List of serial killers before 1900

The following is a list of serial killers i.e. a person who murders more than one person,^[1] in two or more separate events over a period of time, for primarily psychological reasons^[2][3] who began committing their crimes before 1900. This list does not include mass murderers, spree killers, war criminals, or members of democidal governments. This list is chronological by default, but can be re-ordered using the button at the top of each column.

Table of serial killers before 1900[edit]

Name	Country	Years active	Claimed victims	Notes
Liu Pengli	Western Han	144–116 BC	100+[4]	Prince of Jidong during the reign of the Emperor Jing, his uncle. Helped by slaves, he attacked civilians in his lands during the night, killing over a hundred. Although the court advised the Emperor to execute him, the emperor only reduced him to a commoner and exiled him to Shangyong (modern Zhushan County, Hubei Province).[5]
Anula of Anuradhapura	Anuradhapura Kingdom	50–47 BC	5	Poisoned five husbands before holding the throne as queen regnant for five years, after which she was overthrown and burned alive.[6]
Locusta of Gaul[7]	Roman Empire	54–55 AD	5–7+[7]	Poisoner in the service of Emperor Nero. Executed by Galba in 69 AD.
Alice Kyteler	Ireland	1302–1324	3–4	"The Witch of Kilkenny." Hiberno-Norman noblewoman prosecuted in the first modern witch trial in the British Isles, for the alleged poisoning of her four husbands, heresy and witchcraft. Fled to England, her ultimate fate unknown. Petronilla of Meath (her servant) was tortured and burned at the stake in her place.[8]
Gilles de Rais	France	1432–1440	140+	French nobleman accused of torturing and murdering over 140 children.[9] Rais and several accomplices in the murders were hanged on 26 October 1440.[10]
Pierre Burgot and Michel Verdun	France	1521 and before	6	A pair of Frenchmen who confessed to killing and eating several children. They claimed to have committed the murders in wolf form after making a pact with a witch coven. Burned at the stake.[11]
Peter Stumpp	Holy Roman Empire	c. 1564–1589	16	"The Werewolf of Bedburg." Confessed under torture to murdering and cannibalizing 14 children, including his son, and two pregnant women. Broken on the wheel, beheaded and burned.[12]
Peter Niers	Holy Roman Empire	c. 1566–1581	544	Bandit leader who confessed under torture to killing 544 people, including the murder of 24 women and the use of their unborn children in Black Magic. Broken on the wheel and quartered alive.[13]
Gilles Garnier	France	1572	4	Hermit known as "The Werewolf of Dole." Confessed to strangling 4 children and eating their flesh.[14] Garnier was caught attacking a young boy and burned at the stake in 1573.[15]
Björn Pétursson	Dano-Norwegian Iceland	1570–1596	9–18	Called Axlar-Björn ("Shoulder-Bear"). Farmer that robbed and killed people who traversed his land. Beheaded.[16]
Niklaus Stüller	Holy Roman Empire	c. 1577	4	Executed for shooting a cavalryman and disembowelling three pregnant women.[17]
Elizabeth Báthory	Hungary	1585–1610	80–650[18]	Known as "The Blood Countess"; tortured servant girls to death. Accomplices were executed and she was imprisoned until her death in 1614.[19]
Geordie Bourne	England	1597 and earlier	7	Scottish bandit active in the East English March. Confessed to having killed seven Englishmen and "lain with above forty men's wives, what in England, what in Scotland." Executed by unknown means.[20]
Nicolas Damont	France	1598	50	A French tailor accused of killing and eating 50 children in Châlons-en-Champagne whose remains had been found in his house. The brutality of the crimes and the accused's repeated psychotic episodes led authorities to accuse him of being a werewolf. Burned at the stake.[21]
Jean Grenier	France	1603	50	A French teenager and self-proclaimed werewolf, Jean confessed to killing and eating 50 children while in wolf form. At his trial it was decided that Grenier was a weak-minded lunatic rather than a denizen of the devil. The court sentenced Grenier to life imprisonment at a monastery in Bourdeaux. Died in 1611.[22]
Catalina de los Ríos y Lisperguer	Spanish Chile	c. 1630 – c. 1660	40	Aristocrat nicknamed La Quintrala, possibly after the local red-flowered mistletoe (quintral) and because of her long red hair. Investigated for the deaths of 40 servants and slaves in her property, but never tried or convicted. Died of natural causes in 1665.[23]
Aqua Tofana (poison ring)	Spanish Sicily Papal States	1633–1651	100+	A group of female poisoners active in Palermo, Rome, and Naples. Ring leader was claimed to be Giulia Tofana although the only evidence of a poisoning ring is the executions of Teofania di Adamo (1633) and Girolama Spara (1659), claimed, respectively, to be the mother and daughter of Giulia Tofana.[24]
Melchior Hedloff	Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth	1648?–1653	251	The "Melcher Shooter." Highwayman and alleged cannibal who was known for killing his victims with a rifle and then mutilating the corpses with a Turkish saber. Captured 1653 and executed in 1654 after confessing to 251 murders.[25][26]
Jasper Hanebuth	Holy Roman Empire	1652 and earlier	19	Former mercenary in the Swedish Army turned highwayman who was active in Eilenriede forest, then outside Hanover. Usually shot people from a distance, before knowing if they had any money. Confessed to the murder of 19 people including his "robber bride," and was broken on the wheel.[27]
Catherine Monvoisin	France	1660s–1679	1000–2500[28]	Known as "La Voisin." Alleged sorceress, fortune-teller, cult leader and poisoner for hire who confessed under torture to the ritual murder of over a thousand infants in black masses.[28] Also tried to poison Louis XIV. She was convicted along with 35 others as part of the Affair of the Poisons, and burned at the stake in 1680.
Marie-Madeleine-Marguerite d'Aubrey, Madame de Brinvilliers and Godin de Sainte-Croix	France	1666–1670	3–50+[28]	Lovers, they poisoned d'Aubrey's father and two brothers to inherit their estates, and an undetermined number of poor people in hospitals. Sainte-Croix died of natural causes in 1672, but d'Aubrey was tried, beheaded and burned at the stake in 1676. Her sensational trial led to the Affair of the Poisons.
