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Serial Killer: Difference between revisions
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* '''Munchausen By Proxy''' is a personality disorder where the perpetrator harms another for attention -- for example, murdering a relative for sympathy at the loss, or killing someone and then trying to "save" them to act the hero. Usually not killers, but serial abusers of relations or strangers, but have been known to turn lethal.
* '''Sexual Predators''' are killers who lure victims to their death with promises of sex or intimacy, or simply chatting the victim up. May drug their victims to make it easier. Usually Lust killers, but other motives are suspected in certain cases.
* '''Sexual Sadists''' are lust killers who torture their victims before killing them; the torture is usually more important than the actual murder. The torture may be psychological and can last for a matter of seconds or minutes, or it can last for hours or days, depending on the offender.
* '''[[The Sociopath|Antisocial]]''' killers are those suffering from [[Hollywood Personality Disorders|Antisocial Personality Disorder]]; impulsive, impatient sociopaths with deep-seated rage who pathologically violate social norms and values, such as repeatedly committing serious and petty crimes, and always social deviants. Serial murder is usually just one of many crimes they regularly commit, and they often do so in the course of other crimes, such as robbery, rape, and various forms of [[Manipulative Bastard|manipulation]].
* '''Supernatural''' killers are what happens when a normal, flesh and blood killer for any of the above types dies. Or rather, ''[[The Undead|doesn't]]''. He may discover [[Evil Makes You Monstrous]], get turned into a [[Our Vampires Are Different|vampire]] or [[Our Werewolves Are Different|werewolf]], or linger on as a [[Our Ghosts Are Different|ghost.]] This usually makes them (perhaps literal) nightmares as they [[The Punishment|suffer]] from a [[Horror Hunger]], gain superpowers, and are nigh unkillable.
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* The killer sends a note to the police, or a newspaper, or both, with a [[Criminal Mind Games|taunting message]] that ends in a challenge along the lines of "You can't catch me." A [[Finger in the Mail|gruesome souvenir]] may also be included.
** A variation is to have the killer send a message saying "Please catch me before I kill more."
* Serial killers are often, but not always, portrayed as [[The Chessmaster]], brilliantly layering one [[Evil Plan]] onto another. Often, this takes the form of a series of [[Batman Gambit|Batman Gambits]] that lead the police on a series of wild goose chases as the killer gloats.
* They have a [[Room Full of Crazy|wall full of newspaper clippings covering their actions]]. Sometimes they keep a photographic record of their kills, or even a souvenir of the victim's.
* If it's part of a [[Story Arc]], one cop is probably going to fall victim (which is part of the requisite [[Tonight Someone Dies]] hype).
* At the climax, one of the cops is usually [[Alone with the Psycho]], but is saved [[Just in Time]].
* If the killer is not depicted as [[Ax Crazy]], then the victims all have something to do with one another.
* If somebody else is wrongfully implicated, and looks close to taking the rap, [[Acquitted Too Late|the serial killer will bump them off]], even though this means casting suspicion back on himself.
** Or the killer will kill again while the wrongfully accused is incarcerated, casting suspicion back on himself.
** Sometimes he will do it ''because'' it casts suspicion back towards himself, because he is insulted that the police suspect someone he considers unworthy of the attention.
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** Scar is of a different (and often overlooked) variety. He only targets state alchemists with the motivation of revenge for the massacre of his people. This makes him a "mission-oriented" serial killer. He becomes more of a sympathetic [[Anti-Villain]] and then [[Anti-Hero]] over time.
** Also Zolf J. Kimbley, who is a pretty smart psycho who manages to do most of his killing on government assignments and so avoids having to hide. He did eventually kill his commanding officer when they tried to take away his Philosopher's Stone after the war, and got thrown in jail until the time of the series.
** This series also gives us The Slicer, who (like Barry) is [[Animated Armor]], created to guard Lab 5 following the execution.
* Gaara from ''[[Naruto]]'' constantly murders anyone who gets in his way, all because he believes that this is his sole purpose.
** Although since he and everyone he is known to have killed are combat personnel, he fits this trope considerably less than most.
