Serial killers often get romanticized by enthusiasts. Despite the fact that they're literally serial killers, some people out there ignore the fact that they've done horrible things. Others still remain disturbed by the true crime behind these killers, and justifiably so. Here are some of the most disturbing serial killers that still haunt these Reddit users.
u/MFDILLA_ asked: What serial killer disturbs you the most?
That's one way to do it.
The Weepy Voiced Killer. He killed young women, then called the cops and reported it himself. He even called police once they reported on it that they got the facts wrong.
God his calls were so unnerving. It was like listening to someone trying to force themselves to feel any remorse.
That's unnerving.
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Dennis Rader (BTK) was a family friend. Went to my Nana's church and did cub scout crap with my uncles. When he was caught one of my uncles was freaking out because "he taught me the knots he used".
- He had a camera roll full of pictures of him tied up, posing in the lingerie of women he killed.
- He used his jobs as an alarm tech and a city code enforcer to gain access to people's homes.
- If you want/wanted to write him in prison, you had to fill out an application. The dude is a convicted serial killer and makes you think you have to try and earn the right to write him.
The scariest ones of all.
Those who haven't been caught yet.
Of those, the sexual sadists scare me the most. The others you may have a fighting chance with. If you can convince them of your humanity, or otherwise break that sort of trance, there's a slim but real chance.
But not to a sexual sadist. As one forensic psychologist described it, imagine the tissue you used to blow your nose this morning. Did you think of it at all after throwing it out? That's exactly how sexual sadists treat people.
One of the most gruesome.
Tool box killers. The story is gruesome even the transcripts make my stomach turn.
Came here to to say this. Learning about these guys satiated my curiosity for the macabre. I have multiple family members in the FBI and they helped with research for my writing. I listened to part of the tape and read the transcript of the murder. I can't emphasize this enough, this is the absolute depth of human depravity. I don't want to go into detail, but your description of what these guys did to their victims is pg-13 compared to the reality of the viciousness of these murders.
Seriously, once I came across this stuff I stopped exploring this part of humanity.
I grew up learning about serial killers. I thought they were fascinating. Finally I found the true gruesome play by play description of these murders and just stopped and never looked back.
Seriously, when you hear someone scream the way their victim screamed on the recording the distinction between fictional murders and real murders becomes painfully apparent. Horror movies were my favorite genre growing up, specifically slasher films. Now I avoid movies like that. The crap you see in horror movies is nothing compared to what real life serial killers have done.
I can't exaggerate this. I've literally made a commitment to never tell anyone the details of what I've heard and seen.
The toybox killer and Albert Fish are two close runner ups. Fish was another sadomasochist with a passion for genital mutilation, for both himself and his victims. Toybox killer is a repulsive case study into the perversions of a group of a people.
But seriously, the toolbox murders are sick. From what I understand one of the investigators killed himself and named the killers in his suicide note as a reason.
This case is the best example for the idea that evil triumphs over good because good men rarely understand how truly wicked evil men can be. If someone put a gun to my head and told me to do what they did I would tell them to pull the trigger.
The Vampire of Sacramento.
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I'm gonna go with cannibal and necrophile Richard Chase, the "Vampire of Sacramento". He's a super, super creepy dude, but also a little bit sad, in that he was obviously mentally cracked right from his youth and yet he was just kind of ignored and left to fend for himself. A few choice passages from his Wikipedia bio:
- "Once alone in the apartment, Chase began to capture, kill, and disembowel various animals, which he would then devour raw, sometimes mixing the raw organs with Coca-Cola in a blender and drinking the concoction. Chase believed that by ingesting the creatures he was preventing his heart from shrinking."
- "Later investigation uncovered that, in mid-1977, Chase was stopped and arrested on a reservation in the Pyramid Lake (Nevada), area. His body was smeared with blood and a bucket of blood was found in his truck. The blood was determined to be cow's blood, and no charges were filed."
- "He attempted to enter the home of a woman two weeks later, but because her doors were locked, he walked away. Chase later told detectives that he took locked doors as a sign that he was not welcome, but unlocked doors were an invitation to come inside. He was once caught and chased off by a couple returning home as he pilfered their belongings; he had also urinated and defecated on their infant child's bed and clothing."
