Mar 19, 2022 · Christopher Ochoa is an attorney practicing in Madison, Wisconsin. He was released from prison in 2001 after serving a dozen years in Texas for rape and murder – crimes he did not commit. Freed with help from the Wisconsin Innocence Project at the University of Wisconsin Law School, Ochoa graduated from that same school in May 2006.
In 1951, novelist William S. Burroughs was charged with murder when he shot his wife, Joan Vollmer, in the head during a drunken game of William Tell that took place at their Mexico City home. After reporting to a Mexico City jail regularly for a year while his attorney worked to resolve the case, Burroughs returned to the U.S.
Jul 18, 2017 · Harold Shipman began his murderous spree in 1972, and it’s believed he killed at least 71 patients while working at his first practice, and double that number at a second practice he joined after...
Jan 17, 2021 · Many serial killers have come and gone over the years, but some have forged a much deeper legacy than others. Some have been remembered because of their extreme body count, others for their strange perversions, and some just have that indescribable quality that just makes a famous serial killer.. In this list, we’re going to look at the following famous serial killers:
Arrest. On July 21, 1972, Schaefer picked up two teenage girls named Nancy Trotter (17) and Paula Sue Wells (18), who were hitchhiking, while he was on patrol. The following day, he abducted them, took them to a remote forest and tied them to trees where he threatened to kill them or sell them into prostitution.
Lucas' death sentence was commuted to life in prison in 1998. Lucas himself recanted the confessions as a hoax, except that of his mother. He died of congestive heart failure in 2001....Henry Lee LucasCriminal statusDeceasedConviction(s)Capital murderCriminal penaltyDeath; commuted to life imprisonmentDetails10 more rows
As punishment for the Payant murder, and due to the threat he posed even while in prison, Smith spent the next twenty years of his life in near-isolation, the longest such span in the nation at the time. Smith is incarcerated at Five Points Correctional Facility.
He believed that killing them would assure their souls a place in Heaven, where he hoped to eventually join them. List died in prison in 2008 at the age of 82....John ListPenaltyFive consecutive life termsTime at large17 years, 6 months, 23 daysDetailsDateNovember 9, 197116 more rows
Citing a lack of evidence connecting Lucas to the murder, apart from his confession, which he later recanted, then-Gov. George W. Bush commuted the death sentence in 1998, marking the first and only time Bush did so as governor. Lucas spent the rest of his life in prison and died in 2001 of a heart attack.Dec 6, 2019
When Lucas was ten years old, he suffered an accidental injury to his left eye during a fight with his brother. The injury was ignored by Viola for days until it was infected so badly that the eye had to be removed and replaced with a glass eye at 11. By that age, Henry was already almost an alcoholic.
Smith was indicted. Dr. Levine, the dentist who had identified Mr. Smith's teeth from a cast made in 1978 as the same as those that had caused the bite marks on Miss Wilson, was called into the Payant case.Aug 13, 1981
Dutchess County, N.Y.Green Haven Correctional Facility, located in Dutchess County, N.Y., is a maximum security correctional facility for male felons.
John Emil ListBirth17 Sep 1925 Bay City, Bay County, Michigan, USADeath21 Mar 2008 (aged 82) Trenton, Mercer County, New Jersey, USABurialSaint Lorenz Lutheran Cemetery Frankenmuth, Saginaw County, Michigan, USAMemorial ID25511539 · View SourceMar 24, 2008
Helen List apparently was infected with the disease by her first husband, a soldier who was killed in Korea. Because syphilis is not infectious in its later phases, she did not pass it on to John List or her children, although she suffered several miscarriages during her first marriage.Apr 7, 1990
No one has stepped forward to claim the body of mass murderer John List, who died while serving a life sentence for killing his Westfield family in 1971, authorities said today. "The body is still at the Mercer County Medical Examiner's Office," said county spokesman Pete Daly.Mar 25, 2008
Chapman was charged with murder in the ’70s when he was present during his friend’s altercation with a drug dealer that ended in the dealer’s death. He was convicted of first degree murder in 1976 and sentenced to five years in a Texas prison, ultimately serving 18 months.
In 1951, novelist William S. Burroughs was charged with murder when he shot his wife, Joan Vollmer, in the head during a drunken game of William Tell that took place at their Mexico City home. After reporting to a Mexico City jail regularly for a year while his attorney worked to resolve the case, Burroughs returned to the U.S. In absentia, he was convicted of manslaughter in Vollmer’s death and received a two-year suspended sentence.
Mike Danton. In 2004, Canadian ice hockey star Mike Danton was arrested and charged with conspiracy to commit murder. Danton plead guilty to attempting to hire a hitman to kill his agent David Frost and was sentenced to 90 months in jail. He was released on parole in 2009 after serving 63 months.
