Hidden Horrors: 10 Serial Killers Beyond the Headlines

When we think of serial killers, names like Ted Bundy or Jeffrey Dahmer quickly come to mind. Their horrifying deeds are widely known through books, documentaries, and movies. But for every infamous killer, there are many others whose evil acts have faded from public memory, or never reached it at all. This list explores ten such figures. It’s important to remember these stories, not to glorify the perpetrators, but to acknowledge the victims and understand the true depth of human cruelty. We remember the victims, known and unknown, and hope they rest in peace.

10. William Suff

William Suff, also known as “The Riverside Prostitute Killer,” terrified Riverside County, California, between 1989 and 1991. In 1984, he began working as a warehouse clerk in California, having moved from Texas. At the time, Suff was on parole. He had served 10 years of a 70-year sentence for the 1974 beating death of his two-month-old daughter. People described him as “mild-mannered” and “quiet,” a common observation for many serial killers.

Suff primarily targeted prostitutes in Riverside County and Lake Elsinore who were addicted to heroin. He brutally murdered his victims, often mutilating their bodies and posing them after death. He was responsible for the deaths of 12 women, mainly through strangulation or stabbing. His death penalty conviction from 1995 was upheld in 2014.

9. Peter Moore

In the winter of 1995, over a three-month span, Peter Moore, born in England, murdered four men in North Wales. He would lure his victims with the promise of a sexual encounter, only to stab them to death mercilessly. For two decades prior, Moore had also assaulted and raped men across the region and in Merseyside, England, totaling 39 attacks.

Initially, he tried to blame the killings on a fictional lover he named “Jason,” possibly a nod to the character from the Friday the 13th horror films, a chilling detail considering Moore operated a cinema. After his conviction and life sentence without possibility of release, Moore, when asked for his motive, chillingly replied, “For fun.” Even in prison, he remained unsettling, befriending Dr. Harold Shipman, Britain’s most notorious serial killer, until Shipman’s suicide in 2004.

8. Rasu Khan

In July 2009, police in Tongi township, Bangladesh, arrested a man for stealing a fan from a mosque. This petty thief, Rasu Khan (also called “Roshu”), soon confessed to something far more sinister. He admitted to binding, raping, and murdering Shahida Begum, a garment factory worker, on August 18, 2008.

But his confession didn’t end there. Khan also admitted to killing ten other women. While specific details on all these crimes are limited, Khan stated his motive clearly: he aimed to “kill 101 women and then spend the rest of his life as an ascetic in a Sylhet shrine,” after assaulting those he “found attractive.” Khan was sentenced to death and, as of 2015, was reportedly still on death row.

7. Emile Dubois

Figures like “Robin Hood” often capture public imagination, and Franco-Chilean serial killer Emile Dubois is a dark example. Dubois fled France due to poverty and the country’s defeat in the Franco-Prussian war. His journey across the globe involved various crimes before he eventually settled in Valparaiso, Chile.

There, he operated as a con man, gaining the trust of wealthy businessmen before robbing and murdering them. His spree ended in 1905 when he attempted to stab Charles Davies, a 70-year-old English dentist. Dubois expected the apartment to be empty, but Davies was home. After a violent struggle, Dubois fled, leaving Davies injured but able to alert authorities. Police found a diary at Dubois’s home detailing his victims, stolen goods, and burglary tools. He was executed by firing squad in 1907. Surprisingly, many in Chilean literary circles were swayed by Dubois’s charm, and his grave in Valparaiso became a kind of shrine.

6. Ramadan Abdel Rehim Mansour aka “al-Tourbini”

Ramadan Mansour, known as “al-Tourbini,” was the menacing leader of an Egyptian street gang. He had a horrifying habit of brutally raping and murdering young boys, acts he committed as a supposed perk of his status on the streets of Cairo. When a 12-year-old boy, Ahmed Nagui, reported Mansour after an assault attempt, the case was dismissed for lack of evidence. Mansour then punished the boy by raping and killing him. He did this to at least 31 other children.

His nickname, “al-Tourbini,” roughly translates to “express train,” as many of his crimes occurred near railways. Before his execution by hanging in 2010, a disturbing phenomenon of hero worship emerged among some Egyptians. Similar to the strange admiration for Japanese cannibal Issei Sagawa, some business owners in Mansour’s hometown of Tanta even used the “al-Tourbini” name for their establishments.

