List of serial killers before 1900 - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

Name	Country	Years active	Proven victims*	Possible victims	Miscellaneous information
Tofania d'Adamo, Giulia Tofana Giulia Tofana Giulia Tofana or Toffana was an Italian professional poisoner. She was famous for selling poison to women who wanted to murder their husbands. She was the inventor of the famous poison Aqua Tofana, which is named after her.... & Girolama Spera		1633-1659	600	600+	They were 3 female killers from Italy who poisoned at least 600 victims; they killed in Roma, Napoli and Palermo. D'Adamo was hanged on 1633; Tofana invented a poison in 1640 she sold to wives looking to murder their husbands; she and her daughter Girolama were both caught and hanged on 1659.
Amelia Dyer Amelia Dyer Amelia Elizabeth Dyer née Hobley was the most prolific baby farm murderer of Victorian England. She was tried and hanged for one murder, but there is little doubt she was responsible for many more similar deaths—possibly 400 or more—over a period of perhaps twenty years.-Background:Unlike many of...		1860s to 1896	200+	400+	Only convicted of one murder. Bodies of four children recovered, but estimated to have killed 400+, however, lack of evidence cannot confirm the exact number. Suspected of at least 200 murders. Baby-farm murderess.
Thug Behram Thug Behram Thug Behram of the Thuggee cult in India, was one of the world's most prolific killers. He may have murdered up to 931 victims by strangulation between 1790–1840 with the ceremonial cloth , used by his cult...		1790 to 1840	125	931	Thugee cult leader. Confessed to have personally murdered more than 125 victims and present at 931 murders perpetrated by his cult. Behram is often quoted as having killed 931 people. This figure was the number of murders Behram had been present at, though he was never convicted of these murders. This lower figure was the conclusion of James Paton's investigations in the 1830s. The Thugee cult as whole, however, were adjudged to have been responsible for 50,000–1,000,000 murders in total.
Liu Pengli Liu Pengli Liu Pengli of China, third child of Prince Xiao of Liang or King of Liang , grandson of Emperor Wen of Han and cousin of Emperor Jing of Han...			100+	100+	He was a Chinese emperor elected in 144 BC who killed and robbed for sheer sport; in around 115 BC he was stopped and demoted from emperor to commoner.
Erzsébet Báthory Elizabeth Báthory Countess Elizabeth Báthory de Ecsed was a countess from the renowned Báthory family of Hungarian nobility. Although in modern times she has been labelled the most prolific serial killer in history, the number of murders has been debated...		1500s	80	300-650+	Hungarian noblewoman and countess, known as the "Blood Countess" or "Blood Queen". Born 1560, died 1614. Total killings unknown, accusations pointed to between 100 and 700 victims but she is believed to have actually killed 100 to 200 people. No public trial was held. Was imprisoned in a room of her own castle until her death.
Gilles de Rais Gilles de Rais Gilles de Montmorency-Laval , Baron de Rais, was a Breton knight, a leader in the French army and a companion-in-arms of Joan of Arc. He is best known as a prolific serial killer of children...	Brittany	1435 to 1440	80	140-200+	Breton nobleman, child-murderer and companion-in-arms to Joan of Arc Joan of Arc Saint Joan of Arc, nicknamed "The Maid of Orléans" , is a national heroine of France and a Roman Catholic saint. A peasant girl born in eastern France who claimed divine guidance, she led the French army to several important victories during the Hundred Years' War, which paved the way for the... . Convicted of 80 murders and suspected of 200, estimated total ranges substantially. His confession was gained under torture and threat of torture, as was customary.
Belle Gunness Belle Gunness Belle Sorenson Gunness was a Norwegian-American serial killer....		1900 to 1908	40+	60+	Active 1900 to 1908. May have killed up to 60.
Harpe Brothers Harpe Brothers Micajah "Big" Harpe and Wiley "Little" Harpe , pronounced and , were murderers, highwaymen, and river pirates, who operated in Tennessee, Kentucky, Illinois, and Mississippi in the late 18th century...		1780s to 1790s	40	40+	Murderers, highwaymen, and river pirates, who operated in Tennessee, Kentucky, Illinois, and Mississippi in the late 18th century. Their crimes appear to have been motivated more by blood lust than financial gain and many historians have called them the nation's first true "serial killers".
