In an effort to educate without glorifying (because, as horrible as it is, this stuff is fascinating), we identified the most notorious serial killer - be it the most famous, prolific, or historical - from every state and the District of Columbia (excluding anybody who killed in the last 20 years - that's just too recent). Still, beware: if you are easily disturbed, offended, or inclined to leave nasty comments castigating authors for even writing about murderers, this story might not be for you. Consider yourself warned.

1. Most Handsome Serial Killers
2. Pedro Alonso Lopez

Paul John Knowles (aka the 'Cassanova Killer”) Don’t be confused by the nickname here, this guy was about as charming as a DMV clerk going on lunch break. Despite beginning his murderous rampage with two anger killings - the result of being dumped by a woman he had seduced while in prison - all of the women he killed during his 18- to 35-victim rampage (through Alabama, Mississippi, Georgia, and Texas) were abducted unwillingly. Knowles was eventually caught in Georgia and shot to death while trying to escape deputies escorting him to a crime scene. Colorado Vincent Groves Debate rages about whether or not this guy is the most prolific serial killer in the history of Colorado.

Though he was only convicted of three murders - and died in prison in 1996 - advancements in technology have linked him to at least three more deaths, and some say the body count may be as high as 24. From 1978-1988, Groves would meet (and strangle) women in the Denver area. What’s most alarming about his decade of terror, though, is that he actually spent five years in prison for another murder before being let out to continue his spree. Steven Brian Pennell Most serial killers generally have some sort of traumatic event or psychotic episode in their past that leads them to randomly murder innocent people. Not Steven Pennell, whose psychological examiners described him as “pleasant” after his arrest. In fact, it was that nice-guy front that he used in 1987 and 1988 to abduct female hitchhikers along a stretch of Route 40 near Wilmington before torturing, mutilating, and beating them to death. The 31-year-old father of two was convicted of two murders and died from lethal injection in 1992.

Most Handsome Serial Killers

Ted Bundy The most famous of the many serial killers who've called Florida home, Bundy (who had been described as a charming young man) kidnapped, tortured, and murdered young women. Some of whom he abducted in the same day and location, within a few hours of one another. Bundy escaped from prison twice before being apprehended in Florida in 1978, and while he admitted to more than 35 killings, he's believed to have possibly murdered as many as 100 people. He died in the electric chair at Raiford prison in 1989. The Honolulu Strangler On a remote island state where people go to escape whatever they’ve done on the mainland, it’s a surprise only one real serial killer of notoriety has emerged. In 1985 and 1986, five women were found bound, sexually assaulted, and strangled around Honolulu.

An “informant” who led police to one of the bodies and had no alibi was arrested and picked out of a lineup (as having been seen with one of the victims the night she died), but he was released after passing a polygraph test. The killer remains at large. Lyda Southard If Lyda Southard wasn’t a complete sociopath, she was definitely the saddest, unluckiest woman to ever grace the Northern Rocky Mountains.

Somehow, her first four husbands managed to die of “the flu,” as did one of her brothers-in-law and one of her children. Since forensics in the 1910s and '20s wasn’t quite what it is today, authorities were inclined to believe her stories. For a chemist named Earl Dooley, who later discovered that Southard’s first husband and his brother died of arsenic poisoning AND that Lyda had received over $7,000 in life insurance from her four dead husbands. Illinois John Wayne Gacy (aka the 'Killer Clown') The Killer Clown is definitely one of the most notorious murderers of the American 20th century.

Convicted of sodomy in Iowa, Gacy was released on parole and began a construction company near Chicago in the early 1970s. It was from the company's labor force that he found his victims, luring at least 33 young boys and men to his home where he strangled them to death before hiding the bodies in the crawl space under the house.

Pedro Alonso Lopez

He was ultimately apprehended in 1978 when police found human remains in said crawl space. He was executed in 1994.

March 28, 2017. Daniel Lukacs The 4 Most Notorious Serial Killers From Wisconsin Americans have a macabre fascination with true crime stories. One of the most gruesome categories is serial killers. According to, Dr.

Holmes was the first documented serial killer in the United States. The article reports that Holmes may have murdered as many as 200 people in his hotel of horrors during the 1890s. Although there have been murderers since the beginning of human history, serial killers have their own classification. They are usually sociopathic males who have killed three or more people within a short time period.

Serial killers have a twisted reason and methodology for their madness. Here are the 4 most notorious Wisconsin serial killers Serial Killers From Wisconsin 1. Jeffrey Dahmer Perhaps no serial killer in modern times gained more notoriety than of Milwaukee. He was born into a normal family in 1960, says.

According to accounts from family members, young Jeffrey did not exhibit any bizarre behavior until he was about 6 years old. He lacked confidence and basic social skills. After his parents divorced when he was fourteen, the teenage Dahmer developed a disturbing interest in dead things.

His father said that he was constantly dismembering road kill and had a preoccupation with death. Dahmer committed his first murder when he was eighteen years old. Over the next few years, he was constantly in trouble with the law for sexual deviancies. Over the course of 1988-1992, Jeffrey Dahmer killed 16 young men in Milwaukee.

