Editing Serial killer (section)

==History==
{{further|List of serial killers before 1900}}
[[File:JohnAdamson.jpg|thumb|upright|[[Juhani Aataminpoika]], a [[Finland|Finnish]] serial killer also known as "Kerpeikkari" (which means 'executioner'), was one of the most active serial killers of the 19th century, killing as many as 12 people in 1849 within five weeks before being caught.<ref>{{Cite book|isbn=978-952-99946-0-1|title=Twelve murders in five weeks, Heinola's "beast" Finnish record|author=Jarmo Haapalainen|location=Heinola|date=2007|language=fi}}</ref>]]

===Early accounts===
Historical [[Criminology|criminologists]] suggest that there have been serial killers throughout history.<ref name="Waller2011">{{cite book|author=S. Waller|title=Serial Killers – Philosophy for Everyone: Being and Killing|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=EbcTUxIR19QC&pg=PT56|year=2011|publisher=John Wiley & Sons|isbn=978-1-4443-4140-9|page=56|access-date=August 30, 2020|archive-date=January 20, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210120053158/https://books.google.com/books?id=EbcTUxIR19QC&pg=PT56|url-status=live}}</ref>  Some sources suggest that legends such as [[Werewolf|werewolves]] and [[vampire]]s were inspired by [[Middle Ages|medieval]] serial killers.{{sfn|Schlesinger|2000|p=5}} In Africa, there have been periodic outbreaks of murder by [[Leopard Society|leopard men]].<ref>{{cite news|title=Tanganyika: Murder by Lion |date=November 4, 1957 |magazine=Time |access-date=April 13, 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110628222637/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0%2C9171%2C867859%2C00.html |archive-date=June 28, 2011 |url=http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,867859,00.html |url-status=dead}}</ref> [[Liu Pengli]] of China, nephew of the [[Han dynasty|Han]] Emperor [[Emperor Jing of Han|Jing]], was made Prince of Jidong in the sixth year of the middle period of Jing's reign (144&nbsp;BC). According to the Chinese historian [[Sima Qian]], he would "go out on marauding expeditions with 20 or 30 [[Slavery|slaves]] or with young men who were in hiding from the law, murdering people and seizing their belongings for sheer sport". Although many of his subjects knew about these murders, it was not until the 29th year of his reign that the son of one of his victims finally sent a report to the emperor. Eventually, it was discovered that he had murdered at least 100 people. The officials of the court requested that Liu Pengli be executed; however, the emperor could not bear to have his own nephew killed, so Liu Pengli was made a commoner and banished.{{sfn|Qian|1993|p=387}} In the 9th century (year 257 of the Islamic Calendar), "a strangler from Baghdad was apprehended. He had murdered a number of women and buried them in the house where he was living."<ref>{{Cite web |last=Al-Tabari |pages=868–879 [123] |title=Al-Tabari's History, vol. 36. |url=https://archive.org/download/tabarivolume36/Tabari_Volume_36.pdf |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20221009/https://archive.org/download/tabarivolume36/Tabari_Volume_36.pdf |archive-date=2022-10-09 |url-status=live}}</ref> 

===Inside and outside the United States===
{{further|List of serial killers by country}}
The majority of documented serial killers were active in the United States.{{sfn|Newton|2006|p=95}}<ref name="Gibson2014">{{cite book|author=Dirk C. Gibson|title=Serial Killers Around the World: The Global Dimensions of Serial Murder|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-EsTDgAAQBAJ&pg=PR3|year=2014|publisher=Bentham Science Publishers|isbn=978-1-60805-842-6|pages=3–5|access-date=September 1, 2020|archive-date=January 20, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210120052954/https://books.google.com/books?id=-EsTDgAAQBAJ&pg=PR3|url-status=live}}</ref> In one study of serial homicide in South Africa, many patterns were similar to established patterns in the U.S., with some exceptions: no offenders were female, offenders were lower educated than in the U.S., and both victims and offenders were predominantly black.<ref name="South_Africa">{{cite journal|title=South African Serial Homicide: Offender and Victim Demographics and Crime Scene Actions|journal=Journal of Investigative Psychology and Offender Profiling|volume=12|pages=18–43|url=http://forensic-psychologist.co.za/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/South-African-Serial-Homicide-Offender-and-Victim-Demographics-and-Crime-Scene-Actions-2015.pdf|last=Salfati|first=Gabrielle|display-authors=etal|year=2015|doi=10.1002/jip.1425|access-date=August 15, 2019|archive-date=August 15, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190815160920/http://forensic-psychologist.co.za/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/South-African-Serial-Homicide-Offender-and-Victim-Demographics-and-Crime-Scene-Actions-2015.pdf|url-status=live|issn = 1544-4759}}</ref> 