Darya Saltykova	Russian Empire Russian Empire The Russian Empire was a state that existed from 1721 until the Russian Revolution of 1917. It was the successor to the Tsardom of Russia and the predecessor of the Soviet Union...	1800s	38	138	Russian noblewoman. Accused of up to 138 murders; found guilty of 38 murders.
Jane Toppan Jane Toppan Jane Toppan , born Honora Kelley, was an American female serial killer. She confessed to 11 murders in 1901. She is quoted as saying that her ambition was "to have killed more people — helpless people — than any other man or woman who ever lived...".-Early life:Though scant records...		1885 to 1901	31	100+	Cambridge nurse who killed using morphine. Confessed that she had killed more than 31 people and convicted of killing 11.
Maria Swanenburg Maria Swanenburg Maria Catherina Swanenburg was a Dutch serial killer.Swanenburg was the daughter of Clemens Swanenburg and Johanna Dingjan. After her first two daughters died at a young age, she married Johannes van der Linden on 13 May 1868. The result of this marriage was five sons and two daughters. The...		1880 to 1883	27	90+	Female serial killer from Leiden, Netherlands. Between 1880 and 1883 she poisoned many victims with arsenic in an effort to collect their insurance money.
Matti Haapoja Matti Haapoja Matti Haapoja was a Finnish murderer, much covered by the press at the time of the murders....			22	25	His last victim was the prison warden where he was serving his life sentence. Hanged himself in his cell in Kakola prison, Turku.
Mary Ann Cotton Mary Ann Cotton Mary Ann Cotton was an English woman convicted of murdering her children and believed to have murdered up to 21 people, mainly by arsenic poisoning.-Early life:...			21	21	Killed 21 of her husbands and offspring in County Durham County Durham County Durham is a ceremonial county and unitary district in north east England. The county town is Durham. The largest settlement in the ceremonial county is the town of Darlington... in the 19th century.
William Burke and William Hare		1827 to 1828	17		Known as the West Port murders West Port murders The Burke and Hare murders were serial murders perpetrated in Edinburgh, Scotland, from November 1827 to October 31, 1828. The killings were attributed to Irish immigrants William Burke and William Hare, who sold the corpses of their 17 victims to provide material for dissection... .
Servant Girl Annihilator Servant Girl Annihilator An unknown serial killer, popularly known today as the Servant Girl Annihilator, preyed upon the city of Austin, Texas during the years 1884 and 1885...	, Austin Austin, Texas Austin is the capital city of the U.S. state of :Texas and the seat of Travis County. Located in Central Texas on the eastern edge of the American Southwest, it is the fourth-largest city in Texas and the 14th most populous city in the United States. It was the third-fastest-growing large city in... , Texas Texas Texas is the second largest U.S. state by both area and population, and the largest state by area in the contiguous United States.The name, based on the Caddo word "Tejas" meaning "friends" or "allies", was applied by the Spanish to the Caddo themselves and to the region of their settlement in...	1884 to 1885	16	16+	An unknown serial killer, popularly known today as the Servant Girl Annihilator.
Peter Stumpp Peter Stumpp Peter Stumpp was a German farmer, accused of being a serial killer and a cannibal, also known as the "Werewolf of Bedburg"....		1564 to 1589	16	0	"The Werewolf of Bedburg of Danvill." Confessed to murdering and consuming 14 children and two pregnant women while being tortured by the English.
Bloody Benders Bloody Benders The Bloody Benders were a family of serial killers who owned a small general store and inn in Osage township, Labette County, Kansas from 1872 to 1873. The inn was a dingy place called the Wayside Inn. The alleged family consisted of John Bender, his wife Kate, son John Jr. and daughter Kate...			11	12+	Active 1872 and 1873. Fate unknown.
Joseph Vacher Joseph Vacher Joseph Vacher was a French serial killer, sometimes known as "The French Ripper" or "L'éventreur du Sud-Est" due to comparisons to the more famous Jack the Ripper murderer of London, England in 1888...		1897	11	11+	A French serial killer, sometimes known as "The French Ripper" or "L'éventreur du Sud-Est" ("The South-East Ripper") due to comparisons to the more famous Jack the Ripper murderer of London, England in 1888.
