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30 Famous Serial Killers Who Are Still Alive

Originally Published by Faith in August 2023 and updated by Faith in May 2024

When we hear about how serial killers are caught and sentenced to prison, we expect that their lives will end after that. Therefore, it is intriguing to realize that some of the serial killers that we know from the heinous crimes that they committed are still alive with most of them serving their sentences in prison. Therefore, in this article, we are going to explore the famous serial killers who are still alive and the crimes that they committed. The article is a great read for true crime enthusiasts who want to know what happened to serial killers from the podcasts, documentaries and articles that they have come across.

1 David Berkowitz

Popularly known as the Son of Sam, David Berkowitz was a serial killer who was active in New York City in the mid-1970s.  David Berkowitz went on a murder spree between 1976 and 1977 and during this time, he killed six people and wounded a couple of others. He went on further to taunt local enforcement authorities with cryptic letters that he sent to the press. He was later arrested in 1977 and he confessed to the crimes but went further to say that a demon spoke to him and told him to commit the crimes. He was sentenced to six consecutive 25-year to life terms. While in prison, he became a born-again Christian. He has his parole hearing coming up in May 2024.

2 Dennis Rader

The serial killer was also known as the BTK Killer (Bind, Torture, Kill).  He was active in Wichita, Kansas from the 1970s until the 2000s. After killing his victims, Dennis Rader would then taunt law enforcement authorities with letters that he sent to the media that described his crimes. He was apprehended in 2005 when a meta disk that he had sent was traced back to his church. He was found guilty of the ten counts of murder that he had been charged with and sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.

3 Michael Swango

Serial killer Michael Swango used to work in medicine. Swango, a licensed physician who was born in 1964, worked in a number of institutions across the country. He did, however, have a nasty side, since he was the cause of numerous patient fatalities while under his charge. Swango’s method of operation entailed giving patients deadly amounts of medication, frequently resulting in cardiac arrest. In the hospitals where he worked, a trail of strange deaths was left behind. He was found guilty in 2000 of killing four patients in Ohio and New York. He received a life sentence without the chance of parole.

Check out the 15 infamous serial killers in Atlanta here

4 Alexander Bychov

The Russian serial killer was active between 2009 and 2012 and during this time he killed 11 men in Belinsky. Alexander targeted vulnerable groups like alcoholics, homeless men and elderly men as his victims. He was apprehended in January 2012 and charged with murder and burglary. He was found guilty and sentenced to life in prison. It is believed that he cannibalized his victims after killing them.

5 Scott Lee Kimball

The serial killer was active between 2002 and 2004 and during this time, he killed four victims. Scott is serving a 70-year sentence after he pleaded guilty to the murders. Before his arrest for the murders, he had quite a long rap sheet that ranged from conning people to forgery. He had been arrested for the forgery and fraud but he was released after he cut a deal with the FBI so that he could be their informant. It was during this time after the release that Scott Lee Kimball went on a murder spree. After being apprehended, he confessed to killing four people two of them being his stepdaughter and uncle while the other two were the girlfriends of two inmates that he had met while he had been in prison. He is still serving his 70-year prison sentence.

Read on the 15 deranged serial killers in Colorado here

6 Gary Ridgeway

A mugshot of Gary Ridgeway. , Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Born Gary Leon Ridgeway on 18^th February 1949, the serial killer of one of the most renowned serial killers in the history of the United States of America. The serial killer was popularly known as the Green River Killer because most of his victims were found in the Green River. Gary Ridgeway targeted vulnerable people like sex workers and homeless people as his victims as it would be hard to notice when they were missing. By the time of his arrest, his victim count was more than 80 people. He was sentenced to 40 life sentences without the possibility of parole.

7 Joseph James DeAngelo Jr.

The serial killer was a former police officer who turned out to be a serial killer. He was active in the 1970s and 1980s and during this time, he sexually assaulted 50 victims and killed 13 people. His modus operandi was breaking into people’s houses and proceeding to rape them and killing others. Because he was a former police officer, he managed to evade capture for long. He was later arrested when a DNA test matched his. After his arrest, he confessed to sexually assaulting 13 people and killing 13 others.  He was sentenced to life without the possibility of parole in August 2020 by a Sacramento County Judge.

8 Charles Cullen

The American serial killer is one of the most notorious serial killers in the history of the United States of America. He killed people for quite a long time as his span of crimes ranged between 1988 and 2003. Cullen worked as a nurse in different hospitals in New Jersey and during this time, he targeted his patients as his victims. His modus operandi involved overdosing his patients and contaminating their medicine and thus killing them. He was apprehended in 2003 and by this time, his victim count was over 40 which shows that he murdered many people and stayed undetected for a long time. He was sentenced to 127 years in prison.

