Lunes Macabro: little-known serial killers (but really fucking hardcore)

By: Chuck Pereda for www.elsalvavidas.mx

When it comes to serial killers, it's the same as with rock bands: people always talk about the same ones, when there are many better options that, for one reason or another, aren't as well known. So, everybody knows The Zodiac, Ted Bundy, Jeffrey Dahmer, John Wayne Gacy, Aileen Wuornos and Jack The Ripper, but there are plenty of people even crazier than them (and who have killed more) who aren't as well known.

Only us poor souls who are into podcasts and books about “true crime” know about the Torso Killer (a serial killer who was chased down by none other than Elliott Ness,) H.H. Holmes (a contemporary of Jack The Ripper and one of the most prolific killers in the United States,) orRichard Chase, and we often end up reading more of the same or watching documentaries (often poorly made) about the same bunch of characters.

That's why, whenever we come across some killer whose existence has gone unnoticed or who simply catches us off guard, we immediately make a mental note and find out as much as we can about him or her. Here are 3 that I recently learned about thanks to the excellent podcast (abre en nueva pestaña) by Dan Zupansky and the bookMasters of True Crime: Chilling Stories of Murder and the Macabre (abre en nueva pestaña).

Leonarda Cianciulli (1894 – 1970.)- One of the first people to officially carry the label of “psychopath,” a new term coined by Dr. Hervey Cleckley in his book “The Mask of Sanity.” Cianciulli murdered three of her friends to “protect” the life of one of her sons who had gone off to war. Nicknamed the “Soap-Maker of Correggio,” she used her victims' fat to make soap and their blood to make cookies that she then fed to her guests. You can find more information about her here.

Genene Jones (1950 – still alive.)- With two confirmed murders and suspected of having committed at least 60 more (though some say the number could be as high as 100,) Genene is one of the most prolific serial killers in history, and her work schedule inside the hospitals became known as “the death shift.” Jones was a pediatric nurse who murdered babies and then pretended to grieve deeply over their deaths, something known as Munchausen syndrome by proxy. The podcast (abre en nueva pestaña) about it within the series by Dan Zupansky is incredibly macabre. By the way, due to a legal loophole (and prison overcrowding,) there's a chance she could be released soon.

Amelia Dyer, the Ogress of Reading (1837 – 1896.)- With an active period of more than 20 years, Amelia Dyermay well have killed as many as 400 infants, who were placed under the care of her “baby farm,” an old European practice that (fortunately) fell out of use and that basically consisted of mothers who couldn't take care of their children placing them on farms where they'd be “looked after” for them; this obviously lent itself to all kinds of abuse, but Dyer was infamous for killing them as soon as their parents left, keeping only a handful of children alive to keep her business looking legal.

Peter Dinsdale (1960 – still alive.)- Also known as Bruce George Peter Lee (he changed his name in honor of his hero, Bruce Lee.) Peter is the son of a prostitute who mistreated him so badly that, due to malnutrition, he never fully developed physically and, in fact, suffers mental impairments for the same reasons. At age 19, Peter began a career as an arsonist that stayed active for seven years, during which he set 11 intentional fires, leaving a death toll of 26 for which he is directly responsible. He is one of the most prolific serial killers in the United Kingdom, but his case wasn't as widely reported because news of his crimes broke at the same time as the case of Peter Sutcliffe, the Ripper of Yorkshire. The celebrated author Carol Anne Davis wrote about the case in the anthology I mentioned above, and her chapter is titled Twisted Firestarter.