Lewis Hutchinson	British Jamaica	1760s–1773	43+	Scottish doctor and rancher known as "The Mad Master" and "The Mad Doctor of Edinburgh Castle." Shot and robbed passers-by of all types in his property, sometimes with the help of accomplices, after which the slaves threw the bodies in Hutchinson's Hole where they were devoured by animals. Hanged.[29]
Dorcas Kelly	Ireland	1761 and earlier	1–5	Also known as "Darkey Kelly." Dublin brothel owner hanged and burned at the stake for the murder of a client. Four skeletons were found in her establishment after her execution.[30][31]
Darya Nikolayevna Saltykova	Russia	1755–1762	38–147	Aristocrat who beat and tortured female serfs to death. Sentenced to life in prison in 1768, where she died of natural causes in 1801.[32]
Crown Prince Sado	Joseon	1757–1762	Unknown	Serial rapist and killer who was also heir to King Yeongjo of Joseon. Sealed in a rice chest until he died eight days later.[33]
Luísa de Jesus	Portugal	1772 and earlier	28–33	Luísa de Jesus (1750 – Coimbra, 1 July 1772), was accused of having murdered 33 abandoned children, taken from the "foundling wheel" in the town of Coimbra, Portugal. She only confessed to 28 of the homicides. She was mortified and insulted by crowds as she was led to the gallows, had her hands cut off, was then hanged, beaten with a club, and burned until she was reduced to ashes in a public execution. She was the last woman executed in Portugal.[34][35]
Klaas Annink, Anne Spanjers and Jannes Annink	Netherlands	1774 and earlier	3	Family of robber-murderers active around Twente. Klaas (nicknamed "Huttenkloas") and his wife, Anne, were tried and executed in 1775.[36]
El Comegente ("The People Eater")	Spanish Santo Domingo	1790–1794?	25–29+	Also called El Negro Incógnito ("The Unknown Negro"). Blamed for up to 29 murders or more, plus 27 injured, mill and plantation fires and animal deaths. The human victims, of all types but mostly women and children, were mutilated, had objects introduced in their orifices and could have been cannibalized in some cases. The killer, possibly more than one person, never robbed the victims. Several suspects were arrested, sentenced to forced work in plantations or executed.[37]
Thug Behram	Mughal Empire Oudh State[38]	1790–1840	125–931	Leader of the Thuggee cult of murder-robbers in central India, also known as Buhram Jemedar and the "King of the Thugs." Behram is often cited as one of the most prolific serial killers in History (if not the most) with up to 931 victims, although he only admitted to have been present for that many murders, committing 125 himself and witnessing 150 or more.[39] Thuggee victims were travellers that the Thuggees latched to and befriended before strangling them with a ceremonial handkerchief (rumal) and stealing their belongings. Hanged by officers of the East India Company as part of the British colonial Thuggee and Dacoity Suppression Acts, 1836–1848
Zhang Liangbi	Qing dynasty	1796–1812	11	Elderly man from Anhui who sexually mutilated 16 children, killing 11 of them. Executed via death by a thousand cuts around 1812.[40]
Micajah and Wiley Harpe	United States	1797–1803	40	Highwaymen and river pirates known as "Big" and "Little" Harpe, or the Harpe Brothers, who often killed people of all types for the thrill or minor slights without actual monetary gain, even babies. "Big" Harpe bashed his own infant daughter's head against a tree because her crying annoyed him; this was the only murder he claimed to feel sorry about. "Big" Harpe was shot and beheaded in 1799 by people who sought vengeance for the murder of a woman, while "Little" Harpe was arrested when he took fellow outlaw Samuel Mason's head to the authorities and tried to collect a bounty put on him in 1803, but was recognized, tried and hanged in 1804.[41]
Samuel Mason	United States Spanish Louisiana	1797–1803	20+	Highwayman and river pirate sometimes associated with the Harpe Brothers and other outlaws. After being arrested in Louisiana and turned over to American authorities, Mason overpowered his guards and escaped, but was shot in the process. His head was later given to the authorities by his accomplice Wiley Harpe who wished to collect the bounty on the fugitive Mason. It is unknown if Mason died of his injuries or Harpe killed him.[42]
Sophie Charlotte Elisabeth Ursinus	Holy Roman Empire	1800–1803	3	Prussian aristocrat who poisoned her lover, husband, and aunt, and tried to poison an unhappy servant, always with arsenic. Sentenced to life in prison but pardoned in 1833. Died of natural causes three years later.[43]
Patty Cannon's gang	United States	1802[44]–1829	4–400+[44]	Kidnapped slaves and free blacks in the Delmarva Peninsula and sold them to slavers down south. Cannon, reportedly aroused by the sight of black males being beaten into submission, was arrested when four skeletons (three children, one male adult) were found buried in her property, though most of the gang's victims were probably rival white slavers. Cannon died in prison while awaiting trial, under unclear circumstances.[44]
Mary Bateman	United Kingdom	1803–1808	1–4	"The Yorkshire Witch." Leeds career con woman and thief, hanged in 1809 for the arsenic poisoning of a married couple she had been scamming (the husband survived). Suspect in three more deaths.[45]
"Red Inn" murderers	French Empire Kingdom of France	1805–1830	1?–50+?	The owners, Pierre and Marie Martin, and a valet, Jean Rochette, were believed at the time to have murdered up to 50 or more travellers that stayed in their inn of Lanarce, Ardèche[46] to rob them, but were tried for only one murder that has been questioned since by historians. All three were guillotined in front of the inn in 1833.[47][48]
Andreas Bichel	Bavaria	1806?–1808	2–50+[49]	"The Bavarian Ripper." Invited young women into his house under the pretense of showing them a "magic mirror" where they could see their future husbands. He blindfolded them and bound their hands behind their back, which he said was necessary for the ritual, and then hit them in the head, stabbed them in the neck and hacked them to pieces with an axe while they were still alive, burying their bodies in the mountains or under the woodshed in his own home. He kept his victims' clothing, which ended up incriminating him. Sentenced to break at the wheel, later changed to decapitation, and executed in 1809.[49]
John Brown and Richard Lemon	Van Diemen's Land	1807–1808	5–9	Bushrangers fugitive of a British penal colony in the Tamar Valley that murdered three soldiers, a fellow fugitive and at least one Aboriginal Tasmanian. Lemon was killed by bounty hunters in 1808, who also captured Brown. Brown was taken to Sydney where he was hanged.[50]
Anna Maria Zwanziger	Confederation of the Rhine	1808–1809	4	Housekeeper who poisoned her employers with arsenic and nursed them back to health to gain their favor; three died. Sentenced to beheading in 1811, which she welcomed as the only way to keep herself from poisoning people.
Hester Rebecca Nepping	First French Empire	1811	3	Dutch woman who poisoned three people with arsenic. Publicly guillotined along with her accomplices in front of the Nieuwmarkt in Amsterdam.
