Serial Killers Who Died in Prison
Profiles ending in death in custody, from natural causes, suicide or at the hands of other inmates, as recorded by the sources.
ColdCaseIndex currently lists 28 serial killers in this group, out of 104 profiles. The list is computed from the dataset on every build, so it changes as profiles are added.
| # | Name | Alias | State | Active | Convicted | Confessed | Suspected | Legal status | Fate |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Nannie Doss | The Giggling Granny | Alabama, North Carolina, Kansas, Oklahoma | 1927 to 1954 | 1 | 4 | up to 11 | Convicted | Died in prison |
| 2 | Richard Chase | Richard Trenton Chase | California | 1977 to 1978 | 6 | — | 6 | Convicted | Suicide |
| 3 | Robert Berdella | The Kansas City Butcher | Missouri | 1984 to 1987 | 6 | 6 | 6 | Convicted | Died in prison |
| 4 | Larry Eyler | The Highway Killer | Illinois, Indiana | 1982 to 1984 | 2 | 21 | 19 to 24 (police estimates, 1983 to 1984) | Convicted | Died in prison |
| 5 | Jeffrey Dahmer | The Milwaukee Cannibal | Wisconsin, Ohio | 1978 to 1991 | 16 | 17 | 17 | Convicted | Died in prison |
| 6 | Ottis Toole | Ottis Elwood Toole | Florida | 1980 to 1983 | 6 | — | 1 further (Adam Walsh, attributed by Hollywood, Florida police in 2008; never charged) | Convicted | Died in prison |
| 7 | Waneta Hoyt | Waneta Ethel Nixon Hoyt | New York | 1965 to 1971 | 5 | 5 | 5 | Convicted | Died in prison |
| 8 | Henry Lee Lucas | The Confession Killer | Texas, Michigan, West Virginia | 1960 to 1983 | 11 | 600 | Disputed: a Texas task force once attributed 200 or more killings to him; the Texas Attorney General's 1986 report found most of his confessions false, and DNA later excluded him from at least one murder he was convicted of | Convicted | Died in prison |
| 9 | Jerry Brudos | Jerome Henry Brudos | Oregon | 1968 to 1969 | 3 | 4 | 4 | Convicted | Died in prison |
| 10 | Coral Eugene Watts | The Sunday Morning Slasher | Texas, Michigan | 1974 to 1982 | 2 | 12 | roughly 90 unsolved cases (Michigan task force estimate, 2004); some estimates exceed 80 | Convicted | Died in prison |
| 11 | Arthur Shawcross | The Genesee River Killer | New York | 1972 to 1989 | 11 | 11 | 11 murders plus 2 child deaths resolved by a 1972 manslaughter plea; police initially reviewed up to 17 deaths or disappearances | Convicted | Died in prison |
| 12 | Dorothea Puente | Dorothea Montalvo Puente | California | 1982 to 1988 | 3 | — | 9 (charged); seven bodies recovered from her yard, one from the Sacramento River, one earlier death reclassified | Convicted | Died in prison |
| 13 | Edward Wayne Edwards | Ed Edwards | Ohio, Wisconsin | 1977 to 1996 | 5 | 5 | 5 | Convicted | Died in prison |
| 14 | Israel Keyes | — | Alaska, Vermont | 2001 to 2012 | 0 | 8 | 11 (FBI, 2013) | Died before trial | Suicide |
| 15 | Richard Ramirez | The Night Stalker | California | 1984 to 1985 | 13 | — | 15 or more (13 convictions plus two San Francisco killings attributed by police) | Convicted | Died in prison |
| 16 | Walter Ellis | The Milwaukee North Side Strangler | Wisconsin | 1986 to 2007 | 7 | — | 9 (Milwaukee police said in 2009 that his DNA matched evidence from nine women killed 1986 to 2007; a former homicide detective later cited at least five more unsolved cases in which he was a suspect) | Convicted | Died in prison |
