The victims have largely been women with a history of sex work or addiction, and there have been a lot of them — in fact, the Chicago Police Department and the FBI are investigating no less than 51 unsolved murders, in an attempt to find out whether they might be the work of at least one serial killer. T he helter-skelter 1970s and ’80s are remembered as the serial killer’s. The FBI now says that serial killers account for. But thinks the number of active serial killers is more like.

1. Fbi Estimated Active Serial Killers
2. Fbi Active Serial Killers 2020
3. Fbi Estimated Active Serial Killers

Excerpted with permission fromWhy We Love Serial Killers: The Curious Appeal of the World’s Most Savage Murderers, by Scott Bonn. Skyhorse Publishing. Copyright © 2014.
Much of the general public’s knowledge concerning serial homicide is a product of sensationalized and stereotypical depictions of it in the news and entertainment media. Colorful story lines are written to pique the interest of audiences, not to paint an accurate picture of serial murder.
By focusing on the larger-than-life media images of socially constructed “celebrity monsters,” the public becomes captivated by the stylized presentation of the criminals rather than the reality of their crimes. Media stereotypes and hyperbole create myths and great distortions in the public consciousness regarding the true dynamics and patterns of serial murder in the U.S.
The Reality of Serial Homicide in the U.S.
Serial killings account for no more than 1 percent of all murders committed in the U.S. Based on recent FBI crime statistics, there are approximately 15,000 murders annually, so that means there are no more than 150 victims of serial murder in the U.S. in any given year.¹ The FBI estimates that there are between twenty-five and fifty serial killers operating throughout the U.S. at any given time.
If there are fifty, then each one is responsible for an average of three murders per year. Serial killers are always present in society. However, the statistics reveal that serial homicide is quite rare and it represents a small portion of all murders committed in the U.S.
Persistent misinformation, stereotypes and hyperbole presented in the media have combined with the relative rarity of serial murder cases to foster a number of popular myths about serial murder. The most common myths about serial killers encompass such factors as their race, gender, intelligence, living conditions and victim characteristics.
Myth #1: All Serial Killers Are Men.
Reality: This is simply not true but it is understandable why the public would hold this erroneous belief. As late as 1998, a highly regarded former FBI profiler said “there are no female serial killers.” The news and entertainment media also perpetuate the stereotypes that all serial offenders are male and that women do not engage in horrible acts of violence.
When the lethality of a femme fatale is presented in book or film, she is most often portrayed as the manipulated victim of a dominant male. This popular but stereotypical media image is consistent with traditional gender myths in society which claim that boys are aggressive by nature while girls are passive. In fact, both aggressiveness and passivity can be learned through socialization and they are not gender specific.
The reality concerning the gender of serial killers is quite different than the mythology of it. Although there have been many more male serial killers than females throughout history, the presence of female serial killers is well documented in the crime data. In fact, approximately 17 percent of all serial homicides in the U.S. are committed by women.² Interestingly, only 10 percent of total murders in the U.S. are committed by women. Therefore, relative to men, women represent a larger percentage of serial murders than all other homicide cases in the U.S. This is an important and revealing fact that defies the popular understanding of serial murder.
Myth #2: All Serial Killers Are Caucasian.
Reality: Contrary to popular mythology, not all serial killers are white. Serial killers span all racial and ethnic groups in the U.S. The racial diversity of serial killers generally mirrors that of the overall U.S. population. There are well documented cases of African-American, Latino and Asian-American serial killers. African-Americans comprise the largest racial minority group among serial killers, representing approximately 20 percent of the total. Significantly, however, only white, and normally male, serial killers such as Ted Bundy become popular culture icons.
Although they are not household names like their infamous white counterparts, examples of prolific racial minority serial killers are Coral Eugene Watts, a black man from Michigan, known as the “Sunday Morning Slasher,” who murdered at least seventeen women in Michigan and Texas; Anthony Edward Sowell, a black man known as the “Cleveland Strangler” who kidnapped, raped and murdered eleven women in Ohio; and Rafael Resendez-Ramirez, a Mexican national known as the “Railroad Killer,” who killed as many as fifteen men and women in Kentucky, Texas, and Illinois.
Myth #3:All Serial Killers Are Isolated and Dysfunctional Loners.
Reality: The majority of serial killers are not reclusive social misfits who live alone, despite pervasive depictions of them as such in the news and entertainment media, including the socially challenged “Tooth Fairy” serial killer in the film Red Dragon. Real-life serial killers are not the isolated monsters of fiction and, frequently, they do not appear to be strange or stand out from the public in any meaningful way.
Many serial killers are able to successfully hide out in plain sight for extended periods of time. Those who successfully blend in are typically also employed, have families and homes and outwardly appear to be non-threatening, normal members of society. Because serial killers can appear to be so innocuous, they are often overlooked by law enforcement officials, as well as their own families and peers.
In some rare cases, an unidentified serial killer will even socialize and become friendly with the unsuspecting police detectives who are tracking him. The incredible tale of Ed Kemper (the “Co-ed Killer”) provides an example of this phenomenon.
Serial killers who hide out in plain sight are able to do so precisely because they look just like everyone else. It is their ability to blend in that makes them very dangerous, frightening and yet very compelling to the general public.
Myth #4:All Serial Murderers Travel Widely and Kill Interstate.