John Williams	United Kingdom	1811	7	Irish sailor who murdered two families and their servants in London's East End by bashing their heads with a hammer and cutting their throats. Hanged himself in prison while awaiting trial.[28]
Gesche Gottfried	Bremen Hanover	1813–1827	15	Believed today to have suffered of Munchausen syndrome by proxy, as she poisoned several of her relatives and friends with arsenic for no apparent reason. Last person publicly executed in Bremen, where she was beheaded in 1831.[51]
Konstantin Sazonov [ru]	Russia	1814–1816	6–7	Servitor at Tsarskoye Selo Lyceum. He killed six or seven people between 1814 and 1816.[52]
Juan Severino Mallari	Philippines	1816–1826	57 (as confessed)	Mallari was a Filipino Catholic priest during the Spanish colonial period from Barangay San Nicolas in the town of Magalang, Pampanga. He became the parish priest of Magalang, Pampanga in 1816 and believed that his mother was hexed (kulam is the local Filipino term), which became his motive for the killings. He believed killing people could cure his mother's ailments. It is possible that around this time Mallari's peers noticed signs of his mental instability. The Spanish colonial government executed Mallari by hanging.[53][54][55][56][57]
Samuel Green and William Ash	United States British North America	1817–1821	30	Itinerant burglars, robbers, and counterfeiters, sometimes acting in solitary and others in association. Green, considered "America's first Public enemy number one," was also a rapist and the more violent and prolific killer of the two, while Ash helped him escape from prison multiple times. While serving a sentence for burglary, Green beat a fellow prisoner to death with an iron rod for informing the guards of an upcoming escape plan, and was hanged as a result in 1822.[58]
Thomas Jeffrey (or Jeffries)	Australia New South Wales Van Diemen's Land	1820–1826	1–8	Navy deserter, robber and conman deported to Australia in 1820. He escaped the penal colony with four other convicts in 1825. While on the run, the party broke into a hut and later the Tibbs settlement. Here they killed one man, severely injured another and kidnapped Mrs Tibbs and her baby. Jeffries himself is known to have murdered the Tibbs infant before likely assaulting Mrs Tibbs and letting her go. Following this the escapees retreated to deeper bush land. Jeffries then killed one of the men searching for him, Magnus Bakie. Facing starvation, they killed one of the party for food before joining up with bushranger gangs. Hanged.[59][60]
Alexander Pearce	Australia	1822–1823	2–5	Irishman deported in 1819 to Tasmania. He escaped the convict settlement with seven other convicts in 1824 into the Bush. The group was led by Robert Greenhill because he was the only one with a weapon - the axe used to kill members of the party for food when starvation ensued (ironically in a region abundant with edible plants and other bush tucker). After the first such murder for survival (unlikely to have been committed by the undersized weaponless Pearce), 3 of the seven decamped. Pearce escaped being the second of the party murdered for food before one of the remaining three was fatally bitten by a snake. Only Pearce and Greenhill remained. Pearce was the only one left alive to reach the eastern settlements. Pearce was recaptured and sent back to Macquaire Harbor convict settlement as his claims of murder and cannibalism weren't believed, and escaped soon after with another convict, Thomas Cox. This time Pearce killed and ate his companion in less than ten days, when he surrendered voluntarily to the authorities. It is difficult to justify calling Pearce a serial killer as he only killed two people on his own and was at most one of Greenhill's accomplices in two earlier survival murders. However, if more than fictional sensationalism to sell newspapers, his reported last words of "Man's flesh is delicious. It tastes far better than fish or pork" suggest he may have become one had he lived. Hanged in 1824.[50][61]
Charles Routley	Van Diemen's Land	1824–1828	6	Armed robber and duffer who murdered a shopkeeper, a shepherd and four of his own accomplices. At least two victims were also tortured. Hanged in 1830.[50]
William Burke and William Hare	United Kingdom	1828	16	Lured, intoxicated and murdered people to sell their bodies to Dr. Robert Knox who used them in his anatomy classes at Edinburgh Medical School. Their usual method was compressing the chest of the victims in a process henceforth known as "burking." Hare was given immunity in exchange for testifying against Burke, who was hanged in 1829, while Knox was never prosecuted. Burke's fiancée was also tried but her implication was found not proven.[62]
Jane Scott	United Kingdom	c. 1828	1–4	Hanged for poisoning her mother. Also believed to have poisoned her father, son and niece.[63]
Charles Broughton and Matthew McAvoy	Van Diemen's Land	1830	3	Escapees of Macquaire Harbor that butchered and cannibalized three fellow convicts. Surrendered to authorities after a month and were hanged.[50]
Thomas Griffiths Wainewright	United Kingdom	1830	1–4	Writer and painter believed to have poisoned his sister-in-law to collect a life insurance he recently purchased, and possibly also his uncle, mother-in-law and a friend. Having fled to France, he was arrested upon his return to Britain in 1837, but could not be prosecuted for lack of evidence. Instead he was tried for, and found guilty of, an unrelated case of forgery, for which he was exiled to Tasmania, where he died of natural causes in 1847.[64]
Rebecca Smith	United Kingdom	1831–1849	8	Convicted of poisoning her one-month-old baby Richard. After her conviction she admitted to having poisoned seven previous children, which resulted in the death sentence being passed despite the jury's recommendation of mercy. Hanged in 1849.[65]
John "Rocky" Whelan	Van Diemen's Land New South Wales (alleged)	1831?–1855	5–6	Irish career criminal deported to Australia in 1829 and to Tasmania in 1853. The day before his execution by hanging in 1855, Whelan confessed to have shot five men in the head to rob them; an unconfirmed report also links him to the "murderous attack" on a woman in New South Wales.[50]
John Bishop and Thomas Williams	United Kingdom	1831	3	Called the "London Burkers." Copycats of Burke and Hare that were active in London.[66] Hanged.[67]
Delphine LaLaurie	United States	1831–1834	2–4	New Orleans socialite that tortured and maimed slaves. Seven chained and mutilated slaves were rescued after a fire broke out in LaLaurie's mansion, of which two died of their injuries shortly after, and three buried skeletons were later discovered in her property (according to witnesses, one had died in an accident). The case caused outrage in Louisiana but LaLaurie fled to France and was never prosecuted.[68] Died of natural causes between 1842 and 1849.
Giorgio Orsolano	Piedmont-Sardinia	1832–1835	3	"The Hyena of San Giorgio." Raped, butchered and cannibalized three girls aged nine to fourteen, burying the remains in the country or throwing them in a river. Hanged.[69]
Elizabeth Van Valkenburgh	United States	1833–1845	2	Poisoned two alcoholic husbands with arsenic. Hanged in 1846.[70]
Hélène Jégado	France	1833–1851	23–36	Kleptomaniac domestic servant who robbed and poisoned her employers and relatives with arsenic and antimony. She poisoned during two different periods separated by ten years, 1833 to 1841 and her final spree in 1851. Because the statute of limitations for the first spree had already run out, she was only tried for three murders and three attempts and guillotined in 1852.[71]
Pierre François Lacenaire	France	1834–1835	2	Poet, army defector and thief. Helped by two accomplices, Lacenaire stabbed a former prison cellmate and his mother in Paris, and later attacked a bank employee that survived. They intended to rob the victims but none of the hits produced any money. While in prison for an unrelated offense, one of the accomplices, Victor Avril, blamed Lacenaire for the murders, and Lacenaire reacted by making a detailed confession that ensured both Lacenaire and Avril would be found guilty and executed. Lacenaire's response and his willingness to answer letters and receive visitors in prison, along with the publication of his memoirs, made him a celebrity. The two men were guillotined in 1836.[72]
Burnham Poisoners	United Kingdom	1835	3	A group of three consisting of two women (Catherine Frary and Frances Billing) and one man (Peter Taylor) who plotted to poison their respective spouses. In 1835 they poisoned four people with arsenic in Burnham Market, killing three; Frary's husband Robert, Taylor's wife Mary and a young girl named Harriet Southgate who was killed to disguise Robert Frary's death as being from natural causes. All three were hanged at Norwich Castle.[73][74]
John Lynch	New South Wales	1835–1841	9–10	"The Berrima Axe Murderer." Irish convict turned bushranger who killed his victims with a single hatchet blow to the back of the head. His acquittal at a murder trial in 1835, while his two accomplices were hanged, had convinced him that God approved of his crimes. Hanged in 1842.
