In Chicago, community leader and part-time clown John Wayne Gacy leads a double life, transforming into a monster who preys on male teenagers and becomes the most prolific serial killer of his day.
Charles Manson is a violent predator who has powers of persuasion that make it possible for him to convince his hippie followers to brutally murder innocent strangers.
In Northern California, a masked predator meticulously plans his sexual assaults by studying the habits and routines of his female prey; after 27 years on the loose, police close in on the man they believe to be the NorCal Rapist.
A look at the deal makers and hangers-on who attached themselves to Aileen Wuornos, who is known as America's first female serial killer.
The Zodiac Killer terrorizes Northern California in the late 1960s; he taunts the public with cryptic clues, threats of violence and ciphers that are supposed to lead to his identity, but mostly go nowhere.
More than 900 Americans died in an isolated jungle in northern Guyana in November 1978; Jim Jones has gone down in history as a madman who drove his followers to suicide, but the truth is more complicated and tragic than that.
He is among the most infamous serial killers in American history. From 1976 to 1977, David Berkowitz terrorized New York City – under his creepy self-given moniker: the Son of Sam. Using a large caliber. 44 revolver, he unleashed eight horrific shootings across three different boroughs- wounding seven people and killing six. Despite an extraordinary investigation, and hundreds of NYPD officers working the case– Berkowitz’s crime spree lasted over a year. How did he get away with it? What clues did investigators miss? The detectives who worked the case tell the true tale of what it was like in New York City with a gun-toting murderer on the loose.
In 1977, the city of New York was being stalked by a seemingly faceless serial killer known as, “Son of Sam.” But after his final shooting took him to Brooklyn, a twist of fate and a little luck- led to his capture. The episode features interviews with detectives and psychologists about what he said after his arrest, why he did it… and how this quiet, soft spoken 24-year old post office employee from Yonkers turned in a serial killing monster.
In January 1974, four members of a family are brutally tortured and murdered in Wichita, Kansas. The murders shock the safe midwestern city, but little do they know, it is just the beginning. He calls himself “B.T.K.” which stands for Bind, Torture, Kill and for decades this bloodthirsty serial killer terrifies Wichita as he murders again and again and again. Wichita residents live in fear that they will be his next victim. Who is B.T.K. and will police capture this crazed killer before he strikes again?
B.T.K. stands for Bind, Torture, Kill., the name the serial killer gave himself. After terrorizing Wichita, Kansas with multiple killings from 1974-1991 he goes quiet. But he resurfaces in 2004 and residents of the midwestern city are once again petrified. For months he plays a cat and mouse game with law enforcement and the media taunting them as he seeks the attention he craves. But then… he makes a mistake. And when “BTK” is finally apprehended it is chilling to discover that he has been hiding in plain sight for years.
The summer of 1985 was one of the hottest Los Angeles had seen in a century. But terrified residents weren’t sleeping with the windows open, they weren’t sleeping at all. A killer was on the loose. And though the 1980s were considered the decade of the serial killer – one man stood out. He was the Night Stalker – his crimes were random, vicious and committed in the name of Satan. His victims ranged from toddlers to the elderly. And as the city was paralyzed with fear, he went unchecked while police struggled to stop him. Then the L.A.P.D. get a tip, a teenage boy spotted a suspicious car leaving a crime scene. Would it be enough to bring the Night Stalker to justice?
Through the record-breaking heat of the spring and summer of 1985 in California, a savage killer was on the loose. The Night Stalker had been linked to at least 15 murders from children to the elderly, male and female, wealthy and poor. Then police get a break – a tip from a teenage boy leads to the identity of the Night Stalker. Twenty-four hours later a mob of angry citizens track him down and capture him. But the man who terrified the nation for more than a year isn’t finished yet. His trial is a new, bizarre chapter that has some wondering if the Night Stalker will escape justice.
Santa Cruz, California was a mecca for the hippie generation in the early 1970’s, a beachside paradise where a university had recently opened. But this era of peace and love is shattered when female students began to go missing and their body parts start showing up around town. Police had no leads on who was committing these horrific crimes, but they soon realize that all the victims had something in common- they were last seen hitchhiking. A frantic public, desperate for answers, live in terror, waiting for the man they dubbed “The Coed Killer” to strike again. But no one could have expected that the person responsible, a local man, Edmund Kemper, was living among them, hiding in plain sight. He was a man with a dark history and a tortured childhood, a man who had killed years before and had now set his twisted sights on young women. Told through interview footage with Kemper himself, as well as those who lived through this crippling period, this episode takes viewers back to the time when The Coed Killer brought terror to Santa Cruz.
In April 1973, 24-year-old Edmund Kemper had murdered 6 coeds in and around the city of Santa Cruz, California, shaking the community to its core. But Kemper reached a breaking point, and what the public would soon learn, was almost impossible to believe. Told through interview footage with Kemper himself, as well as people who were there, this episode takes viewers inside the mind of a serial killer, from a childhood wrought with abuse through an early life of violence. Kemper outlines his motives for the killing spree and describes the terrifying methods he used to slaughter young women, operating right under everyone’s noses. As Kemper explains in great detail, he spared no one from his madness, not even his own flesh and blood. With his willingness to tell his story so openly, Kemper would go on, years later, to assist the FBI in profiling serial killers, offering insight into how, and why, killers like himself commit such horrific acts.
