Top Ten Serial Killers Of All-Time

Serial killers. Nice subject. OK it isn't really but it does show one thing in the list; and that is that the top ten serial killers come from 7 countries (Columbia, Brazil, USA, China, Ukraine, Russia, Indonesia). So you may want to consider that before booking a vacation.

The list does not include 'medical professionals' or 'serial killer couples/groups' because of two factors:

• With medical professional serial killers they usually claim they did it to help; such as putting patients out of their misery.
• With serial killer couples/groups it cannot be clearly defined who killed which victims; so the numbers are merely attributed to them as a couple/group.

So with that said the top ten serial killers of all time is:

10. Ahmad Suraji (Indonesia)

Active: 1994 - 1995

Proven victims: 42

Possible victims: 80+

Convicted of strangling at least 42 women and girls in a series of ritual slayings he believed would give him magical powers. Executed by firing squad on 11 July 2008.

09. Alexander Pichushkin (Russia)

Active: 1992 - 2006

Proven victims: 48

Possible victims: 61+

Known as the Chessboard Killer. Convicted of murdering 48 victims and suspected of killing 61. Claimed to have murdered 63 people out of his goal of 64 to fill a chessboard; stated goal of becoming Russia's most prolific serial killer.

08. Anatoly Onoprienko (Ukraine)

Active: 1989 - 1996

Proven victims: 52

Possible Victims: 52+

Known as The Beast of Ukraine, The Terminator, and Citizen O. Convicted of the murders of 9 people in 1989 and 43 people in 1995-1996. Sentenced to death, later commuted to life. Traveled through Europe illegally from 1990 to 1995; whether he killed during this time is unknown.

07. Andrei Chikatilo (Ukraine)

Active: 1978 - 1990

Proven victims: 53

Possible victims: 56

Known as Butcher of Rostov, The Red Ripper, or The Rostov Ripper. Convicted of the murder of 53 women and children between 1978 and 1990. Executed in 1994. Three people were previously convicted and executed for his crimes.

06. Yang Xinhai (China)

Active: 2000 - 2003

Proven victims: 67

Possible victims: 67

Would enter victims' homes at night and kill everyone with axes, meat cleavers, hammers, and shovels. Executed in February 2004. Known as The Monster Killer.

05. Gary Ridgway (USA)

Active: 1982 - 2000

Proven victims: 71

Possible victims: 90+

Truck painter who confessed to killing 71 women. The United States' most prolific serial killer; also known as The Green River Killer. He almost exclusively targeted escorts from Seattle. Once there, he would proposition a prostitute, drive to the banks of the Green River, and strangle her to death. After murdering his victim he would dump her body near the nearby water. Suspected of killing over 90 victims, confessed to 71, convicted of 48.

04. Pedro Rodrigues Filho (Brazil)

Active: 1967 - 2003

Proven victims: 71

Possible victims: 100+

Convicted and sentenced to 128 years, but the maximum one can serve in Brazil is 30 years. He has claimed to have killed over 100 victims, 47 of them inmates. He also killed his father and ate a piece of his heart. He killed his first two victims at the age of 14; he was first arrested in 1973.

03. Daniel Barbosa (Columbia/Ecuador)

Active: 1974 - 1986

Proven victims: 72

Possible victims: 150

Child-murderer, believed to have possibly raped and killed over 150 victims, primarily young virgin girls. Confessed to killing 72 victims. Considered to be intelligent and believed to have been motivated to kill from his stepmother abusing him as a child. He strangled young girls in Colombia and was arrested, but he escaped from prison and he started killing in Ecuador; rearrested in 1989, he was killed in jail.

02. Pedro Alonso Lopez (Columbia/Peru/Ecuador)

Active: 1969 - 1980

Proven victims: 110

Possible victims: 350+

Child-murderer and rapist, known as The Monster of the Andes. Targeted young girls, between the ages of 8 and 12. Arrested in 1980 and convicted in 1983 of killing 110 young girls but confessed to killing 300, exact total unknown. Though he may be the most prolific serial killer of the 20th century, he was released in 1998. Current whereabouts unknown.

01. Luis Alfredo Garavito (Columbia)

Active: 1990s

Proven victims: 138

Possible victims: 400+

Child-murderer, torture-killer, and rapist known as La Bestia (The Beast). Convicted of killing 138 victims but suspected of murdering over 400 victims, mostly street children. Sentenced to 1,853 years but could only be imprisoned for 30 which was reduced to 22 after aiding investigators.

So there we have it. Ten serial killers that have, between them, 724 victims. Luckily most of them are captured or dead; but I'm still not booking a vacation to Colombia any time soon. And if you see Pedro Alonso Lopez you might want to cross the street quickly.