Diogo Alves	Portugal	1836–1841	70+	Serial killer, who murdered 70 people in Águas Livres Aqueduct between 1836 until his execution in 1841, thus earning the title "Aqueduct Murderer."[75] He was sentenced to death and hanged on February 19, 1841. The head of the killer was separated from the body and placed in a flask to preserve it for scientific purposes, where it is now a tourist attraction.[76]
Elizabeth Eccles	United Kingdom	1840–1842	3	Poisoned her stepson and daughters with arsenic. Hanged in 1843.[44]
Sarah Dazley	United Kingdom	1840–1843	1–3	Hanged for the murder of her second husband, who was poisoned with arsenic. Believed to have poisoned her first husband and child as well.[77]
Sarah Freeman	United Kingdom	1840–1845	4	Poisoned her husband, son, mother and brother with arsenic. Hanged.[44]
Eliza Joyce	United Kingdom	1841–1843	3	Poisoned her daughter and step-children with laudanum. Though acquitted in 1843 because of lack of evidence, she confessed after being disowned by her family and living in poverty for a year, and was hanged in 1844.[44]
John Johnston (or Johnson)	United States	1843–?	300+	Mountain man called "Liver-Eating Johnson" and Dapiek Absaroka ("Crow Killer" in Apsáalooke). Moved to the Rocky Mountains with frontiersman John Hatcher in 1843; the two killed four Arapaho and Hatcher taught Johnson to scalp them. In 1847, his pregnant wife, a member of the Flathead Nation, was killed and scalped by Crow warriors. Johnson is said to have embarked then on a vendetta against the Crow Nation that lasted for years and during which he murdered, scalped and ate the livers of 300 Crow warriors, although Thrapp (1991) considers this number inflated and incompatible with the Crow population at the time.[78] Died of natural causes in 1900.[79]
Jonathan Balls	United Kingdom	1843–1846	2–5+	Believed to have poisoned his invalid wife, four grandchildren and possibly others. No crime investigation took place before Balls' own suicide by arsenic in 1846.[80]
Manuel Blanco Romasanta	Spain	1844–1852	9–14	"The Werewolf of Allariz." While on the run from his first murder (a constable killed over a debt), Romasanta assumed a new identity and offered his services as a mountain guide to women and children, whom he murdered, later selling their clothing (and according to rumor, also making soap made from their body fat). Following his arrest, he confessed to 13 murders, which he claimed were committed involuntarily during his transformation into a wolf as a result of a curse.[22] He was found guilty of nine and sentenced to die by garrote. This was changed to life in prison following a petition by doctors who wished to study him further. He died in jail in 1863.[81]
Edward Rulloff	United States	1844–1870	2–7	Called "The Genius Killer" and "The Man of Two Lives." Medical doctor and philologist who had a parallel career as an armed robber and con man. Tried for the murder of his wife and daughter in 1846, he was given ten years for kidnapping because neither body was ever found; he was arrested again in 1870 for the murder of a clerk during a robbery. Hanged in 1871.[82]
Sarah Chesham	United Kingdom	1845–1849	1–4	Poisoned her husband Richard with arsenic in 1849. She could only be convicted of attempted murder because it could not be proved if Richard had died from the poison or from tuberculosis. She had also been tried for three other arsenic poisonings which had occurred in 1845 but had been acquitted due to lack of evidence. Hanged in 1851.[83]
Hendrikje Doelen	Netherlands	1845–1846	3	Killed her husband, an old woman who was living with the couple, and her daughter with arsenic. Died in prison after 8 days of detention.
William Palmer	United Kingdom	1846?–1855	1–10	Gambling-addicted physician who poisoned friends and relatives with strychnine and ammonia, usually to collect life insurances or to keep money that the victims lent him; also suspected in the death of four of his newborns. Tried for one murder and hanged in 1856.[84]
Mary Ann Milner	United Kingdom	c. 1847	3	Poisoned her in-laws (father, mother, sister) and a niece with arsenic. The man survived but sustained brain damage. Killed herself in prison the day before her execution.[44]
Mary Ann Geering	United Kingdom	1848	4	Hanged in 1849 for the poisoning of her husband and three sons with arsenic.[85]
Juhani Aataminpoika	Grand Duchy of Finland	1849	12	Serial killer, who murdered 12 people in southern Finland between October and November in 1849, and he was also known by nickname "Kerpeikkari," which means 'executioner'. He was initially sentenced to death, but the sentence was changed by order of the Emperor to 40 lashes and life imprisonment in Suomenlinna. He has been characterized as the first serial killer in Finland.[86][87]
Antonio Boggia	Lombardy-Venetia	1849–1859	4	Called "The Monster of Milan" and "The Monster of Bagnera Street." Killed and dismembered three men and one woman with an axe, then feigned documents where the victims named him manager of their possessions in their absence. Before the discovery of the murders, he was briefly committed to a mental asylum for attacking a fourth man, who managed to escape. Hanged in 1862.[88]
Franklin B. Evans	United States	1850–1872	2–7	Pedophile and sadist; was convicted of one child murder, that of his niece Georgianna Lovering, confessed to another and was suspected in four more killings.[89][90] Reportedly claimed involvement in seven murders but only gave details of two.[91] Hanged.
Boone Helm	United States British Columbia	1851–1864	8–24+	Desperado active through western North America who killed several men in alcohol-induced fights or to rob them. Engaged in survival cannibalism at least once. Hanged.[92]
Mary Ann Cotton	United Kingdom	c. 1852–1873	21	Poisoned her husbands, lovers and children with arsenic. Hanged.[citation needed]
Ane Cathrine Andersdatter	Denmark	1853–1861	3	Murdered three of her children between 1853 and 1861. Executed in December 1861. Last woman to be beheaded in Denmark.[93]
Catherine Wilson	United Kingdom	1854[44]–1862	1–8	Nurse believed to have poisoned her husband and 7 patients with colchicum (plus a failed attempt, with sulphuric acid), but tried for only one. Last woman publicly hanged in London.[94]
Martin Dumollard	France	1855–1861	3–30+	Lured women to Lyon with promises of work and then killed them. Tried and guillotined in 1862. His wife, Marie-Anne Martinet, was found guilty of assisting him and sentenced to 20 years of hard labor in a women's prison.[95] She died in 1875.
Mary Jane Jackson	United States  Confederate States	c. 1855–1861	4	New Orleans prostitute nicknamed "Bricktop" for her red hair, she clubbed one man to death and stabbed three others. The last one was John Miller, her boyfriend and a former prison guard whom she met while in remand for the third murder (the charges for which would be dropped without trial). Imprisoned for Miller's murder, she was let go less than one year later when Union troops seized the city and military governor George Shepley emptied the prisons, and left New Orleans. Her ultimate fate is unknown.[96]
Johann Oberreiter	Austria	1855–1864	2–3	Former mayor of Werfen who poisoned his two disabled daughters in 1864 and was suspected of poisoning his first wife in 1855. Hanged in 1865.[97]
Malachi Martin	Australia	1856–1862	2–5	Convicted of the murder of Jane Macmanamin, held legally responsible for another murder, and suspected in the disappearance of two travellers and the alleged murder of an unidentified indigenous child. Hanged in 1862.[98]
Lydia Sherman	United States	1858[99]–1871	11	"The Derby Poisoner." Confessed to poisoning three husbands and seven children with arsenic.[100] Died in prison.