In the 15th century, one of the wealthiest men in Europe and a former companion-in-arms of [[Joan of Arc]], [[Gilles de Rais]], was alleged to have [[Sexual assault|sexually assaulted]] and killed peasant children, mainly boys, whom he had abducted from the surrounding villages and had taken to his castle.{{sfn|Vronsky|2004|pp=45-48}} It is estimated that his victims numbered between 140 and 800.{{sfn|Vronsky|2004|p=47}} Similarly, the [[Kingdom of Hungary|Hungarian]] aristocrat [[Elizabeth Báthory]], born into one of the wealthiest families in [[Transylvania]], allegedly [[torture]]d and killed as many as 650 girls and young women before her arrest in 1610.{{sfn|Vronsky|2007|p=78}}

Between 1564 and 1589, German farmer [[Peter Stumpp]] killed 14 children, including his own son. He also murdered two pregnant women and had an incestuous relationship with his daughter. Stumpp claimed to have been granted the ability to turn into a werewolf by the Devil. As punishment for his crimes, Stumpp was put on a torture wheel and executed. His head was later severed and put on a pole next to the figure of a wolf to scare other people away from claiming themselves werewolves too.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2022-04-27 |title=2 of the Earliest Serial Killers in History |url=https://aezoutbailbonds.com/2-of-the-earliest-serial-killers-in-history/ |access-date=2023-09-11 |website=aezoutbailbonds.com |archive-date=September 24, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230924064743/https://aezoutbailbonds.com/2-of-the-earliest-serial-killers-in-history/ |url-status=live }}</ref> 

Members of the [[Thuggee]] cult in India may have murdered a million people between 1740 and 1840.{{sfn|Rubinstein|2004|pp=82–83}} [[Thug Behram]], a member of the cult, may have murdered as many as 931 victims.{{sfn|Newton|2006|p=117}} In his 1886 book, ''[[Psychopathia Sexualis (Richard von Krafft-Ebing book)|Psychopathia Sexualis]]'', psychiatrist [[Richard von Krafft-Ebing]] noted a case of a serial murderer in the 1870s, a [[France|Frenchman]] named Eusebius Pieydagnelle who had a sexual obsession with blood and confessed to murdering six people.{{sfn|Norder|Vanderlinden|Begg|2004}}

[[File:Jack-the-Ripper-The-Nemesis-of-Neglect-Punch-London-Charivari-cartoon-poem-1888-09-29.jpg|thumb|upright|alt=A phantom brandishing a knife floats through a slum street|The 'Nemesis of Neglect': [[Jack the Ripper]] depicted as a phantom stalking Whitechapel, and as an embodiment of social neglect, in a ''[[Punch (magazine)|Punch]]'' cartoon of 1888]]
The unidentified killer [[Jack the Ripper]], who has been called the first modern serial killer,<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://atlanticproductions.tv/productions/jack-the-ripper-the-first-serial-killer/|title=Jack The Ripper: The First Serial Killer|access-date=September 1, 2020|archive-date=February 2, 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150202022138/http://www.atlanticproductions.tv/productions/specials/jack-the-ripper-the-first-serial-killer/|url-status=live}}</ref> [[Whitechapel murders|killed at least five women]], and possibly more,<ref>{{Cite web |title=Jack the Ripper {{!}} Identity, Facts, Victims, and Suspects {{!}} Britannica |url=https://www.britannica.com/biography/Jack-the-Ripper |access-date=2023-01-24 |website=www.britannica.com |archive-date=January 25, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230125135247/https://www.britannica.com/biography/Jack-the-Ripper |url-status=live }}</ref> in London in 1888. He was the subject of a massive manhunt and investigation by the [[Metropolitan Police]], during which many modern criminal investigation techniques were pioneered. A large team of policemen conducted house-to-house inquiries, forensic material was collected and suspects were identified and traced.{{sfn|Canter|1994|pp=12–13}} Police surgeon [[Thomas Bond (British physician)|Thomas Bond]] assembled one of the earliest [[Offender profiling|character profiles of the offender]].{{sfn|Canter|1994|pp=5–6}}

