The 7 Creepiest Serial Killers in American History
5. Richard Trenton Chase
Number of Victims: 6
Fate: Committed suicide in 1980
Richard Trenton Chase was killing cats at age 10 and showed all the signs of becoming a nasty little psychopath when he veered into heavy drug use and eventually was diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia. Over time, his behavior became increasingly bizarre and violent as he became convinced that he needed the blood of other living things to keep his own body from withering away.
He started out by killing and disemboweling rabbits, which he then ate raw, but moved on to birds, cats, dogs, and, eventually, human beings. Despite the fact that Chase had freely admitted to eating raw rabbits while he was committed, had called a family whose dog he killed to tell them what he had done, and his mother had seen him rip open and devour a dead cat, he was left to his own devices. He started out with a drive-by shooting. From there, he murdered a pregnant woman, had sex with her corpse, and ate part of the body. Finally, he killed a man, a woman, and two children, had sex with the woman’s dead body, and again fed on the corpses. After the police arrested Chase, they found blood splattered across almost EVERYTHING in his apartment and the brain of the 22-month-old child that Chase had killed was found in a Tupperware dish.
Lawrence Bittaker and Roy Norris, the Tool Box Killers, kidnapped and killed young girls in California in 1979. Their methods were particularly gruesome and reading about the case in the book “Alone With the Devil” (1990) disturbed me a lot. Richard Trenton Chase was called the “Vampire of Sacramento.” He and Jeffrey Dahmer were both obsessed with dead animals, and both abused alcohol. It might be interesting to look at the other common traits shared by all these killers.
Absolutely the crimespree that still gives me nightmares, and at the time, caused me to question the existence of a Good God.
Read the following, and tell me if these killers should not be at the top of the list:
http://www.trutv.com/library/crime/serial_killers/predators/bittaker_norris/1.html
Lew Enforcement who read the files came out weeping.
Bittaker and Norris get my vote as well. In a particularly disturbing twist, these two monsters taped the screams of some of their victims as they were being tortured to death. So they could play back the tapes later, and get turned on or whatever.
You may recall, Scott Glenn played the role of the FBI profiling chief in the movie version of “Silence of the Lambs.” As part of his preparation for the role, he spent a lot of time with real FBI criminal profilers, and they played some of the tapes for him. I recall reading that he said that, prior to listening to those tapes, he was an opponent of the death penalty; afterward, he became a staunch advocate of capital punishment.
As a California taxpayer, it is particularly galling that, three decades after being sentenced to death, Lawrence Bittaker is still eating the food that I paid for, and breathing the oxygen that we share. Incredibly, there is a proposition on the ballot this year to abolish the death penalty in California. Anyone who is thinking about voting in favor of it should be required to listen to those Bittaker-Norris tapes, and see if they have the same reaction as Scott Glenn.
Modern killers tend towards drug abuse, with takes away much of the shock of their natural derangement. There is a plausible explanation. The old killers had no escape/excuse from their evil.
“I wish the entire human race had one neck and I had my hands around it!”
He’d fit in well with today’s “environmentalists”.
I thought the same thing. When I read that I thought that perhaps John Holdren or Paul Erlich should be added to the list. However, I decided that would be an unfair mischaracterization because their desires to kill billions of people are still just fantasy at this point.
No Gary Ridgeway? Apparently you’re not acquainted with how evil that guy is.
BTW: “Hanged.” Not “hung.” A picture is hung. A criminal is hanged.
‘“Hanged.” Not “hung.” A picture is hung.’
As are racehorses.
This was such a depressing read my survival humor kicked in.
What was the purpose of this article?
To get a paycheck.
I’m in the wrong business. It’s clear that the barrier to entry in this field is very low, and the paychecks are not proportional to the talent or effort.
I’m guessing PJ Media doesn’t pay all that well. It’s more a labor of love for most of the writers.