John Haley	Tasmania	1859–1861	4	Violent Scottish robber deported to Tasmania in 1850. Killed a man, two women and a child, using a club and an ax. Hanged.[50]
Sε□αkmän˙a[clarification needed]	British Columbia	c. 1860s	3+	Nuxalk hunter who lured others to their deaths and sold their goods to the Hudson's Bay Company. When asked why he murdered so continuously and so frequently, he claimed that "it was involuntary, his parents having smeared him with ashes from a wasp's nest when an infant." He is also said to have killed for favors. Nuxalk chief and clan officials executed him by shooting.[101]
Thomas D. Carr	United States	1860s–1869	1–15	Carr murdered a teenage girl named Louisa Fox in 1869, for which he was sentenced to death. Before his execution in 1870 he admitted to 14 other murders, although many of his statements were of dubious accuracy.[102][103]
Joseph Philippe	France	1862–1866	8	Stabbed seven prostitutes and one child in Paris. Guillotined.
Edward William Pritchard	United Kingdom	1863?–1865	2–3	Doctor who poisoned his wife and mother-in-law with antimony; also a suspect in the death of a maid who had officially died in a fire two years earlier. Hanged.[104]
The Bloody Espinosas	United States	1863	8[105]	Gang formed first by Neomexicano road bandit brothers Felipe Nerio and José Vivián Espinosa, and after José Vivián's death by Felipe Nerio and nephew José Vicente, who acted in Conejos County, Colorado. Following a skirmish with the U.S. Army, the Espinosas declared war on the United States and decided to kill as many Anglos as they could, until they were tracked and killed by adventurer Tom Tobin and soldiers of Fort Garland.[105]
José Ramos, Catarina Palse and Carlos Claussner	Empire of Brazil	1863–1864	9+	Ramos, his Hungarian wife Palse, and a German butcher Claussner robbed and murdered predominantly German immigrants in Porto Alegre, allegedly later selling their remains as sausage at a butcher shop.[106]
Anders Lindbäck	Sweden	1864	3	Swedish vicar who murdered three people in 1864. Arrested in March 1865 and committed suicide in prison eight months later.[107]
Dan Morgan	New South Wales Victoria	1864–1865	3	Violent bushranger who robbed railroad stations and shot hostages without necessity; one railroad worker and two police sergeants died. Shot dead in a standoff with Victoria police.[108]
Thomas and John Clarke	New South Wales	1861–1867	5	Violent bushranger brothers who robbed travelers and farms and shot and killed five police officers. Their activities led to the passing of the Felons Apprehension Act of 1866 that allowed citizens to kill bushrangers on sight. Hanged.[109]
Martha Grinder	United States	1865 and earlier	2–20	"The American Lucrezia Borgia." Hanged in 1866 for poisoning a tenant she had pretended to care for while he was sick, with no monetary gain. Also confessed, while awaiting execution, to have poisoned her maid, but denied any part in the deaths of other friends and relatives of which she was suspected.[110]
Joseph Eisele	United States	1867	3	German-born emigrant who murdered three people and attempted to kill a fourth over a seven-month period in 1867. Hanged in 1868.[111]
Joseph LaPage	Canada	1867–1875	2–4	Rapist, ephebophile and necrophile who murdered young women and girls and abused their corpses. Hanged in 1878.[112][113]
Matti Haapoja	Grand Duchy of Finland Russian Empire	1867–1894	3–10	Known to have killed 3 in Finland and suspected of 7 more murders, 5 of them in Siberia, to which he had been exiled in the 1880s. Also wounded 6 people. Killed himself in prison in 1895.[114][115]
Katarzyna Onyszkiewiczowa	Kingdom of Galicia and Lodomeria	1869–1870	3+	Known as the "Female Demon." Polish thief who murdered at least three people during robberies in Galicia between 1869 and 1870. Died in prison in 1895.[116][117]
Sher Ali Afridi	British Raj	1869–1872	3	Pashtun sowar deported to the Andaman and Nicobar Islands for murder, where he killed the visiting Viceroy of India, Lord Mayo. Hanged.[118]
Sofie Johannesdotter	Norway	1869–1874	3+	Poisoned at least three people between 1869 and 1874 in Fredrikshald (present-day Halden). Beheaded in February 1876. Last woman and penultimate person to be executed in Norway.[119][120]
"Wild" Bill Longley	United States	1869–1878	32	Racist gunfighter who claimed to have killed 32 people, most of whom were unarmed blacks and Mexicans. Hanged for the murder of a childhood friend.[121]
Margaret Waters	United Kingdom	1870 and earlier	19	Baby farmer who drugged and starved children in her care. Convicted of one murder and hanged.[122]
Vincenzo Verzeni	Italy	1870–1871	2	Strangled women until he orgasmed, never penetrating his victims. If they were still alive, he let them go. The two who died were mutilated, and Verzeni drank blood from one after biting her in the thigh. Sentenced to life in prison in 1872,[17][123][124] served as house arrest from c. 1900. Died of natural causes on New Year's Eve 1918.[125]
Juan Díaz de Garayo	Spain	1870–1879	6	Known as El Sacamantecas ("The Fat Extractor"). Strangled women after having sex with them—first willingly, then by force. Garroted in 1881.[126]
La Bande de la Taille ("The Carving Gang")	France	1871	8	13 Italian immigrants (9 men, 4 women) who robbed and killed people with clubs and cleavers in Provence, often for little actual profit. The leader, Joseph Fontana, died of tuberculosis before trial. The two most violent members, Antoine Galetto (grandson of serial killer Giorgio Orsolano) and Louis Garbarino, were guillotined in 1872. Others were imprisoned and, in some cases, sentenced to forced labor.[127]
Jesse Pomeroy	United States	1871–1874	2	Called "The Boy Fiend" and "The Inhuman Scamp." Beginning at age 12, he lured younger children and tortured them for his sexual pleasure, killing two. Youngest person sentenced to death by the state of Massachusetts, later changed to life in prison under solitary confinement which was only lifted in 1917. Died in prison in 1932 of natural causes.[128]
Eusebius Pieydagnelle [de]	France	1872 and earlier	6–7	Claimed to have a sexual obsession with blood, having orgasms at the sight and smell of it. His victims were extremely mutilated.[17][129]
The Bloody Benders	United States	1872–1873	10–12[44]	Family of four who owned an inn and small general store in Labette County in southeastern Kansas from 1871 to 1873. They murdered around 11 clients, using a mallet and a knife to rob them.[44] They fled when their crimes were discovered.[130] Their fate is unknown, although two members of the posse that found the bodies made deathbed confessions decades later where they claimed to have tracked down and murdered the family.[44]
Baptistine Philip	France	1871–1878	3	Fatally poisoned her employer, uncle-in-law, and husband with arsenic for monetary gain. Sentenced to life in prison in 1879.[131]
Thomas W. Piper	United States	1873–1875	7[17]	The "Boston Belfry Murderer." Church bellringer who battered, strangled and sometimes raped girls, the youngest being 5. Hanged in 1876.
