History has shown us the sinister capabilities of mankind, especially serial killers.
The most terrifying thing about them is that murderers can be anyone in our midst–from a seemingly "friendly" acquaintance or a complete stranger who seems to have a good reputation in their community.
You never know if you're an eventual target or someone who was in the wrong place at the wrong time.
While there are sadly countless evildoers in the world, there are still those who continue to haunt us long after they've been caught.
Curious to hear from strangers online, Redditor Relative_Plantain_29 asked:
"Who do you think is the worst serial killer in history?"
These were not the brightest, but nonetheless, despicable.
Plumbing Problem
"Dennis Nilsen. He lived in a London apartment building. The way he disposed of bodies was grinding them up and sending them down the plumbing. Eventually the drains for the building clogged and someone called and complained so a plumber was called to the building. The plumber ended up finding the sewer line for the building clogged with ground human meat."
"Twist: it was Dennis Nilsen who called to complain about the plumbing issue."
– Clcooper423
Dead Giveaway
"'Worst' like really bad at it? Peter Goebbels really wasn't anywhere near sophisticated and quite dumb. On his days off he'd find a woman in a secluded place and then choke them. He was immediately caught because he accidentally left his ID at a crime scene."
– shaka_sulu
Some thought those who have targeted children were the most contemptible.
Gilles de Rais
"Gilles de Montmorency-Laval (Gilles de Rais). Dude killed, assaulted, and ate 100-200 children between 1432 and 1440."
– transzient
"Moon Maniac"
"Albert Fish is disgusting. Read his wiki and it’s baaaaad."
– MontStuart
The Killer Clown
"John wayne gacy legit a serial killer there couldn't be anything worse than this."
– Time_Restaurant_9776
Milwaukee Cannibal
"Jeffery Dahmer for me, he did some truly awful and stomach turning things."
– lonesomeartis
Not The Nurturing Type
"Amelia Dyer. She pretended that she was caring for/adopting out babies from unwed mothers, but really she was just taking the money the mothers provided and killing all the babies. She got away with the scheme for 30 years and she is estimated to have killed up to 400 infants—through neglect/starvation, strangulation, and possibly other means. She just changed names and moved towns when someone got suspicious."
– qwertyuiiop145
Castle Of Terror
"Possibly Elizabeth Báthory? She was a Hungarian noblewoman who lived in the 1500s in a castle and was reputed to have tortured and killed more than 600 young women and girls."
"She was an utterly sadistic creature who thanks to her large wealth & status (which in Medieval feudal Hungaria, pretty much afforded her almost total power over the people in the lands under her care), was able to terrorize the local population unchecked for a very long time. Towards the end, she didn't even bother hiding the bodies (they were simply dumped around the castle to rot in plain sight) but young women in the local area had no power to resist her calls to the castle. The only thing that tripped her up in the end was when she killed a girl she had summoned to her court to sing for her but hadn't realized that the girl actually came from a relatively high status family. Upon their daughter disappearance, it was this noble family who then forced open an investigation at the castle, whereupon the horrifying scale of the psycho noblewoman's years-long killing spree became apparent."
– Creative_Recover
Some thought the methods by which killers committed their unspeakable acts of horror were among the worst
Taking Sight
"Andrei Chikatilo. Reading the dudes wiki pages made me cringe with horror multiple times. Something about stabbing people in the eyes before you kill them is reaaaaal gross to me"
– MonkeyDDeclan
Household Tools Were Weapons Of Choice
"The Tool Box Killers did some absolutely horrific things to their victims as well."
– Greystorms
Lady Killer
"Possibly Elizabeth Báthory? She was a Hungarian noblewoman who lived in the 1500s in a castle and was reputed to have tortured and killed more than 600 young women and girls."
"She was an utterly sadistic creature who thanks to her large wealth & status (which in Medieval feudal Hungaria, pretty much afforded her almost total power over the people in the lands under her care), was able to terrorize the local population unchecked for a very long time. Towards the end, she didn't even bother hiding the bodies (they were simply dumped around the castle to rot in plain sight) but young women in the local area had no power to resist her calls to the castle. The only thing that tripped her up in the end was when she killed a girl she had summoned to her court to sing for her but hadn't realized that the girl actually came from a relatively high status family. Upon their daughter disappearance, it was this noble family who then forced open an investigation at the castle, whereupon the horrifying scale of the psycho noblewoman's years-long killing spree became apparent."