Tony Lovato. Former pop-punk star Tony Lovato was arrested and charged with murder in 2007 after stabbing a man who challenged him to a fight over a mutual love interest. Lovato was later determined to have used reasonable force in an act of self-defense and the charges were dismissed.
In 2005, The Sopranos star Lillo Brancato, Jr. was charged with second-degree murder after being confronted by an off-duty police officer while committing a burglary. Brancato’s accomplice shot and killed the police officer. In 2008, Brancato was found not guilty of murder but the jury found him guilty of first-degree attempted burglary and he was sentenced to 10 years in prison.
Don King. Famous boxing promoter Don King has been charged with murder not once, but twice. The first incident, which happened in 1954, was ruled justifiable homicide when he shot a man in the back while he was robbing one of King’s gambling houses. Then, in 1967, King was convicted of second degree murder in the beating death ...
Slick Rick, known as hip-hop’s greatest story teller, was indicted in 1990 on two charges of attempted murder after shooting at his cousin/former body guard and a bystander outside of a nightclub. He was indicted on two counts of attempted murder and plead guilty to all charges, spending five years in prison.
pinterest-pin-it. Dr. Harold Shipman, nicknamed “Dr. Death” after his horrific killing spree came to light, was sentenced to life in prison after killing over 200 patients. (Credit: Greater Manchester Police via Getty Images) One of history’s deadliest serial killers was a married family man who managed to squeeze in 218 credited murders ...
His attempts at presenting an insanity defense failed, and he was convicted on 33 counts of murder and executed by lethal injection in 1994. 5.
Gacy was later executed by lethal injection. (Credit: Tim Boyle/Des Plaines Police Department/Getty Images) To most of his suburban Chicago neighbors, John Wayne Gacy was a friendly man who threw popular block parties, volunteered in local Democratic politics and often performed as a clown at local children’s parties.
Harold Shipman began his murderous spree in 1972, and it’s believed he killed at least 71 patients while working at his first practice, and double that number at a second practice he joined after butting heads with colleagues who found him arrogant, brusque and overconfident.
In February 1908, a fire devastated the farm. Amongst the wreckage were the bodies of Gunness’ remaining children and the decapitated corpse of a woman. Although officials identified the remains as Gunness’, doubt quickly spread, as the body was much smaller than the tall, heavyset Belle.
Gacy’s ex-wife had complained about the odor for years, but Gacy had chalked it up to moisture-causing mildew. Law enforcement also came under criticism, as the family members of several of the victims had previously pointed to Gacy as a possible suspect.
In 1888, London’s Whitechapel district was gripped by reports of a vicious serial killer stalking the city streets. The unidentified madman lured prostitutes into darkened squares and side streets before slitting their throats and sadistically mutilating their bodies with a carving knife.
Widely considered to be America's first serial killer, H. H. Holmes was a businessman and con artist in addition to being a murderous fiend. In the late 1800s, Holmes built a hotel (commonly referred to as ' the Murder Castle ') to appease his twisted desires.
Some have been remembered because of their extreme body count, others for their strange perversions, and some just have that indescribable quality that just makes a famous serial killer.
Although he spent most of his childhood in Philadelphia, Bundy’s thirst for blood took him across the country throughout the 1970s. Ted Bundy murdered at least 30 people, and took victims in Ohio, Colorado, Idaho, Washington, Utah, Oregon, Florida and possibly California.
Throughout the sixties and seventies, the Zodiac Killer terrorized the city of New York. He stabbed and shot couples in dark lovers' lanes, he taunted police, and he threatened to detonate a school bus full of children.
Back over the pond we go to Manchester, England, where the man dubbed Doctor Death killed a record-breaking number of victims over a 28 year reign of terror. In the UK, Shipman is undoubtedly one of the most famous serial killers of modern times.
John Wayne Gacy. The Killer Clown of Chicago, John Wayne Gacy was the classic two-faced psychopath. By day, he was a successful businessman, community worker and children’s entertainer. But by night, he was a sadistic, murdering rapist who ran an unlicensed cemetery beneath his house.
There’s a lot of mystery around the Ripper murders, and since he was never caught , nothing has ever been confirmed.
Calling himself “The Phantom,” serial killer William Huff murdered seven-year-old Cindy Clelland and six-year-old Jenelle Haines and targeted a third girl before he was arrested. The murders took place in Sierra Vista, Arizona. On April 30, 1967, Cindy had been collecting bottles to exchange for candy at her neighborhood store. Following the discovery of Cindy’s naked body on May 2, the police received a handwritten note: “I am The Phantom. You have found my first victim. My next victim lives on Steffan Street. 9 yrs old. (Fools!!!)”