5. The North Kanto Kidnapper

Japan is often seen as a country of precision and efficiency. However, its policing and legal systems have faced criticism, particularly in a series of child abductions and murders that occurred between 1979 and 1996 in the North Kanto region. The first victim was five-year-old Maya Fukushima, who vanished from a shrine near her Ashikaga home. Her body was found stripped and placed in a rucksack by the Watarase River.

Other victims included Yumi Hasebe (5), Tomoko Oosawa (8), and Mami Matsuda (4). Another child, Yukari Yokoyama (4), went missing in 1996 and has never been found. Police investigations were heavily criticized. Toshikazu Sugaya was convicted for Mami Matsuda’s murder based on flawed DNA evidence and was released in 2009 after 17 years. Crucial DNA evidence on Mami’s underwear, which could identify the real killer, was reportedly withheld by police, hindering true justice for the victims and their families.

4. The Ratcliff Highway Murders

In London, 1811, a series of brutal attacks shocked the city. The first occurred on December 7th, targeting the Marr family who lived above their draper’s shop in London’s docklands. Timothy Marr, his wife Celia, their infant son Timothy, apprentice James Gowan, and maid Margaret Jewell were all slaughtered with a shipwright’s hammer.

Twelve days later, a second attack took place at the King’s Arms Tavern. The proprietors, John and Elizabeth Williamson, and their maid Bridget Harrington, were found dead. Their heads were crushed with an iron crowbar, and their throats were slit. The primary suspect, John Williams, a sailor, committed suicide while awaiting trial. However, evidence against him was largely circumstantial and possibly coerced or obtained through bribery. These gruesome events, though terrifying, are often overshadowed by the more infamous Whitechapel slayings that occurred 70 years later, attributed to Jack the Ripper.

3. Adolf Seefeldt aka “The Sandman”

Adolf Seefeldt, also known as “The Sandman,” was an evil figure from Germany active between 1933 and 1935. He lured at least twelve young boys into pine forests, where he abused and then killed them. The exact method of their deaths remains unclear; he might have poisoned them with an untraceable substance or left them in a hypnotic state to die from exposure.

A particularly chilling detail is that every victim was found dressed in a sailor suit, a common attire for boys in the early 20th century. Seefeldt was eventually caught and executed by beheading for his heinous crimes. His deeds add another dark stain to a name already infamous in history.

2. The Frankford Slasher

Between 1985 and 1990, a brutal serial killer known as the “Frankford Slasher” haunted North Philadelphia. This elusive predator raped and stabbed eight or nine female victims. The uncertainty in the victim count stems from the arrest of Leonard Christopher for the 1990 murder of Carol Dowd, 46. While Christopher was imprisoned, another similar attack occurred, victimizing 30-year-old Michelle Dehner.

This raises questions: Was Dowd not a victim of the Slasher after all? Or was Christopher indeed the killer, and Dehner the target of a copycat? The other victims were Helen Patent (52), Anna Carroll (68), Suzanna Olszef (64), Jeanne Durkin (28), Catherine M. Jones (29), Margaret Vaughan (66), and Theresa Sciortino (30). The true identity of the Frankford Slasher remains a mystery, leaving the case largely unsolved.

1. Juan Fernando Hermosa

In the early 1990s, Quito, Ecuador, was plagued by a violent gang known as “The Terror Gang.” What made this situation particularly disturbing was that its members were children, aged between 15 and 16. The gang was led by Juan Fernando Hermosa, who, over a four-month period, killed 22 people.

He committed these murders using a 9mm pistol during armed robberies and carjackings with his gang. Some victims were killed because Hermosa disliked them, while others were killed seemingly at random. While incarcerated, Hermosa persuaded his girlfriend to smuggle a handgun into the juvenile detention center, which he used to murder a guard during a successful escape. He was eventually recaptured and served his remarkably short four-year sentence, being released around his twentieth birthday. However, Hermosa’s freedom was brief; his body was later found beaten, mutilated, and shot near the Aguarico River in Ecuador’s Sucumbíos province.

These ten individuals represent a dark, often overlooked, chapter in criminal history. Remembering their crimes, and more importantly, their victims, is a somber but necessary task. By bringing these stories to light, we ensure that even the forgotten are not truly lost to time, and we remain vigilant against the potential for such inhumanity. The shadows of history hold many such tales, urging us to learn and remember.

What are your thoughts on these cases? Do you know of other lesser-known serial killers whose stories should be shared? Leave your comment below.