– Creative_Recover
House Of Horrors
"H.H. Holmes. He built a literal murder castle."
– JwSatan
Elusive Malaise
"Cancer. They still haven't caught him."
– Poorly-Drawn-Beagle
For Pure Entertainment
"The Toy Box Killer wasn't the most prolific but he is probably up there with the most terrifying. The way he took his time with his victims and how much he enjoyed it. Most people haven't even heard of him, either."
– Badger_1066
Zodiac Killer
"The dude taunted the police with series of letters Claimed he killed more Made a f*king language that only he would understand and mailed the police Most of the letters aren’t still decoded and so far the ones said to decoded isn’t 100% sure Source: Based on what I’ve seen so I can’t say for sure if he did send the letters"
"But other than that -He hasn’t been caught. -Clean crime scene as he was able to escape swiftly without giving valuable evidence which could lead to his arrest. -Still no definite answer on who the zodiac killer is. Still no solid suspects."
– Scoobys_panacake
The Ripper Of Rostov
"Andrei Chikatilo. Over 200 confirmed victims over 30 years. Avoided Soviet police became he was a government employee and never suspected. This was pre-DNA days. Finally caught, they put him in a cage for his trial. He was sentenced to death."
– otcconan
People glorify sadistic torture scenes in movies.
There's something thrilling about watching a crazed masked killer on the loose on the screen because audiences who love horror films can take comfort in the fact they will come out of the experience with their lives intact.
But the real monsters are not of the Michael Myers and Freddie Krueger variety.
The notorious, real-life killers previously mentioned can outrank any of these boogeymen as "the worst," any day.
"What happened after you had sex with your best friend?"
Change In Status, Still Best Friends
"We had gotten drunk to celebrate me getting into med school, and 8 years of repressed sexual tension just poured out in a single night."
"The next 3 days, we were both in a panicked daze."
"I thought I had lost my best friend for the best sex of my life, and I couldn't stop thinking it wasn't worth it."
"The sex was mind blowing, but no one made me feel as safe or as happy and I would trade anything to keep that."
"He asked would it really be so crazy if we tried dating?"
"We moved in together a month later."
"We've been together now for 7 years, got engaged."
"Saving up for a house and wedding."
"He's still my best friend."- LexicalCat
'We bought an air fryer and a water cooler for our house so I guess you could say things are pretty serious."- ur_newstepmom
Office Break GIFGiphyAn Unfortunate Demise
"Unfortunately we stopped being best friends after that."- Previous_Smile7275
Testing The Waters
"She became my sorta, kinda girlfriend and we've been taking things slow!"- CapG_13·
Big Mistake...
"I hated doing it with her cuz she said, 'you are like a brother to me!' after doing it."- aldrin2111
"He hates me now."- estrellaprincessa
"What happened is : I wanted more and fell totally in love with her."
"She didn’t and thought it was a mistake."
"We tried staying friends, she became distant, I became weird."
"She decided that we shouldn’t see each other anymore."
"At all."- Grin-Guy
the oc couple in bed GIFGiphyMade It Official
"We went to sleep."
"And are married for 8 years now."- DocSternau
"We got married."
"3 kids, a grandson and 37 years later I still don't regret it."- Cheezel62
"Married her."
"Knew she was in it for the long con."- aggierogue3
Love Is Love Wedding GIF by PBS KIDSGiphyStill The Same Old Friends...
"We did a FWB thing for about three years."
"Whenever we were both single, we’d hook up."
"She lived about 300 miles away.'
"We used to sort of dance around the possibility of actually dating, even getting married, but we never pulled the trigger."
"The distance was too much, I think."
"We loved each other very much."
"Got to the point where whether it was platonic or romantic love was difficult to tell, and weirdly, neither of us was in a rush to figure it out."
"I guess we both had faith it would work itself out as it was supposed to."
"And it did."
"She met a great guy, dated him, and married him."
"I performed the ceremony."
"After it was over, at the reception, I gave her a hug and she kissed my cheek and smiled a little flirtatiously (we both knew it was the last time she’d give me that look), and said, 'Thanks for marrying me.'"
"It was one of the most purely loving, intimate moments of my life."
"We are still close."
"Not like before, but we still love each other deeply, and we always will."
"That love just has a more clearly defined label now, and it’s a label we both respect and cherish."
"So yeah, it’s not always a sad ending."
