Five Lesser Known Serial Killers

By Cassandra Senior

John Wayne Gacy, Jeffrey Dahmer, Ted Bundy, Jack the Ripper, Irene Wuornos. Anyone America knows by last name alone is not on this list.

•1. Bobby Joe Long (Classified Ad Rapist): Bobby Joe Long raped and murdered at least 9 women in Tampa, Fl., over a period of seven months in 1984. In his early life, Long was often bullied. He was born with Klinefelter's Syndrome, a rare disease where boys are born with an extra female chromosome. For this reason, he produced more estrogen than normal and developed breasts at puberty. He was close to his mother and slept in the same bed as her until he was 13. He married at 19 and joined the Army. In 1980, while serving, he was in a terrible motorcycle accident. The accident, according to Long, was the turning point that caused him to become a serial rapist. He became what he called hypersexual. Using classified ads to find women's houses, he would pay them visits mid-day, while their husbands were gone. He then bound, raped and robbed them. His wife never even suspected. In 1984, Long went from serial rapist to serial killer. He used the same M.O. but didn't leave his victims alive. The end of Long's four year run came when he raped a 17-year-old girl who afterward told him her father had raped her growing up. He spared the girl from murder and was arrested two days later after she gave his description to the police

•2. Herman Webster Holmes: aka H.H. Holmes, aka Dr. Henry Howard Holmes. Holmes is credited by many as being the first American serial killer. Estimates of his carnage range from six to 230. His fascination with the macabre began at a young age, when some bullies made him touch a human skeleton in a doctor's office. They intended to frighten him, but it unfortunately did the exact opposite. Holmes eventually went to medical school where after figuring out how to get insurance money for dead bodies, he would steal and disfigure them. His real reign of terror, however, began in 1893 when he established a large hotel for the first World's Fair in Chicago. Over 3 years, he murdered employees, guests and lovers, most of whom he took out insurance policies on. Ironically, he wasn't caught until he skipped town in Texas for stealing a horse. An investigation of the hotel followed and inside the police found soundproof rooms with gas pipes that could be used to suffocate its occupant at any moment, acid pits, furnaces, poisons and a stretching table. He was paid by the Hearst Company to admit to 27 killings, though only nine could be confirmed. He was hung and at his request, buried in a cement tomb so no one could dig him up. The old hotel burned down, and a post office was built in its place.

•3. Danny Rolling (The Gainsville Ripper): In August of 1990, the university town of Gainsville, Fl. placed thirteenth on Money Magazine's list of the best places to live in the U.S. One week after the article appeared, the town gained a different title-Grisly Gainsville. Over one weekend, five students were found murdered and mutilated in their apartments while they slept. Hundreds of college students fled for home, fearing for their lives. Police initially arrested the wrong man and had no reason to even think Rolling was involved. After his murder-filled weekend, he left for Ocala, Fl. where he was arrested for robbing a bank. Police began putting the pieces together when they realized an unsolved bank robbery occurred near one of the victim's apartments at the same time she was murdered.A campsite was found with items that police believed belong to the bank robber. A closer look at those items revealed DNA of one of the victims and a cassette tape that began "This is David Harold Rolling..."

•4. Dorthea Puente: The first sign that something wasn't right at Puente's boarding house for the elderly was an overwhelming odor that caused some residents of her Sacramento neighborhood to turn off their air-conditioning despite the heat. Puente attributed the smell to sewer problems and dead rats under her porch. It wasn't until boarders started disappearing that a concerned social worker alerted police. They found seven decomposed corpses buried in Puente's garden. It was a shock to most people, as Puente's carried herself as a respected member of society. She was a small-time socialite who gave to charity and was friendly with politicians. Her clothes were always tailored, and she looked good for her 59 years. Turns out, however, she paid for her fancy clothes and face-lifts using the government benefit checks meant for her murdered boarders. Puente's past was more checked than anyone would believe, including arrests for forgery and alleged prostitution. She was charged with only three of the murders and was sentenced to life without parole.

•5. Carol Bundy and Doug Clark (Sunset Strip Killers): The scene is L.A. during the spring and summer of 1980. Several bodies show up with similar M.O.s. Each body was identified as a runaway or a prostitute. She was shot with a small caliber pistol and at least one was decapitated. The killer appeared to not be concerned with hiding his bodies, as at least two were just left sprawled on the Sunset Strip. It wasn't until the body of Fredrick Murray was found in his van, shot and without a head. He was Carol Bundy's lover, and after she murdered him, she broke down, telling some co-workers she had taken lives. Someone who heard called the police. When they arrived to arrest her, she handed them three pairs of underwear that were supposedly from the victims and a photo album with Clark in compromising positions with an 11-year-old neighbor. She admitted to killing Murray and then was given a plea deal for testifying against Clark. Bundy died in prison of a heart attack in 2003. Clark is still on Death Row. He also still maintains that Murray and Bundy committed all the murders.