When it comes to true crime, we all know about Ted Bundy, Jeffrey Dahmer and Ed Gein. However, there are plenty of noteworthy and terrifying killers who you may not have heard of. We’ve collected some of the most horrifying serial killers we bet you’ve never heard of in the gallery below, take a peek and let us know your thoughts on these shocking true crimes in the comments section on social media.
Israel Keyes
Keyes was born on January 7th, 1978 in Richmond, Utah. He grew up in a one-room cabin without electricity and running water and became involved in a white supremacist church at an early age. As an adult, Keyes lived on the Makah Reservation in Washington and began his killing spree in 1996. Keyes targeted individuals across the United States, primarily on camp grounds and other isolated areas. His killing spree ended when he was captured in 2012 and the FBI believes that he had at least 11 victims. Keyes committed suicide in December 2012 while awaiting trial for one of his murders.
Jerome Brudos
Jerome “Jerry” Brudos was born on January 31st, 1939 in Webster, South Dakota. As a child, Brudos developed a fetish for women’s shoes after finding a stiletto in a junkyard. As an adolescent, Brudos began stalking, attacking and stealing the shoes of women in the area. Between 1968 and 1969, Brudos committed the murders of four women, whom he strangled and bludgeoned. He kept the shoes, undergarments and bodies of his victims in his garage, despite being married at the time. Brudos pled guilty to the first three murders in 1969 and was sentenced to three consecutive life sentences. While incarcerated, Brudos collected women’s shoe catalogues and he died in 2006 of liver cancer, serving 37 years in prison.
Rodney Alcala
Rodney Alcala was born Rodrigo Jacques Alcala Buquor on August 23rd, 1943 in San Antonio, Texas. His first known crime occurred in 1968, when he lured an 8-year-old girl into his apartment in Los Angeles, assaulting and beating her with a steel bar. Alcala fled the police, escaping to New York, where he attended film school. He’d go on, several decades later, to admit to committing two homicides while in NYC between 1971 and 1977. Alcala wound up returning to Los Angeles and committed five known murders between 1977 and 1979. During that time, he convinced hundreds of men and women that he was a famous fashion photographer, taking hundreds of sexually explicit photographs. He’s also recognized for appearing on the popular game show “The Dating Game” during his killing spree in 1977, winning a date with the episode’s bachelorette. Alcala was arrested in 1979 after being found with the possessions of a 12-year-old girl in Huntington Beach—who’d disappeared and her body was found 12 days later. In 1980, Alcala was tried, convicted and sentenced to death. The verdict was overturned after the jury was improperly informed of his prior sex crimes, however, he was retried, convicted and sentenced to death in 1986. Alcala died while incarcerated in 2021 of unspecified natural causes.
Bobby Joe Long
Bobby Joe Long was born on October 14th, 1953 in Kenova, West Virginia. He had a dysfunctional relationship with his mother and became known as the Classified Ad Rapist throughout Florida, committing at least 50 rapes. Long committed his first murder in 1984, raping and strangling at 20-year-old woman in Tampa. Over the next eight months, Long went on to murder at least 10 more women throughout the Tampa Bay Area. Half of Long’s victims were sex workers and two worked as exotic dancers. One of his victims, a then 17-year-old Lisa McVey, escaped and he was arrested in 1984 for sexual battery and kidnapping. During an interrogation, Long confessed to committing nine murders and the FBI was able to link his car to most of the crimes. Long pled guilty to eight homicides and the abduction and rape of McVey in 1985, earning 26 life sentence without the possibility of parole and in 1986 was given the death penalty. Long was executed in 2019 via lethal injection, consuming roast beef, bacon, french fries and a soda as his last meal.
Peter Kürten
Peter Kürten was born on May 26th, 1883 in Mülheim, Germany. He grew up in an impoverished and abusive family, with Kürten abusing animals from an early age and claimed to have committed his first murder at the age of nine. His first confirmed murder was committed in 1913 during a burglary. Between February and November of 1929, Kürten committed a series of sexual assaults and murders in the city of Düsseldorf. He was labeled in the press as the Vampire of Düsseldorf and over 9,000 individuals were investigated for the killings. Kürten confessed his crimes to his wife, who reported them to the police. Kürten was arrested at gunpoint, later admitting to nine murders and 31 attempted murders. His trial began in 1931 and was sentenced to death on nine counts of murder. He was later executed via guillotine and his brain was removed for forensic analysis.
Richard Chase
Richard Chase was born on May 23rd, 1950 in Sacramento, California. He showed signs of violent psychopathy as a child, began using drugs in his teenage years and developed serious hypochondria. As an adult, Chase began killing and consuming various animals, believing that consuming these animals kept his heart from shrinking. He had several stints in mental institutions throughout his early adulthood, causing alarm after attempting to inject himself with rabbit’s blood, drinking the blood of birds and extracting blood from therapy dogs. He was later released into his mother’s custody and in 1977 he committed his first murder in a drive-by shooting. He went on to commit five more murders throughout 1977 and 1978, earning the nickname The Vampire of Sacramento as he drank the blood of his victims. He stood trial in 1979 and was found guilty of six counts of murder. He was sentenced to die in the gas chamber, however, he was found dead by apparent suicide from an overdose of prescription pills in his prison cell in 1980.