The Ripper murders also marked an important watershed in the treatment of crime by journalists.<ref name="Davenport-Hines 2004">{{harvnb|Davenport-Hines|2004}}, {{harvnb|Woods|Baddeley|2009|pp=20, 52}}</ref> While not the first serial killer in history, Jack the Ripper's case was the first to create a worldwide media frenzy.<ref name="Davenport-Hines 2004"/> The dramatic murders of financially destitute women in the midst of the wealth of London focused the media's attention on the plight of the urban poor and gained coverage worldwide. Jack the Ripper has also been called the most infamous serial killer of all time, and his legend has spawned hundreds of [[Jack the Ripper suspects|theories on his real identity]] and [[Jack the Ripper in fiction|many works of fiction]].<ref name="Trutv.com.com">{{cite web|first=Marilyn |last=Bardsley |title=Jack the Ripper – the most famous serial killer of all time |publisher=[[truTV]] |access-date=August 3, 2009 |url=http://www.trutv.com/library/crime/serial_killers/notorious/ripper/index_1.html |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090601180208/http://www.trutv.com/library/crime/serial_killers/notorious/ripper/index_1.html |archive-date=June 1, 2009 }}</ref>

[[H. H. Holmes]] was a serial killer in the United States, responsible for the death of at least nine victims in the early 1890s. The case was one of the first involving a serial murderer that gained widespread notoriety and publicity through sensationalized accounts in [[William Randolph Hearst]]'s newspapers. However, at the same time of the Holmes case, in France, [[Joseph Vacher]] became known as "The French Ripper" after killing and mutilating 11 women and children. He was executed in 1898 after confessing to his crimes.<ref name="TRutv.com.com">{{cite web|first=Katherine |last=Ramsland |title=The Werewolf Syndrome: Compulsive Bestial Slaughterers. Vacher the Ripper |publisher=[[truTV]] |access-date=August 3, 2009 |url=http://www.trutv.com/library/crime/criminal_mind/psychology/werewolf_killers/14.html |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090716023114/http://www.trutv.com/library/crime/criminal_mind/psychology/werewolf_killers/14.html |archive-date=July 16, 2009 }}</ref><ref>{{cite news|title=French 'Ripper' Guillotined – Joseph Vacher, Who Murdered More Than a Score of Persons, Executed at Bourg-en-Bresse|work=The New York Times|date=January 1, 1899|access-date=August 3, 2009|page=7|url=https://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=9C06E5DF1738E733A25752C0A9679C94689ED7CF|archive-date=June 28, 2011|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110628200704/http://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=9C06E5DF1738E733A25752C0A9679C94689ED7CF|url-status=live}}</ref>

Another notable non-American serial killer is [[Pedro López (serial killer)|Pedro Lopez]], a murderer from South America, who killed a minimum of 110 young girls between 1969 and 1980. However, he claims that the number is over 300. He was released from a mental facility in 1998 and his whereabouts are still unknown. He is commonly nicknamed the "Monster of the Andes". An additional non-American serial killer is [[Luis Garavito]] from Colombia. Garavito would kill and torture boys using various disguises. He murdered around 140 boys ranging in ages from 8 to 16. He would dump his victims' bodies in mass graves.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Urie |first=Chris |title=9 serial killers from around the world you may not have heard of |url=https://www.insider.com/serial-killers-around-the-world-2018-9 |access-date=2023-01-24 |website=Insider |archive-date=January 7, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240107113509/https://www.insider.com/serial-killers-around-the-world-2018-9 |url-status=live }}</ref>

===Late 20th century===
[[File:BrooksHenleyHighIslandBeachAugust13 1973a.jpg|195px|right|thumb|[[Elmer Wayne Henley]] (left) and [[David Owen Brooks]] (right), accomplices to serial killer [[Dean Corll]], who murdered at least 28 teenage boys between 1970 and 1973]]