If the author had some purpose other than to be lurid for attentions sake, I would appreciate his telling us what is was.
Two reasons:
1. Today is Halloween. It’s all about morbidity. Goes well with the scary movies we’ll watch tonight.
2. The study of folks who commit these crimes is critical to eventually being able to recognize ‘precursor’ behaviors which should trigger appropriate mental health treatment to avoid letting them develope into full-blown serial killers. Ever life saved as a result would be well worth it.
As an example, check out “Crime Classification Manual: A Standard System for Investigating and Classifying Violent Crimes”–The 10-Year Project by the FBI’s National Center for the Analysis of Violent Crime. Written by former Agents John E. Douglas, Ann W. Burgess, Allen G. Burgess, and Robert K. Ressler.
Even better is “Sexual Homicide: Patterns and Motives” by 3 of the above former FBI Agents which deals specifically with serial murders.
Those books were created from studies conducted of real serial murder and violent crime cases–and the formative processes that created the individuals who commit them. It’s all about the ‘why.’ Study of causation leads to possible prevention.
Halloween?
Ted Bundy was worse than most of the seven listed monsters. Bundy was particularly frightening because he came across as “a nice guy”, handsome, intelligent and well educated. He was extreme evil in a perfect disguise.
No Dean Corll? 28 bodies and the sheriff’s dept. stopped looking for more . . .
Randy Krafft was horrific also. A family acquaintance lost his son to that creep. All they ever found was the head, floating in Long Beach Harbor…
Yuck,I don’t know why I read that! I don’t suppose Gacy being a Democrat had any bearing on you putting him at No1? What were the political views of the others?
All serial killers are lib/progressive democrats.
1) Hitler (Socialist)
2) Mao (Communist)
3) Carter (i’slamist/satanist liberal)
4) Oba’ma (i’slamist delusional, best known for BS and community organizing)
5) Mischelle Oba’ma (i’slamist lover, spender, racist’s and communist)
The hijacked dem party has an identifiable cult base and depends on it to fullfill Bar’ak’s threat to ” Fundamentally transform America.”
In God’s word the Bible it say that 100 % of Man are mass murderers in their heart connecting to their many fingers and toes. Women for what seems like forever being on the bottom know this and when man’s thrust get frisky all that she could do to justify her connection is be happy she be the vessel with just a few flesh wounds to cast out his demon and how helpful he is to bring home the bacon and sometimes this “pork” taste like this come from heaven for the women and her children so pleasure come besides the pain .
Satan the Devil always wonder why God would favor these “ants” and their dog eat dog pleasures but then Satan see God was out to change some and make them saints so he figure he give a little trickle down to create the Nephilim heros and bring much pleasure then pull the rug beneath their feet to help God see they are not ready for repentance
Yikes!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bE5cshs3cdc
This is good to see Barrack Obama and Mitt Romney bend over backwards playing the female in this last week of the election to keep frisky from possessing hordes of human flesh after romance take place between a god and goddess this week
Tough to argue with that!
“He who fights with monsters might take care lest he thereby become a monster. And if you gaze for long into an abyss, the abyss gazes also into you.”
Friedrich Nietzsche, Beyond Good and Evil, Aphorism 146
Ask John Douglas, who used to run FBI BAU, about that one, sometime. Or any detective who’s worked Homicide for a few years.
They’ll tell you. Nietzsche didn’t know the half of it.
cheers
eon
This ia very disturbing. I stopped after two stories, but wish I had not subjected myself to even that much. How does one feel after researching and writing something like this? Spindok’s quote above from Nietzshe is apropos.
I’m puzzled; how did you manage to miss Herman Webster Mudgett, alias
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/H.H._Holmes
??
In my book, he ranks near the top for “creepiness”, not to mention his sheer “productiveness”. No other killer had such a diversity of victim profiles, or went to such lengths to “industrialize” his killing, as with his “Murder Castle” in Chicago. Many people today assume Mudgett killed to facilitate his financial scams, but that’s getting it backward; his scams were in pursuit of his compulsion to kill.
