10. David and Catherine Birnie, Australia.
David John Birnie (16 February 1951 – 7 October 2005) and Catherine Margaret Birnie (born 23 May 1951) were an Australian husband and wife pair of serial killers from Perth, Australia. They murdered four women ranging in age from 15 to 31 in their home in the 1980s, and attempted to murder a fifth. These crimes were referred to in the press as the Moorhouse murders, after the Birnies' address at 3 Moorhouse Street in Willagee, a suburb of Perth, Western Australia. David Birnie was found dead in his cell at Casuarina Prison on 7 October 2005. He had committed suicide by hanging; he was due to appear in court for the rape of a fellow prisoner the next day. Catherine Birnie is imprisoned in Bandyup Women's Prison, where she was formerly the head librarian. She was barred from attending David's funeral; an application for parole in 2007 was rejected, and the then Attorney-General of Western Australia, Jim McGinty, said that her release was unlikely while he remained in office. Proven victims 4, possible victims 4-8.
9. Gert van Rooyen and Joey Haarhof, South Africa.
Cornelius Gerhardus van Rooyen ('Gert' "Bokkie" van Rooyen) was an alleged South African paedophile and serial killer although never convicted who, together with his female partner Joey Haarhof, abducted and apparently murdered at least six young girls between 1988 and 1989.Their victims were never found as the pair, it was said, apparently, committed suicide when faced with arrest after the escape of their last kidnap victim. On 11 January 1990, sixteen-year old Joan Booysen of Pretoria was abducted by Haarhoff in Church Square, Pretoria. She was taken to Van Rooyen's home in Malherbe Street, Capital Park where she was handcuffed, drugged and sexually assaulted before being locked in a cupboard. It is likely that Van Rooyen thought the small girl was younger than she was. She managed to escape and alert the police who placed the home under surveillance, and four days later, identified Van Rooyen when he drove past his house in a white Ford pickup that matched the description of a vehicle used in one of the abductions. Van Rooyen shot Haarhoff with a .22 revolver and himself with a high powered .357 revolver. Proven victims 6, possible victims 8.
8. Leonard Lake and Charles Ng, United States.
Leonard Lake October 29, 1945 – June 6, 1985 was an American serial killer and Charles Chi-Tat Ng born December 24, 1960 is a Chinese-American serial killer. Lake often used the alias Leonard Hill. The crimes he committed with Charles Ng became known when Lake committed suicide by taking a cyanide pill shortly after being arrested for a firearms offense. On June 2, 1985, an Asian man—later identified as Charles Ng—was seen shoplifting in South San Francisco. He fled by the time police arrived, but Lake, who was with him, was arrested when a .22 revolver with an illegally equipped silencer was found in his car. Lake identified himself as "Robin Stapley" and presented a driver's license in that name. Police were suspicious because, according to the driver's license, Stapley was 26 while the man they had in custody was clearly in his late-30's. While being interviewed at the police station, Lake asked for a glass of water and used it to swallow a hidden cyanide pill. Lake collapsed and was rushed to a hospital, where he went into a coma. He survived on life support machines for four days before being pronounced dead and after a lengthy dispute between Canada and the United States, Ng was extradited to California and was convicted of 11 murders. He is currently on death row at San Quentin State Prison.. Proven victims 11, possible victims 25.
7. Fred and Rosemary West, England.
Frederick Walter Stephen West born 29 September 1941 and Rosemary Pauline "Rose" West (née Letts) born 29 November, 1953, in Barnstaple, Devon, both known was a British serial killer. Between 1967 and 1987, he and his wife Rosemary, tortured, raped and murdered at least 11 young women and girls, many at the couple's homes. Rosemary West also murdered Fred's stepdaughter (his first wife's biological daughter) Charmaine, while he was serving a prison sentence for theft. The majority of the murders occurred between May 1973 and August 1979 at their home in 25 Cromwell Street, Gloucester. The house was demolished in 1996 and the space converted into a landscaped footpath connecting Cromwell Street to St. Michaels Square. On 1 January 1995, Fred West hanged himself while on remand in his cell at Winson Green Prison, Birmingham. His funeral was held in Coventry on 29 March 1995. West was cremated with the only five mourners being two of his daughters, one son with his wife and a family friend. The Sun newspaper pictured the five attendees on its front page. The circumstantial evidence against Rosemary West was overwhelming. She went on trial in October 1995, nine months after her husband's suicide. He had hanged himself in Winson Green Prison with a knotted bed-sheet on January first of that year, despite being on suicide watch. Proven victims 12, possible victims 20.