Reality: The roaming, homicidal maniac such as Freddy Krueger in the cult film A Nightmare on Elm Street is another entertainment media stereotype that is rarely found in real life. Among the most infamous serial killers, Ted Bundy is the rare exception who traveled and killed interstate. Bundy twice escaped from police custody and committed at least thirty homicides in the states of Washington, Utah, Florida, Colorado, Oregon, Idaho and California. Articulate, educated, well-groomed and charming, Bundy was truly atypical among serial killers in his cross-country killing rampage.
Unlike Bundy, most serial killers have very well defined geographic areas of operation. They typically have a comfort zone—that is, an area that they are intimately familiar with and where they like to stalk and kill their prey. Jack the Ripper provides the classic example of this geographic preference because he stalked and killed exclusively in the small Whitechapel district of London in the fall of 1888.
The comfort zone of a serial killer is often defined by an anchor point such as a place of residence or employment. Crime statistics reveal that serial killers are most likely to commit their first murder very close to their place of residence due to the comfort and familiarity it offers them. John Wayne Gacy “The Killer Clown” buried most of his thirty-three young, male victims in the crawl space beneath his house after sexually assaulting and murdering them.
Serial killers sometimes return to commit murder in an area they know well from the past such as the community in which they were raised. Over time, serial murderers may extend their activities outside of their comfort zone but only after building their confidence by executing several successful murders while avoiding detection by law enforcement authorities.
As noted by the FBI in its 2005 report on serial murder, the crime data reveal that very few serial predators actually travel interstate to kill.³ The few serial killers who do travel interstate to kill typically fall into one of three categories: 1) Itinerant individuals who periodically move from place to place; 2) Chronically homeless individuals who live transiently; or 3) Individuals whose job function lends itself to interstate or transnational travel such as truck drivers or those in the military service.
The major difference between these individuals who kill serially and other serial murderers is the nature of their traveling lifestyle which provides them with many zones of comfort in which to operate. Most serial killers do not have such opportunities to travel and keep their killings close to home.
Myth #5: All Serial Killers Are Either Mentally Ill Or Evil Geniuses.
Reality: The images presented in the news and entertainment media suggest that serial killers either have a debilitating mental illness such as psychosis or they are brilliant but demented geniuses like Dr. Hannibal Lecter. Neither of these two stereotypes is quite accurate. Instead, serial killers are much more likely to exhibit antisocial personality disorders such as sociopathy or psychopathy, which are not considered to be mental illnesses by the American Psychiatric Association (APA). An examination of psychopathy and sociopathy, and a discussion of the powerful connection between antisocial personality disorders and serial homicide is presented in chapter 4.
In fact, very few serial killers suffer from any mental illness to such a debilitating extent that they are considered to be insane by the criminal justice system. To be classified as legally insane, an individual must be unable to comprehend that an action is against the law at the exact moment the action is undertaken. In other words, a serial killer must be unaware that murder is legally wrong while committing the act of murder in order to be legally insane. This legal categorization of insanity is so stringent and narrow that very few serial killers are actually included in it.
Psychopathic serial killers such as John Wayne Gacy and Dennis Rader are entirely aware of the illegality of murder while they are in the process of killing their victims. Their understanding of right and wrong does nothing to impede their crimes, however, because psychopaths such as Gacy and Rader have an overwhelming desire and compulsion to kill that causes them to ignore the criminal law with impunity.
When they are apprehended, serial killers rarely are determined to be mentally incompetent to stand trial and their lawyers rarely utilize an insanity defense on their behalf. Once again, this is due to the extremely narrow legal definition of insanity which simply does not apply to most psychopathic killers. Even David Berkowitz, the infamous Son of Sam, who told his captors tales of satanic rituals and demonic possession, was found to be competent to stand trial for his murders following his arrest in 1977.
Considerable mythology also surrounds the intelligence of serial killers. There is a popular culture stereotype that serial killers are cunning, criminal geniuses. This stereotype is heavily promoted by the entertainment media in television, books and films. In particular, Hollywood has established a number of brilliant homicidal maniacs like John Doe in the acclaimed 1995 film Se7en. John Doe personifies the stereotype of the evil genius serial killer who outsmarts law enforcement authorities, avoids justice and succeeds in his diabolical plan.
The image of the evil genius serial killer is mostly a Hollywood invention. Real serial killers generally do not possess unique or exceptional intellectual skills. The reality is that most serial killers who have had their IQ tested score between borderline and above average intelligence. This is very consistent with the general population. Contrary to mythology, it is not high intelligence that makes serial killers successful. Instead, it is obsession, meticulous planning and a cold-blooded, often psychopathic personality that enable serial killers to operate over long periods of time without detection.
¹ Uniform Crime Report. 2011. Retrieved http://www.fbi.gov/about-us/cjis/ucr/crime-in-the-u.s/2011/crime-in-the-u.s.-2011/violent-crime/murder
² Hickey, E. W. 1997. Serial Murderersand Their Victims. Belmont, Calf.: Wadsworth.
³ Morton, R. J. 2005. Serial Murder: Multi-Disciplinary Perspectives for Investigators. National Center for the Analysis of Violent Crime. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Department of Justice. Retrieved http://www.fbi.gov/stats-services/publications/serial-murder

