10 Chilling True Crime Stories You Can’t Unread

True crime stories have a way of capturing our attention, pulling us into the darkest corners of the human experience. While some cases become infamous, many equally disturbing stories remain less known. Here are ten true crime stories that you’ll never want to read about again.

The Polite German Cannibal

Armin Meiwes, the “Rotenburg Cannibal,” shocked the world by killing and eating a man he met online. After years of searching for a willing participant, Meiwes found Bernd Jürgen Brandes, who consented to be killed and consumed. The gruesome act involved Brandes having his penis cut off and eaten before being killed and eaten over several months. Meiwes was eventually caught and sentenced to life in prison.

Meiwes had a tough childhood, which he claimed contributed to his cannibalistic desires, linking them to the fairytale Hansel and Gretel. The case presented unique challenges for German lawyers, as cannibalism was not explicitly illegal in Germany.

Meiwes has expressed remorse and a wish to write a biography with his victim’s family. He has been granted supervised excursions from prison, carefully guarding his identity.

The Killer Cop

Gerard John Schaefer Jr., known as the “Killer Cop,” was a sheriff’s deputy in Martin County, Florida, when he was arrested. He was convicted of the 1972 murder and mutilation of two teenage girls and suspected in up to twenty-six other murders.

Schaefer’s disturbing methods included binding women to trees with a hangman’s noose before torturing and murdering them, earning him the nickname “Hangman.” He was only convicted for the murders of the Fort Lauderdale teens, yet he remained a suspect in numerous other killings dating back to 1969.

Adding to his infamy, Schaefer wrote a book titled Killer Fiction, filled with stories of women being tortured and murdered. Ironically, he sued true crime authors for labeling him a serial killer.

Schaefer’s gruesome life ended in December 1995 when he was stabbed to death by a fellow inmate at the Florida State Prison.

The Bloody Benders

The Bender family operated an inn in Labette County, Kansas, where they murdered travelers between May 1871 and December 1872. The family, consisting of John Bender, his wife Elvira, their son John Jr., and daughter Kate, lured guests into their inn, murdered them, and buried their bodies on the property.

Vigilantes discovered their crimes, accusing the Benders of 11 murders between 1870 and 1873. However, the family was never caught, managing to evade justice.

Their cabin was destroyed by souvenir hunters, and Susan Jonusas’s book, Hell’s Half-Acre: The Untold Story of the Benders, a Serial Killer Family on the American Frontier, explores their story in detail.

The Dnepropetrovsk Maniacs

Viktor Sayenko and Igor Suprunyuk, known as the Dnepropetrovsk Maniacs, committed a series of murders in Dnepropetrovsk, Ukraine, in June and July 2007. The 19-year-olds were charged with 21 murders and convicted of premeditated murder and animal cruelty.

Their victims included women, men, and children. Disturbingly, they recorded some of their murders, with one video leaking online. Sayenko and Suprunyuk received life imprisonment for their horrific crimes.

Described as thrill killings, the murders also involved robbery and enucleation, allegedly a twisted attempt to confront their phobias.

The Monster of Miramichi

Allan Joseph Legere, the “Monster of Miramichi,” was a Canadian rapist, arsonist, and serial killer convicted of murdering five people, as well as arson and rape. His first murder was John Glendenning, a store owner in Newcastle, New Brunswick, in June 1986.

Legere remained at large for seven months, committing four additional murders in and around Chatham, Newcastle, and neighboring communities. His victims included Annie Flam, sisters Linda and Donna Daughney, and Father James Smith.

After escaping from prison in 1989 and being on the run for several months before being recaptured, Legere was sentenced to life imprisonment without parole for 25 years. He died in custody at age 67 in 2015.

The Toybox Killer

David Parker Ray, known as “The Toybox Killer,” was an American serial killer and rapist active in the 1990s. Ray was convicted of kidnapping, rape, and torture, suspected of killing multiple women. He built a soundproofed torture chamber in a trailer on his property, which he called his “toy box.”

Ray would kidnap women and bring them to his torture chamber, where he would rape and torture them for days or weeks, drugging his victims and subjecting them to electric shocks, beatings, and sexual abuse.

Arrested in 1999 after one of his victims escaped, Ray was sentenced to 223 years in prison. His accomplices, Cindy Hendy and Roy Yancy, were also convicted for their roles. Ray died in custody on May 28, 2002.

The Fritzl Father

The Fritzl case involves Josef Fritzl, an Austrian man who imprisoned and sexually abused his daughter, Elisabeth, for 24 years. He began assaulting her when she was 11 years old.

In 1984, Fritzl lured Elisabeth into the basement of their family home, where he imprisoned her in a soundproofed room he had built. He repeatedly raped and sexually abused her, and she gave birth to seven children, one of whom died shortly after birth.

Fritzl’s crimes were discovered in 2008 when one of Elisabeth’s children became seriously ill. He was charged with multiple counts of rape, incest, false imprisonment, and murder by negligence, pleading guilty and receiving a life sentence. Elisabeth and her children were given new identities and relocated.

The Fritzl case led to the introduction of a new charge of enslavement into Austrian law to cover human trafficking and sparked debate over Europe’s penal system.

White Boy Rick

Richard Wershe Jr., known as “White Boy Rick,” is a former drug dealer and FBI informant. Wershe became involved in drug trafficking in Detroit during the 1980s and was arrested for cocaine possession at 17.

Recruited as an FBI informant at 14, he helped bring down corrupt Detroit cops and gang members. Wershe was sentenced to life in prison without parole for drug trafficking in 1988. His story is the subject of the 2018 movie White Boy Rick.

Wershe claimed the FBI and Detroit police groomed him and then double-crossed him. Released from prison in 2020 after serving 32 years, Wershe’s story has sparked debate over drug laws and the use of juveniles as informants.

The Toronto Killer

Bruce McArthur, a Canadian serial killer, murdered eight men in Toronto’s Gay Village between 2010 and 2017. McArthur was a former mall Santa Claus and a self-employed landscaper.

Arrested in January 2018, he pleaded guilty to eight counts of first-degree murder and was sentenced to life imprisonment with no parole eligibility for 25 years. His victims were mostly immigrants of Middle Eastern or South Asian descent, many from Toronto’s LGBTQ+ community.

McArthur used his landscaping business to conceal human remains, with eight bodies found buried in locations connected to him. His crimes led to the Toronto Police Service’s largest criminal investigation.

The Hinterkaifeck Murders

The Hinterkaifeck Murders occurred on March 31, 1922, when six residents of a small Bavarian farmstead were bludgeoned to death with a pickaxe. The victims were Andreas Gruber, his wife Cäzilia Gruber, their widowed daughter Viktoria Gabriel, Viktoria’s children Cäzilia and Josef, and the maid Maria Baumgartner.

Discovered on April 4, 1922, neighbors raised concern after not seeing the family for days. The killer(s) stayed on the farm after the murders, feeding livestock and eating food. Robbery was ruled out as a motive.

Despite dozens of interviews, no one was charged. The farm was demolished, and the Grubers were buried without their heads, which were lost during World War II. The case remains unsolved, with the Fürstenfeldbruck Police Academy reopening it as a cold case in 2007.

These true crime stories offer a haunting look into the darkness of humanity, leaving a lasting impact on those who delve into their grim details. From cannibalism to serial killers and unsolved mysteries, these tales are sure to linger in your mind.