| 17 | Robert Hansen | Robert Christian Hansen | Alaska | 1971 to 1983 | 4 | 17 | 17 to 21 | Convicted | Died in prison |
| 18 | Derrick Todd Lee | The Baton Rouge Serial Killer | Louisiana | 1998 to 2003 | 2 | — | 7 | Convicted | Died in prison |
| 19 | Donald Harvey | Angel of Death | Ohio, Kentucky | 1970 to 1987 | 37 | 87 | No official attribution beyond the 37 he pleaded guilty to; Harvey's own claims ranged from about 50 to 87 | Convicted | Died in prison |
| 20 | Juan Corona | Juan Vallejo Corona | California | 1971 | 25 | — | 25 | Convicted | Died in prison |
| 21 | Lawrence Bittaker | The Tool Box Killers | California | 1979 | 5 | — | 5 | Convicted | Died in prison |
| 22 | Lonnie Franklin Jr. | The Grim Sleeper | California | 1985 to 2007 | 10 | — | 14 to 25 | Convicted | Died in prison |
| 23 | Samuel Little | Samuel McDowell | California, Florida, Ohio, Texas | 1970 to 2005 | 8 | 93 | about 60 confirmed by the FBI, of 93 confessed | Convicted | Died in prison |
| 24 | Anthony Sowell | The Cleveland Strangler | Ohio | 2007 to 2009 | 11 | — | 11 | Convicted | Died in prison |
| 25 | Rodney Alcala | The Dating Game Killer | California, New York | 1971 to 1979 | 7 | 2 | 8 charged (one Wyoming charge was never tried); investigators have linked him to further deaths in California, Washington, New York, New Hampshire and Arizona, with published estimates ranging into the dozens | Convicted | Died in prison |
| 26 | Herbert Mullin | Herbert William Mullin | California | 1972 to 1973 | 11 | 13 | 13 | Convicted | Died in prison |
| 27 | Gary Schaefer | Gary Lee Schaefer | Vermont | 1979 to 1983 | 1 | 2 | 3 | Convicted | Died in prison |
| 28 | Joshua Wade | Joshua Alan Wade | Alaska | 1994 to 2007 | 1 | 5 | 5 | Convicted | Died in prison |
Profiles
Nannie Doss
The Giggling Granny
Died in prison. Nannie Doss pleaded guilty in 1955 to poisoning her fifth husband, Samuel Doss, in Tulsa, Oklahoma, confessed to killing four husbands, and is linked to as many as 11 family deaths from 1927 to 1954.
Richard Chase
Richard Trenton Chase
Suicide. Richard Chase was convicted in May 1979 of six counts of first-degree murder for killings in Sacramento, California, in December 1977 and January 1978.
Robert Berdella
The Kansas City Butcher
Died in prison. Robert Berdella pleaded guilty in 1988 to murdering six young men held captive at his Kansas City, Missouri home between 1984 and 1987.
Larry Eyler
The Highway Killer
Died in prison. Larry Eyler was convicted in Illinois in 1986 of murdering Daniel Bridges and sentenced to death, pleaded guilty in Indiana in 1990 to a second murder, and confessed through his attorney to 21 killings of young…
Jeffrey Dahmer
The Milwaukee Cannibal
Died in prison. Jeffrey Dahmer murdered 17 men and boys in Ohio and Wisconsin between 1978 and 1991. A jury found him sane on 15 counts in 1992; he received 16 life terms and was killed by a fellow inmate in 1994.
Ottis Toole
Ottis Elwood Toole
Died in prison 1996. Jacksonville drifter convicted of six Florida murders (1980-1983); two death sentences reduced to life. Confessed with Henry Lee Lucas to many more, then recanted.
Waneta Hoyt
Waneta Ethel Nixon Hoyt
Died in prison. Waneta Hoyt of Tioga County, New York, was convicted in 1995 of murdering her five children between 1965 and 1971, deaths long attributed to SIDS.