6. Surender Koli and Moninder Singh Pandher, India.
The Noida serial murders (also Nithari serial murders, Nithari Kand) took place in the house of businessman Moninder Singh Pandher in Nithari, India in 2005 and 2006. At present his servant Surender Koli has been convicted of four murders and sentenced to death. 12 murders remain officially unsolved pending further legal proceedings. On September 10, 2009, The Allahabad high court acquitted Moninder Singh Pandher and overturned his death sentence. He was not named a main suspect by investigators initially, but was summoned as co-accused during the trial. Pandher faces trial in five cases out of the remaining 12, and could be re-sentenced to death if found guilty in any of those killings. The same day Pandher was acquitted, the Allahabad high court upheld the death sentence for Surender Koli, former domestic servant of Pandher. Proven victims 19, possible victims 30+.
5. Igor Suprunyuck and Viktor Sayenko, Ukraine.
The Dnepropetrovsk Maniacs is the media epithet for the killers responsible for a string of brutal murders in Dnipropetrovsk, Ukraine in June and July 2007. The case gained additional notoriety because the killers made video recordings of some of the murders, with one of the videos leaking to the Internet. Two 19-year-old locals, Viktor Sayenko and Igor Suprunyuck, were arrested and charged with 21 murders. A third conspirator, Alexander Hanzha, was charged with two armed robberies that took place before the murder spree. On February 11, 2009, all three defendants were found guilty. Suprunyuck and Sayenko were sentenced to life imprisonment, while Hanzha received nine years in prison. The lawyers for Suprunyuck and Sayenko launched an appeal, which was dismissed by the Supreme Court of Ukraine in November 2009.
On February 11, 2009, the court in Dnipropetrovsk found Igor Suprunyuck and Viktor Sayenko guilty of premeditated murder and sentenced both to life imprisonment. Suprunyuck was found guilty of 21 murders, Sayenko of 18." They also received fifteen years sentences after being found guilty on the robbery charges. Alexander Hanzha, who was not involved in the killings, was found guilty of robbery and sentenced to nine years in prison. Proven victims 21, possible victims 21.
4. Dean Corll, David Owen Brooks and Elmer Wayne Henley, United States.
Dean Arnold Corll born December 24, 1939 was an American serial killer, also known as the "Candy Man" and the "Pied Piper" who, together with two youthful accomplices named David Brooks and Elmer Wayne Henley, abducted, raped, tortured and murdered a minimum of 28 boys in a series of killings spanning from 1970 to 1973 in Houston, Texas. The crimes, which became known as the Houston Mass Murders, came to light only after Henley shot and killed Corll. Corll was known as both the Candy Man and the Pied Piper because he and his family had owned and operated a candy factory in the Heights and he had been known to give free candy to local children. At the time of their discovery, the Houston Mass Murders were considered the worst example of serial murder in American history. Elmer Wayne Henley and David Owen Brooks were tried separately for their roles in the murders. Henley was brought to trial in San Antonio on July 1, 1974, charged with six murders committed between March 1972 and July 1973. Henley was sentenced to six consecutive 99-year terms a total of 594 years for each of the murders for which he was charged and David Brooks' trial lasted less than one week. The jury deliberated for just 90 minutes before they reached a verdict. He was found guilty of Lawrence's murder on March 4, 1975, and sentenced to life imprisonment. Proven victims 28, possible victims 42+.
2. Susi Olah & Julia Fazekas, Hungary.
"The Angel Makers of Nagyrév" were a group of women living in the village of Nagyrév, Hungary who between 1914 and 1929 poisoned to death an estimated 300 people (however, Béla Bodó puts the number of victims at 45-50). They were supplied arsenic and encouraged to use it for the purpose by a midwife or "wise woman" named Júlia Fazekas and her accomplice Susi Oláh (Zsuzsanna Oláh). Their story is the subject of the documentary film The Angelmakers and the movie Hukkle. Three conflicting accounts have been cited to explain how the Angel Makers were eventually detected. In one, Mrs. Szabó, one of the Angel Makers, was caught in the act by two visitors who survived her poisoning attempts. She fingered a Mrs. Bukenoveski, who named Fazekas. In another account, a medical student in a neighboring town found high arsenic levels in a body that washed up on the riverbank, leading to an investigation. However, according to Béla Bodó, a Hungarian-American historian and author of the first scholarly book on the subject, the murders were finally made public in 1929 when an anonymous letter to the editor of a small local newspaper accused women from the Tiszazug region of the country of poisoning family members. The authorities exhumed dozens of corpses from the local cemetery. 34 women and one man were indicted. Afterwards, 26 of the Angel Makers were tried, among them Susi Oláh. Eight were sentenced to death but only two were executed. Another 12 received prison sentences. Proven victims 91, possible victims 300+.