** Orochimaru is, or rather was, a straighter example; he fled the Leaf village after being exposed as a serial killer who had abducted and killed close to a hundred ninja, civilians, and ''babies'' to perform gruesome human experiments, though a number of these were technically unintentional in that he was usually trying to find safe ways of performing said experiments on ''himself'' and therefore wasn't really wanting them to die (not that he gave a crap if they did -- plus, he seemed to be ''really'' enjoying himself.)
* Light Yagami, the protagonist of ''[[Death Note]]'', uses the titular [[Artifact of Doom]] to anonymously [[Serial Killer Killer|kill criminals]], under the guise of [[Utopia Justifies the Means]]. Near even lampshades this.
** Misa Amane, the Second Kira, and Teru Mikami, the Hand of Kira, both do the same while in Light's service.
* Beyond Birthday, in the ''[[Death Note]]'' spin-off ''[[Another Note|Another Note: the Los Angeles BB Murder Cases]]''
* Johan Liebert, [[Complete Monster|the]] ''[[Monster (manga)|Monster]]''. He even {{spoiler|manipulated other killers into doing his work for him, most of whom ''also'' ended up dead}}. Johan is an unusual example in that it is debatable whether he has a ''compulsion'' to kill, since he shows that he can stop whenever he wants, and {{spoiler|his [[Freudian Excuse|traumatic childhood]] is revealed to have happened to someone else. It should be noted that having these false memories is the only sign of insanity he demonstrates; all of his killings and manipulation may be motiveless and irrational, but Johan himself comes across as terrifyingly sane (with the exception of one [[Freak-Out]])}}.
** [[It Got Worse|Also]], he does not appear to get any sort of benefit from killing; he shows no signs of getting a thrill or sexual pleasure from his acts, nor does he seem to get any kicks from domination, and the killings are usually carried out as pragmatically as possible (no wasting time through torture, etc.), which suggests that his use of other people to kill might be simple expedience rather than enjoying his ability to manipulate. In addition, with many of his victims, there is no financial gain or any real progress towards whatever plan he may have at the time, making their deaths totally pointless. The lack of any recognisable motive is [[Your Mileage May Vary|arguably]] the main reason why he's widely considered [[Nightmare Fuel]] incarnate, as well as the poster-boy for the [[Complete Monster]] page.
* [[Naoki Urasawa]], the creator of ''Monster'', has another manga called ''[[Pluto]]'', in which he manages to turn the titular character, a big, goofy-looking green cartoon robot with horns from the classic ''[[Astro Boy]]'' series, into a genuinely terrifying serial killer figure.
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* In ''[[Ibitsu]]'', Kazuki is horrified to learn, far too late of course, that he's not the first person approached by the "Strange Lolita" killer. The others who became the Strange Lolita's "older brothers" were never heard from again.
* ''[[Underdog (manga)|Underdog]]'': Naoto's first opponent, Masaya Hiuchi, is an 18 year-old who was just recently released from a mental institution after brutally murdering several of his female classmates in middle school. His first actions in the [[Deadly Game|tournament]] show that he's already up to his old tricks.
* {{spoiler|Cho Hakkai (AKA Cho Gonou)}}, one of the main characters in ''[[Saiyuki]]'', is a mass revenge serial killer who goes [[Ax Crazy]] [[Yandere (disambiguation)]] after his {{spoiler|[[Twincest]] older sister/lover is sacrificed by his village as an offering to the local demon king,}} leaving half of the village and most of the demons clan dead in the aftermath.
* Kabuto from ''[[Parasyte]]''. We don't know much about him, since by the time he first appeared he was already in jail, but a few flashbacks show that he used to be a big fan of mutilation, cannibalism, and necrophilia. He is brought to help the police catch parasites because he has the ability to see who is infected. It's implied to be because he sees other humans the same way parasites do -- but at least the parasites ''need'' to eat humans to survive. He pretends that, deep down, everybody is like him, and he's just the only one who doesn't try to suppress his true nature.