If you’re ranking killers on “creepiness”, it’s hard to ignore
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zodiac_killer
It doesn’t get much creepier than sending constant messages to the authorities, the press, and etc. to taunt them with how all-powerful you are. And unlike the other killers listed, this b******d was never caught. Yes, I know all about the theories as to his identity. Theories are not proof, anymore than we have any proof of who the Whitechapel Serial Prostitute Killer of 1888 really was. (For those of you stable enough to be not very interested in this sort of thing, he’s more commonly but inaccurately known as “Jack the Ripper”, a name taken from a letter supposedly written by the killer that is now considered to have been a hoax perpetrated by a reporter- no surprise there.)
As for Kemper, his killing was easily explained. He had a deep-seated hatred of his shrewish mother, and her friend who thought her haranguing of him was amusing. After repeatedly killing her “by proxy” as it were, he finally worked up the nerve to do it for real, and when her friend showed up by happenstance, he killed her, too- half “target of opportunity”, half “finishing the job at one go”. (This BTW is the FBI Behavioral Analysis Unit’s opinion of Kemper; the real BAU, not the one so often mis-portrayed on TV shows like Criminal Minds and Profiler.)
It’s noteworthy that after this double murder, Kemper turned himself in- the raison d’etre of his rampage had ceased to exist. He not only no longer had a reason to kill, he also apparently considered he no longer had any reason to live, hence his desire for execution. (I consider the story that he “dreamed of execution” as a child questionable, as serial killers tend to be skilled liars who enjoy playing head games with the authorities even after arrest.)
And yes, I once had to pass exams on this sort of thing. (Abnormal and Applied Psychology, etc.)
Happy Halloween.
cheers
eon
These are sickening. Disturbing. But of course, being PJM, the word ass cannot be written because it might offend someone. As I have stated over and over and over again, being a puritan is not the same as being a Conservative. Maybe I need to be educated. Can someone explain to me how the MSM as well as PJM constantly black out words that are not even considered pornographic when describing events that are truly terrible? I do not understand. Should I get a Pilgrims hat and put it on so I can understand?
Well, for starters, you should learn some actual facts about the Puritans, instead of just marinating in the stereotypes you’ve been force-fed.
Mark, I have not been force fed. I read constantly. But I am simply having a hard time, and am looking for answers. I am having a hard time wondering why if Paris Hilton makes a sex tape, she gets on TV talk shows, but if a hooker makes a sex tape, it’s porn. I do not believe everyone should talk about sex. I don’t. But if a madman writes a letter describing his terrible acts, does it not stretch the mind to figure out why ass is made into a**? It stretches mine. I mean, this guy ate kids. The author of the article does not say he a** kids or he ate k***. But an ass, God forbid. Is my quandary now clear? Is the mere mention of a body part that everyone has worse than the mention of cannibalism? Maybe it’s not Puritanism. But it is something. What is it?
It’s pretty simple, really. More people complain about *ss than gore.
If you look at human history gore was pretty normal. It always gets me that the courts calls various things “cruel and unusual” when it’s obvious in historical context that the founders were talking about punishment as entertainment or for shock value.
Normal humans regard sexual activity as private.
Normal humans don’t eat kids. But when discussing the bizarre, is it not bizarre in and of itself to change ass to a**? Are you a child? I am not. I am 49 and have participated in the sentencing and imprisonment of numerous sex offenders. I can assure you, that when their crimes are read in public, the only things not stated in open court are the names of their victims. Any movies they have on their computers and any statements they make are read aloud in court, and believe me, there are not asterisks inserted. Do you think we should treat each other like children and omit words like ass when they are written by child killers, while going into full detail about their deeds? Of should we just paraphrase the whole disgusting article to sanitize it? I’m all ears. Wait I’m all e***.