Serial killers are terrifying, just ask Hollywood. But what's extra-super terrifying is a serial killer who doesn't get caught. The FBI says there are between 25 and 50 active serial killers in the United States at any given time, and there probably isn't even a real Dexter trying to take them all out. So the best we can do is educate ourselves, avoid certain situations, and know which ones might be coming to get us. Good luck to us all.

The Original Night Stalker

If you're going to be a serial killer, you should have a slick name like 'The Night Stalker.' The name was so slick that some other serial killer copied it.

There were two serial killers called 'The Night Stalker.' Night Stalker II was Richard Ramirez, who killed 14 people in California in 1985 and liked to leave Satanic symbols at his crime scenes, just to make himself even more terrifying. Happily, he was apprehended with a year, and he died in prison in 2013 at the age of 53.

The Original Night Stalker, now called the Golden State Killer, was also operating in California — he is believed to have killed at least 12 people between 1976 and 1986 alone. According to the Sacramento Bee, he was fond of class rings and liked to steal them from his victims. He frequently tied his victims up before killing them, sometimes with intricate knots, and used a variety of murder weapons. The trail was cold for a long time, but in April 2018 Sacramento police arrested Joseph James DeAngelo, a former cop who still lived in the area where many of the crimes took place. CNN reported that DNA linked DeAngelo to several of the crimes, and in August Rolling Stone noted that he has been charged in connection with 13 rapes and 13 murders. If he's found guilty, this long nightmare might finally have some closure. Like all accused criminals in the U.S., DeAngelo is innocent until proven guilty.

The Colonial Parkway killer

If you've ever been on a road trip and late one night, you really, really had to pee, and you saw a rest stop and thought to yourself, 'I'll just go there,' don't. Use that empty Gatorade bottle instead. There's a reason that rest stop looks terrifying at night ... because it is.