The serial killing phenomenon in the United States was especially prominent from 1970 to 2000, which has been described as the "golden age of serial murder".<ref>{{Cite news|last=Ehrlich|first=Brenna|date=February 10, 2021|title=Why Were There So Many Serial Killers Between 1970 and 2000 – and Where Did They Go?|magazine=Rolling Stone|url=https://www.rollingstone.com/culture/culture-features/serial-killers-1970s-2000s-murders-1121705/|url-status=live|access-date=May 13, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210429110955/https://www.rollingstone.com/culture/culture-features/serial-killers-1970s-2000s-murders-1121705/|archive-date=April 29, 2021}}</ref> The cause of the spike in serial killings has been attributed to [[urbanization]], which put people in close proximity and offered anonymity.<ref name="u884">{{cite book | last=Martin | first=G. | title=Crime, Media and Culture | publisher=Taylor & Francis | year=2018 | isbn=978-1-317-36897-7 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=YjZ7DwAAQBAJ&pg=RA2-PT71 | access-date=2024-05-21 | page=2-PT71}}</ref> The number of active serial killers in the United States peaked in 1989 and has been steadily trending downward since, coinciding with an overall decrease in [[crime in the United States]] since that time. The decline in serial killers has no known single cause but is attributed to a number of factors.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Yaksic |first1=Enzo |last2=Allely |first2=Clare |last3=De Silva |first3=Raneesha |last4=Smith-Inglis |first4=Melissa |last5=Konikoff |first5=Daniel |last6=Ryan |first6=Kori |last7=Gordon |first7=Dan |last8=Denisov |first8=Egor |last9=Keatley |first9=David A. |date=January 2019 |editor-last=Chan |editor-first=Heng Choon (Oliver) |title=Detecting a decline in serial homicide: Have we banished the devil from the details? |url=https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/23311886.2019.1678450 |journal=Cogent Social Sciences |volume=5 |issue=1 |doi=10.1080/23311886.2019.1678450 |issn=2331-1886}}</ref> [[Mike Aamodt]], emeritus professor at Radford University in Virginia, attributes the decline in number of serial killings to less frequent use of [[parole]], improved [[Forensic science|forensic technology]], and people behaving more cautiously.<ref>{{Cite news|last=Taylor|first=David|date=September 15, 2018|title=Are American serial killers a dying breed?|work=The Guardian|url=https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/sep/15/are-american-serial-killers-a-dying-breed|url-status=live|access-date=May 13, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210426052444/https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/sep/15/are-american-serial-killers-a-dying-breed|archive-date=April 26, 2021}}</ref> Causes for the general reduction in violent crime following the 1990s include increased [[incarceration in the United States]], the end of the [[crack epidemic in the United States]], and decreased [[Lead poisoning|lead exposure]] in early childhood.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Levitt |first=Stephen |author-link=Steven Levitt |date=2004 |title=Understanding Why Crime Fell in the 1990s: Four Factors that Explain the Decline and Six that Do Not |url=https://pricetheory.uchicago.edu/levitt/Papers/LevittUnderstandingWhyCrime2004.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20051124053340/http://pricetheory.uchicago.edu/levitt/Papers/LevittUnderstandingWhyCrime2004.pdf |archive-date=2005-11-24 |url-status=live |journal=Journal of Economic Perspectives |volume=18 |issue=1 |pages=163–190|doi=10.1257/089533004773563485 }}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last1=J. Sampson |first1=Robert |last2=S. Winter |first2=Alix |date=May 2018 |title=Poisoned Development: Assessing Childhood Lead Exposure as a Cauase of Crime in a Birth Cohort Followed Through Adolescence: Lead Poisoning and Crime |journal=Criminology |volume=56 |issue=2 |pages=269–301 |doi=10.1111/1745-9125.12171|doi-access=free }}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Reyes |first=Jessica Wolpaw |date=2007-10-17 |title=Environmental Policy as Social Policy? The Impact of Childhood Lead Exposure on Crime |url=https://www.degruyter.com/document/doi/10.2202/1935-1682.1796/html |journal=The B.E. Journal of Economic Analysis & Policy |volume=7 |issue=1 |doi=10.2202/1935-1682.1796 |issn=1935-1682 |access-date=November 2, 2022 |archive-date=November 2, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221102183300/https://www.degruyter.com/document/doi/10.2202/1935-1682.1796/html |url-status=live }}</ref>