Worst serial killer(s)?

[Abby Normal]

When we are talking about the worst of the worst, we are of course talking about something very nebulous.

There are serial killers who committed far more heinous acts than others. Chase clearly committed far more heinous acts than say, Son of Sam. So if you are looking at actions, Chase wins. But Chase was irrevocably insane. Berkowitz did it for fame. Son of Sam's motive is more despicable than Chase. If you are looking a motivation, Berkowitz wins. If you are looking for monsters in our midst, You aren't going to get much better than Bundy. Pretty, popular, apparently normal Bundy. But he is also clearly a smug son of a bitch with no remorse and no desire to change. Bundy wins. But then there is Gein, whose life was tortured, who was bred to be a serial killer. Most of his crimes were inflicted on the dead. He had no choice. And he was never normal. But he made a woman suit and danced under the full moon. He kept a box of vulva's and lamp pulls made of lips. He has three major horror movie franchises based on him. He is the guy who has scared us the most, whether because we know of him or because we saw Texas Chainsaw Massacre.

For me, it's kids. You touch kids, you are done.

good post-and I agree. especially the kids part.

But I would add to that the number of victims and how many lives (family) were destroyed. and how heinous the crimes were-terrorizing, torture what was done to the victim.

so again, I go with the original nightstalker (uncaught-and hence still terrorizing the victims families in that regard) and then killers like Chikitilo, Bundy, BTK, wayne Williams, Gacy, Kemper and Dahmer.

[Harry D]

Not a serial killer, but Issei Sagawa, the Japanese fella who murdered and cannibalized a young Dutch woman, Renée Hartevelt, whom he had a crush on, is a particularly ghastly tale for more than one reason. The murder took place in France, but the French authorities couldn't afford to keep him in a psychiatric ward so he was deported back to Japan, but Japanese courts couldn't prosecute him as France failed to send over the necessary paperwork. Sagawa walked out a free man and literally got away with murder. Incredibly, he went on to become a minor celebrity in Japan, appearing on chat shows, cooking programmes (...ugh) and even delving into the porn industry. Then again, this is Japan we're talking about, so not that incredible.