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12 Famous Serial Killer Mugshots
Serial killers are in vogue once again. After the success of the Netflix series, Dahmer – Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story, people are clamoring for more true crime media to consume. While movies, TV shows, books, and true crime podcasts are all the rage, fans also enjoy researching serial killer mugshots.
These photos show serial killers not long after they’ve been caught for the horrendous crimes committed. These candid shots detail these evil people at their lowest as they realize they have finally even been caught. The expressions on each murderer’s face are different and give an insight into their personality. Some look angry and menacing, while others appear not to have a care in the world. Others might give you nightmares so be thankful these people are locked up or dead.
12 Famous Serial Killer Mugshots
1. Jeffrey Dahmer
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The man of the moment looks cool, calm, and collected in his mugshot. Dressed in a tracksuit with clear hipster glasses, it’s hard to imagine notorious serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer is a bad guy. Turns out he is bad, really bad.
Between 1978 and 1991 Dahmer killed and mutilated 17 men and young boys, often picking them up at gay bars. He would lure them back to his apartment, drug them, and then murder them. Dahmer enjoyed mutilating the bodies, often indulging in necrophilia while also eating some of his victims. He even kept some of his victim’s body parts as souvenirs.
Dahmer was eventually caught in 1991 after one of his victims got away. He was sentenced to 15 consecutive life sentences but ended up dead a couple of years later after he was beaten to death by another inmate.
2. Charles Manson
The leader of the Manson Family, a 60s cult that preached peace and love but soon descended into murder, Charles Manson was a charismatic sociopath. Although he never killed anyone, he was convicted of first-degree murder and conspiracy to commit murder for the deaths of seven people carried out by his followers. One of those victims was Hollywood actress Sharon Tate, who was also pregnant at the time of her murder.
Mason was as crazy as his mugshot and was given the death sentence in 1971, but this was changed to life in prison. He spent 46 years behind bars, giving several frightening interviews and even recording an album produced by Henry Rollins. He died of a heart attack in 2017 at age 83.
3. Ted Bundy
The above mugshot was taken three days after Ted Bundy was sentenced for the murder of Kimberly Leach. She was just one of 30 victims Bundy admitted to killing, with authorities believing he committed many more murders. Bundy’s killing spree took place across seven states between 1974 and 1978.
His modus operandi was kidnapping, rape, and murder, often bludgeoning the young women he snatched to death. Bundy also engaged in sexual activities with the dead bodies and decapitated 12 of his victims, keeping their heads as trophies. He was first captured in 1975 but escaped twice, eventually being arrested in 1978. He was given two death sentences and was executed in 1989.
4. Richard Ramirez
The Night Stalker terrorized California for a year between 1984 and 1985. Abused by his father as a child and developing an interest in the occult, Richard Ramirez soon found himself addicted to cocaine. He began burgling homes to support his habit. This quickly turned into rape and murder, with Ramirez committing horrific crimes against his women victims.
He killed his victims in a variety of different ways, including beating them to death with various weapons, shooting them, and strangling them. He even stomped one woman to death. Strangely he let some victims survive, which led to his downfall when a sketch of Ramierez was circulated on local news and in the papers.
While in East Los Angeles Ramierez was recognized by members of the public who chased him down and almost beat him to death before the police arrive. Showing no remorse for his crimes, Ramierez was sentenced to 19 death sentences in 1989. He died in jail from B-cell lymphoma while on death row in 2013.
5. Gary Ridgway
Gary Ridgway is the second most prolific serial killer in American history. Nicknamed the Green River Killer after his first five victims were found near the river, Ridgway was convicted of 49 murders, although it’s believed he may have killed more. He mainly murdered sex workers, strangling them and then leaving their bodies in the woods near green river. He would often go back and have sex with the corpses.
Ridgway only admitted to his crimes after agreeing to a plea deal so that he wouldn’t receive the death penalty. He got life imprisonment and has been behind bars since his arrest in 2001, some two decades after his first murder.
6. John Wayne Gacy
The reasons many people fear clowns can be attributed to John Wayne Gacy. The American serial killer worked part-time as a clown, appearing at children’s birthday parties and visiting sick kids in the hospital. When not in the facepaint he was killing young men. Gacy lured his victims back to his home where he would trick them into putting on handcuffs. He would then rape and torture them before eventually killing them.
26 of his victims were found in the crawlspace of his home by police when Gacy was finally arrested in connection to the disappearance of Robert Piest, Gacy’s final victim. Sentenced to death in 1980, Gacy spent 14 years on death row, eventually being executed via lethal injection in 1994.
