As much as we’re all aware they’re morbid, morally destitute, and thrive on violence above all else, we are fascinated by the lives of serial killers.
Surf through any streaming site and you’re sure to see at least a few documentaries and fictional dramas whose subject is some guy on a killing rampage.
But whether we feel ethically compromised about that interest or not, the content isn’t about to slow down anytime soon.
Redditor zimmy9921 made sure of that when they asked the following question:
“What are some serial killer facts/ facts about serial killers that you find extremely interesting?”
The Killers’ Methods
“Jeffrey Dahmer…towards the end right before he got caught, had so many bodies in his apartment that he ran out of room and stored one victim in his bathtub. He proceeded to shower over him everyday for a month!”
“Think about that…straddling over a rotten corpse to get fresh and clean for the day. Unreal…” — TrollOfTheInterwebs
“The serial killer Bela Kiss liked to pickle people in barrels stored in his basement. Someone figured it out but they couldn’t get him because he was fighting in World War I. By the time they tracked him down he had disappeared and left a dead guy in his hospital bed.”
“He supposedly joined the French Foreign Legion and deserted that too, and I think history loses track of him after that, with the exception of one possible sighting as a janitor in New York. The janitor disappeared before anyone could confirm it.” — Ayback183
“I am surprised we don’t hear more about Robert Hansen in popular culture. He would kidnap women and turn them loose in the Alaskan wilderness, where he would then hunt them down like animals and kill them.”
“He didn’t have the highest number of victims, but his method of hunting them for sport is absolutely insane.” — glaring-oryx
“Mack Ray Edwards, he was a serial killer who worked for CalTrans. He’d kill his victims and then bury the bodies in places he would later help build the highways over.”
Not all his victims have been found, and many are very likely still under some of the California highways you may have driven over countless times.” — llcucf80
Wildly Bold and Snarky
“PeeWee Gaskins, most prolific serial killer in SC drove around in a hearse with a bumper sticker that read ‘I haul dead people.’ He told people that he needed it to take the bodies of people he killed to his private cemetery.”
“He claimed to have killed between 100 and 110 people.” — SCCock
“Jeffrey Dahmer gave the people in his apartment building sandwiches that could’ve possibly been made from his victims’ flesh.” — votedog
“The golden state killer, known at the time as the east area rapist, would often break into the homes of couples, making the woman tie up the man.”
“He would stack dishes on the back of the man and threaten that if he heard the dishes fall, he would kill everyone in the house, then he would rape the woman repeatedly and ransack the house for hours.”
“At a community meeting about the rapist a macho man stood up and went on a rant about how a real man would never let such a thing happen to him or his wife.”
“The rapist proceeded to attack that man and his wife soon after, meaning he was attending the community meeting about himself.” — PM-ME-A-SPICY-MEME
“I find it interesting that apparently the BTK-killer installed alarms at several people houses because of their fear of the BTK-killer.” — bleke_1
“Dennis Rader, aka BTK (Bind Torture Kill) started communicating with police after years of silence in like 2004ish? He had gone decades without being caught and once again started sending taunting letters and items to them.”
“He asked them if he could be traced if he sent them his writings on a floppy disc and they assured him through a communication in a newspaper that no, they couldn’t trace him. He sent them a floppy disc and they found metadata linking to his church.”
“He was arrested shortly thereafter. He was hurt that they would lie to him because he thought they had developed a rapport…” — goatywizard
“Additional BTK funfacts: He worked for a home security company, and gained access to some of his victims’ homes that way.”
“When some home security cos tried to sell me on their services when I first got a house, said ‘not today, serial killers!’ to that whole mess.” — Zebirdsandzebats
“[BTK’s] wife found a poem that he wrote about one of his victims.”
“When confronted he lied and said it was for a writing assignment for a class he was taking and he chose to write it about this woman because she was all over news due to her murder.”
“I think that was the closest a family member came to finding out.” — PantherMoose
“Many years ago I read the entire police report on the Green River killer. I was fascinated by his attempts to cover his tracks by buying new car tires and destroying shoes and getting new ones after murders (to avoid leaving traceable tracks behind.)”
“Also fascinating that he took the jewelry off his victims and left it in the ladies restroom at his workplace and got off on seeing the ‘found’ jewelry on various woman around the office.” — smarmageddon
Oddball Facts
“Jeffrey Dahmer didn’t eat people with tattoos because he said the ink made the flesh taste weird.”
“Be safe, get inked.” — Bossmantho
“That most serial killers have roughly average, often below average IQs, and their reputation as smart and difficult to catch is because of a couple of high profile outliers and the fact that their victims are usually the sort of people who cops and society don’t pay as much attention to.” — ithran_dishon
“Jeffrey Dahmer was neglected by his parents in childhood and hadn’t even seen his mother for 10 years prior to incarceration. At sentencing his father and step mother asked for 10 minutes to say goodbye and hug.”
“His father often visited him in prison and he had weekly phone calls with his mother. Despite the heinous crimes they seemed to have some kind of unconditional love. It makes all of the stories I hear about estrangement seem to have a different, strange perspective.” — Goose1963
“I don’t recall which one it was, but I remember hearing that there was a killer who would only go into the home if the front door was unlocked because otherwise he ‘didn’t feel welcome.’ Lock your doors people!” — RealKenny
So if, on the off chance, you want to freak everyone out at a party or an ice breaker, you have plenty of ammo now.