According to the Huffington Post, between 1986 and 1989 a serial killer targeted couples traveling on Virginia's Colonial Parkway late at night. Okay, so most of the victims weren't attacked at rest stops, but they were all traveling on the scenic road that connects some of Virginia's most popular landmarks. Some of the victims' cars were abandoned with the driver's side windows rolled down and the glove boxes opened, as if the victims had been approached by someone they thought was law enforcement and they were getting ready to hand over their car's registration.

Eight people died along the Colonial Parkway, always in pairs and roughly one each year until the killings abruptly ended in 1989. And even though the FBI has a list of 130 suspects, it's still no closer to apprehending the Colonial Parkway killer.

The Monster of Florence

Let's just call him 'Il Mostro di Firenze' because everything sounds less terrifying when you say it in Italian. This killer was active between 1974 and 1985, and he always targeted couples, though his motive and MO were extra-specially horrible: he killed only couples who were getting busy outside their homes — a common practice in Italy, where young people usually live with their parents until marriage. And because just killing people isn't horrible enough, he also mutilated the women's bodies, cutting off their genitals with a surgical precision that led police to suspect that he was someone with a medical background.

According to The Atlantic, more than 100,000 men were investigated in connection with the murders, which by the way is just over one quarter of the entire current population of Florence. It was the most expensive investigation in Italy's history, but police never closed the case. They made several arrests, but either had the wrong man or had captured a killer who was adept at escaping, murdering additional people, and then sneaking back into custody undetected.

The killings ceased in 1985, but that didn't end police obsession with the crimes. They were still arresting suspects in 2004 and were still coming up with wild theories, which usually included Satan worship because there always has to be Satan worship in there somewhere. (Thanks, Night Stalker II.) Despite all the effort, Il Mostro di Firenze has not been captured.

The Zodiac KIller

The Zodiac Killer is not only one of the most notorious serial killers of all time, he's also one of the most notorious serial killers who was never caught.

Active in California in the late '60s and early '70s, Zodiac got his name from ... himself, which is a seriously lame way to get an awesome serial killer name, but maybe he was just tired of waiting for the media to come up with something good. According to Bustle, the moniker first appeared in a letter he sent to a local newspaper, which also included a bunch of cryptograms that were supposed to reveal his identity, provided they could be deciphered.

Get ready because the Zodiac Killer's MO is going to seem eerily familiar: He targeted couples sitting in parked cars, so if that teaches you anything it's that you should never be a couple sitting in a parked car. Zodiac left a couple of survivors and witnesses who were able to describe him, but it wasn't enough for an arrest.

Zodiac enjoyed taunting police with letters detailing his crimes, but only five murders can be definitively attributed to him. He liked to claim there were many more, though — in one letter he wrote 'Me = 37, SFPD = 0.' Though a few suspects have emerged, no one knows for sure who the Zodiac really was or if he's still out there.

The I-70 killer

In April 1992, a 26-year-old clerk was shot to death in the Indianapolis store where she worked. Three days later, two female store clerks were shot at a Wichita, Kansas, bridal shop. Three weeks after that, the victim was the 24-year-old manager of a boot shop in St. Charles, Missouri. Each of the three crime scenes was in a different state, but they were all in shopping malls off Interstate 70. All the victims were murdered with the same gun, probably a semi-automatic .22-caliber pistol.

In May of that same year, the killer murdered a 37-year-old woman working at a gift shop in a mall. He'd also killed a 40-year-old man working at a ceramics store. In 1993 and 1994 there were three more murders in Texas, which police have also linked to the I-70 killer.

So besides the obvious lesson here, that you should never take a job as a store clerk at a shopping mall located just off Interstate 70, you should probably also not be a brunette female working as a store clerk at a shopping mall located just off Interstate 70. According to Vox Magazine, five of the first six victims were brunette women, and the sixth might have been mistaken for a woman because of his ponytail.

The killings stopped after 1994, but no one has ever been definitively identified as the I-70 killer.

The West Mesa Bone Collector

There are lots of very good reasons not to become a lady of the night, but one of the best is that they're often targeted by serial killers, mostly because they are less likely to be missed by friends and family. Also, going places with strange men is kind of a part of the job description.