7 Louis Van Schoor. In 1992, South African serial killer Louis van Schoor was sentenced to 20 years in prison for committing seven murders and attempting two others. He was released in 2004, after serving 12 years, walking “straight into the arms of his fiancee,” lawyer Eunice de Kock of Cape Town.
Because he was a “model prisoner,” he was paroled after serving 14 years of his 25-year sentence, and his criminal records were sealed . Settling in Rochester, New York, in 1988, Shawcross resumed murdering victims, asphyxiating and mutilating prostitutes.
Peete said she waited for Arthur to retire for the night before burying the dead woman in the Logans’ backyard, afraid she’d be convicted of Margaret’s murder and returned to prison if the body was discovered. Tried for Margaret’s homicide, Peete was found guilty of murder in the first degree and sentenced to death.
In 2017, after serving 13 years for raping and murdering several elderly women, serial killer Vernon Thomas was paroled for good behavior while incarcerated. After living in a halfway house downtown, Tatum planned to return to the Kansas City, Missouri, neighborhood in which he’d committed the crimes.
After having committed a number of murders with Wesley Shermantine, a friend of his since childhood, Herzog was sentenced to 78 years to life for murdering and raping Cindy Vanderheiden. In 2004, an appeals court found that Herzog’s confession may have been coerced and ordered a new trial for him.
Although cannibal serial killer Richard Marquette chopped up and froze his victims, saving them to eat later, and his fellow inmates believed he’d kill again, he was found fit for parole after serving 12 years of his sentence. Shortly after his release, he committed additional murders.
John Middleton Clayton. John Middleton Clayton was contesting his defeat for a Congress seat on January 29, 1889, when he was gunned down in public in Pinkerton, Arkansas in front of his home. No one was implicated or charged despite investigations.
Rodney Alcala had a creepy nature and turned a serial killer by killing an 8-year-old girl in 1968. On his release from prison for the crime, he killed four more women and was finally given the death sentence in California.
The Axeman of New Orleans went on a devastating murder spree by butchering a local grocer and his wife in their sleep on May 23, 1918. The Axeman who killed eight people remains a mystery even today.
For eleven months between December 1968 and October 1969, the Zodiac killer as people called him went on a rampage of killing people around San Francisco. The killer of four men and three women remains at large as on date.
Colin Ferguson got sentenced to more than 300 years in prison for going on a gun-toting spree and killing six people on the Long Island Railroad, in 1993. The conviction became famous as it led to vociferous campaigns for gun control.
The Manson family. In the late sixties, Manson had formed a family of his own by coercing youngsters and formed a gang of killers. His killings made him famous when the gang killed the pregnant wife film director Roman Polanski. He passed away while in prison in 2017. Charles Manson always had a cult following.
Ted Bundy is a notorious serial killer of the 20th century who had admitted killing 36 women although the actual numbers could be higher. Finally convicted in 1979, he was executed on the electric chair, ten years later.
Rodney Alcala received the nickname "The Dating Game Killer" thanks to his appearance as a contestant on the popular TV show of the same name. His date from that appearance declined the rendezvous, finding him "creepy." Turns out she had good intuition.
John Wayne Gacy: The Killer Clown. An entertainer who played "Pogo the Clown" at children's parties, John Wayne Gacy was one of the most infamous serial killers in America. Beginning in 1972, Gacy tortured, raped, and murdered 33 young men, most of whom were just teenagers.
Beginning in 1972, Gacy tortured, raped, and murdered 33 young men, most of whom were just teenagers. His reign of terror lasted six years. While investigating the disappearance of 15-year-old Robert Piest in 1978, police were able to track Gacy down.
Ted Bundy is probably the most notorious serial killer of the 20th century. Though he admitted to killing 36 women, it's speculated that the actual number of victims is much higher. Bundy graduated from the University of Washington in 1972.
In 1978, Berkowitz confessed to the six murders and received a sentence of 25 years to life for each. During his confession, he claimed that a demon came to him in the form of the dog belonging a neighbor named Sam Carr and had commanded him to kill. 04. of 10.
The 1947 Black Dahlia case remains one of the best-known unsolved murder cases in America. The victim, dubbed "The Black Dahlia" by the media, was a 22-year-old would-be actress named Elizabeth Short whose mutilated body (the corpse was cut in half) was found in a Los Angeles by a mother out for a walk with her young child. There was no blood found at the scene. The woman who found her initially thought she'd stumbled across a store mannequin.
The prosecution sought and was granted the death penalty as sentencing for 12 of Gacy's murders. John Wayne Gacy was executed by lethal injection in 1994. 02.