Correct, but to be Conservative arguably implies being a “puritan” by modern definition. Certainly the Founders were.
The Founders were not necessarily “Conservative” OR “Puritanical” since we do not know what those people did behind their closed doors. Which is totally unlike what a too large sector of our population do in public today. The comparison, at least politically, has to be based on what they did when compared to what they parted from, meaning they were radicals simply because they overthrew what was a monarchy. All of that is clearly explained in the Declaration of Independence. The real problem is, unless one has at least a surface understanding of the political reasons behind why the Pilgrims left Plymouth, and why the Colonists rebelled from English rule, one cannot even begin to fathom societal norms of those Loyalists and the Tories.
Sorrowful state of affairs that so many American’s are so ignorant about their country. But that is what happens when you turn the education of you children over to a subversive union of ‘teachers’ whose primary purpose is to solidify their political power base. Keeping their charges ignorant of important knowledge is the simplest way of doing that. (First they gradually ‘altered’ the events through ‘discussive inquiry’, then through altered historical facts, until now they simply either teach a history devoid of important fact, or select ‘text’ books which support their teachings.)
Welcome to the New World Order of things. It’s been three (plus) generations in the making. And it won’t be stopped until ‘Educators’ are completely replaced with TEACHERS who are obliged by law to teach fact, not philosopy.
Ben Franklin sure as hell wasn’t!
Maybe because it’s …uhm…Halloween that we are talking about the macabre.
What’s creepier than a clown? Not waxwing01′s comments, but they are creepy all the same.
Here there are three worlds , fear hate and pleasure product of fear and hate and laws to protect us from these three worlds yet we do get glimise of Divine Love some.The gods have only one world love and this is explosive from distance then the gathering. The gods are frisky to turn this world into a great fireball of love but the promise is how their would be a 1000 year rule of the flesh Jesus yet the gods are not expected to wait only protect the chosen who remain in the flesh and after the 1000 years all flesh remaining embrace the fire ball of love just like Elijah the prophet as he held on to his fire chariot
I smelled Hell reading that –thank goodness it’s Halloween!
If you are dedicated to protecting this world from the rebel fallen angels in the pit of hell locate the chosen ones and protect them because the rebels do not want to wait a thousand years to be released from their hell
Dude, lay off the “Supernatural” episodes for a while. Try something light. Maybe “Psych” or “The Big Bang Theory.”
Interesting article. I can’t say I disagree with her 1 in 25 categorization. I’ve personally been in contact with a whole bunch of sociopaths in my state (NY), and I found that they all shared a common bond: they were all Democrats.
Seems they didn’t (don’t) go by reason, they go by emotions. They don’t think, they “feel”. And that is their core problem. They are always acting on what they feel at the time, whether it be anger, distrust, hatred- they always acted on that emotion of the moment.
Which, I guess, explains a great deal more about them beyond sociopathic behavior.
Okay, it’s CLEAR this guy (#comment-287144) is begging for a mental check-up!
If he’s ever read the Bible w/out his psychosis, he would not have written that comment.
Look at a few of the 12 Jesus called chosen at the last super who enjoy the act of fire reigning down on a city that would not listen to Jesus and look at Saul murderer of Christian saints. who know who God will call and the call chosen in the future ? We may have to hold our nose from the stink skin from human stink flesh ,filth stink. fleas bedbugs rats cockroaches and we must grin and bear it and bot rebel as to who God has in mind to make holy in the future
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g1Ae9gLm2Qo
excuse me I did not mean to write bot rebel but not rebel , hard to type with fingers holding my nose smelling stink. the cat poop box needs to be made pure
These are boom times for psychopaths….islam and mexican drug cartel beheaders.
Nice Halloween topic. Something inside us enjoys being scared.
More importantly Kemper’s photo exhibits some excellent 70′s fashion. The deputy is rocking great sideburns. The lawyer is definitely fashion forward with the fumanchu mustache, wide tie, and vomit pattern sports coat.
