Think you know true crime? Do you know these serial killers from America?
What do we think of serial killers? We try to avoid them at all costs – except for safely watching those true crime stories from the comfort of our beds at home. Unfortunately, those stories don’t tell us everything about serial killers in America.
Some criminals manage to make stardom, secure a spot for themselves in the history books while others stay hidden away as the causes for cold cases, the only ones on earth who really knows what happened on some fatal days and nights.
We certainly don’t have to condone what these people do, but that doesn’t mean we can’t learn about them. Also, let’s be honest: true crime makes some really good reads and binge watching! When it comes to American serial killers, we often find ourselves hearing about the same people over and over again.
Fortunately, for the true crime genre, there are more serial killers we know of from ancient history to now. We’ve found some people we know you’ve never heard of!
Salvatore Perrone
Salvator Perrone was a struggling business owner who was perhaps feeling a bit lonely after his wife & child left him. He walked free as a bird in Brooklyn, New York while he killed Middle-Eastern shopkeepers.
He’s speculated to have crept along the Brooklyn streets carrying a “kill kit” lounging inside his duffle bag. It had an eight-inch serrated knife already dirty with blood, screwdrivers & switchblades, women’s clothing, latex gloves, bleach, wire cutters, and a loaded rifle.
When the police rummaged through his home, they came across Perrone’s lair which included a shotgun, ammo, and duct tape.
The jury quickly found the “Son of Sal” guilty for the murder of three people, and he was given seventy-five years to life in prison.
Phoenix Serial Killer
There’s something about the desert that gives off a serial killer vibe. It can be the perfect scenery to film a horror movie, even when the sun is at its peak and the sky is bright blue.
Unlike most dangerous criminals who seem to have a preference in their victims (i.e. Jeffery Dahmer preferred young men), the Phoenix Serial Killer was different from many. His victims spanned males, females, and the young & old. He didn’t care while he fired a semi-automatic shotgun at several people at a time, although he seemed to favor the chiefly Latino Maryvale neighborhood.
In June 2016, he fired over thirty times at a car when a family was sitting outside their home, and there were no survivors.
Police aren’t completely sure who the Phoenix Serial Killer is, but they have some definitive suspects.
Lonnie David Franklin, Jr.
From 1985 to 2007, Lonnie David Franklin, Jr. became responsible for the deaths of at least twenty-five women. Some authorities have stated his number may have reached the hundreds. From 1988 to 2002, Franklin took a break from his killing spree which gave him the nickname, “The Grim Sleeper”. No one knows why, but who really knows the minds of these criminals?
Perhaps he meant to stay away from the spotlight. He focused on people who seemed to live away from everyone else, but he did involve drug addicts & prostitutes.
Franklin would drop off his victims’ naked bodies in alleyways or roadsides. As revealed in The Los Angeles Times, police found many pictures of naked women making it difficult to determine the exact number of his body count.
Fortunately, he was caught, convicted and sentenced to death in June 2016.
Delphine LaLaurie
Only American Horror Story fans know who Delphine LaLaurie is but for anyone outside that group, this serial killer lived long ago in what you might call America’s dark ages. She’s known as one of the most ruthless slave owners in history.
Delphine LaLaurie was born to a wealthy New Orleans family on March 19th, 1787. Her family owned a 1,344 acre plantation stretching from Bartholomew and Independence to St. Claude Avenue.
In addition to beating her slaves, she was known to scrape their eyes out and stab holes into their holes, letting maggots thrive in the rotten openings.
When investigators searched her home, they found the dead bodies of several slaves, including a woman wrapped in her own intestines and another with their mouth sewn shut and filled with feces.
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Any ideas for true crime topics or American serial killers for our future list? Let us know in the comments!
