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"Meanwhile, Thomas Hargrove of the Murder Accountability Project thinks that as of 2019, the U.S. alone had something like 2,100 unidentified serial killers running around. Author and former police detective Michael Arntfield thinks that the number could be as high as 4,000.

Obviously, we have no way to know for sure which of these undiscovered serial killers are most terrifying, because, well, they haven't been caught yet."

https://www.grunge.com/200167/the-most-dangerous-active-serial-killers-in-2020/

"Unidentified serial killers"

The following 90 pages are in this category...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Unidentified_serial_killers

maximus otter

Yes, I have a book about serial killers who were never caught, it made for chilling, not-before-bedtime reading, but I could console myself that there are billions of people in the world who would never kill anyone, and we're a vast, very significant majority.
 
One of the few photos l’ve seen of a serial killer who looked like a serial killer was of Graham Young, the thallium poisoner...but he only looked that way because he’d miscounted the exposures in the photo booth, and was standing up to leave when the camera flashed for the last time. True story...

Oooo, I dunno - I reckon the often inexplicably overlooked Patrick MacKay could give any other cold blooded killer a run for their money. Check out the last photo on his trip to a photo booth:

McKay.jpg


Although, to be fair - at bottom left he does kind of look just like a constipated accountant.
 
Oooo, I dunno - I reckon the often inexplicably overlooked Patrick MacKay could give any other cold blooded killer a run for their money. Check out the last photo on his trip to a photo booth:

View attachment 31553

Although, to be fair - at bottom left he does kind of look just like a constipated accountant.
Now he definitely looks evil in the bottom right!
 
To me in the last photo he looks like the guy from AC/DC.
 
A good way of getting upgraded to Business Class, you have to carry a head to get ahead.

Forensic scientist Prof Dame Sue Black has revealed how she once transported two human heads in designer bags on a plane from Italy to Scotland.

Prof Black had been asked to assist Italian police who were investigating a serial killer in the mid-1990s. She said she was moved to business class after telling an "utterly horrified" stewardess what she was carrying.

Prof Black shared the story on the BBC's Big Scottish Book Club. She told host Damian Barr she was asked to take the heads to Scotland to carry out a facial superimposition, a procedure where a photograph is matched to a skull, which was unavailable in Italy at the time. One of the challenges of transporting the remains, she recalled, was that they were in an advanced state of decay. ...

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-tayside-central-54965008
 
A good way of getting upgraded to Business Class, you have to carry a head to get ahead...

Prof Dame Sue Black is always a class interviewee - extremely down to earth about herself and her job, but, at the same time, very entertaining. Not only a technician of death, I think - but also, in her own sensible and practical way, a bit of a philosopher.
 
A good way of getting upgraded to Business Class, you have to carry a head to get ahead.

Forensic scientist Prof Dame Sue Black has revealed how she once transported two human heads in designer bags on a plane from Italy to Scotland.

Prof Black had been asked to assist Italian police who were investigating a serial killer in the mid-1990s. She said she was moved to business class after telling an "utterly horrified" stewardess what she was carrying.

Prof Black shared the story on the BBC's Big Scottish Book Club. She told host Damian Barr she was asked to take the heads to Scotland to carry out a facial superimposition, a procedure where a photograph is matched to a skull, which was unavailable in Italy at the time. One of the challenges of transporting the remains, she recalled, was that they were in an advanced state of decay. ...

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-tayside-central-54965008

The late Professor Keith Simpson was once asked by an official to open a medical case he was carrying onto a plane. It did of course contain a human head which he was taking abroad for some perfectly valid forensic reason.

Simpson tried hard to resist the request but was eventually forced to unveil the case's contents. The airport official went a bit green and waved him on his way.

This was a favourite anecdote of Simpson's. He had a dark, nay ghoulish sense of humour.
 
He had a dark, nay ghoulish sense of humour.

We had a DC who was also a SOCO (back in the Seventies) who would exploit any opportunity to try and gross people out. Two incidents l witnessed:

a) He deliberately walked up and down the station for a lengthy period, obviously longing for someone to ask him why carrying one of those large plastic pots with a wire handle, in which pubs receive catering-sized quantities of lemon slices.

Eventually somebody took the bait: “OK, Laurence, what is it this time?” He gleefully whipped off the lid to reveal the tongue, epiglottis and trachea of a strangulation victim.

The one which caused me to wince a little was:

b) L. was touring the nick as above, but this time he was carrying a clear plastic evidence bag containing several large bloodstained shards from what had apparently been a two-litre glass Corona bottle.

