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10 Most Ruthless Serial Killers Who Operated In And Around New York

New York is among the state with the most serial killers, with a total of 18 serial killers who were mostly citizens of New York. Over the years these serial killings have continued to be the topic in the entertainment industry, news, pop culture and even in different forums. Their gruesome acts have terrified the nations because they tend to have no mercy when performing these murders which are either by; strangulation, poisoning, stabbing or shooting. The motive behind the murder of their victim was either financial gain, attention seeking, enjoyment, sex or anger. Therefore, today in this article we are going to explore more about serial killers in and around New York.

1. Joseph G. Christopher

Joseph also known as the .22-Caliber Killer or Midtown Slasher was a famous serial killer in Buffalo, Rochester and Niagara Falls. He began his serial killings in the early 1980s and by April 1981 he had already performed at least twelve murders, with almost all being African-Americans making him a racial killer. Before he became a murderer, Joseph had noticed his mental health deteriorating from 1978 on, and he decided to check himself into the Buffalo Psychiatric Center but he was rejected. He was also enlisted in the army and was stationed at Fort Benning after most of his murder cases were unable to be solved.

He was later captured in April 1981 after the police searched his home and found evidence that linked him to three murders. He was then sentenced to life imprisonment in 1985. While imprisoned Christopher claimed that he had killed 13 victims. He died while still in prison from male breast cancer on March 1, 1993.

2. Richard Angelo

<a href=”http://Armin K眉belbeck, , via Wikimedia Commons” data-wplink-url-error=”true”>A picture of a gloved hand holding a syringe. Angelo used to inject patients drugs. Photo by Armin-<a href=”http://Armin K眉belbeck, , via Wikimedia Commons” data-wplink-url-error=”true”>Wikimedia

Richard Angelo was a famous serial killer who performed his murders in Long Island and West Islip, New York. Richard killed 25 patients while he was working at the Good Samaritan Hospital on Long Island. In order to gain attention and praise from his co-workers, Richard would inject drugs into patients bringing them to a near-death state. It was at this point that he would show his heroic moves by saving the victims. Some of them succumbed to death before he could save them from his injections. In 1989 he was captured after the bodies of the patients were exhumed and tested, they tested positive for his poison. He was sentenced to 61 years to life in prison.  

3. David Richard Berkowitz

David Richard also known as 鈥淪on of Sam鈥� was a serial killer who operated in Queens and The Bronx. He used a .44 calibre revolver to take the lives of 6 people and wounded seven others by July 1977. He was captured on August 10, 1977, and he admitted to eight shootings that began in New York City on July 29, 1976. He further stated that he was following orders from a neighbour’s demon-possessed dog “Sam,鈥� which told him to kill his victims but the story was later found to be a hoax. David was sentenced to six life sentences with the possibility of parole after 25 years.

4. Albert Fish

Albert Fish also known as the Grey Man, the Werewolf of Wysteria, the Moon Maniac, The Boogey Man and the Brooklyn Vampire was a serial killer, cannibal, child molester and rapist in Queens, Brooklyn and White Plains. He claimed to have killed at least 100 people but was only suspected of at least five murders. He confessed to three of these murders and confessed to stabbing the other two people. Fish also sent letters to the children鈥檚 parents describing how he had molested and killed their children. He was captured on December 13, 1934, and later executed by an electric chair on January 16, 1936.

5. Paul Bateson

Paul was a radiographer who terrorized and killed homosexual men in the late 1970s. He appeared in The Exorcist horror film which was released in 1973. While in the film industry, Paul murdered Addison Verrill who was a journalist at that time. He was convicted of this murder and sentenced to a minimum of 20 years in prison. When he was in prison, he boasted about slaying gay men in Manhattan known as the 鈥渂ag murders.鈥� In 2003 he was released on parole which later ended in 2008.

Click here to read on the scariest serial killers

6. Kendall Francois

A mugshot of Kendal Francois.

Francois was a ruthless serial killer from Poughkeepsie New York. Between 1996 to 1998, Francois had already murdered eight women and disposed of their bodies in the home which he was sharing with his parents. He later pleaded guilty to 8 counts of first-degree murder and was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole in August 2000. Unfortunately, Kendall died on September 11, 2014, in the Wende Correctional Facility. He was suffering from AIDS and the cause of his death was an AIDS-related illness.

7. Robert Shulman

Shulman was a former postal worker from Hicksville, New York. Between 1991 and 1996, Shulman murdered five women and dismembered their bodies on Long Island. He was later sentenced to life imprisonment for his murders and two months later the jury decided that Robert should be put to death by lethal injection in 1999. They, however, did not kill him because New York’s death penalty law was not in effect at that time. Shulman, unfortunately, died on April 13, 2006, from undisclosed causes.

8.Adam Jorge Beniquez

Adam was a famous murderer, career criminal and suspected serial killer from Puerto Rico. He murdered Daniel Valentine in Brooklyn and 8 more people including 3 police officers in Puerto Rico before moving to New York and killing more people. In February 1991, Adam together with his friend Carlos Madrid robbed a jewellery store in Bushwick’s Knickerbocker Avenue. The manager of the store Luis Medina was shot three times during the robbery and his body was stuffed in a closet in the rear of his store. Adam was eventually arrested and sentenced to 25 years to life imprisonment on April 7, 1992.

9. Lizzie Halliday

A drawing of serial killer Lizzie Halliday.  , Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Lizzie was a serial killer who performed most of her killings in upstate New York in the 1890s. It is believed she had murdered at least five people including her two husbands who died mysteriously within a few years of their marriage. In order to gain insurance money, Lizzie burnt down a saloon owned by her two friends Margaret and Sarah. She was later sentenced to two years in prison and when she got out, Lizzie married a farmer in Sullivan County, Paul Halliday. Shortly after, she burnt their house and Paul was reported missing. Later on, the body of Paul and the saloon owners, Margaret and Sarah were found.

She was captured and became the first woman to be sentenced to the electric chair in New York in 1894.  She was termed insane and sent to a mental institution where she killed a nurse by stabbing her 200 times with a pair of scissors. She died in 1918.

10. Joel Rifkin

Joel Rifkin was an unemployed landscaper who killed 17 women who were all prostitutes within a span of four years in East Meadow, Long Island. He dismembered his victim’s body parts and disposed of them in different areas in New York such as the East River and a canal in Brooklyn. Rifkin was eventually caught by the police who pulled him over for not having a license and it was at this moment they realized there was a foul smell coming from his trunk. It was the smell of the decomposing body of Tiffany Bresciani who was a prostitute and also a dancer. He was captured and sentenced to 203 years in prison.

Check out this article on the 15 most cruel serial killers in Michigan here