- "Chase was arrested shortly afterwards - police who searched Chase's apartment found that the walls, floor, ceiling, refrigerator, and all of Chase's eating and drinking utensils were soaked in blood."
- "His fellow inmates, aware of the extremely violent nature of Chase's crimes, feared him, and according to prison officials, often tried to persuade Chase to commit suicide."
That's what's scary about them.
Ed Kemper, honestly he seems like the type of guy you'd strike up a convo with at the grocery store or some sh*t. He seems so sane when he talks if you don't think about what he really did. Very calm sounding. He's also 6'9 which is horrifying.
A spooky one.
H.H. Holmes and his Murder Castle. He had it built/modified with soundproofed rooms, secret doorways, hidden passages, airtight gas chambers, and chutes directly to the basement where he would send his dead bodies, dissect them, then sell the organs on the black market, sell the skeletons to medical labs and schools, and dissolve everything else in vats of lye/acid, or burn it all in the basement's crematorium.
He got away with a lot more than just murder. His entire life was just one criminal enterprise after another that he'd constantly get away with.
Mind-boggling, indeed.
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Joseph James DeAngelo (Golden State Killer/East Area Rapist/Original Night Stalker). Just mind-boggling how much misery he inflicted and how he got away with it for so long.
What maybe creeps me out the most about that guy is how he just stopped one day. Like, you think about serial killers, and you imagine that they're just crazy, or it's this intense compulsion that makes them do it. But this guy just stopped one day. Meaning, he could have stopped whenever, but made a decision to keep doing it. That really spooks me out.
One of the craziest cases.
Ted Bundy. Only because during his trials, even with all the evidence stacked against him, people (especially women) trusted him. Mostly because he "didn't look like someone who would kill". Meaning he was attractive to the female populace.
That's disturbing.
Robert "Willy" Pickton. From what I know, arguably Canada's most notorious and twisted serial killer.
Killed between 50 and 90 women and fed their remains to pigs, at his farm. If I recall correctly, he got convicted of 49 murders.
Creepy is an understatement.
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Charlie Brandt
Killed his mother and tried to kill his father and sister as a teenager. Once out of juvie he went on to live a normal(?) life, got married and all that. At age 47, he butchered his wife and niece before killing himself. While investigating this it came to light he may have been connected to 26 unsolved murders in Florida.
Crime Junkie has a really good podcast episode on him.
One of the worst.
Ted Bundy, I live in Utah and people are very friendly and kind of naive sometimes. It's unnerving that someone like him could become part of the Utah/Mormon culture just to have access to young girls.
Also, he doesn't look creepy he looks really normal and was studying to be a lawyer. If I met him irl I probably never would suspect his evil motives. That kind of serial killer is really scary to me, the kind that blends right in.
How horrifying.
The Night Stalker. Would break into places and wait for so long to spring on his victims, and then he would tie them up and blindfold them and they would never be able to tell if he actually left or was waiting for them to move so he could kill them. I think about that sometimes at night and I find it terrifying.
My biggest fear.
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I often think about this question. The Toy Box killer was already mentioned, and I agree that his torture methods are the worst. I would like to add Richard Chase, AKA " The Vampire of Sacramento", and Richard Ramirez, AKA "The Night Stalker".
Chase was severely mentally ill and unmedicated, and had a fixation on blood. Ramirez's upbringing is upsetting in itself, but someone breaking into my house and brutally murdering my family would be one of the most violating ways to go.
Kevorkian types.
Harold Shipman or any of those "angel of death" type killers. Insulin poison type killers I have no respect for. People like Kevorkian types the movie on him played by Al Pacino scared me and made me cry.
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The old wives' tales.
They are the stories of legend.
I think we all need a big DEEP Google dive though.
Where did they originate?
WHO ARE THE OLD WIVES!
You don't hear about them as much anymore.
It's like science and logic are suddenly a thing.
But they sure are a good way to keep your kids and their behavior in line.
Redditor the_spring_goddess wanted to discuss the tall tales we've all been fed through life, so they asked:
"What is an old wives tale that people still believe?"
"Wait an hour to swim after eating."
What a crock!
So many summer hours wasted.
I want revenge for that one.
