The Boston Strangler – assuming it was only one man – was a serial rapist and murderer who terrorised Boston from June 1962 and January 1964. He killed thirteen people, all of them single women (ranging in age from 19 to 85), and all but three of them he also sexually assaulted. Despite his nom du crime, not all of his victims were strangled.
Although a man named Albert De Salvo later confessed to and was convicted of the Strangler’s crimes, there remains some doubt that he was actually responsible for all of the crimes – although he knew many details police had not released to the public, there were some inconsistencies in his testimony. To date, however, no one else has been charged with any of the crimes attributed to the Boston Strangler.
Referenced in:
The Boston Strangler – Macabre
Midnight Rambler – The Rolling Stones
Dedicated to Albert De Salvo – Whitehouse
Boston Strangler (Albert DeSalvo) – Church of Misery
Sometimes, you really think that these things should have been caught earlier than they were.
Surely, for example, someone in Howard Unruh’s unit, back in World War Two, must have noticed the meticulous notes he kept about each German he killed? And although many men came home with souvenir firearms, not many of them went on to decorate their bedrooms with military paraphenalia, or built shooting ranges in their basements.
Whatever the reason, Howard Unrah’s madness went unnoticed until the morning of September 6, 1949. On this day, Howard loaded his captured luger, left his Camden, New Jersey home, and in only twelve minutes, killed 13 people and wounded 3 more.
A siege developed, but Unrah surrendered to police fairly quickly, and at his trial was ruled not guilty by reason of insanity. He was placed in the Trenton Psychiatric Hospital, where he remains as of this writing.
Referenced in:
Retal – Church of Misery
Howard Unrah – Sheer Terror
Howard Unrah (What Have You Done Now?) – Macabre
With those words, Charles Manson initiated one of his most infamous murder sprees: the Tate killings. Manson despatched Charles Watson, along with three other family members, to the house of Terry Melcher. What no one in the family knew is that the Melcher no longer lived there – the house was now being leased by director Roman Polanski and his wife Sharon Tate. Polanski wasn’t home, but Tate, unluckily for her, was.
Tate and three guests were brutally murdered by the Mansonites, each of them stabbed multiple times. The following night, the family committed another set of murders. On August 16, 25 member of the Manson Family, including all the Tate killers and Manson himself, were arrested. It would take several more months for the police to put it all together – it wasn’t until October that they connected the two different murder sites – but in the end, the murderers would all be caught.
Referenced in:
Mister Manson – Klaatu
DI-1-9026 – J. G. Thirlwell
ATWA – System of a Down
Revolution Blues – Neil Young
Manson Clan – Righteous Pigs
Death Valley ‘69 – Sonic Youth
Do The Charles Manson – Necro
Lunatic of God’s Creation – Deicide
Charlie Manson’s Birthday – Otis Ball
Charles in Charge – Ian Brady Bunch
Manson Family Feud – Diesel Queens
Bloodbath in Paradise – Ozzy Osbourne
Charlie Manson Blues – The Flaming Lips
SST Superstar Charles Manson – Ultraviolet Eye
Spahn Ranch (Charles Manson) – Church of Misery
Dean Corll was an American serial killer. Born in 1939 in Fort Wayne, Indiana, he served in the military briefly, but was discharged after only ten months when his mother needed medical care.
By 1970, Corll had started murdering young men around his home, mostly hitchhikers whom he hoped would not be missed. Along with two younger accomplices, David Brooks and Elmer Henley, he is known to have killed at least 27 teenaged boys and young men.
Corll’s own death occurred when he lost an argument over possession of a handgun with Henley, who shot the older man six times. Henley then called the police, and confessed to his part in killing Corll, and participating in the murders of others.
Referenced in:
Candyman (Dean Corll) – Church of Misery
Castrated and Sodomized – Divine Pustulence
Charles Whitman was a few weeks past his 25th birthday when he finally snapped. Taking his rifle, he killed 16 people, 3 of them in the tower tower of the University of Texas and 11 more as a sniper in the tower’s observation deck, where he retreated in his final rage. He also wounded 32 other people before he was shot dead by members of the Austin police department.
In the months leading up to his death, Whitman had been court-martialled by the Marines (by whom he had been trained as a sniper), endured his parents’ divorce, and developed both an amphetamine addiction and a headache-inducing brain tumour (the last discovered only at his autopsy)… looking for a motive in his actions is pointless, so many things in his life serving to unabalance him.
His was one of the earliest sniper killing sprees, but sadly, it would not be the last.
Referenced in:
Sniper – Harry Chapin
Sniper in the Sky – Macabre
Chest Explodes – Bottom Feeder
The Tower – Insane Clown Posse
The Ballad of Charles Whitman – Kinky Friedman
Road To Ruin (Charles Whitman) – Church of Misery
David Richard Berkowitz was never a well-adjusted man. Born Richard David Falco, he was put up for adoption by his mother and adopted by the Berkowitz’s when he was a week old.
From an early age, he showed above average intelligence – which unfortunately manifested in a loss of interest in learning and a growing tendency towards pyromania. He went to Woodstock in 69, joined the Army in 71 (although he served only in South Korea and the US, never in Vietnam), and upon his discharge in 74, began drifting into cults.
He failed to reconcile with his birth mother that same year, and first attacked another human on Christmas Eve, 1975. His first murder, that of Donna Lauria, took place more than six months later.
As the Son of Sam, Berkowitz terrorised New York City for a little over twelve months until his arrest in August 1976, killing a total of six people and wounding seven others.
Referenced in:
S.O.S. – Camarosmith
I Hear Black – Overkill
Son of Sam – Macabre
Son of Sam – Dead Boys
Son of Sam – Elliott Smith
Son of Sam – Neitherworld
Mr. 44 – Electric Hellfire Club
Jumping at Shadows – Benediction
Ballad to the Son of Sam – Consumers
Son of A Gun (David Berkowitz) – Church of Misery
Diddy Doo Wop (I Hear The Voices) – Hall & Oates
Jeffrey Dahmer was finally caught when his latest intended victim – a man named Tracy Edwards, managed to escape from Dahmer’s apartment. Edwards managed to flag down two cops, whom he led back to Apartment 213. Dahmer had hidden some of the evidence, but by no means all, and after backup was summoned and arrived, he was arrested.
A search of the apartment turned up Dahmer’s collection of photographs taken of his victims, four severed human heads, numerous other severed body parts and seven human skulls.
Dahmer was sentenced to 15 consecutive life terms, totalling 957 years. He was eventually beaten to death by another inmate in 1994.
Referenced in: 213 – Slayer
The Brain – Macabre
Dirty Frank – Pearl Jam
Cold – Unusual Suspect
Room 213 – Dead Moon
Apartment 213 – Macabre
Arc Arsenal – At the Drive-In
Apartment 213 – HotrodboB
Freeze Dried Man – Macabre
What’s That Smell? – Macabre
Still Born/Still Life – Christian Death
Sinthasomphone – Venetian Snares
Tom Dahmer Mixtape Freestyle – Necro
Room 213 (Jeffrey Dahmer) – Church of Misery
The Ballad Of Jeffrey Dahmer – Pinkard & Bowden
Jeffrey Dahmer’s CookBook – Bloody Tea vs. Human Raise