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* ''[[The Sandman]]'' has an issue where a bunch of serial killers have a convention, in the style of a comic book or sci-fi convention. They, of course, advertise it as a convention for the [[Incredibly Lame Pun|cereal]] industry. {{spoiler|The escaped nightmare who draws the plot's attention there is, of course, the Corinthian -- who became one of these for his own amusement in Morpheus' absence. For over half a century.}}
** Has a crossover connection to ''[[Hellblazer]]'', where John Constantine was having a run-in with the Cereal Convention's absent guest speaker at the time. ("Anyone seen the Family Man?")
** Dog Soup hung a lampshade on this trope, complaining at a panel discussion that female serial killers like herself are stereotyped as either angel-of-mercy nurses or [[Black Widow|black widows]]. "I'm a serial killer and a woman, and I'm proud of it!" Judging by the name, ''she'' is a lot more hands-on about her work.
*** Bonus points because she's flanked by a woman in a nurse outfit and a woman tagged as "the grass widow," both of whom are giving her dirty looks as she says this.
** The presence of at least two conventioneers who'd written "God" on their name tags, along with the "Religion Panel," may also be a lampshading of the kinds of delusions commonly attributed to serial killers.
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* Onomatopoeia, a mask-wearing [[Serial Killer]] introduced in a [[Green Arrow]] story and later seen in ''Batman: Cacophany'', targets [[Badass Normal]] vigilantes. He isn't against killing other people such as prostitutes either. The creepiest element of his character is one shared by more than a few [[Real Life]] serial killers: he leads a double life as a loving and seemingly normal family man with a wife and two kids. He handwaves the injuries he gets as sports accidents and has a secret trophy room in his house with the masks of the vigilantes he killed.
* At least one writer for ''[[The Punisher]]'' has described the character as a serial killer who kills criminals.
* ''[[Arkham Asylum: Living Hell]]'', in addition to regular ''Batman'' villains, introduces Jane Doe, who kills people to take their identity and life, and Doodlebug, who drains people of their blood for [[Mad Artist|his paintings]] {{spoiler|but also to free several demons trapped beneath Arkham Asylum.}}
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* [[Cupcakes]] casts [[My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic|Pinkie Pie]] as one.
* The [[Happy Tree Friends]] fanfiction "The Reaper" has one.
* In New Dawn, Nebiros is a Revenge Killer, taking very petty vengeance on those who he thinks were born into better circumstances than him. He also fits the Supernatural mold, due to the whole "he's a demon" thing.
** In a similar vein, most villains in New Dawn III are Serial Killers, the [[Big Bad]] being a Revenge / Mission Based Serial Killer. Its worse in Robin's case because his Modus Operandi leaves no trace of his victims behind.
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* ''Cat of Many Tails'' by [[Ellery Queen]] has Ellery being hired as a special investigator to assist the NYPD to catch a serial killer who has been terroising New York. Initially, the only pattern Ellery can find in the killer's targets, who vary in sex, race, and marital status, is that each victim is younger than the one before.
* Two stories in [[Stephen King]]'s ''[[Night Shift]]'' features a serial killer: "Springheel Jack" in ''Strawberry Spring'' and the hammer murderer in ''The Man who Loved Flowers''. {{spoiler|In both, the protagonist is the killer; in the former it's a case of [[The Killer in Me]], in the latter an extreme example of [[Bread, Eggs, Milk, Squick]].}}
== Live-Action TV ==
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** The series also features a [[Villain of the Week|serial killer of the season]] that the police focused their attention towards.
