On the whole, this is a depressing subject.
If you knew all the answers, though, don't beat yourself up. It may be a depressing subject, but it's one in which to take an interest, both for public safety, and in the hope that someday, we will build a better society where things like this don't happen.
And then, we hope, the TV people will find something more interesting to film.
Serial Killers: Answers
Matching the serial killer to the description. The police caught most of them.
| Serial Killer | Deed |
- Gilles de Rais.
- HH Holmes.
- Ed Gein.
- Jack the Ripper.
- Mary Ann Cotton.
- John Bodkin Adams.
- Alfred P Packer.
- David Berkowitz.
- Peter William Sutcliffe.
- Peter Kürten.
| - 15th-century model for Bluebeard. He rode alongside Joan of Arc, but was hanged in 1440 for murdering more than 100 children. He wrote a 20,000-line verse poem, as well. He deserved to die for many reasons.
- Columbia Exposition Killer (1893). During the Chicago Exposition, Holmes lured victims into his specially-designed 'hotel', where he murdered them, often by gas. He got rid of the evidence by selling the skeletons to medical schools. Pinkerton's finally tracked him down when he committed insurance fraud.
- The model for Norman Bates. Read Ed Gein – the Original American Psycho for details on this killer.
- Never caught. Fact and fiction writers have had a field day tying Jack to everybody from foreigners to royalty. Read Jack the Ripper – Anonymous Murderer for the story of this unsolved case.
- Used arsenic. Not all serial killers have been men, though most have. Mary Ann Cotton was one of the UK's most Infamous Historical Poisoners. She killed as many as 21 people.
- Charged, but acquitted in Northern Ireland. This doctor from Coleraine, Northern Ireland, UK was suspected of killing 165 patients. If he did, he got away with it.
- Ate people in Colorado. For years, the University of Colorado's cafeteria was called 'The Alfred P Packer Memorial Cafeteria', until the food workers objected. According to Alfred Packer – the Colorado Cannibal, the judge in the case was particularly outraged because Packer had eaten five of the six Democrats in the state.
- Should not have listened to that dog. Berkowitz, also known as 'Son of Sam', killed six and wounded seven with a gun in the 1976-1977. He claimed his neighbour's possessed dog told him to.
- The Yorkshire Ripper. Murdered thirteen women, tried to murder seven others. He, too, claimed to hear voices.
- The Vampire of Düsseldorf. (You only guessed that because of the umlaut.) Kürten was executed by guillotine in Köln in 1931. Fritz Lang denied that his film M was based on the Kürten murders.
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How did you do? Share this quiz with someone you want to freak out. Avoid the coworker with the shifty eyes.
Post Quiz and Oddities ArchiveDmitri Gheorgheni
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