1. Delfina and María de Jesús González, Mexico.
Delfina and María de Jesús González known as "Las Poquianchis" were two sisters from the Mexican state of Guanajuato, located some 200 miles north of Mexico City. During the 1950s through the mid-1960s, the sisters ran Rancho El Ángel, called the "bordello from hell" in San Francisco del Rincón. The police picked up a woman named Josefina Gutiérrez, a procuress, on suspicion of kidnapping young girls in the Guanajuato area, and during questioning, she implicated the two sisters. Police officers searched the sisters' property and found the bodies of 11 men, 80 women and several fetuses, a total of over 91. Investigations revealed the scheme was that they would recruit prostitutes through help-wanted ads; though the ads would state the girls
would become maids for the two sisters. Many of the girls were force fed heroin or cocaine. Then when the prostitutes became too ill, damaged by repeated sexual activity, lost their looks, or stopped pleasing the customers, they killed them. They would also kill customers who showed up with large amounts of cash.
When asked for an explanation for the deaths, one of the sisters reportedly said, "The food didn't agree with them." Tried in 1964, the González sisters were each sentenced to 40 years in prison. In prison, Delfina died due to an accident, and Maria finished her sentence and dropped out of sight after her release. Although they are often cited as the killers, there were two other sisters who helped in their crimes, Carmen and Maria Luisa. Carmen died in jail due to cancer; Maria Luisa went mad because she feared that she would be killed by angry protesters. The sisters were the subject of the 1977 book Las Muertas by Mexican author Jorge Ibargüengoitia. Proven victims 91, possible victims 91+.
David John Birnie (16 February 1951 – 7 October 2005) and Catherine Margaret Birnie (born 23 May 1951) were an Australian husband and wife pair of serial killers from Perth, Australia. They murdered four women ranging in age from 15 to 31 in their home in the 1980s, and attempted to murder a fifth. These crimes were referred to in the press as the Moorhouse murders, after the Birnies' address at 3 Moorhouse Street in Willagee, a suburb of Perth, Western Australia. David Birnie was found dead in his cell at Casuarina Prison on 7 October 2005. He had committed suicide by hanging; he was due to appear in court for the rape of a fellow prisoner the next day. Catherine Birnie is imprisoned in Bandyup Women's Prison, where she was formerly the head librarian. She was barred from attending David's funeral; an application for parole in 2007 was rejected, and the then Attorney-General of Western Australia, Jim McGinty, said that her release was unlikely while he remained in office. Proven victims 4, possible victims 4-8.
9. Gert van Rooyen and Joey Haarhof, South Africa.
Cornelius Gerhardus van Rooyen ('Gert' "Bokkie" van Rooyen) was an alleged South African paedophile and serial killer although never convicted who, together with his female partner Joey Haarhof, abducted and apparently murdered at least six young girls between 1988 and 1989.Their victims were never found as the pair, it was said, apparently, committed suicide when faced with arrest after the escape of their last kidnap victim. On 11 January 1990, sixteen-year old Joan Booysen of Pretoria was abducted by Haarhoff in Church Square, Pretoria. She was taken to Van Rooyen's home in Malherbe Street, Capital Park where she was handcuffed, drugged and sexually assaulted before being locked in a cupboard. It is likely that Van Rooyen thought the small girl was younger than she was. She managed to escape and alert the police who placed the home under surveillance, and four days later, identified Van Rooyen when he drove past his house in a white Ford pickup that matched the description of a vehicle used in one of the abductions. Van Rooyen shot Haarhoff with a .22 revolver and himself with a high powered .357 revolver. Proven victims 6, possible victims 8.