John Hawthorne	New South Wales	1874 and earlier	4+	Murdered a minimum of four people during robberies. Executed in 1874.[132]
Stephen D. Richards	United States	1876–1878	6–9+	"The Nebraska Fiend." Confessed to killing two men, one woman and her three children, in all cases but one to rob the victims. Hanged in 1879.[133][134]
Robert Francis Burns	Australia	1877–1881	8	Burns was hanged in 1883 for the murder of co-worker Michael Quinlivan. Just before his execution he admitted that he had in fact committed eight murders during his lifetime, although he gave no further details. Seven of these victims, including Quinlivan, were subsequently identified.[135]
Bochum Serial Sex Murderer	German Empire	1878–1882	8	Raped, strangled and mutilated women walking or working alone in the country. Wilhelm Schiff was found guilty of three murders and beheaded in January 1882, but the crimes continued until May of that year. Moral panic over the serial killings contributed to the full restoration of capital punishment in the German states by 1885, after a hiatus of ten to fifteen years.[136]
Victor Prévost	France	1867–1879	2–4	Former butcher and policeman known as "The Butcher of the Chapel." Was charged with the murders of two people, with an additional two other murders suspected. Killed his victims for profit via blunt force trauma before disemboweling them. Later executed via guillotine on 19 January 1880.[137]
Swift Runner	Canada	1879	9	Known as "Swift Runner," he was Cree and executed in December 1879 in what is now the Canadian province of Alberta after the murder and cannibalizations of his wife, six children, mother and brother. He believed he was a Wendigo, a creature from North American folk lore.[138]
Thomas Neill Cream	Canada United States United Kingdom	1879–1892	5–8	Doctor known as "The Lambeth Poisoner." Poisoned one man and several women with chloroform and strychnine, attempting to frame and then blackmail other men for the murders in some cases. Allegedly confessed to be Jack the Ripper before his execution by hanging in 1892, although he was in prison at the time of the Ripper murders.[139]
Amelia Dyer	United Kingdom	1879–1896	6–400+	Baby farmer who strangled the babies in her care. Hanged.[140]
Alexe Popova	Russia	1879–1909	300	Samara poisoner for hire who was employed by women in unhappy marriages. After her arrest she confessed to have poisoned some 300 men in a 30-year period, but was adamant that she had never killed a woman. Executed by firing squad in Saint Petersburg.[141]
Catherine Flannagan and Margaret Higgins	United Kingdom	1880–1883	4–8[44]	"The Black Widows of Liverpool." Killed at least 4 people by poisoning in order to obtain insurance money. Hanged in 1884.[142]
Maria Swanenburg	Netherlands	1880–1883	27–90+	Killed at least 27 people by poisoning with arsenic, suspected of over 90 deaths. She murdered for the victims' insurance or inheritance. Sentenced to life in prison, she died in 1915.[143]
Robert Butler	New Zealand Australia	1880–1905	1–4	Irish-born burglar and highwayman. Arrested in 1880 for the murder-robbery of a family of three in Dunedin, but acquitted because all evidence was circumstantial. Hanged years later in Queensland for shooting a man.[144]
Francisco Guerrero	Mexico	1880–1908[145][146]	21	Known as El Chalequero ("The Vests Man"). An open misogynist, between 1880 and 1888 he raped and killed 20 women in Mexico City, often claimed to be prostitutes, strangling them or cutting their throats, in some cases also decapitating them. He then threw their bodies in the Consulado river. Tried for one murder and another attempt, his initial death sentence was changed to 20 years in prison and was indulted in 1904. In 1908, he raped and murdered an old woman and was again given the death penalty, but died in prison of natural causes before he could be executed. Guerrero predates Jack the Ripper by eight years.
Sarah Jane Robinson	United States	1881–1886	8–11	Irish-American woman who poisoned members of her family and two other people. Died in prison in 1906 while serving a life sentence.[147]
West Ham Child Killer	United Kingdom	1881–1890	4	Responsible for the "West Ham Vanishings" in which four young girls were abducted and presumed murdered in similar circumstances in the West Ham area. The bodies of two victims, Clara Sutton and Amelia Jeffs, were recovered. The perpetrator was never identified.[148]
Sadakichi Shimizu	Empire of Japan	1882–1886	6	Active during the Meiji era, Shimizu was the first documented Japanese serial killer. He robbed and murdered six people with a pistol in Tokyo.[149]
Émile Dubois	France Bolivia Chile	1882–1905	6	French criminal and murderer who killed six people in three different countries. He was captured in 1905 and, after a trial, found guilty of the murders committed in Chile and executed by four riflemen on 26 March 1907.[150]
Hugo Schenk	Austria	1883	4–6	Schenk and accomplice Karl Schlossarek were hanged for four counts of murder in 1884. They would lure housemaids into isolated areas and rob and rape them before weighting them down rivers or gorges with stones.[151]
Servant Girl Annihilator	United States	1884–1885	8	Unidentified killer, also nicknamed "The Austin Axe Murderer." Abducted women from their bedrooms at night, raped and killed them, hitting them with an axe or stabbing them with a knife or other iron implement, always in the head. Two husbands sleeping with their wives were dispatched first with a single strike from an axe (one died) but children, when present, were usually not harmed. The first five women targeted were black servants sleeping in cabins; the last two, white women in houses.[152] Some sources name Nathan Elgin (1866–1886), an African-American cook shot by police while he was assaulting a girl, as the likely culprit.[153][154]
Martha Needle	Victoria South Australia	1885–1894	5	Poisoned her husband and three children, and her new fiancé's two brothers (one of whom survived) with arsenic. Hanged.[155]
Jane Toppan	United States	1885–1901	31	Nurse who confessed to poisoning 31 people in her care and lying in bed with them as they died for her own sexual gratification. Found not guilty by reason of insanity and committed to a mental hospital in which she remained for the rest of her life.[156]
Minnie Wallace Walkup	United States	1885–1914?	1–3	Acquitted after a very unusual trial of poisoning her much-older husband with strychnine and arsenic, only one month after marrying him, when she was 16. Another husband and a boyfriend would die decades later under suspicious circumstances. Died of natural causes in 1957.[157]
Mary Ann Britland	United Kingdom	1886	3	She murdered her daughter, her husband, and the wife of her lover with mouse poison, and was hanged for her crimes.[158]
Thames Torso Murderer	United Kingdom	1887–1889	4	Unidentified killer who left the dismembered remains of victims in or near the Thames River.
The Kelly Family	United States	1887	11+	The Kelly Family was a family of serial killers who operated near a Kansas town called Oak City between August and December 1887. The family consisted of William Kelly (55); his wife Kate; his son Bill, also called 'Billy' (20) and daughter, Kit (18). Originally from Pennsylvania, the family is believed to have murdered 11 wealthy travelers, akin to the Bloody Benders a decade earlier. Killed by vigilantes.[159]
Guadalupe Martínez de Bejarano	Mexico	1887–1892[146][160]	3	Tortured three servant girls until they died of starvation. Died in prison.
Sarah Whiteling	United States	1888	3	German-born poisoner who murdered her husband and two children in the span of three months. Executed in 1889.[161]
Pál Gyömbér	Kingdom of Hungary	1888	5	Murdered five people and attempted to murder three others in the Great Hungarian Plain during robberies for the purpose of impressing a woman he was courting with his new riches.[162]
Albert Smidt	New South Wales	1888–1890	3+	A German immigrant who murdered at least three travelling companions from 1888 to 1890 before execution in 1890. Also known as "The Wagga Murderer."[163]
Jack the Ripper	United Kingdom	1888–1891?	5–11	Unidentified killer who stabbed at least five prostitutes and mutilated four in the Whitechapel and Spitalfields districts of London.[164] Several suspects have been named over the years.