Beverley Allitt – ALIVE – Dubbed “The Angel of Death”, Allitt murdered four children with lethal doses of insulin and "air-bubbles in their blood" between February & April 1991, as she worked as a state registered nurse at the Grantham & Kesteven Hospital (Lincolnshire).
Alerted to screams by the neighbours, when the Police broke down the door, he was cooking Cherry’s brain in a frying pan. Diagnosed as a paranoid schizophrenic, Peter Bryan was committed to Broadmoor Psychiatric Hospital for treatment, where he battered and strangled a fellow inmate (Richard Loudwell) to death.
MacKay was sentenced to a whole life tariff at the psychiatric prison HMP Wayland in Norfolk, where he has been for the last 40 years, and it is unlikely he will ever be released. If you "enjoyed" this blog post, why not take a peek at; Serial Killers & Murderers Who Were Never Caught , London's Deadliest & Often Forgotten Disasters , ...
Dubbed “The Camden Ripper”, Anthony Hardy is serving a whole life sentence at Broadmoor Psychiatric Prison.
John Cooper - ALIVE – Dubbed "The Bullseye Killer", burglar John Cooper got his nickname having chillingly appeared on ITV gameshow Bullseye, the same year he would tie-up, rob and brutally murderer holidaymakers – Peter & Gwenda Dixon – just one of two double murders he committed in the Pembrokeshire area.
Fred West - DEAD – Along with his wife Rose West, Fred raped, tortured, murdered, dismembered and buried at least twelve young women (including Fred’s own step-daughter) in the cellar or garden of their Cromwell Street house in Gloucester.
The crimes of Mary Bell got fresh ink in the British news in conjunction with stories about Robert Thompson and Jon Venables, who were just 10 years old when they killed two-year-old James Bulger in 1993. The details were gruesome: the toddler was beaten to death, and then his body was laid across railroad tracks, where it was later cut in half by a train.
They were sentenced to eight years and were released in 2001, despite an order that came mid-sentence to increase its length to 15 years: In 2000 the lord chief justice, Lord Woolf, restored the original trial judge’s recommendation of eight years in recognition of the good behaviour of Thompson and Venables.
He succeeded, and both Leopold and Loeb got 99 years for kidnapping, and life for murder. But it didn’t end there. Loeb died at age 30 after being shanked by a fellow inmate. Leopold served 33 years of his sentence and was paroled in 1958. Upon his release, he shunned the media that was eager to cover his story.
Believe it or not, in 1968, this angelic-looking 11-year-old strangled a four-year-old boy and a three-year-old boy “ solely for the pleasure and excitement of killing .” A 13-year-old co-defendent was found not guilty, but Mary Bell was convicted and given a life sentence. Despite her age, she was described as having “ a very worldly attitude ,” as well as being afflicted with “ a psychopathic disorder .”
After months of plotting, the duo seized their prey on May 21, 1924; it was Leopold’s own cousin, 14-year-old Bobby Franks, victimized simply for being in the wrong place at the wrong time. The killing part was easy.
Starkweather was executed in Fugate’s hometown of Lincoln, Nebraska in 1959. Fugate, the youngest American woman to be tried for first-degree murder, claimed on the stand that she was actually Starkweather’s hostage throughout the ordeal, not a willing accomplice.
The real crime played out much like the movie; in 1954, 15-year-old Juliet Hulme and 16-year-old Pauline Parker murdered Parker’s mother by bashing her head in with a brick tucked into a stocking. But what happened after they were found guilty of murder was, if decidedly less tragic, nearly as dramatic. Advertisement.
Arthur Shawcross. Image via murderpedia.org. Another serial killer, Arthur Shawcross did a prison stint for a few minor offences and was granted parole in 1971. In 1972, he raped and killed an 8-year-old and a 10-year-old in two separate incidents.
He accepted a plea-bargain that reduced the charge to manslaughter and landed him an 18-year sentence. In 1992, after completing slightly more than 9½ years of his sentence, he was released on parole by the state of Connecticut.
Sentenced to life in prison, he was paroled after 17 years by the state of California in 1975 — but in just two short months he had shot both of his parents. His mother died immediately, but his father survived long enough to seek help.
However, the state of Oregon granted him parole in 1974. In September that year, a family of four called the Cowdens went missing while on a camping trip.
Captured after two years, he was convicted of 11 murders, though he is thought to have committed more. He was sentenced to 250 years in New York, but died in prison of natural causes in 2008.
After committing several armed robberies and assaults, Robert Lee Massie brought his crime spree to an end with a murder in 1965. Originally sentenced to death, his sentence was commuted and he was released for good behavior in 1978. But in January 1979, he struck again, murdering a liquor store clerk.
He was sentenced to two life sentences, though most believe he should be charged with the murder of the Cowden family as well. He is currently incarcerated within Oregon’s Department of Corrections.