According to the City of Albuquerque, that was pretty much the rough outline of the Bone Collector's plan — this modern serial killer buried at least 11 women and girls in a mesa on the outskirts of Albuquerque, New Mexico between 2001 and 2005. All but one of the victims was involved prostitution, and the one who wasn't was in the company of a person who was involved in prostitution. The remains of the 11 women (plus an unborn baby, for extra awfulness) weren't discovered until 2009, which means the killer either decided to give up his hobby or he moved away and set up serial killer shop somewhere else.

So don't sell yourself, don't work in a mall off Interstate 70, don't be a brunette, and don't kiss anyone in a parked car. That pretty much covers it. So far.

The Frankford Slasher

Between 1985 and 1990, someone raped and murdered nine women in Philadelphia, most of whom spent time in bars along Frankford Avenue. The really bizarre thing about this killer was his brazenness. According to CBS 3 in Philadelphia, he even rented an office in a church in order to establish himself as a professional counselor, though he stopped short of using a giveaway name like 'Frank the problem slasher' or a catchy slogan like 'I'll end your troubles ... for good.'

The Frankford Slasher gained the trust of troubled bar patrons, and then took them out and killed them. Some of their bodies would turn up in apartments, while others were discarded in weird places like under a car or in a train yard.

Police had a suspect who abruptly moved away before an arrest could be made, and that person died a couple of years later. Of course that doesn't mean the case is closed — unless someone comes forward with damning evidence, the Frankford Slasher could still be on the prowl, or maybe sitting in his own little office in a church in your hometown. How's that for terrifying?

The February 9 killer

Between 2006 and 2008, Utah was home to a killer with a particularly bizarre MO — he would enter women's apartments and strangle them, but only on February 9. There were only two murders, which a crime lab linked using DNA evidence, but for at least a few years after the murders that February 9 date was enough to make people deadbolt their doors, or better yet, book a little February getaway to neighboring Moab for some sightseeing, hiking, and not getting killed-ing.

After the second murder the killer either lost his nerve or found a new hobby — police were on high alert and that might have been enough to convince him to not be a killer anymore, or at least to go to some other neighborhood and be a killer there. According to the FBI, there's really no way to know for sure — contrary to what you've probably heard, it's not always true that a serial killer will just keep on killing until being caught or dying. Some will find substitutions for murder and some just find it too difficult to keep up given the other stuff in their lives, you know, like hanging out with family and stamp collecting. So maybe the February 9 killer retired. Or maybe he didn't. Either way, it's probably not a bad idea to keep your doors locked on February 9, just in case.

Stoneman

Serial killers aren't just a product of Western culture and Showtime; they can lurk almost anywhere. In the mid- to late 1980s, a killer dubbed 'Stoneman' was busy in urban India. His victims were homeless people sleeping alone on the streets, and his murder weapons were concrete blocks or stones, sometimes weighing up to 65 pounds, which he would use to crush his victims' heads. According to India TV, he killed 12 people in Mumbai between 1985 and 1988 and then moved to Calcutta, where he killed another 12 people in a single year, although police can't be sure the Calcutta murders were the work of the same person as the Mumbai murders — it's possible that a copycat took over where the original killer had left off.

It wasn't until the seventh victim died in Calcutta that police really started trying to find the killer — at one point they even disguised undercover agents as sleeping homeless people, which frankly sounds like the most terrifying assignment of all time.

The killings stopped after police started arresting people, but investigators were never able to prove the killer's identity, so all suspects had to be released. That might have been just enough to scare the Stoneman into retirement because he never struck again.

The flat tire murderer

Also known as the 'Tooth Fairy Killer,' which must have really annoyed him, the Flat Tire Murderer terrorized women in southern Florida for roughly one year, between February 1975 and January 1976. He typically posed as a good Samaritan, offering assistance to women with flat tires ... which he had deflated himself while their cars were parked in commercial parking lots. According to criminal profiler Chelsea Hoffman, once he gained his victims' trust, he killed them with a variety of different weapons: guns, hammer, ice-picks, and more. Some of the women were so badly beaten that they remain unidentified decades after the killer ended his terrifying spree.