His reign of terror ended when a would-be victim escaped and told police what was going on in Dahmer’s apartment. The world was not prepared to deal with what authorities found there. Dahmer lured young gay men to his apartment, where he would drug them. After strangulation, he dismembered their bodies and kept grizzly mementos. He was a necrophiliac who got a sexual thrill with his departed victims. The worst part of the story was that Dahmer reportedly ate some of his victim’s body parts. He had a well-publicized trial that ended in a total of 15 life sentences.

He was sent to a prison in Portage, Wisconsin, where he was reported to be a “model prisoner”. In November of 1994, a fellow inmate bludgeoned Dahmer to death.

At his earlier request, Dahmer’s remains were cremated. He is still considered one of the worst serial killers from Wisconsin, and is even immortalized in this. (Yes you need it for your next party - or just leave it on your coffee table the next time you have your parents over!) 2. Walter Ellis Walter Ellis was born in the same city and year as Jeffrey Dahmer (coincidence?). He was known as the North Milwaukee Strangler, says. From 1986-2007, Ellis raped and murdered seven African American woman in the North Milwaukee area.

During the times that the victims were found, authorities could not find the killer. However, they were able to get DNA samples from the bodies. The murders were cold cases until DNA evidence pointed to a criminal named Walter Ellis. Originally, Ellis plead not guilty to the murders. When his attorney withdrew from the case, Ellis finally admitted no contest to the dastardly deeds. The court found him guilty and gave him seven life sentences without the hope of parole.

Ellis spent some time in Wisconsin until he was finally transferred to a maximum-security prison in South Dakota. Ellis only got to serve a couple of years in prison, because he died of natural causes in 2013. David Spanbauer This cold-blooded killer was born in Appleton, Wisconsin in 1941. According to a website dedicated to, Spanbauer had nothing but trouble with the law since he was a teenager.

He quit school in his junior year and had a failed attempt in the Navy. True crime fanatic?

Check out our limited edition! Because of Appleton's erratic behavior, he was court-martialed and sent home dishonorably.

Spanbauer increased his criminal activity in Appleton. He burglarized homes and finally raped a young woman who was housesitting. That same night, he murdered the woman’s uncle as he was returning for the evening. Spanbauer only spent 13 of the 70 years he was sentenced for the crimes.

He had no remorse and did not change his ways. In two short years (1992-94), he savagely raped and murdered three more females—two of them children. In a report from his hometown newspaper, the judge in this case called Spanbauer “pure evil” and sentenced him to over 400 years in prison. Spanbauer died of possible heart problems at the age of 61 in 2002.

Ed Gein Some of the most disturbing horror movies in our times were inspired by this heinous Wisconsin serial killer, including. Gein was born in 1906 to an alcoholic father and a religious fanatic mother. According to, his father died and his mother kept him and his brother as virtual prisoners in their farmhouse. She brainwashed them to fear the outside world and to hate other females. After his mother passed away, the young Gein went mad and became obsessed with woman. His thinking was so perverse that he started robbing women’s graves to collect body parts. Bored with that, he began a killing spree that took the lives of two women.

When police finally captured him on murder charges, they were shocked with what they found in the old farmhouse. Gein had preserved scores of body parts from his victims. It was believed that he was preserving human skin to make a costume for himself.

The courts ruled that no one in their right mind could devise such profound horrors. He was sent to the state mental hospital. After a few years in the hospital, he was deemed fit for trial. Again, the court ruled him insane and he was returned to the hospital. Quick note: If you want to learn more about Ed Gein, I highly. The book chronicles his life and goes into great detail about all of the deranged acts he committed.

Ed Gein died in the state hospital of heart failure in 1984. Although these serial killers are gone, they still live in the chronicles of true crime. People are still intrigued with what makes these monsters tick.

They continue to be subjects of documentaries and horror movies, as well as pop culture icons. Know another serial killer from Wisconsin? Let us know in the comments so we can add it to the list! More from the blog: All images. I not really sure if you people understand what serial killer is? In you’re own words “They are usually sociopathic males who have killed three or more people within a short time period”.

Ed Gein can not be considered a serial killer seeing how he only killed two people. You definitely can call him a murderer and a grave robber but not a serial killer. He also was not a cannibal or a necrophiliac. Definitely not right in the head but who wouldn’t be with a mother like his. Dee December 19, 2017 at 09:25PM.

Central Wisconsin has a few look alike-s doppelganger ten most wanted men here and and because of the problems of weather and earthquakes, forest fires and so on I wouldn’t go in any woods alone anymore because we don’t have that problem here and our state is a good hide out scenario in Wisconsin, back to the olden days again like in the 1920s, but what the heck if they match all the descriptions and they have others with different colored look the same in their own family, man they could play some real big games on the people and the police! Show had a doppelganger look alike a few years ago, it was reported to his web site I guess but to no avail!! Another itemtake along look at all the pictures in the your papers people are all starting to look all alike and its kind of scary in a way, so you almost can’t trust whom you speak to anymore!.