Matti Haapoja Matti Haapoja Matti Haapoja was a Finnish murderer, much covered by the press at the time of the murders....		1870 to 1894	10-25		Most prolific Finnish killer ever. Hung himself in his cell in Kakola prison, Turku Turku Turku is a city situated on the southwest coast of Finland at the mouth of the Aura River. It is located in the region of Finland Proper. It is believed that Turku came into existence during the end of the 13th century which makes it the oldest city in Finland...
Henry Howard Holmes		1893 to 1895	9-27	200–350+	Active 1888–1894. Targeted mostly younger women during the Chicago World's Fair World's Columbian Exposition The World's Columbian Exposition was a World's Fair held in Chicago in 1893 to celebrate the 400th anniversary of Christopher Columbus's arrival in the New World in 1492. Chicago bested New York City; Washington, D.C.; and St... in the 1890s and killed them by enticing them to his custom-built "murder castle," which was tailor-made to kill large numbers of people using a wide variety of premeditated methods. To keep this secret, he fired all his builders and hired new ones before any one set of builders could ever finish one part of the "house." He sometimes murdered his victims on a day-to-day basis but usually slept with the victim first and devised a method in the morning. Actual body count is unknown, but it is possible that there could have been more than 230 victims, as the majority of the victims were completely dissolved into acid housed in a gigantic pit built into his basement. In his biography he wrote he had killed 133 victims. Hanged in 1896.
Patrick Lynch Patrick Lynch Patrick Lynch is the name of:Patrick Neeson Lynch , Catholic bishop during the American Civil WarPatrick Lynch , Irish Roman Catholic bishop...			9	10	Irish convict transported to Australia who killed nine people in the town of Berrima over a three-day period in February 1841 but denied involvement in a tenth murder in 1835 when he was a bushranger. Dubbed "The Berrima Axe Murderer"; hanged on April 22, 1842.
Alexander Pearce Alexander Pearce Alexander Pearce was an Irish convict who was transported to Van Diemen's Land for theft. He escaped from prison several times, but eventually was captured and was hanged and dissected in Hobart for murder....			8	8	Irish convict transported to Australia who killed and cannibalized his fellow escapees in two separate escapes in four months in 1822. Hanged on July 9, 1824.
Jean-Baptiste Troppmann Jean-Baptiste Troppmann Jean-Baptiste Troppmann was a French spree killer born in 1848 and executed on January 19, 1870.His crimes are referenced in Mikhail Bakunin's book God and the State, and his execution was witnessed and written about by Ivan Turgenev.-References:...			8	8	Born October 5, 1849 in Brunstatt Brunstatt Brunstatt is a commune in the Haut-Rhin department in Alsace in north-eastern France.It is one of the southern suburbs of the city of Mulhouse, and forms part of the Mulhouse Alsace Agglomération, the inter-communal local government body for the Mulhouse conurbation.-References:*... (Haut-Rhin Haut-Rhin Haut-Rhin is a département of the Alsace region of France, named after the Rhine river. Its name means Upper Rhine. Haut-Rhin is the smaller and less populated of the two departements of Alsace, although is still densely populated compared to the rest of France.-Subdivisions:The department... ), he murdered 8 members of the unrelated Kinck family over a period of several months in 1869. His execution on January 19, 1870, in Paris Paris Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region... , became the subject of an essay by Ivan Turgenev Ivan Turgenev Ivan Sergeyevich Turgenev was a Russian novelist, short story writer, and playwright. His first major publication, a short story collection entitled A Sportsman's Sketches, is a milestone of Russian Realism, and his novel Fathers and Sons is regarded as one of the major works of 19th-century... .
Delphine LaLaurie Delphine LaLaurie Marie Delphine LaLaurie , more commonly known as Madame LaLaurie, was a Louisiana-born socialite, known for her involvement in the torture of black slaves....		1830's	7	7+	A Louisiana-born socialite, known for her involvement in the torture of black slaves.
Alfred Packer			5	5	Murderer and cannibal.
Jack The Ripper Jack the Ripper "Jack the Ripper" is the best-known name given to an unidentified serial killer who was active in the largely impoverished areas in and around the Whitechapel district of London in 1888. The name originated in a letter, written by someone claiming to be the murderer, that was disseminated in the...		1888	5	4-18	Nobody was ever caught for the murders, and the identity of the killer has never been discovered. Preyed on prostitutes in Whitechapel, London, in 1888. Arguably the most infamous serial killer in history.
