John Wayne Gacy, aka the “Serial Killer Clown,” was born on March 17, 1942. He was a serial killer and rapist who murdered at least 33 young males in Cook County, Illinois. He buried most of them under his house or disposed of them in the Des Plaines River. Growing up, Gacy was abused and struggled with his sexuality.

When he killed, he would dress up as his alter ego “Pogo the Clown” which he obtained by performing at kid’s birthday parties. He would lure his victims by promising work, but then he would capture them. He would rape them and strangle them by using a rope.

Jeffrey Dahmer was born on May 21st, 1960. He was a happy boy up until the age of 4 when he had surgery to remove a double hernia. The surgery triggered something in him. After his little brother was born, he became very withdrawn from social activities.

He killed 17 males between 1978 and 1991. Most of his victims were African American. He would lure his victims from gay bars, malls, and bus stops. To get them to his house, he would promise sex or money. At his house, he would give them alcohol laced with drugs in order to strangle them with ease. Dahmer didn’t stop there. He would have sex with the corpses before cutting off their limbs and keeping their skulls or genitals as souvenirs.

Aileen Wuornos was born on February 29, 1956.  Wuornos had a tough child beginning with her father molesting her. He was convicted of the crime soon after she was born, and soon after, her mother abandoned her and left her with her grandparents. Her grandfather beat her, and her grandmother was an alcoholic. During her teenage years, she began her career as a prostitute, having a child at the ripe age of fourteen.

She murdered seven men from 1989 to late 1990.  She would rob them and then shoot them to death, using their cars to get away. Her final arrest was in 1991. It was easy to get her because of her extensive criminal record and she fit the profile perfectly. She died on October 9th, 2002 in the Florida State Prison, but she will always be the representation of a stereotypical woman serial killer.

H.H. Holmes was born on May 16, 1861.  He died on May 7th, 1896 in Moyamensing Prison. Holmes didn’t have the childhood most serial killers had. He was very privileged and unusually smart at a young age. He always showed an interest in medicine. He would often trap animals and perform surgery on them. There is also a rumor that he might’ve killed a childhood friend he always played with. He began his crimes with fraud and scams. It got a little more serious when he became a med student at the University of Michigan and started stealing corpses to do fraud with insurance claims.

Holmes is known to be the first serial killer documented. Not only did he murder people, but he created a “Murder Castle” that had “secret passages, trapdoors, soundproof rooms, doors that could be locked from the outside, gas jets to asphyxiate victims, and a kiln to cremate the bodies. He would kill his employees and fiancees to collect their life insurance money. He confessed to killing 27 people, but researches believe he killed more than 200 people.