9 Wayne Williams

The serial killer was active in Atlanta Georgia and during his murder spree he terrorised the residents of the city and left irreparable damage.  Wayne Williams targeted children as his victims and before he was apprehended, he had killed more than 29 children. He would work on gaining the trust of the children before abducting them. After capturing the children, he would sexually assault them before mutilating them. He was apprehended in 1981 and sentenced to life in prison and he is still serving his sentence.

Check out this article on the scariest northern California serial killers here

10 Kirsten Gilbert

The serial killer was popularly known as the Angel of Death. She was a nurse who worked at the Veterans Affairs Medical Centre which was located in Northampton, Massachusetts. During her time as a nurse, she induced cardiac arrest in patients by injecting them with large doses of epinephrine in their intravenous bags. She was sentenced to life in prison after being found guilty of three counts of first-degree murder, two counts of second-degree murder and attempted murder. However, it is believed that her true victim count is close to 200 as the heart attack deaths that happened in the medical centre were during her shift. She is serving her sentence at the Federal Medical Centre, Carswell.

11 Steve Wright

Serial Killer Steve Wright.

The English serial killer was popularly known as the Suffolk Strangler. He was active in the recent past for about two months from 30th October to 9th December in Ipswich. During this short time that he was active, she killed five victims. His targets were sex workers that he picked up in spa and sauna establishments that also worked as brothels. He was finally apprehended on 19th December when the blood that was found on his car matched the DNA of one of his victims, Paula Clenell. After his arrest, he was charged with five counts of murder and he was found guilty. The Ipswich Crown Court sentenced him to life imprisonment with the recommendation that he should not be released. He filed an appeal in an effort to overturn the judgement but in 2009 it was announced that Wright had decided to drop the appeal. He is now serving his sentence at HM Prison Long Lartin.

12 Rosario Alfonso

The fisherman turned serial killer was active in Mexico from 2018 to 2020 and during this period he is suspected of having killed four victims. He was popularly known as 鈥淭he Shipwrecked鈥�. He was apprehended in January 2020 and charged with murder. During his trial, he was linked with other femicide murders that had happened. His modus operandi included slashing and strangulation. He was found guilty of three counts of murder and absolved of the fourth. Alfonso was sentenced to 70 years imprisonment.

13 Beverly Gail Allitt

The English serial killer who was also known as The Angel of Death was convicted of killing four babies and attempting to murder three more. He also caused grave bodily harm to six others during the time that he was active. Gail was active from February to April 1991. She worked as a nurse in Grantham and Kesteven Hospital in the children鈥檚 ward which made it easy for her to find victims as she targeted her patients. She would administer large doses of Insulin to her victims thus killing them. She was finally apprehended and sentenced to thirteen life sentences by the Nottingham Crown Court. She is still serving her time at Rampton Secure Hospital but as of November 2021, she became eligible for parole after the minimum time of 30 years expired.

14 Paul Bernardo

Paul Bernardo who also went by Paul Jason Teale was a Canadian serial killer that was active between May 1987 to April 1992. He was dubbed Schoolgirl and Scarborough Rapist. He committed a series of rapes in Ontario in 1987 and 1990 before moving on to commit three murders with his then-wife Karla Homolka. One of the three victims was his wife鈥檚 younger sister Tammy Homolka. He was apprehended in 1993 and convicted of two counts of first-degree murder, two counts of kidnapping, two counts of forcible confinement, two counts of aggravated sexual assault and other unnamed charges. He was found guilty after going on trial and sentenced to life imprisonment with the possibility of parole after 25 years. He was first imprisoned at Kingston Penitentiary until 2013 when he was moved to Millhaven Institution up to 2023. Currently, he is held at La Macaza Institution.

15 Karla Homolka

Karla Homolka was a Canadian serial killer who was an accomplice to her husband Paul Bernardo. She actively participated in the rapes and the murders including that of her sister that her husband committed. After their arrest, she took a plea bargain with the prosecution team so that she could have a charge reduced to manslaughter if she testified against her husband and accomplice. The plea bargain attracted a lot of controversy but she claimed that she unwillingly participated in the murders citing domestic violence. Karla was convicted of manslaughter and sentenced to 12 years imprisonment. She was released from prison in 2005 after serving her sentence.