Thomas Neill Cream Thomas Neill Cream Dr. Thomas Neill Cream , also known as the Lambeth Poisoner, was a Scottish-born serial killer, who claimed his first proven victims in the United States and the rest in England, and possibly others in Canada and Scotland...		1881 to 1892	5	5+	Known as the Lambeth Poisoner, a Scottish-born serial killer, who claimed his first proven victims in the United States and the rest in England, and possibly others in Canada and Scotland. Unsubstantiated rumours suggested his last words as he was being hanged were a confession that he was Jack the Ripper—even though he was in prison at the time of the Ripper murders.
Gilles Garnier Gilles Garnier Gilles Garnier was a French hermit and cannibalistic, serial murderer convicted of being a werewolf. Alternately known as "The Hermit of St. Bonnot" and "The Werewolf of Dole".The Werewolf of Dole,...		October to December 1573	4	4+	Known as the "Werewolf of Dole", exclusively murdered young children and would often cannibalize their corpses claiming that he used a magic ointment to transform into a werewolf to make it easier to hunt.
Mark Jeffries		1820s	4	4	Convict transported from Ireland who cannibalized his fellow escapees in 1824; hanged in 1826.
Anna Maria Zwanziger Anna Maria Zwanziger Anna Margaretha Zwanziger was a Bavarian serial killer. She used arsenic, which she referred to as "her truest friend"....		1801 to 1811	4	4	From 1801 until 1811, Zwanziger was employed as a housekeeper at the home of several judges in Bavaria. She would poison her employers with arsenic, and then nurse them back to health to gain their favour.
Madame de Brinvilliers		1666 to 1675	3	3+	Marie-Madeleine-Marguerite d'Aubray conspired with her lover, army captain Godin de Sainte-Croix to poison her father Antonine Dreux d'Aubray in 1666 and two of her brothers, Antoine d'Aubray and Francois d'Aubray, in 1670, in order to inherit their estates. There were also rumors that she had poisoned poor people during her visits to hospitals. In 1675 she fled but was arrested in Liège. She was forced to confess and sentenced to death.
George Chapman George Chapman (murderer) George Chapman was a Polish serial killer known as the Borough Poisoner. Born Seweryn Antonowicz Kłosowski in Poland, he moved as an adult to England, where he committed his crimes...		1897 to 1902	3	3	Convicted and executed after poisoning three women, but is remembered today mostly because some authorities suspected him of being the notorious serial killer, Jack the Ripper.
Vincenzo Verzeni		1870 - 1871	2	2	He was an Italian serial killer who committed six rapes and two killings; he strangled his victims (all women) and he committed acts of cannibalism, mutilation, vampirism and maybe necrophilia. He was arrested in August 1871; Cesare Lombroso Cesare Lombroso Cesare Lombroso, born Ezechia Marco Lombroso was an Italian criminologist and founder of the Italian School of Positivist Criminology. Lombroso rejected the established Classical School, which held that crime was a characteristic trait of human nature... and Richard von Krafft-Ebing studied his case. Lombroso also studied Callisto Grandi, another Italian serial killer who killed 4 children during the 1800s
William Palmer William Palmer (murderer) William Palmer was an English doctor who was convicted of murder in one of the most notorious cases of the 19th century.-Early life:...		1849 to 1855	1	7+	English doctor who was convicted of murder in one of the most notorious cases of the 19th century
Johann Otto Hoch Johann Otto Hoch Johann Otto Hoch is the most famous and last-used alias of a German-born murderer and bigamist, John Schmidt. He was found guilty of the murder of one wife but is thought to have killed many more. He was hanged.-Early Life:...			1	14?	Before being hanged on February 23, 1906, alleged to have been active from 1888 or 1891 to 1905.
La Quintrala La Quintrala Catalina de los Ríos y Lisperguer was an aristocratic 17th century Chilean landowner, nicknamed La Quintrala because of her flaming red hair. During Chile's colonial period, she was noted for her extreme cruelty to her inquils , accused and tried for over 40 murders, becoming an icon of colonial...		1600's	0	60+	During Chile's colonial period, she was noted for her extreme cruelty to her inquils (tenants), accused and tried for over 40 murders, becoming an icon of colonial abuse and oppression.

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