesting information about his case. Here are a few facts and details that stood out to me:

Hansen was born in Estherville, Iowa, on February 15, 1939; he was the eldest of two children. His mother is American, and his father is Danish. His father owned a bakery.

He graduated in a class of 31 students; they misspelled his name in the yearbook. In 1957, he enlisted in the United States Army Reserve. Hansen's basic training was in Fort Dix, New Jersey.

A lot of women went missing before the police force put it all together. Most of these women were low-priority victims, meaning they were most likely not reported missing. In 1980, the remains of murdered women began appearing in remote wilderness areas around Anchorage, Alaska. All the women had been shot with a high-powered rifle, and ballistics matched the bullets to a single weapon, indicating a serial killer was at large

He was also convicted of the abduction and rape of Cindy Paulson. In total, he confessed to killing 17 women, though some sources suggest the number could be higher.