*** Season 1/"Darkly Dreaming Dexter: - The Ice Truck Killer, dabbling in the murders of prostitutes by methods quite like Dexter's methods. {{spoiler|Turns out it's Dexter's own brother, Brian, who is later killed by Dexter.}}
*** Season 2 - Dexter himself, after his garbage bags are found. {{spoiler|Doakes takes the fall for it, and [[Yandere (disambiguation)|Lila]] kills him in a cabin explosion.}}
*** "Dearly Devoted Dexter: - Dr. Danco, a former interrogation specialist and [[Mad Doctor|surgeon]] who was employed by the US government in El Salvador, who was sold out and starts to hunt down the people who caused it. A former comrade of Doakes. {{spoiler|Killed while experimenting on Doakes with Dexter tied down. Doakes comes out of it missing a few body parts. A lot of them. He gets slightly better.}}
*** Season 3 - The Skinner, a man known for, well... [[Exactly What It Says on the Tin|skinning people]]. {{spoiler|He kidnaps Dexter and tries to get him to tell where Freebo, an associate of the Skinner, was. Dexter snaps his neck and then throws him into the incoming path of a police car.}}
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* ''[[Monk]]'' had a subversion in "Mr. Monk and the Really, Really Dead Guy". The "Six-Way Killer" sends the police a note bragging that he'll strike again within 72 hours, and the police focus all their resources on the case. {{spoiler|Actually, the killer has no intention of killing anyone else. He wants to distract attention from a previous murder long enough for the police to lose their chance at a crucial piece of evidence.}}
** Played straight in "Mr. Monk's 100th Case": A modelling photographer goes to the houses of young actresses who have posed for him, takes them off-guard, strangles and kills them, then takes their lipstick (to sign his work). In addition, each target he kills, he paints the deceased target's photo in his own photo studio with lipstick, leading Randy to call him the Lipstick Killer, a name Stottlemeyer disapproves of.
** ''Monk'' has had some other serial killer cases before: one example is "Mr. Monk and the 12th Man", where this is Monk's only explanation for a string of eleven unsolvable homicides.
* ''[[Criminal Minds]]'' has loads of these guys. That's part of the premise.
** As a side effect of this, and the writers' close working relationship with real members of the BAU, it is very rare for more than two of the listed criteria to appear in the same killer.
** Most villains that aren't serial killers are spree killers (a slightly different classification, but one that still ends up with a ton of people dead). The sheer variety of them covered in the show is one of its most interesting aspects.
* Plenty in ''[[Wire in The Blood]]''
* [[Heroes (TV series)|Sylar]]. Throw in a slew of psychological issues and superpowers and you've got a doozy.
{{quote|"Wow. So you're like a serial killer."
"I'm not a serial killer."
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* An episode of ''[[Everybody Hates Chris]]'' had Chris convince the neighborhood that a serial killer (who murdered people with ''scissors'') was on the loose.
* ''[[Castle]]'' has had three encounters with serial killers.
** In the pilot, this trope was [[Averted Trope|averted]]; {{spoiler|the [[Genre Savvy]] killer framed a crazy person by killing two people in addition to his real target, and staging all three scenes to look like the work of a serial killer.}} Averted because Castle is ''[[Dangerously Genre Savvy|dangerously]]'' [[Dangerously Genre Savvy|genre-savvy]].
** Scott Dunn, the serial killer in "Tick Tick Tick..." and "Boom!", uses a series of [[Batman Gambit|ridiculously elaborate plans]] to point the police at a patsy, who was actually a ''victim''. Later, he got his [[Alone with the Psycho]] time with the guest star, and nearly {{spoiler|killed an entire FBI team with his diabolical [[Evil Plan]]}}. Defeated by Castle, who as an author is [[Dangerously Genre Savvy]] and foiled his plot by explaining how he would have written it if it was one of his books.
** Castle and Beckett finally meet their match in "3xk". {{spoiler|This killer is so [[The Chessmaster|brilliant]] that he got another criminal to kill some of his victims while he was hiding in jail on a minor charge-- a nearly bullet-proof alibi.}} While Castle solves this one as well, it's too late to stop the killer from escaping. Escaping, that is, after [[Tap on the Head|knocking out]] Ryan, taking his gun, and [[Alone with the Psycho|gloating as he ties Castle up]].
* ''[[The Mentalist]]'':
** Red John, the [[Big Bad]] of the show, is of the uncatchable variety. Fortunately he only kills about once a year. He's technically retired in that most of his last victims are to cover his tracks, or to avenge an insult, whereas he began as someone who targeted women seemingly for kicks; a dramatic change of M.O.
