Cool Top 10

The fabric of society in which we all live in and contribute in our own ways for development and progress is as fragile as paper. For times immemorial, there have been criminals, hard core outlaws that have repeatedly torn this fabric with their gruesome, heinous and outright ungodly acts of murder, mayhem and every other thing that, would surely condemn these soulless individuals to the darkest pits of Hell!

Serial killers is one specific breed of mentally deranged individuals who get a kick by putting others in god awful pain and then take their lives to fulfill their own sadistic desires. So, to tell you more about these creatures of the underworld, here is our pick of the ten of the most gruesome and inhumane serial killers this world has ever seen:

• Zodiac Killer: At the top of our list is the infamous Zodiac killer, that had brought the region of Northern California to the brink of paranoid in the 1960s and had gripped every resident into a fist of panic and insecurity. The Zodiac killer has been attributed with 5 kills and 2 injuries, but the individual claimed to have killed more than 37 people. Till date, the identity of the Zodiac killer has not been ascertained and authorities still have open case files of the Zodiac murders from 1969. The Zodiac killer used to taunt the police authorities by sending in ciphered letters, three of which after nearly 40 years are yet to be decoded.

• Freeway Phantom: During the 1971-1972 time line, Washington D.C became witness to one of the most gruesome serial rapes and murders, perpetrated by the so called, ‘Freeway Phantom’. This individual was known to target African-American women, then rape and kill them, while dumping the body near the sides of freeways. The identity of the Freeway Phantom was never ascertained, but he has been known to have killed at least six female youths.

• Phantom Killer: Known as the perpetrator of the Texarkana Moonlight Murders in the year 1946, the Phantom Killer is known to have claimed five lives and attacked three individuals. As per the description provided two of his surviving victims, the Phantom Killer used to wear a white mask and was about six foot tall. The killer operated in the Texarkana region in the U.S and till date his identity is a big mystery to the authorities. The Moonlight Murders have in fact been designated as a cold case by authorities.

• Beverley Allitt:  Also known as the “Angel of Death”, Beverley Allitt has been known to have killed four children and injured five other at the Grantham and Kesteven Hospital in the U.K. As one of the most heinous acts of inhumanity, Allit used potassium chloride and insulin to poison the innocent children. Allit was later apprehended by the police after the medical staff became suspicious of the number of cardiac arrests in the children’s ward and that too under the care of Beverley Allit. She was found guilt of murder and grievous bodily harm and was sentenced to 13 continuous life imprisonment sentences on May 28th, 1993.

• Thomas Neill Cream: Active throughout the timeline from 1881 to 1892, Dr. Thomas Neill Cream was also known as the ‘Lambeth Poisoner’ and his preferred weapon for his killing spree was poison. Cream was apprehended by the police after a string of murders, that he conveniently placed on other people’s shoulders. He is attributed with the killing of 5 individuals and his work expanded from the U.S, to England and even covered parts of Canada and Scotland. As per rumours, as the time of his execution, Cream even went to the limits of announcing himself as the infamous, ‘Jack The Ripper’. Even though the Ripper murders were committed at a time, when Cream was in imprisonment.

• Richard Chase: Suffering from a delirious illusion, Richard Chase of Sacramento, California set out on a killing spree during 1977-1978. Also known as ‘The Vampire of Sacramento’, Chase killed six people in a just one month and in an indignant disregard to the dead, he practically consumed the blood and body parts of his victims. Chase strongly believed that, by cannibalizing his victims, he would be able get rid of the poison planted by the Nazis beneath his soap dish. Richard Chase was later sentenced to death in a gas chamber in the year 1979, after the court rejected his appeal of insanity.

• Ronald Dominique: This one gives me Goosebumps every time I read about this guy. Ronald Dominique, was accused of raping and killing a whopping 23 male victims in a span of ten years in the U.S. After being apprehended, Dominique confessed to being a homosexual and hence he used to visit gay bars and then sought those men, whom he thought could indulge in gay activities for money. He was later charged with multiple cases of rape and first-degree murder and was subsequently sentenced to eight consecutive life sentences.

• Nannie Doss: Another woman who went on a killing spree, claiming the life of eleven people and in the process acquiring the nickname, ‘The Jolly Black Widow’. Nannies Doss, whose real name is Nancy Hazie was accused and found guilty of killing eleven people between 1927-1954. Her long list of victims include her four deceased husbands, two children, her two sisters, her mother, a grandson and a nephew. Even with eleven killings, she was only charged with the murder of her fifth husband, Samuel Doss and was sentenced to life imprisonment. She later died in 1965 of leukemia.

• Robert Maudsley: Widely known as ‘Hannibal the Cannibal’, Robert Maudsley became notorious for his infamous triple murders inside a prison in U.K where he was serving his sentence for another murder. Maudsley, after killing a fellow prisoner, went to the lengths of consuming his brain matter and thus earned the grizzly moniker. After brutally murdering three sex offenders, the British finally placed him in solitary confinement, where till this date, Maudsley, isn’t allowed any interaction with other inmates of the prison.

• Ted Bundy: At last our tenth most notorious serial killer is, Ted Bundy. This legendary individual is believed to have committed an unbelievable 100 murders and has also known to have engaged in perverted sexual acts. A most disturbing trait of Bundy was his sexual attraction towards the dead. After his apprehension, Ted Bundy did confess to over 30 murders, but the rest 70 are also attributed to his doings due to various convincing factors. Bundy carried out his killing spree from 1974 – 1978 and was later executed via an electric chair by the State of Florida in the year 1989.