16 Rose West

Rose West is an English serial killer who was active between 1973 and 1987 in Gloucester. During this time, Rose together with her husband Fred West tortured and killed at least nine young women. She also murdered her stepdaughter Charmaine West in 1971 when her husband Fred was incarcerated. The couple managed to stay under the law enforcement authorities’ radar until 1994 when they were arrested. Rose was convicted of sexual assault and ten counts of murder. The court found her guilty and sentenced her to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole and she is currently serving her sentence at HM Prison New Hall, Flockton, West Yorkshire.

17 Maxim Petrov

The notorious Russian serial killer dubbed Doctor Death by the media was active between 1999 and 2000 in St. Petersburg. He got his nickname because he was a doctor who targeted his patients as his victims. He first started out as a robber by going to his patient’s homes and stealing from them until he was found by the daughter of one of the people he was robbing.  To avoid being exposed he stabbed the daughter and killed the unconscious patient by strangling him. He then changed his modus operandi where he mixed different drugs to kill his victims. This tactic was to confuse police authorities and make them think that the killer did not possess any medical knowledge. By the time of his arrest in 2000, his victim count was between 11 to 19. He was found guilty of murder and sentenced to life imprisonment.

18 Robert Pickton

The prolific Canadian serial killer was popularly known as the Pig Farmer Killer. He was active between 1983 and 2002 and is considered to be one of the most notorious serial killers in Canadian history. The serial killer worked in their family’s pig farm after he dropped out of school hence the nickname. He is believed to have started his killing spree immediately after he inherited the family farm. At the time of his arrest in 2002, he confessed to having killed 49 women and even went further to say that he had wanted to make it fifty but he got sloppy. Pickton was found guilty of murder and sentenced to life imprisonment with the possibility of parole after 25 years.

19 David Russell Williams

The former colonel in the Royal Canadian Air Force is a murderer and serial rapist that is currently serving his sentence of life imprisonment. He was apprehended in February 2010 after the Ontario Provincial Police found evidence that linked him to the death of Jessica Llyod. They also found links that connected him to crimes that had been committed close to his home. When he was arrested Russell confessed to the assault and murder of Jessica as well as another corporal known as Marie-France. His confession coupled with photographic evidence found in his house cemented his guilt. He was sentenced to life imprisonment for the two counts of first-degree murder that he had been charged with. He is still incarcerated and is serving his sentence at Port-Cartier Institution.

20 Viktor Sayenko

Viktor was part of the Dnepropetrovsk maniacs, Ukrainian serial killers that terrorised people in June and July of 2007. The group were arrested in July 2007 after one of the videos of them committing the murders leaked to the internet. Their first two victims were murdered on 25th June 2007. The first victim was Yekaterina Illchenk, a 33-year-old woman who was going home from her friend鈥檚 apartment.  They then murdered the next victim within an hour after the first one. By the time of their arrest, Sayenko and his crew had a victim count of 21. He was convicted of premeditated murder and animal cruelty and sentenced to life imprisonment on 11th February 2009.

21 Junko Ogata

Junko Ogata is a Japanese serial killer who was an accomplice to the notorious Japanese serial killer Futoshi Matsunaga.   Junko was in a relationship with the serial killer and even had two sons with him. While with him, Junko joined her partner and they went on a killing spree between 1996 and 1998 during this time their victim count is said to be between seven and nine. Among the victims that the couple murdered were her parents, sister, her niece, nephew and her sister’s husband. She was finally arrested in March 2002 and she was sentenced to death but her sentence was later commuted to life sentence.

22 Catherine Birnie

Catherine Birnie together with her husband David John Birnie killed four women in 1986. The highly publicised murders were known as the Moorhouse murders as they happened in their house which was located at 3 Moorhouse Street, Willagee in Perth, Australia. Her husband David was known for getting in trouble with the police and even though her family advised her to leave him she continued staying with him. While with him, the couple abducted five victims in five weeks and proceeded to sexually assault them before killing them. The fifth victim managed to escape and alert the law enforcement authorities leading to their arrest. After their arrest, Catherine was found guilty of four counts of murder and sentenced to life imprisonment.

23 Kaspars Petrov

The Latvian serial killer was active between 2000 and 2003 and during this time he killed more than thirty elderly women.  He had been originally convicted of only thirteen of the murders but after he was arrested in February 2003, he confessed to thirty more murders. However, due to a lack of evidence on most of them, law enforcement authorities decided to move forward and charge him for only 13 of the murders. While on trial, Kaspars, who already had a previous record of theft, said that he only intended to steal from the victims and not kill them. He was found guilty and sentenced to life in prison.

