Serial Killings

For years, a savage murderer called the “Torso Killer” dribbled out confessions to a New Jersey detective. More

April 28, 2021

Police Commissioner Geraldine Hart says they believe 'the belt was handled by the suspect and did not belong to any of the victims.' More

March 25, 2021

CLEVELAND, Ohio (Scripps News Cleveland) — It is one of the darkest chapters in Cleveland’s history. From 1934 to 1938, a serial killer stalked the town, claiming at least a dozen victims. The killer, known as both the “Mad Butcher of Kingsbury Run” and the “Torso Murderer,” for the way he dismembered his many victims […] More

March 23, 2021

SEATTLE (AP) — Genetic genealogy helped identify the youngest known victim of one of the nation’s most prolific serial killers almost 37 years after her remains were discovered near a baseball field south of Seattle. Wendy Stephens was 14 and had run away from her home in Denver before Gary Ridgway, the Green River Killer, […] More

January 26, 2021

By MARI YAMAGUCHI Associated Press TOKYO (AP) — A Japanese court on Tuesday sentenced a man to death for killing and dismembering nine people, most of whom had posted suicidal thoughts on social media, in a case that shocked the country. The Tachikawa branch of the Tokyo District Court found Takahiro Shiraishi, known as the […] More

December 15, 2020

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — The California Supreme Court on Monday upheld the death sentence for a man convicted of raping and strangling 10 women in Los Angeles. However, the court reversed his conviction for the death of one victim’s fetus. Chester Dewayne Turner, a 54-year-old one-time pizza deliveryman, was convicted in 2007 of first-degree murder […] More

December 1, 2020

By DANICA KIRKA Associated Press LONDON (AP) — The British serial killer known as the “Yorkshire Ripper” died Friday, reviving unsettling memories of a killing spree that bred fear across northern England in the late 1970s. He was 74. Peter Sutcliffe was serving a life sentence for the killings of 13 women in Yorkshire and […] More

November 13, 2020

By DON THOMPSON Associated Press UPDATED 8/21/20  SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — A former California police officer who became known as the Golden State Killer told victims Friday he was “truly sorry” before he was sentenced to life imprisonment for a decade-long string of rapes and murders across a wide swath of California. Sacramento County Superior […] More

August 21, 2020

By DON THOMPSON Associated Press SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — Since death row isn’t an option for serial killer and rapist Joseph DeAngelo, his victims want him sent to the toughest possible prison in California to live in daily terror of other inmates.   But they may not have much say over where or how the […] More

August 20, 2020

By DON THOMPSON Associated Press SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — Joseph DeAngelo’s victims are reveling in their chance to finally confront him in a courtroom, four decades after he committed 13 known murders and dozens of rapes that spanned much of California. Many said they thought their opportunity would never come as the former police officer […] More

August 19, 2020

By DON THOMPSON Associated Press SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — The Golden State Killer, a former police officer in California who eluded capture for four decades, faces his victims in court Tuesday on the first of four days of hearings before he is sentenced to life in prison. The scope of Joseph James DeAngelo’s crimes “is […] More

August 18, 2020

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — Joseph James DeAngelo Jr., a former police officer, faces a sentence of life in prison without the possibility of parole for 13 rape-related charges and 13 murder counts stemming from crimes in the 1970s and 1980s across six California counties. He pleaded guilty in June and is set to be sentenced […] More

August 17, 2020

By DON THOMPSON and BRIAN MELLEY Associated Press SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — Gay Hardwick stood arm-in-arm with her husband to face a criminal dubbed the Golden State Killer and couldn’t recognize the elderly man hunched in a wheelchair as the sadistic rapist who had terrorized them 42 years earlier. In a hushed and raspy voice, […] More

June 30, 2020

By DON THOMPSON Associated Press SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — A former police officer who terrorized the Sacramento region as a serial rapist and went on to kill more than a dozen people across California and evade capture for decades said Monday he will plead guilty to murder and admit dozens of sex assaults. Joseph James […] More

June 29, 2020

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — Joseph James DeAngelo Jr., a former police officer, faces 13 rape-related charges and 13 murder counts stemming from crimes in the 1970s and 1980s across six counties in California. He is expected to enter a guilty plea during a hearing Monday. Authorities allege the 74-year-old is the elusive Golden State Killer, […] More

June 29, 2020

Former police officer Joseph DeAngelo agreed to plead guilty to dozens of crimes in return for being spared a death sentence. More

June 16, 2020

SAN QUENTIN, Calif. (AP) — Lonnie Franklin, the convicted serial killer known as the “Grim Sleeper” who preyed on the women of South Los Angeles for more than two decades, has died in prison. He was 67. California corrections officials said Franklin was found unresponsive in his cell at San Quentin State Prison on Saturday […] More

March 30, 2020

Joseph James DeAngelo is suspected of at least 13 murders and more than 50 rapes across California in the 1970s and 1980s. More

March 13, 2020

By ANDREW DALTON AP Entertainment Writer LOS ANGELES (AP) — A judge is expected to give a death sentence Friday to a man prosecutors call “The Boy Next Door Killer,” who was found guilty of the home-invasion murders of two women. A Los Angeles jury recommended the death penalty in October for 44-year-old Michael Thomas […] More

February 28, 2020

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — A California judge on Wednesday set a May hearing to decide if prosecutors have enough evidence to go to trial against a man suspected being the notorious “Golden State Killer” who eluded capture for decades. Sacramento County Superior Court Judge Steve White ordered the preliminary hearing for Joseph James DeAngelo to […] More

January 23, 2020

The photograph shows the initials on a black leather belt, showing either an HM or WH, depending on the angle. More

January 17, 2020

LOS ANGELES (AP) — A Los Angeles jury recommended the death penalty Friday for a man dubbed “The Boy Next Door Killer” after he was found guilty of two murders and attempted murder. The victims of Michael Gargiulo, 43, included 22-year-old Ashley Ellerin, who was killed on a night in 2001 when she had plans […] More

October 21, 2019

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. (AP) — Three women shot in the head, each dumped a month a part — the 2006 killings scared Daytona Beach’s street people so badly that they memorized suspicious men’s license plate numbers and gave them to police. And then suddenly the slayings stopped. Ten years later, a prostitute’s body was […] More

September 17, 2019

Michael Gargiulo smiles during a court appearance Tuesday, Aug. 6, 2019, in Los Angeles. Closing arguments started Tuesday in the trial of an air conditioning repairman charged with killing two Southern California women and attempting to kill a third. (Lucy Nicholson, Pool Photo via AP)Michael Gargiulo, 43, has been found guilty of first-degree murder in […] More

August 15, 2019

Ashton Kutcher was dating Ashley Ellerin, who was murdered in her Hollywood home in 2001 and testified to the night of her murder. More

August 8, 2019