FACTBOX: World's most deadly serial killers

Mon Aug 13, 2007 9:20am EDT
 
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(Reuters) - A Moscow court on Monday began trying supermarket porter Alexander Pichushkin on charges he murdered 49 people over 14 years.

If convicted, Pichushkin would be Russia's worst serial killer in over a decade. His lawyer said the 33-year-old had confessed to most of the murders, but it was not clear how many.

Following is a list of some of the world's most notorious serial killers in recent history:

* PEDRO ALONSO LOPEZ, Colombia. Nicknamed the "Monster of the Andes", he was suspected of killing 300 people in Colombia, Ecuador and Peru. He was convicted in 1980 on 57 charges.

* HAROLD SHIPMAN, Britain. The Manchester, England, doctor was sentenced to 15 life terms for murdering elderly and middle-aged female patients between March 1995 and July 1998. A final report in 2005 said the so-called "Dr. Death" probably killed 250 people in all, starting when he began practicing medicine. Shipman committed suicide in January 2004.

* HU WANLIN, China. Arrested in January 1999 on suspicion of causing the deaths of 146 people. A self-proclaimed healer and an ex-convict, he called himself a doctor with magical healing powers. It is unclear how he caused the deaths.

* LUIS ALFREDO GAVARITO, Colombia. In 1999, Gavarito confessed to the murders of 140 people.

* DONALD HENRY GASKINS, United States. Executed in 1991 for a series of murders. Gaskins likely killed more than 100 people.

* JAVED IQBAL, Pakistan. Iqbal was sentenced to death in 2000 for murdering and mutilating 100 children.

* HENRY LEE LUCAS, United States. Lucas was sentenced to death for the 1979 murder of an unidentified hitchhiker. In the 1980s, he admitted to hundreds of killings but later recanted and his death sentence was commuted to life in prison.

* DELFINA & MARIA DE JESUS GONZALES, Mexico. Owners of a brothel, the sisters were sentenced to 40 years in prison in 1964 for killing 80 women and at least 11 men.

* ANDREI CHIKATILO, Russia. Known as the "Rostov Ripper", Chikatilo was convicted of 52 murders in 1992, having confessed to 55 and "possibly more".

* ANATOLY ONOPRIENKO, Ukraine. During a five-year reign of terror up to 1996, Onoprienko killed 52 people. He was sentenced to death in 1999.

* GARY LEON RIDGWAY, United States. Ridgway, a former truck painter, was dubbed the "Green River Killer" for the location where he dumped several bodies. He killed 48 prostitutes, runaways and drug addicts during a murder spree that stunned the Seattle area. He was sentenced to life in prison without parole in 2003 after agreeing to help police find the bodies.

* THEODORE "TED" BUNDY, United States. Bundy admitted to killing 36 young women and was also linked to murders in the states of Washington, Oregon, Utah and Colorado. He once bragged he killed at least 100 women and was executed in 1989.

* JOHN WAYNE GACY, United States. Arrested in 1978, he killed 33 young men and boys, burying most of their bodies in a crawl space beneath his house. Executed in May 1994.  Continued...

 

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