You’ve missed Gacey’s most chilling comment. “Murder isn’t hard, any clown can do it.”
As Jesus taught if you have hate in your heart you are a murderer. Such a world is a very temporary world this murder world we live in. When i kill a bug I try to love bug first but not so easy after bug bite me still with man it is impossible but with god all things are possible
Just read an article today about a 12 y.o. boy who hanged the family dog because he was mad at it and wanted to watch it die. He’s in juvenile detention, but for how long, I wonder. This is how a lot of killers get their start, by torturing animals.
CA has a Proposition before the voters to abolish the death penalty. I know how I’m going to vote.
Recently I decided to read up on serial killers with the intentions of determining how many of these people used firearms in the commission of their despicable deeds. After the first 50 or so of the hundreds listed I was so repelled that I decided to live without the knowledge and suspended my research. However, of the murderers I did manage to read about I found that the tool of choice was not a firearm. Most preferred to get up close and personal with their victims by strangulation, stabbing, suffocation, and bludgeoning rather than by implementing firearms in their atrocities.
Contrary to what the touchy feely apologists for mass murderers would have us believe, evil does definitely exist. These twisted individuals who thrive on other’s sufferings and terror should be treated like the sick rabid dogs they are and dispatched without mercy. It’s a matter of survival.
[W3]
It’s article could have been improved by listing all the movies inspired by each killer. Hollywood has always reached for quality source material.
Ted Bundy belongs on this list
Romans 3
9 What shall we conclude then? Do we have any advantage? Not at all! For we have already made the charge that Jews and Gentiles alike are all under the power of sin. 10 As it is written:
“There is no one righteous, not even one;
11 there is no one who understands;
there is no one who seeks God.
12 All have turned away,
they have together become worthless;
there is no one who does good,
not even one.”[b]
13 “Their throats are open graves;
their tongues practice deceit.”[c]
“The poison of vipers is on their lips.”[d]
14 “Their mouths are full of cursing and bitterness.”[e]
15 “Their feet are swift to shed blood;
16 ruin and misery mark their ways,
17 and the way of peace they do not know.”[f]
18 “There is no fear of God before their eyes.”[g
I get very frustrated reading about serial killers because most reporting only deal with the blood and gore to satisfy the morbid curiosity of the masses. The latest one was the NY cop who wanted to slow cook and eat women. What is badly neeed for society’s sake is to delve into their past lives, histories, influences, beliefs, ETC., in order to gain a composite picture of how eveil is foemneted and encouraged in our society. I’ve read both Dr. Roy Baumeister’s seminal work, “Evil” as well as Dr. Helen Morrison’s (the profiler that “Silence of the Lambs” is based upon) work “My Life Among the Serial Killers.” They are just a start. I suspect that as families break down, the conscienceless culture corrodes into more decadence and amorality, and dark spiritual forces gain ground, we will see more of this.
The works of Harold Schecter might be to your liking. He tries to go into great detail about the formative experiences of his killers , and he also describes the societies in which his killers are born in such detail his books are practically social history rather than true crime. Deviant and Depraved (on Ed Gein and Albert Fish respectively) are his best works IMO, Bestial (Earl Leonard Nelson) and Depraved (H H Holmes) are close seconds, Fatal (Jane Toppan) was a bit weaker, and I hated Fiend (Jesse Pomeroy) because he takes the attitude that we should never, ever execute a torture/murderer if he happens to be only X number of years old at the time he committed his crime-as if someone only X number of years old when they torture and murder a little boy or girl could possibly be made all better by therapy!
The Devil’s Gentleman and Killer Colt are excellent works, but they are definitely more social history than true crime, even though they tell of the crimes of Roland Molineux and John Colt.
Schecter has also written a few true crime anthologies (True Crime : An American Anthology and Psycho USA) but I only ordered them yesterday so I can tell you nothing about them. They look good though.