Johann Otto Hoch	United States Austria-Hungary (alleged) France (alleged) United Kingdom (alleged)	1888?–1905	1–50+	German con man who married women under false identities, swindled and poisoned them with arsenic. Hanged in 1906 for one murder, but suspected to have committed between 15 and 55.[165]
The Managua Ripper	Nicaragua	1889	6	Also called "The Managua Killer." Unidentified killer who murdered and mutilated prostitutes in the periphery of Managua. In 2005, Trevor Marriott proposed that the Managua Killer and Jack the Ripper were one and the same, a merchant sailor that worked on the route between Britain and the Caribbean.[166][167]
Minnie Dean	New Zealand	1889?–1895	3+	Baby farmer hanged for the murder of three infants that were found buried in her property.[168] Only woman executed in the History of New Zealand.
Andrés Aldije Monmejá and José Muñoz Lopera	Spain	1889–1904	6	Monmejá (a native of Agen, France) and Lopera opened an illegal gambling house and murdered six visitors between 1889 and 1904. Both executed by garrote on October 31, 1906.[169]
Tadeo Mejía	Mexico	1890s–1900s	Unknown	After the death of his wife, Mejía consulted a witch, who instructed him to murder for the purpose of human sacrifice. Human bones were found in his basement, although the exact number of his victims remains unknown.[170]
Baba Anujka	Kingdom of Yugoslavia	1890s–1928	150	Anujka was an accomplished amateur chemist from the village of Vladimirovac, Yugoslavia (modern day Serbia). She poisoned at least 50 people and possibly as many as 150 in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Was sentenced to 15 years in prison in 1929 but released after eight years due to old age.[171]
Marianna Skublińska	Russia	1890 and earlier	50-75	A Russian baby farmer who was arrested after a fire at her nursery was extinguished, revealing the dead bodies of at least 50 babies concealed at various points around the house. Police suspected her of having disposed of up to 75 babies. She could not be convicted due to lack of evidence, but was sentenced to penal servitude for allegedly burning the house down for insurance.[172]
Gustav Müller	Netherlands	1890–1897	2–18+	Bigamist who surrendered himself to police and confessed to the murders of his son, numerous wives, and parents. Only two murders (those of his son and most recent wife) were proven. Declared insane and sent to a mental institution, where he presumably later died.[173]
H. H. Holmes	United States Canada	1891[174]–1894	1–9	Holmes was convicted and sentenced to death for the murder of his accomplice and business partner Benjamin Pitezel. It is believed he killed three of the Pitezel children, as well as 3 mistresses, the child of one of the said mistresses and the sister of another.
Franz and Rosalie Schneider	Austria	1891	3–6	Married couple who lured women, robbed them and then sexually assaulted or murdered them. They were convicted of three murders but evidence suggests a total of six victims.[175]
Frederick Bailey Deeming	United Kingdom Victoria	1891	6	Killed his wife and four children (cutting their throats, except one daughter that was strangled) and buried their bodies in concrete under a rented house in Rainhill, England. He then fled with his mistress to Windsor, Victoria, where he bludgeoned her and cut her throat, and also buried the body in concrete in another rented house. The discovery of the last body led to his arrest and the uncovering of the ones in Rainhill, attracting the attention of the international press, which considered him the possible identity of Jack the Ripper. Hanged in 1892.[176]
John and Sarah Makin	New South Wales	1892 and earlier[177]	12–13	Baby farmers who murdered infants in their care. John was hanged in 1893 but Sarah's death sentence was commuted to life imprisonment and hard labor. She was paroled in 1911 and died seven years later of natural causes.
Lizzie Halliday	United States Ireland (alleged)	1893?–1906	5–8	"The Worst Woman on Earth." Acquitted of killing her stepson by burning down their New York family home in 1893. After her husband disappeared the following year, a search of their farm found the bodies of two women in the hayloft who had been shot to death; the husband's mutilated body was found under the floorboards of the house a few days later. Halliday was convicted of the murders, becoming the first woman sentenced to die in the electric chair, but her sentence was later commuted to being interned in an asylum after she was found to be insane. In 1906, she killed an asylum's nurse with a pair of scissors. Another stepson claimed that Halliday had confided to him that she had murdered a previous husband in Belfast, but had concealed the crime successfully.[178][179] Died in 1918.
Louise Vermilya	United States	1893–1911	9	Believed to have poisoned seven relatives and two boarders with arsenic in Chicago for economic gain. May have attempted suicide with arsenic while in home arrest in 1911,[180] if so she survived and saw all charges dismissed in 1915.[181]
Frances Knorr	Victoria	c. 1894	2	Baby farmer hanged for the murder of two babies that were found buried in her property.[182]
Harry T. Hayward	United States	1894 and earlier	1–4	"The Minneapolis Svengali." Gambler and serial arsonist who confessed to three other unreported murders after being found guilty of one. Hanged in 1895.[183]
Marie-Thérèse Joniaux	Belgium	1894–1895	3	Fatally poisoned her brother, sister, and uncle-by-marriage. Sentenced to death; later commuted to life imprisonment. Died in 1923.[184]
Diogo Figueira da Rocha	Brazil	1894–1897	50+	Brazilian career criminal and serial killer acting within São Paulo at the end of the 19th century. He is supposedly responsible for more than 50 murders between 1894 and 1897. Tucked away in the far west of the state, he was hunted down by government task forces and was pronounced dead in 1897 after a shootout with the authorities on the banks of the Mojiguaçu River. The corpse, however, has never been recovered.
Joseph Vacher	France	1894–1897	11–27+	Mentally ill vagrant known as "The French Ripper" and the "Ripper of the South-East," although he was also active in central and northern France. Raped, stabbed and disembowelled women, teenage boys and girls who worked alone in the countryside. Guillotined in 1898.
Schultz (given name unknown)	German Empire German Republic	1894–1920	11	Random slayer active in Spandau. Victims included his two brothers-in-law.[185]
Theodore Durrant	United States	1895	2	"The Demon of the Belfry." San Francisco sunday school teacher who raped and strangled two women who rebuffed his romantic advances, then abandoned their bodies in the church's library and bell chamber. Took part in the search for the first victim and suggested that she had been kidnapped and taken out of town. Hanged in 1898.[186]
Cayetano Domingo Grossi	Argentina	1896–1898	5	The first known serial killer in Argentine history. Italian immigrant who murdered five of his own neonatal children, who had been born as the result of his rape of his two stepdaughters. Executed by firing squad in Buenos Aires, in 1900.
