I dont know if this topic should go here or in general horror...but what the hell, I have a morbid fascination with reading about serial killers, I guess it all goes towards the Horror genre compartmentalised part of my sick, sick mind but it's the mysterious aspect as well, I've recently finished books on Jack the Ripper, BTK Killer, and Zodiac...just wondering if anyone else shares this interest... For the record I think Jack was one SICK F*CK.

I love to read about serial killers. Who do you think Jack the Ripper was, there are a lot speculations about who he was. I have some favorite ones.

I think I like Ted Bundy. He's my fave. I have a book about female serial killers. It gets pretty nasty at times. I skip sections that are mega disturbing.

Ed Gein all the way.  I mean, come on.  He's not one for quantity, but as far as influence on the genre, he's the one.  TCM anyone?

Albert Fish by far, one of the lesser known serial killers and by far one of the most underrated. He was big in late 1800's early 1900's, his big thing was kidnapping children, having sex with them and then eating them. And to make it even worse he would write to the parents of the children after and explain how exaclty how he ate them. One sick F*cker, but my favorite sick F*cker.

I prefer to think NONE of the listed or well known suspects was really him...that he was just some demented sicko who either left London or died, went to prison or whatever...or after the grisly Mary Kelly killing just went totally batshit and killed himself....

Yep, Unscareable, boggycreek and MadMolly I've read about those guys...very twisted indeed...The Ed Gein obsession with his mother was incredibly creepy to read about, and I saw a very gruesome documentary on Albert Fish when I was young enough that I couldnt sleep for nights and nights afterwards...he was one very sick man...

Edmund Kemper was another interesting one...and some guy in South America..cant remember his name but he apparently killed, like 300 people or something?

I  am sick of hearing about BTK. I have a favorite which is Jeffery Dahmer. I think he could have been helped if his parents would have cared enough about him. When someone is molested it takes something from them, he was molested by a neighbor boy. I watch everything I can on him. When Jeffery was in the military he did very well, around other people, he didn't have those thoughts about killing. I believe his death in prison was planned. I think the prison guards had it done.

Now if you want to talk serial killers that I wish I could have killed myself lets talk John Wayne Gacy jr. I have never hated clowns more in my life because of him. He was a closet gay, because he had been married to several women, which none of them worked out. Yes he did like young single men but he also killed older married men. Male being his favorite toy. I would have loved to squeezed the last bit of air from his fat, ugly, nasty body.

No love for Manson?  It's not often serial killers are A) still alive after this long, and B) eligible for actual parole (in 2012 I believe).

Also, I like Alfred/Alferd Packer because someone tried to name a cafeteria grill at University of Colorado, Boulder after him....if you don't get the irony of that, just look up what he's known for....

And also, The Zodiac Killer.....simply because much like Jack the Ripper, he/she got away.

OK, well Manson of course but as i Recall he never actually killed anyone,  his "family" did. Although Manson did in a way earn the title of a serial killer I suppose. Have any of you seen the interview of the manson interview, they were wierd as hell. I've heard of Alferd Packer also, as I recall he was out in like a snow storm or something and had to eat people to survive. Dont know if that makes him a serial killer or not, cannibalism due to hunger and his own survival? There was even a poem written about him.

Nuff said.

im not sure on his name but in canada (yes canada) a guy killed a guy buy cuting off his head and eating his head and when the police  found him he was eating fingers and ears from the guy he killed earlyer that day

Countess Elizabeth Báthory is one of the extremely rare females throughout history who have displayed vampiric or cannibalistic appetites. At four in the morning she would bathe her face and her whole body in human blood so as to enhance her beauty and allegedly Bathory once took several bites out of the flesh of a living servant girl. she wrote a ledger with 650 names  of victims no single person in the centuries to come surpassed her victim toll. Although she was never convicted of any crime, Elizabeth Bathory's family declared her a menace to their name, and she was walled up within her bed chamber, with only small slits for ventilation and the passing of food left open. Her reputation still remains as one of the most bloodthirsty killers on record, in part because her noble status made her untouchable in a society that protected its aristocrats.

Amen sister.  And it made for a great reference in Hostel 2.