What is badly neeed for society’s sake is to catch, convict, and execute these monsters swiftly, instead of allowing endless appeals on technicalities. What is especially NOT needed is more “understanding” of their origins. It’s not a mystery.
Written ~3000 years ago, and still true today, that bit of wisdom is all we need to know on the subject.
Another commenter recommends Harold Schechter’s books. I agree. Schechter’s one of the best in the business, and I’m proud to say he was a professor of mine. Also, look into John Douglas and Robert Ressler. Stay away from Helen Morrison. Her work contains glaring inaccuracies and have been heavily criticized by other experts.
I know two guys like that! They has witnessed countless murders, either they, themselves, or they paid someone to murder past homosexual lovers, the they furnished weapons to Drug Cartells and gets they get their rocks off from the Body Count. One even went on and prevented four Americans from being saved so that he could watch them die in Real Time on a Drone Video, and listen to their Beg for Help. These Two, especially the leader of the sick bunch, truly have some serious Mental Defects! The Leader of the sicko’s will most likely go down in history as the TRAITOR OF BENGAZI!
It is an interesting subject if you can get through the details and gore.
Serial,mass and thrill killers are not unusual throughout history.
More of them tend to be democrats because they have a low moral standard,higher rate of narcissism and they support single parenthood ,drug use,irresponsible sex,fetishes and rehabilitation beliefs . Ted Bundy was one of the few Republicans .
The most common link with these killers is broken homes,child neglect,abuse and extreme parents – either lenient or strict.
The medical community has rewritten,reclassified and renamed most mental disorders but they stil represent the basic personality disorders.
Sociopaths and psychopaths are common.
“the child becomes sociopathic because the normal development of the concepts of right and wrong and empathy towards others is retarded because of the child’s emotional and social development occurs within his self-centered fantasies created to escape their reality . A person can do no wrong in his own world and the pain of others is of no consequence when the purpose of the fantasy world is to satisfy the needs of one person”
Top jobs favored by sociopaths : Politician, teacher,college professor,media personality ,actor/ actress and religious leader.
Obama is a narcissistic sociopath .Read his books.
Charles Ng ,Richard Ramirez and the Henry Lee Lucas – Toole deserve noting for their brutality .
A couple of foreign killers do too :
Andrei Chikatilo – Soviet Union/ Ukraine
1978 to 1990
Known as Butcher of Rostov, The Red Ripper or The Rostov Ripper. Convicted of the murder of 53 women and children between 1978 and 1990. Executed in 1994. Three people were previously convicted and executed for his crimes.
Luis Alfredo Garavito – Colombia
victims :172-400+
Pedro Alonso López – Colombia, Peru, Ecuador
victims :310–350+
Child-murderer and rapist, known as “The Monster of the Andes”. Targeted young girls, between the ages of 8 and 12. Arrested in 1980 and convicted in 1983 of killing 110 young girls but confessed to killing 300, exact total unknown. Though he may be the most prolific serial killer of the 20th century, he was released in 1998. Current whereabouts unknown.
Happy Halloween
‘A couple of foreign killers do too :
Andrei Chikatilo – Soviet Union/ Ukraine
1978 to 1990
Known as Butcher of Rostov, The Red Ripper or The Rostov Ripper. Convicted of the murder of 53 women and children between 1978 and 1990. Executed in 1994. Three people were previously convicted and executed for his crimes.’
Okay, this one really grabbed me. First, the authorities, at this point, PROBABLY executed the killer! “No, seriously, THIS TIME we really, REALLY got him!” Oh my God…
Second, say you’re the prosecutor of the case(s), and it’s election time in 1995 or so. Think about how your election ad reads…”…and I’ll KEEP fighting for you…” (gasp!)or the voiceover says,”…Even though it took 3 more executions, Yuri finally got his man,” or some such.
I mean, usually, when we think about executing the wrong guy, most of us think
“ONE GUY.”