This is the unbelievable story of Robert Durst, the millionaire heir to a vast real estate fortune who has been linked to the deaths of his wife, his best friend, and his neighbor. For decades, Durst has been living under a cloud of suspicion. His first wife went missing in 1982, but the case went cold when there were no leads — and no body. Then, 18 years later, just as the investigation into her disappearance was re-opened, Durst’s best friend and confidante, Susan Berman, was shot dead inside her home. At the same time, Durst was hiding in Galveston, Texas disguised as a deaf mute woman. But when his neighbor’s dismembered body turns up in Galveston Bay, Durst’s story begins to unravel. He is quickly arrested, but he’s not in custody for long. After posting bail, he goes on the run. Where is Robert Durst?
Six weeks after jumping bail in Galveston, Texas, Robert Durst is caught on a store security camera in Pennsylvania shoplifting a sandwich and is quickly sent back to Galveston to stand trial for the murder of his neighbor, Morris Black. He would tell a jury he killed Black accidentally in self-defense, and he’d be acquitted of murder. But his story doesn’t end there. Durst decides to give a revealing look into his life in the six-part series “the Jinx” where in the final episode he is overheard in the bathroom muttering to himself, “killed them all, of course.” Before the episode airs, Durst is arrested for the murder of his best friend, Susan Berman. Now as he stands trial in Los Angeles, will his own words come back to haunt him?
Michael Swango – High school valedictorian; Distinguished Marine; Trusted Doctor… Serial Killer. For nearly two decades, this physician-turned-murderer left a trail of death and mayhem across two continents. Hear from the local and federal authorities who brought his reign of terror to an end, while facing down one of the most crafty and cunning medical serial killers in US history. Interviews include survivors from Michael Swango’s poisoning sprees, his former colleagues, families of his victims, federal and local investigators, and a Zimbabwe journalist who helped uncover a series of murders in a rural African hospital.
Dr. Michael Swango took an oath to “do no harm”… But he did just the opposite. Suspicious illnesses and deaths followed this once-trusted physician-turned-killer from hospital to hospital for nearly two decades and across two continents. His prey – unsuspecting coworkers and helpless patients. What would make a well-respected doctor become one of the most prolific serial killers in the U.S.? Interviews include survivors, Swango’s former colleagues, families of his victims, federal and local investigators, and a Zimbabwe journalist who helped uncover a series of murders in a rural African hospital.
The Golden State Killer invaded homes, tortured and terrorized families, committed fifty brutal rapes and thirteen vicious murders, and was on the loose for forty-four years. Cold case Investigators chased down thousands of leads without ever getting their man. But a new forensic tool breaks the case and exposes this remorseless predator – Joseph DeAngelo – his family, his background, and his life story; and finally, scores of victims get a measure of long-awaited justice.
The Butcher Baker was one of the most prolific serial killers in Alaska’s history. For more than a decade, he kidnapped young women and brought them into the wilderness where he stalked them like prey. He got away with his crimes for years, living a double life as a soft-spoken baker and church-going family man by day, and prowling the streets and strip clubs at night, looking for more victims. But when one woman escaped and lived to tell her harrowing story, police made a shocking discovery inside Robert Hansen’s home, which would expose the baker as the monster he truly was.
In November 1974, six members of the DeFeo family were found murdered inside their beautiful seaside home. The mother, father, and four of their children were shot in the back as they lay sleeping in their beds. The bodies were discovered by the only family member left alive – the oldest son Butch DeFeo. What really happened that night in Amityville? Who murdered the DeFeo family and why? What caused the strange events in the house near the sea? Parapsychologists and psychics descend on the house to investigate claims of levitating objects and demonic possession in an attempt to explain why, 50 years later, this house is still a source of nightmares.
In 1968, an 8-year-old girl is abducted and raped. The Los Angeles police were just moments from catching her attacker, but he eludes them and escapes to New York where he kills a young woman. This is the beginning of a monstrous killing spree of young girls and women. When police discover who is behind these horrific murders, they are shocked to find it’s a handsome, charming photographer. With a string of murders already behind him, incredibly, Rodney Alcala is chosen to appear on the national game show, “The Dating Game.” What happens next makes Rodney Alcala one of the most horrific serial killers in US history.
He was a family man, living in a New Jersey suburb with his wife and three kids. But unbeknownst to his neighbors, Richard Kuklinski held a dark secret: he was the “Iceman” – a cold-blooded killer who was part-time mob hitman for hire, and full-time psychopath. This intimidating, oversized killer managed to evade the police with ease for years. That is, until a few smart investigators started connecting the dots between seemingly unrelated murders and a mystery man known as “Big Rich.”
