The history of Famous Serial Killers is one that we are all quite interested in out of concern for ourselves and family members, or out of interest for historical research.
This is not to say that they should be revered or put on a popularity chart, but there is certainly plenty of interest in the news of the day whenever it discusses one of Americas’ famous serial killers.
You may read original news accounts of those such as; David Berkowitz, the Son of Sam killer, who terrorized New York City residents by murdering his victims with a .44 Magnum in assassination manner, who was said to have killed at least 9 people.
The Zodiac Killer, who operated in Northern California, had 5 victims credited to his fiendish ways. He has never officially been identified.
Charles Starkweather murdered at least 11 people along with his girl friend Carol Ann Fugate. Their road trip of horror through Nebraska and Wyoming was brought to the big screen with an interpretive adaptation of the killing spree in a move named Natural Born Killers.
Jeffrey Dahmer, murdered and cannibalized at least 17 victims. This was one of the most shocking cases of murder and mayhem that ever was in the newspapers.
Ted Bundy, was a picture of the perfect college type who terrorized young women all over and was known to have killed at least 30 victims. The newspaper reports of his famous prison escapes are also interesting to read.
These and many more are able to be followed through a computerized index search in old newspapers. You can read their stories as the crimes unfolded and follow them right on though to arrest, and conviction, and on to their own demise.
Another person that might be classified in this category, though debated by many, is the former Doctor Jack Kevorkian, who assisted with the suicides of about 100 or more so called terminally ill individuals, as he furthered his campaign to urge governments to pass legal assisted suicide laws. Kevorkian was eventually convicted of murder and was imprisoned for it, though now paroled.
If you are interested in this form of historical research you will definitely want to have a subscription to Newspaper Archive.
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{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
I would be more likely to subscribe to your newspaper site if you wrote with correct grammar and didn’t misplace commas. FYI — journalists and people who like newspapers tend to care about grammar.
Dear becky with a small “b”
Thank you for calling this to my attention. I just reread this old post and there are indeed many commas. I’m not too sure that I would know how to recognize as to if they are out of place or not though as the usage looks correct. There is no doubt that you are probably right though and I’ll try to do better.