New York Strangler	United States	1896–1898	3–5	Possible serial killer who robbed and strangled up to six women in New York City (one survived, but could not identify her attacker). Most victims were attacked in their own flats and three had a sailor's knot tied around their neck.[187] Sailor John Brown was accused of one murder in 1898 but was acquitted when the prosecution's main witness did not appear before court.[188]
Belle Gunness	United States	1896?–1908?	21–42+	Murderer for profit who killed her relatives, employees and several suitors that she contacted through lonely hearts ads in Norwegian language newspapers of the Midwest, dismembering and burying most under a chicken coop in La Porte, Indiana. The 1900 strychnine poisoning of Gunness' first husband is often reported as her first murder, but the deaths of two of her children in 1896 and 1898 (who were insured) manifested similar symptoms. Reported dead, along with her three remaining children, in a fire that destroyed her farmhouse in 1908, even though the children's bodies contained strychnine and the woman's body found next to them was decapitated and smaller than Gunness'. Several people claimed to see her alive in the following years.[189]
Edward Walton	United States	1896–1908	5	Confessed the murders of two men and three women in five different states, including his common-law wife. Hanged at Moundsville Penitentiary in West Virginia on July 17, 1908.[190][191]
George Chapman	United Kingdom	1897–1902	3	Poisoned three of his mistresses with tartar emetic. Suspected at the time of his execution by hanging in 1903 to be the real identity of Jack the Ripper.[192]
Shige Sakakura	Empire of Japan	1898–1913	200–300+	Baby farmer from Hioki Wakasa (present-day Nagoya) who murdered hundreds of infants with two accomplices. Sentenced to death and hanged in September 1915.[193]

Unconfirmed serial killers[edit]

The existence of the following serial killers is dubious or contradicts the accepted historical record:

Name	Country	Time Period	Notes
Poison ring	Roman Republic	331 BC	According to Livy, there is a story that several Roman men died in what was believed to be a plague, until a servant woman revealed that they had been poisoned by a conspiracy of matrons. According to this story, twenty patrician women arrested admitted to preparing concoctions but claimed that they were medicinal; when they drank it themselves to prove it, (at their own suggestion), they died immediately. The story states that a total of 170 matrons were arrested. Livy says that "their act was regarded as a prodigy, and suggested madness rather than felonious intent."[194]
John Jarman and his wife	England	12th to 14th century	"The Jarmans of Colnbrook." Claimed to have murdered between 13 and 60 people at the Ostrich Inn of Colnbrook, in the Middle Ages. Though the building is real (and still stands), it only dates to the 1500s, and the most famous description of the killers modus - involving a trapdoor in a bedroom that opened to a boiling pot in the kitchens beneath - is first described in a fiction work, Thomas Deloney's Thomas of Reading (1602).[195]
Andrew Christie	Scotland	1320–1339	Called "Christie-Cleek." Purported Perth butcher turned road bandit, murderer and cannibal during a severe famine.[196]
Bernabe Cabard and Pierre Miquelon	France	1410–1415	Barber and baker duo said to have murdered, robbed and butchered 143 men in Paris; Cabard, the barber, slashed the throats of his clients while shaving them and threw their bodies in a subterranean gallery through a trapdoor, where Miquelon took their meat to make pies.[197] Claimed sometimes to be the historical inspiration of Sweeney Todd and his ally Mrs. Lovett, but there is no record of them before Charles Dupressoir's Drames Judiciaires (1849), published three years after Todd's introduction in The String of Pearls. Mary Elliott's The Tell Tale (1824) details a similar story about a Parisian barber and wig-maker executed during the reign of Napoleon I, but they are not mentioned in the works of Joseph Fouché, the Paris police chief at the time.[198]
Christman Genipperteinga	Holy Roman Empire	1568–1581	Claimed German bandit who was executed for 964 murders, according to a 1581 pamphlet. Possibly inspired by real bandit Peter Niers, who confessed under torture to 544 deaths and was executed in the same year, although similar characters appear in German fairy tales and folk songs from before that time.[199]
Sawney Bean's clan	Scotland	1575–1600	Claimed cannibal family that robbed, killed and ate travellers in a cave of Bennane Head, until their manhunt and execution by James VI. Contemporary documents make no reference to the hundreds of disappearances and murders said to have been carried by Bean's clan, which was probably inspired by the earlier legend of Christie-Cleek.[200]
Simeon Fleischer	Holy Roman Empire	1581 and before	Supposedly married and murdered women in order to steal their money. Confessed under torture to 19 murders before being executed by being torn apart with red-hot pincers over a three-day period. The only account of the case comes from an unsigned pamphlet of dubious historicity which relates the life of Fleischer and fellow medieval serial killers Christman Genipperteinga and Peter Niers.
Juan Manuel de Solorzano, Count of La Torre Cosío and La Cortina	New Spain	1640–1641	Legendary criollo nobleman under the rule of Viceroy Marquis of Cadereyta, said to have murdered several men after mistaking them for a political enemy that had also seduced his wife,[201][202] and that later killed himself during his forced reclusion in a convent.[203] His attributed residence in Mexico City was not built until more than a century after his supposed death in 1641.
Lavinia Fisher	United States	1819 and before	Urban legends state that Fisher was the first female serial killer in the United States. She is supposed to have run an inn with her husband John where travellers were convinced to stay the night and then murdered while they slept in order to rob them. No evidence that such murders actually took place has been found; the legend of John and Lavinia Fisher appears to have been inspired by two highway robbers of that name who were hanged in 1820 for leading a gang which assaulted and robbed guests at their inn, but did not murder them.[204]
Annie Palmer	Jamaica	1827–1831	Legendary figure who supposedly poisoned three husbands and a number of lovers and tortured slaves to death for sexual pleasure before being killed in a slave uprising in 1831. The story was recorded as historical fact by some writers, but modern research has proved it to be a complete fiction.[205]
Don Vincente	Spain	1834–1836	Bibliomaniac ex-monk and librarian said to have killed ten men in Barcelona in order to steal unique books and add them to his collection, sentenced for his crimes to die by garrote. The story, first published as an anonymous article in an 1836 Parisian newspaper, was reprinted as a true story in France for a century, while remaining largely unknown in Spain.[206]
Swiatek	Austrian Galicia	1846–1849	According to a book by Sabine Baring-Gould, Swiatek was a homeless beggar who murdered and cannibalized a 14-year-old girl in 1849. After his arrest he admitted to killing and eating five other people, and evidence was found linking him to at least 14 murders. Committed suicide before trial.[207]
Polly Bartlett	United States	1868	Co-proprietor of "Bartlett's Inn," which was a scam she ran with her father Jim to lure Businessman and other white, male travelers with valuables, most often gold. They were seduced by Polly into sex, who fed them steaks and whiskey laced with arsenic to kill them, before their valuables were lifted from their person. The father of one victim called the police to the site, who found the bodies buried in the stables after the Bartletts fled. An attempted victim shot Jim and arrested Polly, who was shot and killed in her prison cell by one of the father's employees, who was never charged.[208] The story originated in a 1963 article in Real West magazine and is now generally considered to be a folk tale rather than actual history.[209]
Matthias Schambacher (or Schaumboch)	United States	1850–1879	Tavern owner in the Blue Mountains who local legend claims was long suspected of murdering some of his guests for their money. Allegedly confessed to at least 11 murders before dying from natural causes in 1879. No record of such crimes can be found from before 1938, when Maurice Broun compiled local legends about Schambacher while serving as curator of Hawk Mountain Sanctuary.[210]
Agnus McVee, Jim McVee and Al Riley	Canada	1875–1885	Family claimed to have owned a hotel and store on the Cariboo Road of British Columbia during the Cariboo Gold Rush, where they killed miners for their gold and kidnapped women and forced into sex trafficking against their will until their arrest and death in prison in New Westminster. The story comes from a single source and there are no records of disappearances in the area at the time of the murders nor existing death certificates of the supposed serial killers apprehended.[211]

See also[edit]

• List of serial killers by country
• List of serial killers by number of victims

References[edit]