"Sometimes it’s just a weird and beautiful intermission."- RPMac1979
best friends dance GIF by Will & GraceGiphyMust Have Been Good
"More sex."- Glittering_Pea_6228
Be it a friendship or a romantic relationship, having sex is always bound to change things.
If you like things the way they are, think very carefully before taking the leap.
“Everybody hates me until they need me.” What professions are examples of this?"
Joke All You Want, They Both Help You When You're In Trouble...
"Lawyers and mechanics."
"You want to have a good one of each, but you never want to have to call either of them."- OneFingerIn
Literally Always There To Clean Up Your Mess...
"When I was a janitor I got a lot of hate for knocking out my 8 hour day in 4 individual hour long chunks of effort."
"I Was always available for spills and got extra work done every day but spent another 4 hours basically chilling and management not once got on my case."
"The other employees despised this until a customer's colostomy bag somehow ruptured in the bathroom."
"From that day forward none of them gave a f*ck if I was just hanging out on my phone."- Electronic_Warning49
Risking Their Lives To Save Ours
"The US Coast Guard for fishermen and boaters."
"Usually there's a pretty good working relationship between them, but some hate the Coast Guard for the various inspections they do."
"But the USCG is also the ones who will come out there in a storm to rescue them."- raym0ndv2
sad episode 12 GIFGiphyThe IT Factor...
"IT, except people hate me when they need me, too."- Dogstile
"IT, not the clown."- Nebula_Forte
"Any IT job requiring break/fix support."
"Basically when everything works it’s 'good it’s supposed to work' and then when something goes wrong that’s out of your control it’s 'what did you do?!'"
"When we did absolutely nothing to cause the problem, haha."- Psilocyb-zen
It Crowd Maurice Moss GIFGiphyThe Improve Much More Than People's Vanity
"Plastic Surgeons."
"My uncle is a plastic surgeon and he does only reconstructive stuff, fixing burn victims faces and stuff like that."
"But when people ask him what kind of doctor he is and he says Plastic Surgeon, they usually kinda scoff."- darkysix
The Butt Of One Too Many Jokes...
"Lawyer here."
"The expectation that because you are a lawyer you know everything about every law everywhere."
"In reality most lawyers are highly specialized."- Bisjoux
Ironic That The People Who Help Our Smile Often Make Us Frown
"Dentists for sure."- Ohboohoolittlegirl
Dentist GIFGiphyGetting Your Money's Worth
"All the trades guys."
“'They’re so expensive!'"
"Until that plumber shows up at 2am to prevent the sewage backup."
"Or the electrician that fixes an overloaded breaker panel, preventing a fire."
"Or the carpenter who builds the room for your toddler so you can get some sleep and maybe some sexy time."
"Definitely tradesmen."- Wolfie1531
Be Honest Though, Would You Rather Do Your Own Taxes?
"Accounting."- tadashi4
It's Often The Context Which Ignites The Hatred...
"'Lawyer' is going to be the most common answer to this question by far."
"But I suppose any licensed service provider could fall into this category, given the right context."
"Plumbers are another good example."
'Everyone thinks they're scum and crooks until the washing machine breaks down."
"Electricians, contractors, locksmiths, etc."
"They all fit this mold."
Season 2 Lawyer GIF by MartinGiphy"Unless you work with them daily, you're not going to be seeing them very often."
"And you're only seeing them when there's a problem , so you're primed to be upset by the time they even show up."
"Psychologically, you associate the plumbing issue with the plumber, when ironically, the plumber is there to fix it."
"Everyone wants to shoot the messenger."
"IT people and network security professionals are another classic example of this effect."- MissBitsy
When You Realize You Can't Call To Complain...
"Lineman."
"Been called a lazy overpaid drug addict by old men I don't even know."
"God forbid we go grab lunch or a coffee."- MaesterKyle
The Ones Who Make Your Late Night Craving Feasible...
"Fast food workers."
"They’re the butt of every demeaning comment about a lack of achievement or the reason why minimum wage shouldn’t be raised blah blah blah."
"But those people get real quiet once they’re ordering their Big Mac."- TheHomieData
food service ce416 GIF by truTV’s The Carbonaro EffectGiphyIt's often when we need the help of others that we find ourselves at our most anxious and frustrated.
This is why it's important to remind ourselves that these people are there to help us, and we should not take out our anxiety or frustration on them.
Particularly if we want the problem to be solved.
