OTHER SERIAL-KILLING CASES

Here is a list of some of the most notorious convicted or accused serial killers: John Wayne Gacy Jr., convicted in 1980 of the sex slayings of 33 young men and boys in suburban Chicago in 1977-78. No serial killer has been convicted of more murders than Gacy, although others are suspected of having killed more. Juan Corona, a labor contractor convicted of murdering 25 itinerant farm workers whose bodies were unearthed in fruit orchards near Yuba City in 1971. Patrick Wayne Kearney, a former aerospace worker from Redondo Beach, was convicted of the so-called “Trash Bag Murders” of 21 young men in five Southern California counties and has confessed to at least 32 slayings in 10 counties between 1968 and 1976. William Bonin, an unemployed Downey truck driver known as the “Freeway Killer,” was convicted in of the sex slayings of 14 youths in Orange and Los Angeles counties in 1979-80. Peter Sutcliffe, the “Yorkshire Ripper” who was convicted of the murders of 13 women and the attempted murders of seven others in northern England between 1975 and 1980. Angelo Buono Jr. and his cousin, Kenneth Bianchi, were convicted in the “Hillside Strangler” torture killings of young women in and around Los Angeles in 1977-78. Buono was sentenced for nine of the 10 killings; Bianchi, who pleaded guilty to the murders five young women in Los Angeles, was also convicted of killing two others in Washington state. David Berkowitz, the postal worker known as “Son of Sam,”pleaded guilty in 1978 to the murders of five women and a man in 1976-77 in New York City. Theodore (Ted) Bundy, convicted in 1979 of the murders two young coeds and a 12-year-old girl in Florida, is suspected of killing 36 young women in five other states between 1974 and 1978. Wayne Williams, convicted in 1982 of the murders of two of the 29 young blacks whose killings and disappearances were known as the “Atlanta child murders” in 1979-1981. Albert DeSalvo claimed to be “The Boston Strangler,” killer of 13 women in the Boston area between 1962 and 1964. However, police had insufficient evidence to bring him to trial on those charges, and he was tried and convicted instead of a series of unrelated rapes. Richard Ramirez, accused of the 14 “Night Stalker” killings in Southern California in 1984-85, is awaiting trial in Los Angeles County Superior Court. “The Green River Killer,” blamed by police for the murders of at least 36 young women in Washington and Oregon since 1982, is still at large. “The Zodiac Killer,” who taunted San Francisco police with letters to newspapers claiming he had slain 37 persons, has never been found.