Say Nothing
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"An undercover cop has to tell you he's a cop if you ask him."
LonelyMail5115
"Pretty much most advice when it comes to cops are old wives tales. I’m not even a cop but most of the advice you hear is pretty off."
I_AM_AN_A**HOLE_AMA
Say Something
"That you have to wait 24 hours to report someone missing."
Severe_Airport1426
"I really think this one is important and should be the top regardless. As it’s a piece of advice that needs to be relearned and the only way to do that is through awareness."
crappycurtains
"This used to be true. I think they changed it after some guy named Brandon went missing back in the '80s or '70s. You used to have to wait 24 hours if the missing person was an adult because they had 'a right to be missing' and then everyone realized that was stupid and stopped doing it."
AlbinoShavedGorilla
Body Temps
"That drinking ice cold water after eating oily foods will solidify the oil and permanently remain in your body. I informed my coworker that if your body temperature ever reached that point, you’d have bigger problems than weight gain."
chriseo22
"Oh, I have a cousin who 100% believed this. One of those guys who believed every early 2000s internet rumor and old wives tale. One night I chugged a big glass of ice water after dinner and he started freaking out and saying my guts were gonna harden."
"I sarcastically told him to drive me to the hospital if that happened. Obviously, nothing happened and the next morning I said something like 'Thanks for being on standby in case my guts filled with hardened oil.' He just walked off muttering under his breath."
apocalypticradish
Arms Down
"When I was pregnant, I was told by young and old alike that I should NOT raise my arms above my head or exert myself in such a manner because it could cause cord strangulation to my unborn sons and daughters."
Fatmouse84
10 Years Actually
Unimpressed Uh Huh GIF by Brooklyn Nine-Nine
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"Chewing gum stays in your stomach for 7 years."
"I remember accidentally swallowing a piece of gum when I was a kid in like 1995 and just accepting my fate like welp, gonna have this in my stomach til high school I guess."
Gecko-911
I was so afraid to sallow my gum when I was young.
This tale is haunting.
High/Low
Hungry Debra Messing GIF by Will & Grace
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"You can tell the sex of the baby by how you carry."
LeastFormal9366
"Pregnancy certainly wins awards for the most old wives tales. So much absolute BS was repeated to us by everyone we talked to."
IllIIIlIllIlIIlIllI
The Cursed
"If you’re a woman and you wear opal jewelry but opal is not your birthstone (October), you’ll never be able to have children, or will be widowed, or just generally have bad luck or something. You can counteract this by having a diamond in the same piece of jewelry as the opal, though."
"I have a nice opal ring that my parents gave me years ago, and I’ve had other women give me this 'advice' unprompted more than once when I’ve worn it. I have absolutely no idea where it started, but I’m pretty sure this little chunk of silicate rock has no concept of what month I was born in, let alone of how my reproductive organs work."
SmoreOfBabylon
Stay In
"Going outside with wet hair will make you get pneumonia. Or an earache. Or maybe arthritis. Depends on which old wife you listen to."
"Jokes on them - I haven't blow-dried my hair in decades and usually leave the house with wet hair in the morning. On winter mornings, the tips of my hair get frozen. No ear infections or pneumonia or arthritis yet."
worldbound0514
Dreams and Facts
"You never make anyone up in your dreams you've seen everyone in your dreams somewhere else before and never make anyone up entirely."
"How would you possibly prove that to be true? My partner adamantly believes this and tells me this 'fact' whenever I have a dream about someone I've never met before."
mattshonestreddit
"My late wife used to tell me that before she met me she would have dreams of standing at an alter on her wedding day but could never see the guy's face, no matter how hard she tried. After meeting me the face was filled in with mine. Don't know if it's true but one of those things I like thinking of every now and then when I miss her."
Darthdemented
Cracked
Getting Ready Episode 2 GIF by The Office
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"Some people still believe cracking knuckles causes arthritis."
Choice-Grapefruit-44
"There's a doctor (Donald Unger) that cracked his knuckles a couple of times a day for 60 years, but only on one hand, just to prove it. Both hands remained exactly the same."
MacyTmcterry
I love my knuckles.
Do you have any tall tales to add to the list? Let us know in the comments below.