Such transparency (see what l did there?) wasn’t L’s usual M.O., so l took the bait. lt turned out that one of our colourful local ladies had gone through an acrimonious breakup. Having consumed certain intoxicants, she formed a plan of revenge against her former inamorato. She smashed a bottle into suitably-sized razor-sharp fragments, then rang lover boy up and invited him over for a potential reconciliation bunkup. Before he arrived she slipped into something comfortable, then slipped something very uncomfortable into herself.

Mr. Lover-Lover arrives, they start the Whoopee! machine and he thrusts enthusiastically...

sliced-sausage-9927733.jpg


maximus otter
 
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Samuel Little - possibly the US serial killer with the longest victims list ever - has died.
Samuel Little, one of most notorious U.S. serial killers, dead at 80

Samuel Little, the man regarded by many in law enforcement as the deadliest serial killer in U.S. history, has died at a California hospital at the age of 80.

Little, who confessed to at least 93 murders nationwide, had been serving three consecutive life sentences when he died early Wednesday at a hospital outside the prison system, the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation said. ...

The cause of Little's death will soon be determined by the Los Angeles County medical examiner. ...

Authorities believe that Little's claims that he killed almost 100 people are credible. The FBI says his staggering victim count makes Little the most deadly serial killer in U.S. history.

Investigators have so far verified 50 of his admitted victims, and many others are pending final confirmation. ...

FULL STORY: https://www.upi.com/Top_News/US/202...s-US-serial-killers-dead-at-80/9041609417136/
 
Can anyone of the female persuasion explain to me why some of your sisters correspond with and sometimes even marry serial killers - even serial killers convicted of killing women? Just reading about a bloke called Michael McGrey in Canada who killed a woman called Joan Hicks who was in town to meet a fellow killer of females. And had brought her 11 year old child who was also murdered.

I mean, I feel slightly sorry for Aileen Wournous - totally crap life, betrayed by everyone she ever trusted - but I wouldn't chat her up. She' was executed, of course, so the opportunity wouldn't anise, but that's not the point.
 
Can anyone of the female persuasion explain to me why some of your sisters correspond with and sometimes even marry serial killers - even serial killers convicted of killing women? Just reading about a bloke called Michael McGrey in Canada who killed a woman called Joan Hicks who was in town to meet a fellow killer of females. And had brought her 11 year old child who was also murdered.

I mean, I feel slightly sorry for Aileen Wournous - totally crap life, betrayed by everyone she ever trusted - but I wouldn't chat her up. She' was executed, of course, so the opportunity wouldn't anise, but that's not the point.

While I wouldn't claim to speak on behalf of women who behave like that, it is true that a man who is locked up is like a perfect boyfrriend for some.

She always knows where he is, he's not mixing with available women, he is happy to hear from her and looks forward to their contact, etc.
 
While I wouldn't claim to speak on behalf of women who behave like that, it is true that a man who is locked up is like a perfect boyfrriend for some.

She always knows where he is, he's not mixing with available women, he is happy to hear from her and looks forward to their contact, etc.
You're selling the idea to me!! ;)
 
I don't know why I'm laughing, I can see the benefits as well. :)

I wonder if part of it is the thrill of being close to something bad/wrong/dangerous, but not close enough to do harm to oneself. I think it can also make one feel special "He may be a monster but I can see beyond that"
 
I dunno if it's been mentioned before - it's a long thread and I've not the inclination to read all the pages.
I get annoyed when popular media classifies Ed Gein as a serial killer.
Two deaths. Yep, their bodies were horrifically treated. But surely two killings doesn't add up to a serial murderer?
Yes, he was seriously disturbed. Yes, he was a necrophiliac. Yes, he treated human remains - nearly all disinterred from local cemeteries - with astounding coldness. Yes, he 'inspired' Leatherface in the Texas Chainsaw Massacre.
He was a seriously mentally ill man, from a combination of his upbringing (yeah, unproven, but did he kill his rebellious brother Henry? It'd be true to type) and his mental disposition. His whole case is worthy of study and question.
But he wasn't - in my understanding - a serial killer. And it really annoys me when he gets lumped in with other 'famous' killers such as Bundy, Dahmer, Gacy et al. It's not often that Albert Fish gets a mention and he was truly shocking!
I'm not speaking up for Ed Gein but against lazy stereotyping.
 