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== Tabletop Games ==
* The ''[[New World of Darkness]]'' has slashers, humans who find themselves compelled to kill. Strangely enough, [[Villain Protagonist|they're playable]], and you can opt for a game in which the people the slashers kill [[Complete Monster|often]] [[Moral Event Horizon|deserve]] [[Laser-Guided Karma|it]]. Each slasher archetype, or Undertaking, has two tiers: Ripper (steps above your standard serial killer, but still conceivably human) and Scourge (outright supernatural incarnation of murder).
** Also notable as the rules presented allow you to make pretty much every character seen on this page:
*** Avenger/Legend: Paul Kersey from ''[[Death Wish]]'' starts killing criminal punks, but eventually becomes so fed up with "the filth on the streets" that he becomes ''[[Candyman]]'', haunting the urban projects.
*** Brute/Mask: Mickey from ''[[Natural Born Killers]]'' gets off on killing so much that he trades all that makes him human -- language, literacy, the ability to be around others -- to become [[Friday the 13th (film)|Jason Voorhees]], unkillable but lurking in the woods for the pain human contact causes.
*** Charmer/Psycho: Reverend Powell from ''[[The Night of the Hunter]]'' gets by on the thin veneer of humanity for so long that it eventually turns inside out and he becomes the freak you can't help but stare at, not unlike [[The Joker]].
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* ''[[Arcanum: Of Steamworks and Magick Obscura]]'' has the Whytechurch murderer, loosely based on [[Jack the Ripper]]. {{spoiler|His true identity is Vincent, an elven wizard possessed by a demon.}}
* [[The Vamp|Morinth]] from ''[[Mass Effect 2]]'' is an [[Horny Devils|Ardat-Yakshi]] who uses her genetic abnormality to [[Death by Sex|kill whoever she meets by seducing and "melding" with them]] to satisfy her insatiable lust.
* One of these can be optionally confronted in ''Action Doom 2: Urban Brawl'', depending on which path throughout the game you take. Hugo's a huge, fat silent guy who looks like [[Final Fight|Hugo Andore]] and lives alone in a farmhouse in the middle of a forest where he keeps a vicious dog. He kidnaps children and apparently butchers them, then hangs them up in his barn. You confront him one-on-one and potentially beat him to death in a fist fight... or just slice him in half with a [[Chainsaw Good|chainsaw]], [[Guide Dang It|if you have found it]].
* ''[[Dragon Age II]]'' has Quentin, an insane Blood Mage who murders women and takes parts of their bodies that resemble his dead wife in a crazy attempt to bring her back. His last victim {{spoiler|is Hawke's mother Leandra.}}
** Kelder from the sidequest "Magistrate's Orders" is an insane killer who targets elven children because they are "too beautiful" and blames his impulses on imaginary demons (as opposed to the real ones in the setting). He has managed to escape justice thanks to 1) the protection of his powerful magistrate father and 2) the lack of concern most humans have for elves. Part of him is still sane enough to realize that he is beyond redemption and he begs Hawke to kill him.
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== Webcomics ==
* ''[[The Dragon Doctors]]'': The Doctors confronted a magical serial killer in their "Messenger of Death" chapter. The murderer killed several shamans using summoned spirits of his own; finding out what spirits were used to determine the character profile of the murderer was the main focus of the plot.
* ''[[Achewood]]'': Nice Pete, who combines type 1 (visionary) and type 4 (power/control) with a thoroughly creepy dead-eyed stare.
* ''[http://jared.smackjeeves.com/ Jared]'' features four serial killer characters. Mary and Shia are more Headonistic, while Lilac seems to like the power. Jared is more of an antisocial killer.
* In ''[[Homestuck]]'', [[Base Breaker|Vriska Serket]] and [[Dirty Coward|Eridan Ampora]] were both serial killers well before the story even started (although both [[I Did What I Had to Do|had their]] [[Horror Hunger|excuses]]). Much later, {{spoiler|[[The Stoner|Gamzee Makara]] goes [[Ax Crazy]] after a major crisis of faith and ends up killing a couple minor characters.}}
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* John Douglas is one of the first [[Real Life]] [[The Profiler|profilers]], actually writing the book on the patterns of serial killers (several, in fact). It wasn't without cost, though; the cumulative stress of the work ''literally'' [[wikipedia:John E. Douglas#Profiling|nearly killed him]]. His autobiography, ''Mindhunter'', is highly recommended to anyone interested in the subject.