8. Leonard Lake and Charles Ng, United States.
Leonard Lake October 29, 1945 – June 6, 1985 was an American serial killer and Charles Chi-Tat Ng born December 24, 1960 is a Chinese-American serial killer. Lake often used the alias Leonard Hill. The crimes he committed with Charles Ng became known when Lake committed suicide by taking a cyanide pill shortly after being arrested for a firearms offense. On June 2, 1985, an Asian man—later identified as Charles Ng—was seen shoplifting in South San Francisco. He fled by the time police arrived, but Lake, who was with him, was arrested when a .22 revolver with an illegally equipped silencer was found in his car. Lake identified himself as "Robin Stapley" and presented a driver's license in that name. Police were suspicious because, according to the driver's license, Stapley was 26 while the man they had in custody was clearly in his late-30's. While being interviewed at the police station, Lake asked for a glass of water and used it to swallow a hidden cyanide pill. Lake collapsed and was rushed to a hospital, where he went into a coma. He survived on life support machines for four days before being pronounced dead and after a lengthy dispute between Canada and the United States, Ng was extradited to California and was convicted of 11 murders. He is currently on death row at San Quentin State Prison.. Proven victims 11, possible victims 25.
7. Fred and Rosemary West, England.
Frederick Walter Stephen West born 29 September 1941 and Rosemary Pauline "Rose" West (née Letts) born 29 November, 1953, in Barnstaple, Devon, both known was a British serial killer. Between 1967 and 1987, he and his wife Rosemary, tortured, raped and murdered at least 11 young women and girls, many at the couple's homes. Rosemary West also murdered Fred's stepdaughter (his first wife's biological daughter) Charmaine, while he was serving a prison sentence for theft. The majority of the murders occurred between May 1973 and August 1979 at their home in 25 Cromwell Street, Gloucester. The house was demolished in 1996 and the space converted into a landscaped footpath connecting Cromwell Street to St. Michaels Square. On 1 January 1995, Fred West hanged himself while on remand in his cell at Winson Green Prison, Birmingham. His funeral was held in Coventry on 29 March 1995. West was cremated with the only five mourners being two of his daughters, one son with his wife and a family friend. The Sun newspaper pictured the five attendees on its front page. The circumstantial evidence against Rosemary West was overwhelming. She went on trial in October 1995, nine months after her husband's suicide. He had hanged himself in Winson Green Prison with a knotted bed-sheet on January first of that year, despite being on suicide watch. Proven victims 12, possible victims 20.
6. Surender Koli and Moninder Singh Pandher, India.
The Noida serial murders (also Nithari serial murders, Nithari Kand) took place in the house of businessman Moninder Singh Pandher in Nithari, India in 2005 and 2006. At present his servant Surender Koli has been convicted of four murders and sentenced to death. 12 murders remain officially unsolved pending further legal proceedings. On September 10, 2009, The Allahabad high court acquitted Moninder Singh Pandher and overturned his death sentence. He was not named a main suspect by investigators initially, but was summoned as co-accused during the trial. Pandher faces trial in five cases out of the remaining 12, and could be re-sentenced to death if found guilty in any of those killings. The same day Pandher was acquitted, the Allahabad high court upheld the death sentence for Surender Koli, former domestic servant of Pandher. Proven victims 19, possible victims 30+.
5. Igor Suprunyuck and Viktor Sayenko, Ukraine.
The Dnepropetrovsk Maniacs is the media epithet for the killers responsible for a string of brutal murders in Dnipropetrovsk, Ukraine in June and July 2007. The case gained additional notoriety because the killers made video recordings of some of the murders, with one of the videos leaking to the Internet. Two 19-year-old locals, Viktor Sayenko and Igor Suprunyuck, were arrested and charged with 21 murders. A third conspirator, Alexander Hanzha, was charged with two armed robberies that took place before the murder spree. On February 11, 2009, all three defendants were found guilty. Suprunyuck and Sayenko were sentenced to life imprisonment, while Hanzha received nine years in prison. The lawyers for Suprunyuck and Sayenko launched an appeal, which was dismissed by the Supreme Court of Ukraine in November 2009.
On February 11, 2009, the court in Dnipropetrovsk found Igor Suprunyuck and Viktor Sayenko guilty of premeditated murder and sentenced both to life imprisonment. Suprunyuck was found guilty of 21 murders, Sayenko of 18." They also received fifteen years sentences after being found guilty on the robbery charges. Alexander Hanzha, who was not involved in the killings, was found guilty of robbery and sentenced to nine years in prison. Proven victims 21, possible victims 21.