I dunno if it's been mentioned before - it's a long thread and I've not the inclination to read all the pages.
I get annoyed when popular media classifies Ed Gein as a serial killer.
Two deaths. Yep, their bodies were horrifically treated. But surely two killings doesn't add up to a serial murderer?
Yes, he was seriously disturbed. Yes, he was a necrophiliac. Yes, he treated human remains - nearly all disinterred from local cemeteries - with astounding coldness. Yes, he 'inspired' Leatherface in the Texas Chainsaw Massacre.
He was a seriously mentally ill man, from a combination of his upbringing (yeah, unproven, but did he kill his rebellious brother Henry? It'd be true to type) and his mental disposition. His whole case is worthy of study and question.
But he wasn't - in my understanding - a serial killer. And it really annoys me when he gets lumped in with other 'famous' killers such as Bundy, Dahmer, Gacy et al. It's not often that Albert Fish gets a mention and he was truly shocking!
I'm not speaking up for Ed Gein but against lazy stereotyping.
It doesn't annoy me as such but I agree that killing just 2 people shouldn't warrant them as a serial killer.

It should be at least 5 at a minimum I reckon.
 
I admit, I'm avoiding trying to quantify the deaths. Each one was a person, with family, who should not have died. They matter.
But to label another person, and rank him along side other, horrendous murderers who did more disgusting and tragic acts both increases the importance of the lesser and diminishes the greater.
For instance - a case of a wealthy farmer, discovers his financial worries are beyond repair and banks are going to take away his lifestyle. He decides to take his shotgun, kill his wife and children, then after setting his own property ablaze, kills himself. What he does is inexcusable. Horrific. For the image of prosperity, of wealth and position, he - an allegedly sane man - kills an innocent family and then himself.
Is he a serial killer? His actions are irrational, perhaps linked with a deep mental aberration. It was his choice to kill. Several people.
It is difficult to quantify. Each case has of itself definite factors. It's not as simple as "number of victims". At all.
If we are going to impose a label or a 'classification', then it's incumbent to outline the qualifications to be put into that classification.
I think we all at least feel we know what a serial killer is. It's a killer that committed murder, on several occasions, driven by desires or pressures that link the victims. They may kill red-headed women, say, or people who humiliated them in public. The killer had a target type. Graham Young had no target, as such, but his utter non-connection with other people meant he saw everyone as potential victims but he was cognoscent of the risk of himself being caught. He was a serial killer. Unrepentant. And happy to do what he did again and again.

I repeat, I'm not trying to defend Gein. But I'm questioning the easy classification of multiple killers - especially in the media. Calling Gein a serial killer is a blatant example. It's lazy. For everyone. "Oh, they were a serial killer. We don't have to look further in their motives or drives." Ed Gein stands as a highlight to me in this lack of questioning. When someone calls Gein a serial killer, it irritates me as he was more than that, and serial killers are more than that, and this carelessness devalues their acts and devalues their victims lives.
 
For instance - a case of a wealthy farmer, discovers his financial worries are beyond repair and banks are going to take away his lifestyle. He decides to take his shotgun, kill his wife and children, then after setting his own property ablaze, kills himself. What he does is inexcusable. Horrific. For the image of prosperity, of wealth and position, he - an allegedly sane man - kills an innocent family and then himself.
Is he a serial killer? His actions are irrational, perhaps linked with a deep mental aberration. It was his choice to kill. Several people.
It is difficult to quantify. Each case has of itself definite factors. It's not as simple as "number of victims". At all.

He's a Spree Killer, we have a thread: https://forums.forteana.org/index.php?threads/mass-murder-spree-killing.14112/
 
In London in the early nineties there was a serial killer who made a point of checking the F.B.I.'s definition of a serial killer to make sure he got the required number.

Info. here if you're interested. Other serial killer websites are available.
 
It's like my ability to discuss the practical concerns of disposing of a human body, illegally dead and given 'average' opportunity, is considered disturbing.
It's down to study, reading matter and past interest.
Case in point:
I'm not, nor ever have been, a trained pathologist. Watching an old episode of Silent Witness (I'm no fan so I'm aware of it but never watched any episodes) with my wife.
Two bodies turn up, old blokes, with old skin-grafts on the same places on the inner forearm. I looked up from my book.
"Has the pathologist noted if they're circumcised? If so, at that age, they might've been concentration camp survivors. She can 'lever up' enough skin layers to see." I was right.
I'm no expert. But I'm past mid-fifty in years and read a lot.
 
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