# How come serial killers in USA kill so many people **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [May 19, 2016, 3:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-come-serial-killers-in-usa-kill-so-many-people/755161 "2016-05-19T15:06:56Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![running\_coach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/running_coach/32/15836_2.png) [@running\_coach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/running_coach)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2016, 1:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-come-serial-killers-in-usa-kill-so-many-people/755161/41 "2016-05-21T13:30:47Z")
> [@gigi](#): > > I’ve killed at least a dozen boxes of Cocoa Puffs. > what? You were cuckoo for Cocoa Puffs ---
**Author:** ![ThelmaLou](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thelmalou/32/390_2.png) [@ThelmaLou](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ThelmaLou)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2016, 2:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-come-serial-killers-in-usa-kill-so-many-people/755161/42 "2016-05-21T14:40:42Z")
> [@Folly](#): > > Where are you getting hundreds of serial killers in the US with 20+ body counts? On this Wikipedia list, I count 10. > [List of serial killers by number of victims - Wikipedia](Https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/list_of_serial_killers_by_number_of_victims) Maybe he’s counting the ones on cop tv shows. There are LOTS of them there. ---
**Author:** ![astorian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ad7895/32.png) [@astorian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astorian)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2016, 3:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-come-serial-killers-in-usa-kill-so-many-people/755161/43 "2016-05-21T15:41:48Z")
> [@ThelmaLou](#): > > Maybe he’s counting the ones on cop tv shows. There are LOTS of them there. Yes, and they’re always diabolical geniuses. ---
**Author:** ![Mdcastle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/958977/32.png) [@Mdcastle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mdcastle)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2016, 3:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-come-serial-killers-in-usa-kill-so-many-people/755161/44 "2016-05-21T15:52:21Z")
> [@Chihuahua](#): > > Yeah… I’m going to need a cite for those numbers. I count only ten serial killers with (known) body counts over 20. > > Gary Ridgway > Ted Bundy > John Wayne Gacy > Dean Coril > Juan Vallejo Corona > Wayne Williams > Ronald Dominique > Earle Nelson > Patrick Kearney > William Bonin > > Further, selection bias also plays a huge role here. How many Australian killers escaped notice and are still at large? How many potential serial killers were caught on their first attempt? How many people did they actually kill, compared to the ones that were proven? What are the populations of the areas the various killings took places? Any attempt to measure the effectiveness of law enforcement has to take all of these things into account. Most of these had one or more of the following factors: 1. Targeted prostitutes, drifters, the poor, or such that are not readily missed and a big deal isn’t made when they disappear. Gacy got caught when he departed from MO and smoked a middle class teen instead of the random person he picked up on the street or that worked with him for a few days. 2. Committed crimes over a wide variety of jurisdictions, like Bundy. The US is more decentralized and less coordinated than, say France. ---
**Author:** ![JRDelirious](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jrdelirious/32/9531_2.png) [@JRDelirious](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JRDelirious)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2016, 4:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-come-serial-killers-in-usa-kill-so-many-people/755161/45 "2016-05-21T16:26:16Z")
> [@Colibri](#): > > First of all, the premise of the OP is wildly wrong. There are far fewer known serial killers with high body counts in the US than he alleges. I am at times amused by how every so often I see bandied about the notion that the USA is some sort of wild crimescape where the serial killer (popular incarnation: axe murderer\*), child abductor, rapist, etc. roam freely in a continuous feeding frenzy. Crime in the US is highly sensationalized by media coverage, both news and entertainment, and by those seeking to make a political point that things are all going to Hell and taking you down for the ride unless you vote to [select one: crack down/correct injustices]. (\*It became a cliché, in the conversation between two characters about meeting someone new there would be _“how do you know he’s not an axe murderer”_. Why was it especially important to avoid the axe murderer as opposed to the other possible killers always escaped me.) ---
**Author:** ![gigi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a587f6/32.png) [@gigi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gigi)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2016, 7:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-come-serial-killers-in-usa-kill-so-many-people/755161/46 "2016-05-22T19:37:20Z")
> [@running\_coach](#): > > You were cuckoo for Cocoa Puffs The Twinkie defense has nothing on me. ---
**Author:** ![kayT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayt/32/3633_2.png) [@kayT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayT)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2016, 7:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-come-serial-killers-in-usa-kill-so-many-people/755161/47 "2016-05-22T19:45:14Z")
I guess the OP lost interest in this topic after posting it. That seems to happen a lot with this particular OP. I wonder if he comes back and reads the posts or what Hey, OP, are you reading ths? What do you think of the replies so far? ---
**Author:** ![Atamasama](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/atamasama/32/12961_2.png) [@Atamasama](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Atamasama)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2016, 6:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-come-serial-killers-in-usa-kill-so-many-people/755161/48 "2016-05-23T18:25:32Z")
> [@JRDelirious](#): > > (\*It became a cliché, in the conversation between two characters about meeting someone new there would be _“how do you know he’s not an axe murderer”_. Why was it especially important to avoid the axe murderer as opposed to the other possible killers always escaped me.) It’s probably the most gruesome portable weapon. Wounds with an axe are going to be deep and large due to the weight and large cutting area. Dismemberment will also be likely. A knife or gun or spear or baseball bat killing just doesn’t have the visceral revulsion of an axe killing. A chainsaw may be worse than an axe, but it’s less practical as a weapon (nobody has gone to war using a chainsaw after all). ---
**Author:** ![Doyle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/doyle/32/439_2.png) [@Doyle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Doyle)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2016, 8:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-come-serial-killers-in-usa-kill-so-many-people/755161/49 "2016-05-23T20:36:35Z")
Yang Xinhai - Would enter victims’ homes at night and kill everyone with axes, meat cleavers, hammers, and shovels. Executed in February 2004. **Known as the "Monster Killer"** They really had to dig down deep to come up with that nickname. ---
**Author:** ![pool](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pool/32/4152_2.png) [@pool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pool)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2016, 8:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-come-serial-killers-in-usa-kill-so-many-people/755161/50 "2016-05-24T20:20:00Z")
I think before the advent of ubiquitous cell phones and the internet, along with increased use of surveillance cameras there was a period of time that was sort of the “golden age” of serial killers in America. Prob somewhere between the 70’s-early 90’s when it was easy to get around and pick off targets but you didn’t have to worry much about being tracked by a cell phone or GPS and all that, not to mention DNA Analysis wasn’t nearly as sophisticated. But now with all the mass surveillance and ways to track people, along with sophisticated forensic analysis with things like fiber and DNA, and even more its a lot harder to be a serial killer and get away with it for years the way people did back in the day, obviously a good thing. ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2016, 11:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-come-serial-killers-in-usa-kill-so-many-people/755161/51 "2016-05-25T11:36:09Z")
[Here is a list of 52 serial killers yet un-identified.](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Unidentified_serial_killers) Can’t find a similar list with only active killers, but I didn’t realize how many haven’t been caught! [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-come-serial-killers-in-usa-kill-so-many-people/755161.md?page=2)