A string of horrifying fires plagues California in the Eighties and Nineties, one of them fatally trapping four people inside. Are these raging infernos accidental or is someone setting them deliberately? Years of meticulous investigation leads law enforcement to uncover a wave of terrifying fires set by a man some call the most prolific arsonist of the Twentieth century, who turns out to be none other than renowned fire investigator Captain John Orr. In a game of cat and mouse, colleagues discover dark secrets behind the man who thrived on the chaos of igniting the fires he was supposed to be fighting.
From 1987 to 1992, rapes, abductions and murders of young women occur north of the U.S.-Canadian border; a tip leads cops to an unlikely suspect: a blond, blue-eyed accountant who lives with his wife in a pink house in the suburbs.
When college-aged women in Charlottesville, Va. go missing, the search for answers leads authorities to local star athlete Jesse Matthew Jr.; in a shocking story, two women are killed, but another survives to bring the murderer to justice.
Sammy the Bull Gravano was the right-hand man to mafia kingpin, John Gotti and carried out multiple murders; after his arrest, he breaks the sacred oath of silence and cuts a deal with the government, testifying against his former boss.
In the fall of 1977, bodies of young women begin piling up in Los Angeles; almost all of the victims are nude, discarded on hillsides, and show signs of torture; it is nearly a year before two murders 1,200 miles away uncover the Hillside Stranglers.
While closing shop in Anchorage, Alaska, Samantha Koenig is approached by a man known in the community as a business owner and caring father who kidnaps her, triggering a manhunt.
John Gotti's expensive suits and swagger earn him the nickname Dapper Don; in reality, he is a man to be feared, a ruthless, dangerous Mafia gangster who orders hits on his enemies, his friends, and anyone who crosses him.
From 1979-1981, the popular hiking trails of Northern California became the setting of a terrifying mystery. A man known as the Trailside Killer was raping and killing women in a place they had always felt safe. The cold-blooded attacks stunned the community and frustrated law enforcement. They had few clues as to the killer's identity, until one victim managed to get away and identified a middle-aged man living an ordinary life with his parents.
Beginning in the mid 80's, women in the Kansas City vicinity began vanishing. They had nothing in common, except, an odd connection to a man named John Robinson. He seemed to be a perfect father, husband, and businessman. But in reality, Robinson was a sinister serial killer, who nicknamed himself the, "Slavemaster." With a penchant for BDSM (Bondage, Discipline, Sado-Masochism), he evaded arrest for nearly two decades by using elaborate cover ups and his sinister silver tongue. Robinson, among the first killers to use the internet as a stalking ground for victims, unfortunately claimed eight victims before an intense police sting operation could bring him down.
When a 19-year-old college co-ed is snatched off the grounds of her Indiana University campus, all police find is a pile of her discarded and bloody clothing. A few months later, the decomposed body of a missing 15-year-old girl is found callously dumped in an Indiana cornfield. Then came alarming reports of terrified young girls narrowly escaping a creepy man trying to lure them into his van. Who is to blame for these vicious attacks, and why? Suddenly, investigators close in on a promising suspect... Larry Hall is brought in for questioning and admits to everything, case closed. But within days, Hall recants his confession saying the details of his signed statement were all just a bunch of made-up dreams. Is he a false confessor or a serial killer? And if he was truly guilty, did Larry's Identical twin brother, Gary, have a hand in it?
In 1979, the NYFD received a report of smoke pouring out of a room in a hotel in New York's Times Square. When firefighters entered, they thought they saw a pair of mannequins on the beds. It was only when the haze cleared that they realized that the person who set the blaze had beheaded two sex workers. The city's tabloids dubbed the perpetrator the "Times Square Killer." But the catchy label was not entirely accurate. For years, the murderer had been targeting women close to his home in the New Jersey suburbs. For a long time, though, police in both states were unaware that they had a serial killer on their hands. Indeed, the Times Square Killer's strongest asset was his ability to blend in, commuting back and forth from the suburbs to his job at a prestigious insurance firm. This is the tale of a perplexing double life, a case that seemed unsolvable and a reign of terror that impacted both the leafy lanes of New Jersey and New York's red-light district.
Her name was Judy Buenoano - and on the surface, it seemed like she lived a charmed life. Judy was a nurse, a small business owner, a wife - and mother. But dig a little deeper and that façade of success fades away to reveal a trail of tragedy. In the course of 10 years, Judy survived two2 house fires, a mysterious canoe accident - and lost a husband, boyfriend, and child. Was it just incredibly bad luck or something far more sinister?
When 23-year-old Taunja Bennett left home on January 21, 1990, her family thought they would see her in a few hours. That didn't happen. Then her sister watches a news report with a police sketch of a woman found dead in the Columbia River Gorge...and knew it was Taunja. That was the start of multiple female bodies found mostly in the Pacific Northwest and California which police never connect to each other. Then someone starts sending macabre letters signed with a happy face, which was the beginning of the end of the Happy Face Killer's reign of terror.