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7. Edmund Kemper
David Fincher’s Mindhunter brought serial killer Edmund Kemper and his crimes back into the spotlight. Standing 6’9″ and with a huge frame and highly intelligent, Kemper is an imposing figure. Despite his size, he is softly-spoken and polite, but don’t let that fool you.
Kemper killed ten people, including his own mother and a 15-year-old girl during his one-year killing spree. Having been released at age 21 from a juvenile mental hospital after killing his grandparents, it didn’t take long for Kemper to resume his blood lust, often raping his victims after he had killed them.
The serial killer handed himself over to the police in 1973 and requested the death penalty at his trial, but due to Californian law, was instead given consecutive life sentences for each murder. He is currently being held in the California Medical Facility in Vacaville where he will most likely die.
8. David Berkowitz
The Son of Sam had New Yorkers in a tizz between 1976 and 1977. Known to most as David Berkowitz, the former United States Army cadet killed six people and wounded seven more with a .44 special caliber Bulldog revolver. Berkowitz taunted police while evading capture, leaving letters that glorified his crimes and spoke of future murders.
After several leads confirmed Berkowitz as the killer, he was arrested on August 10, 1977. He pleaded insanity, claiming his neighbor’s dog, Sam, was in fact a demon who told him to commit the murders. The defense didn’t hold up and Berkowitz was sentenced to six consecutive life sentences with possible parole after 25 years. He continues to serve his time at Shawangunk Correctional Facility.
9. Richard Speck
For reasons unknown, Richard Speck killed eight student nurses at their residence in South Deering, Chicago, on the night of July 13-14, 1966. He stabbed, strangled, and slashed their throats, raping one woman before murdering her. All the women were between 20 and 24.
Speck said he had no recollection of the murders, but would eventually confess in graphic detail in both an interview with the Chicago Tribune and a prison-made film that also showed Speck dressing in female clothing, snorting cocaine, and giving fellatio to a fellow prisoner.
Speck showed no remorse for his killings and was found guilty by a jury after just 49 minutes in 1967. Originally sentenced to the electric chair, this was overturned and Speck was given life in prison. He died of a heart attack in 1991.
10. Dennis Rader
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Dennis Rader, also known as BTK (bind, torture, kill), is one of America’s most infamous serial killers. While he may have only killed ten people, his heinous crimes shocked the world and turned him into something of a media sensation. Giving himself the nickname BTK, Rader taunted police and the media with letters detailing his crimes between 1974 and 1991.
Then everything went quiet for over a decade before Rader resumed sending letters in 2004. With new technology available to law enforcement, Rader was soon apprehended. He was found guilty and is serving ten consecutive life sentences, one for every person he killed.
11. Aileen Wuornos
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Much of Aileen Wuornos’ terrible crimes can be traced back to her upbringing. Her father, who she never met, went to jail for raping a young girl and hung himself, while Wuornos’ mother abandoned her when she was just four years old. Taken in by her grandparents, she was sexually assaulted and beaten by her grandfather, had sexual relations with her brother, and traded sex for smokes and alcohol while in high school. Wuornos also had a child after being raped by a family friend which she put up for adoption before being kicked out of her grandparent’s home.
Resorting to prostitution to survive, Wuornos spent her 20s getting into trouble with the law and generally getting up to no good. She eventually met 24-year-old Tyria Moore when she was 30, and it seemed her life was on the up. But then Wuornos killed customer Richard Charles Mallory, who she claimed raped and beat her, and got a taste for murder, going on to kill six more men over the next year.
When she was caught, Wuornos protested her innocence, saying all seven men had sexually assaulted her and she was acting in self-defense, but her claims fell on deaf ears. She was sentenced to death in 1992 and died by lethal injection ten years later in 2002. Wuornos refused a last meal, with her final words being: “Yes, I would just like to say I’m sailing with the rock, and I’ll be back, like Independence Day, with Jesus. June 6, like the movie. Big mother ship and all, I’ll be back, I’ll be back.”
12. Angelo Buono Jr.
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Angelo Buono Jr. and his adopted cousin Kenneth Bianchi earned the name the Hillside Stranglers after killing ten women between October 1977 and February 1978. Buono had an extensive criminal history when he first met his cousin in 1975. He managed to convince Bianchi to help him kidnap women. The two posed as police officers and coerced women into their vehicle before driving back to Buono’s home where they raped, tortured, and murdered the women. Strangulation was the main method of death, but the two also experimented with lethal injection and electric shock.
The deadly duo killed ten women before botching the eleventh, with Bianchi eventually turning on his cousin and testifying against him. Both men got life sentences, with Buono passing away from a heart attack in 2002. Bianchi is still behind bars but eligible for parole in 2025.
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