Not to be confused with the Tooth Fairy Killer Francis Dolarhyde in the third season of Hannibal or The Tooth Fairy Killer that Dexter took out in Season 6, the Flat Tire Murderer earned the extra-special nickname 'Tooth Fairy Killer' because he often pulled out his victims' teeth, presumably to stop police from identifying them.

Eerily, there were a bunch of similar murders from California to Massachusetts between 1971 and 1996, and no one can say for sure if the same killer was responsible. It could be that he's a really well-traveled killer or more likely, it could just be that it's insanely easy to kill people by flattening their tires and then offering to help. Either way, this is a pretty terrifying story that doesn't have an ending, and that sucks for everyone.

Hwaseong serial killer

In 1986 a woman was found dead in a rice field outside of Hwaseong City in South Korea. She'd been raped and strangled and bound with her own clothing. Not long after that, a second woman was found in pretty much the same state, and by 1991 the total number of victims was 10.

The investigation rivaled the Monster of Florence in its scale, with more than 20,000 suspects, 40,000 fingerprints, 570 DNA samples, and 180 hair samples. But after a 69-year-old woman was murdered in a similar way in 1991, the killer retired and the police were no closer to finding answers.

In an especially sucky twist, the law said that murderers in South Korea could only be prosecuted up to 15 years after the crime, and that 15-year window closed in 2006. But the statute of limitations for first-degree murder was extended to 25 years in 2007 and then abolished altogether in 2015, according to AFP. Thank goodness for progress.

Connecticut River Valley Killer

In 1997, a paraplegic named Gary Westover made a startling deathbed confession. Years earlier, he'd been forced to witness the abduction and murder of a woman in Vermont. He gave some details and the names of the murderers to his uncle, who dutifully handed the information over to law enforcement. Then law enforcement dropped the ball.

Fbi Estimated Active Serial Killers

Westover and his uncle are both dead now, and no one can find the information that might have helped identify a serial killer, or in this case, serial killers. Called 'The Connecticut River Valley Killer,' this person or persons murdered at least seven people between 1978 and 1989. The women were stabbed to death, and their bodies were usually dumped in the woods.

According to the Tampa Bay Times, there are suspects — in particular, a man named Michael Nicholaou, who killed himself, his estranged wife, and his step-daughter in 2005. Nicholaou had been under some suspicion for the disappearance of his first wife in 1988. And the killer's last victim — the only one who survived — saw a photo of him and identified him as her attacker. But just like so many other cases of retired serial killers, there's really no way to know for sure. The only known piece of evidence that might definitively connect Nicholaou to the Connecticut River Valley killings is the one Gary Westover gave to the police — the one that no one can seem to find. Nice work, authorities.

The Honolulu Strangler

InfoBarrel calls this dude 'Hawaii's first-ever serial killer,' as if the accomplishment were on par with Hawaii's first-ever golf champion or its first-ever celebrity chef. It's frankly a pretty weird descriptor for a guy who kills people for fun, but okay. The Honolulu strangler killed at least five women between 1985 and 1986, and his MO was always exactly the same. He bound his victims' hands behind their backs, then raped and strangled them.

Here's what happened next: Police arrested a guy whose girlfriend and ex-wife both said he liked to tie their hands behind their backs while they would do the horizontal tango. Even more damning, the man's girlfriend told police that the murders occurred on nights when he'd gone out after a lover's quarrel.

Fbi Active Serial Killers 2020

The suspect even failed a polygraph test, but polygraphs aren't admissible evidence, so police had to let him go. And after that, the murders stopped. It's okay, though, if Hawaii is lucky maybe one day it'll get its 'second-ever serial killer,' which should be awesome for everyone, but not really.

Fbi Estimated Active Serial Killers

So to sum up, don't sell yourself, don't work in a mall off Interstate 70, don't be a brunette, don't kiss anyone in a parked car, don't go anywhere with therapists you meet in bars, don't open your door on February 9, don't sleep on the streets of Calcutta, don't get a flat tire, and mostly just don't be female. That ought to protect you from becoming a serial killer's victim. But not really.