24 John Justin Bunting

The notorious serial killer was responsible for the Snowtown Murders that happened between August 1992 and May 1999. He committed these murders alongside his two accomplices Robert Joe Wagner and James Spyridon Vlassakis in South Australia. The trio killed twelve victims during the time that they were active with Bunting being the one that chose their victims. They were arrested in May 1999 and the bodies of their victims were found disposed of in a bank vault in Snowtown hence the nickname. Their trial was one of the longest and highly publicised in Australia鈥檚 history. Bunting was found guilty and sentenced to 11 life sentences without parole while his two accomplices Wagner and Vlassakis were sentenced to 10 and four life sentences respectively.

25 Charles Sohbraj

A statue of Charles Sobhraj.

The prolific serial killer was also known as the Bikini Killer and the Serpent. His crimes spanned from 1963 to 1976  and he is believed to have killed close to 30 victims though only 12 were confirmed.  Charles was of French nationality but his crimes were committed in South and Southeast Asia. he was finally arrested in 2003 in India, tried and sentenced to life in prison. However, in 2020 the serial killer was released due to old age and he went back to France. While active, he used his looks and charm to lure victims without bringing attention to him.     

26 Adnan 脟olak

The Turkish serial killer was also known as The Artvin Monster as he was active in the district of Artivin, Turkey between 1992 and 1995. His victims were elderly women and during the time that he was active, he killed eleven women. Of the eleven victims, he sexually assaulted six of them before murdering them. He was finally apprehended in 1995 and when he went to trial, he was found guilty and given six death sentences. However, his sentence was commuted to a life sentence after the death sentence was declared illegal in Turkey. In 2005, Adnan was released under the Conditional Release arrangement where a prisoner is released with certain conditions.

27 Robledo Puch

A mugshot of Ropledo Puch.

The Argentinian serial killer had many nicknames that he went by including The Angel, The Death Angel, Carlitos and The Black Angel. Puch was active in Argentina for a span of one year between 1971 and 1972 and during this time he killed 11 victims even though there could have been more. His first killing that is known to law enforcement authorities happened in May 1971 when he entered an auto shop, killed the owner and attempted to kill his wife before getting away with the money.  He then killed again days later when he broke into a nightclub, stole cash and shot the two watchmen.  He then went on to commit several murders before he was arrested. Most of his murders happened within a short time of each other. He was finally arrested in 1972 when the victim鈥檚 identification card was found in his pocket. Even though he was arrested in 1972, his trial began eight years later in 1980 and he faced 39 charges including 11 counts of murder, attempted murder, kidnapping, armed robbery and theft. He was sentenced to life in prison and as of this year, he has been in prison for 51 years and is the longest-serving prisoner in South America.

28 Sergei Martynov

Sergei is a serial killer who was active in several states across Russia between 2005 and 2010. Before going on his murder spree, he had just been released from prison where he had spent 14 years after being arrested on suspicion of raping and killing a woman. Immediately after his release in 2005, he attempted to rape a young girl but he was not caught by the police. He laid low for 2 years but in 2007, he resurfaced and killed more than 9 victims until he was arrested in November 2010.  He was arrested after he activated one of his victim鈥檚 phones and law enforcement authorities were able to track his location. He was put on trial and sentenced to life imprisonment.

29 Ondrej Rigo

Rigo was a Slovak serial killer and necrophile who was active from 1990 to 1992 in Munich, Amsterdam and Bratislava. Rigo would target women kill his victims and then sexually assault their corpses. He killed nine victims and wounded one during the two years which is a high number of victims for the short time that he was active. He would carry out his attacks on his victims in the morning or evening and to avoid leaving fingerprints, he wore socks at his hands. His victims were women who lived alone. He was arrested in March 1992 and is now serving his life sentence in Leopoldov.

30 Hugo Bustamante P茅rez

Hugo Bustamante P茅rez rose to prominence in Chile after he brutally killed Joaqu铆n Ernesto Bustamante Ahrens, his then-girlfriend’s teenage son, in September 2020. P茅rez admitted to killing the 14-year-old kid and concealing his body in a small grave close to a residential neighbourhood in the Maip煤 commune of Santiago, Chile. At the time, P茅rez was dating Joaqu铆n’s mother. The case caused a great deal of outrage. P茅rez was found guilty of killing Joaqu铆n after his trial attracted a lot of media attention. He received a life sentence from the court.