4. Dean Corll, David Owen Brooks and Elmer Wayne Henley, United States.
Dean Arnold Corll born December 24, 1939 was an American serial killer, also known as the "Candy Man" and the "Pied Piper" who, together with two youthful accomplices named David Brooks and Elmer Wayne Henley, abducted, raped, tortured and murdered a minimum of 28 boys in a series of killings spanning from 1970 to 1973 in Houston, Texas. The crimes, which became known as the Houston Mass Murders, came to light only after Henley shot and killed Corll. Corll was known as both the Candy Man and the Pied Piper because he and his family had owned and operated a candy factory in the Heights and he had been known to give free candy to local children. At the time of their discovery, the Houston Mass Murders were considered the worst example of serial murder in American history. Elmer Wayne Henley and David Owen Brooks were tried separately for their roles in the murders. Henley was brought to trial in San Antonio on July 1, 1974, charged with six murders committed between March 1972 and July 1973. Henley was sentenced to six consecutive 99-year terms a total of 594 years for each of the murders for which he was charged and David Brooks' trial lasted less than one week. The jury deliberated for just 90 minutes before they reached a verdict. He was found guilty of Lawrence's murder on March 4, 1975, and sentenced to life imprisonment. Proven victims 28, possible victims 42+.
2. Susi Olah & Julia Fazekas, Hungary.
"The Angel Makers of Nagyrév" were a group of women living in the village of Nagyrév, Hungary who between 1914 and 1929 poisoned to death an estimated 300 people (however, Béla Bodó puts the number of victims at 45-50). They were supplied arsenic and encouraged to use it for the purpose by a midwife or "wise woman" named Júlia Fazekas and her accomplice Susi Oláh (Zsuzsanna Oláh). Their story is the subject of the documentary film The Angelmakers and the movie Hukkle. Three conflicting accounts have been cited to explain how the Angel Makers were eventually detected. In one, Mrs. Szabó, one of the Angel Makers, was caught in the act by two visitors who survived her poisoning attempts. She fingered a Mrs. Bukenoveski, who named Fazekas. In another account, a medical student in a neighboring town found high arsenic levels in a body that washed up on the riverbank, leading to an investigation. However, according to Béla Bodó, a Hungarian-American historian and author of the first scholarly book on the subject, the murders were finally made public in 1929 when an anonymous letter to the editor of a small local newspaper accused women from the Tiszazug region of the country of poisoning family members. The authorities exhumed dozens of corpses from the local cemetery. 34 women and one man were indicted. Afterwards, 26 of the Angel Makers were tried, among them Susi Oláh. Eight were sentenced to death but only two were executed. Another 12 received prison sentences. Proven victims 91, possible victims 300+.
1. Delfina and María de Jesús González, Mexico.
Delfina and María de Jesús González known as "Las Poquianchis" were two sisters from the Mexican state of Guanajuato, located some 200 miles north of Mexico City. During the 1950s through the mid-1960s, the sisters ran Rancho El Ángel, called the "bordello from hell" in San Francisco del Rincón. The police picked up a woman named Josefina Gutiérrez, a procuress, on suspicion of kidnapping young girls in the Guanajuato area, and during questioning, she implicated the two sisters. Police officers searched the sisters' property and found the bodies of 11 men, 80 women and several fetuses, a total of over 91. Investigations revealed the scheme was that they would recruit prostitutes through help-wanted ads; though the ads would state the girls
would become maids for the two sisters. Many of the girls were force fed heroin or cocaine. Then when the prostitutes became too ill, damaged by repeated sexual activity, lost their looks, or stopped pleasing the customers, they killed them. They would also kill customers who showed up with large amounts of cash.When asked for an explanation for the deaths, one of the sisters reportedly said, "The food didn't agree with them." Tried in 1964, the González sisters were each sentenced to 40 years in prison. In prison, Delfina died due to an accident, and Maria finished her sentence and dropped out of sight after her release. Although they are often cited as the killers, there were two other sisters who helped in their crimes, Carmen and Maria Luisa. Carmen died in jail due to cancer; Maria Luisa went mad because she feared that she would be killed by angry protesters. The sisters were the subject of the 1977 book Las Muertas by Mexican author Jorge Ibargüengoitia. Proven victims 91, possible victims 91+.
