16 of The Most Infamous White Serial Killers in America

The Netflix Series Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story has had the internet abuzz since it was released. A record number of viewers have tuned into the streaming service to watch one of the most infamous serial killers hurt his victims, who in most cases were young Black men.

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Family members of Dahmer’s victims have spoken out against the series and a plethora of Black people on social media have criticized the show for glamourizing Black trauma. With that in mind, The Root looks back at other despicable White serial killers through the years.

16. Albert Fish aka Gray Man

Hamilton Howard “Albert” Fish was a serial killer and child molester who committed multiple child murders during the 1920s. In 1936 he was convicted and executed by electric chair.

15. Andrew Cunanan

Andrew Cunanan was a serial killer who killed five people in 1997. He was most known for the murder of Italian fashion designer Gianni Versace in July 1997. He committed suicide one week after he killed Versace.

14. Zodiac Killer

The Zodiac Killer murdered multiple people in the Bay Area during the late 1960s. Historians consider his to be one of the most infamous unsolved murder cases. And, like Dahmer, his exploits have become a part of American culture.

13. Lawrence Bittaker and Roy Norris

Known as the Tool Box Killers, Bittaker and Norris were American serial killers who kidnapped and raped at least five teenage girls in southern California in 1979. Bittaker was sentenced to death but died while on death row. Norris agreed to testify against Bittaker and was sentenced to life in prison.

12. David Berkowitz aka Son of Sam

Berkowitz killed and wounded multiple people in New York City during the mid 1970s. He eventually pled guilty to all of his shootings and was sentenced to six life sentences.

11. Dennis Rader aka The BTK Killer

Rader killed ten people between 1974 and 1991 in Wichita and Park City, Kansas. He sent letters to the police as taunting mechanisms. He was arrested in 2005 and is currently serving ten life sentences.

10. Henry Lee Lucas

Lucas was convicted of murdering his mother in 1960 and two others nearly two decades later in 1983. While he was incarcerated he falsely confessed to over 600 murders in Texas. It was later found impossible that he committed most of those murders. He was sentenced to life in prison.

9. Joseph DeAngelo aka The Golden State Killer

DeAngelo is a former police officer who was responsible for more than a dozen murders, more than 50 rapes and more than 100 burglaries in California from 1974 to 1986. The penalty for his crimes was 12 life sentences.

8. Joel Rifkin

Rifkin was sentenced to 203 years in prison for the murder of nine women between 1983 and 1993.

7. Robert Hansen aka The Butcher Baker

Better known as the Butcher Baker, Hansen murdered, raped and abducted multiple women in Alaska from 1971 to 1983. In 1983, he was arrested and sentenced to 461 years in prison, where he eventually died at the age of 75 in 2014.

6. H.H. Holmes

Holmes was a con artist who confessed to nearly 27 murders, although he was only convicted of one and eventually was executed for his crimes in 1896.

5. Dean Corll aka The Candyman

Corll abducted, raped and murdered dozens of teen boys and young men in the early 1970s in Texas. He was known as the Candy Man because his family used to own a candy factory. One of his accomplices fatally shot Corll in August 1973.

4. Ted Bundy

Bundy is also one of the most infamous serial killers in American history who kidnapped, raped and murdered young women during the 1970s across multiple states. He eventually confessed to 30 murders that he committed between 1974 and 1978.

3. John Wayne Gacy

John Wayne Gacy was a rapist who murdered at least 33 young boys in the Chicago area. All of his crimes were committed in his house in a suburb of Chicago. He eventually was executed by lethal injection.

2. Gary Ridgway aka Green River Killer

Ridgeway was a serial killer who was convicted of 49 murders making him one of the most prolific serial killers in American history. Many of his victims were teenage girls in the state of Washington during the 1980s and 1990s. He was sentenced to life in prison.

1. Jeffrey Dahmer

Netflix’s series Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story (2022) gives the life story of serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer. It sparked outrage as the victims’ families felt like the series was exploiting their pain. Jeffrey Dahmer was indicted on 15 murder charges after targeting mostly Black and POC men and boys, mostly occurring in Wisconsin from 1978 to 1991. The series went into painful detail about the way Dahmer murdered his victims, from luring them back to his apartment, torturing them and even eating some of the bodies. There are more than 20 movies, documentaries, tv specials, and series recounting Dahmer’s life.