Short and sweet: I read somewhere that there are 300 active serial killers in the United States at any given time. I’m wondering if this is remotely true.
Note: I have no idea where I heard it an I might be remembering it wrong, but I’m still interested in the facts.
This site references the FBI as the source for a number that says 20-50 serial killers are active.
Either way, I can believe it. For one thing, the definition of a serial killer only requires that you kill at least two people in separate events over your lifetime, with some distinction usually made to exclude people who do it for financial reasons or organized crime connections.
Many killers have killings that are years apart, so they may be “active” for decades. You’re going to have a lot of overlap that way, even if the number of victims is small.