* [[wikipedia:Jeffrey Dahmer|Jeffrey Dahmer]] anyone?
* [[wikipedia:Carl Panzram|Carl Panzram]].
** Quote: "In my lifetime I have murdered 21 human beings, I have committed thousands of burglaries, robberies, larcenies, arsons and last but not least I have committed sodomy [read: rape] on more than 1,000 male human beings. For all these things I am not in the least bit sorry."
** Originally Panzram was only sentenced to ''twenty-five years''. Why was he executed? When they sent him to Leavenworth, he told the warden, "I'll kill the first man that bothers me." You hear this a lot, but Panzram ''kept'' that promise - he beat the laundry foreman to death with an iron bar, and then threatened to kill the human rights groups that tried to appeal the death sentence he got for it!
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* [[wikipedia:Tommy Lynn Sells|Tommy Lynn Sells]], recently claimed to have killed 70+ people, once said that he didn't like/use guns, because they were ''dangerous''.
* [[wikipedia:Elizabeth Báthory|Countess Elizabeth Báthory]] is one of history's most prolific serial killers, tortured and killed over 500 women, although she was only convicted for 80. Legend has it she did this so that she could [[Blood Bath|bathe in the blood of young virgins and maintain her vitality]], but it is believed Báthory did it for the [[For the Evulz|fun of it]], which is far more chilling.
** However, modern Hungarian historians have attempted to give her a [[Historical Hero Upgrade]] claiming that maybe she wasn't a serial killer at all, but a victim of a show trial by the Habsburgs to get her land and fortune. However the reports of the murders, which her husband joined in with, are far closer to contemporary though and it seems fairly likely that she killed at least some. The notaries in the case took testimony from more than 300 witnesses, several of whom lost relatives. Two of the accused named around 36 victims (although they may well have been tortured so the reliability of that is up for debate).
* [[wikipedia:Pedro Alonso L%C3%B3pez|Pedro López]] raped and killed at least a hundred, but maybe ''three hundred'', young girls across South America. The higher figure would make him one of the most prolific known serial killer in history. What could be scarier than that? He's been a free man since 1998 and is wanted for murder again.
* [[wikipedia:Gilles de Rais|Gilles de Rais]] was a French nobleman, war hero, compatriot of Joan Of Arc and murdered at least 80 children between 1432 and 1440, the majority of whom were also raped or sexually abused. Much like Bathory, a few people have tried claiming that he was framed by the church to acquire his lans but that's extremely unlikely since firstly, the church didn't have a hope of acquiring his lands (which ended up going to the Duke of Brittany); secondly, his confederates gave very detailed testimony and thirdly, around forty bodies were discovered. Margaret Murray has also tried claiming that he was a Dianic pagan who was subject to religious persecution but the evidence for this is virtually nil.
* Australia had [[wikipedia:Eric Cooke|Eric Cooke]], an unusual serial killer who changed his M.O. Two innocent men were also charged with crimes Cooke committed, but have since been exonerated.
* "BTK" (Bind, Torture, Kill): [[wikipedia:Dennis Rader|Dennis Rader]], who murdered 10 people in the Sedgwick county area of Wichita, Kansas from 1977-1989 while sending taunting letters and poems to the police, and was caught approximately a decade and a half after his last victim, because after such a long time he got bored and [[What an Idiot!|started sending letters to the police again, announcing that he was plotting his next murder.]] Lots of televison shows have since had a take on him, though most commonly the reason for their killer's lengthy absence is that he was seriously injured in some way and had to temporarily stop.<ref> The reason ''Dennis Rader'' stopped was simply that he got a job with the local Compliance Department, meaning he could stalk, bully and harass people with a veneer of legality, which he did with gleeful abandon, especially women, on at least one occassion taking one womans dog and having it put down and lying about it being a dangerous animal. In other words it was only because now he could live out his sadistic fantasies at greatly reduced risk, which makes him a much bigger bastard than any of his adaptations. And unlike them, when caught, he not only confessed to the killings, he ''bragged'' about them.</ref>
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