Henry Lee Lucas
The Confession Killer
Died in prison in 2001. Texas drifter convicted of 11 murders who confessed to about 600 killings in 1983 to 1985 and then recanted; a 1986 Texas Attorney General report found most confessions false, and his death sentence was…
Jerry Brudos
Jerome Henry Brudos
Convicted on guilty pleas to three first-degree murders in Oregon in 1969 and sentenced to three consecutive life terms. Jerry Brudos confessed to four killings of young women in 1968 and 1969 and died in the Oregon State…
Coral Eugene Watts
The Sunday Morning Slasher
Died in prison in 2007. Confessed in 1982 to 12 murders under a Texas plea deal that granted immunity and a 60-year burglary sentence, then convicted by Michigan juries in 2004 and 2007 of two earlier stabbings.
Arthur Shawcross
The Genesee River Killer
Convicted by a Monroe County jury in December 1990 of 10 murders of Rochester-area women and sentenced to 250 years to life; pleaded guilty to an 11th in Wayne County.
Dorothea Puente
Dorothea Montalvo Puente
Died in prison 2011. Sacramento boarding-house operator charged with nine murders after seven bodies were dug from her yard in 1988; a Monterey County jury convicted her of three in 1993 and deadlocked on six.
Edward Wayne Edwards
Ed Edwards
Died in prison. Edward Wayne Edwards pleaded guilty in 2010 and 2011 to five murders in Ohio and Wisconsin committed between 1977 and 1996.
Israel Keyes
Died before trial. Israel Keyes was indicted for the 2012 kidnapping and killing of Samantha Koenig in Anchorage, confessed to murdering Bill and Lorraine Currier in Vermont and five others, and died by suicide in custody in…
Richard Ramirez
The Night Stalker
Died on death row in 2013. Richard Ramirez, the Night Stalker, was convicted by a Los Angeles jury in 1989 of 13 murders, 5 attempted murders, 11 sexual assaults and 14 burglaries committed in 1984 and 1985, and sentenced to…
Walter Ellis
The Milwaukee North Side Strangler
Convicted of seven murders; died in prison in 2013. Walter Ellis strangled women on Milwaukee's north side between 1986 and 2007, was identified through a 2009 DNA review of unsolved homicides, and pleaded no contest in 2011.
Robert Hansen
Robert Christian Hansen
Died in prison. Anchorage baker Robert Hansen pleaded guilty in 1984 to murdering four women in Alaska, confessed to killing 17, and was sentenced to 461 years. He died in custody in Anchorage in August 2014, aged 75.
Derrick Todd Lee
The Baton Rouge Serial Killer
Died in prison. Derrick Todd Lee was convicted of murdering two women in south Louisiana in 2002 and sentenced to death; DNA linked him to five more killings between 1998 and 2003.
Donald Harvey
Angel of Death
Pleaded guilty in 1987 and 1988 to 37 murders of hospital patients and others in Ohio and Kentucky between 1970 and 1987; claimed as many as 87.
Juan Corona
Juan Vallejo Corona
Died in prison. Labor contractor Juan Corona was convicted of murdering 25 farmworkers buried in orchards near Yuba City, California, in 1971.
Lawrence Bittaker
The Tool Box Killers
Died on death row in 2019. Lawrence Bittaker and accomplice Roy Norris, the 'Tool Box Killers', kidnapped and murdered five teenage girls in Los Angeles County in 1979.
Lonnie Franklin Jr.
The Grim Sleeper
Died on death row in 2020. Lonnie Franklin Jr., the Grim Sleeper, was convicted by a Los Angeles jury in 2016 of 10 murders and one attempted murder in South Los Angeles between 1985 and 2007, and was caught in 2010 through…
Samuel Little
Samuel McDowell
Died in prison. Samuel Little was convicted of eight murders in California, Texas and Ohio. He confessed to 93 killings from 1970 to 2005, and authorities said nearly 60 were confirmed. He died in December 2020, aged 80.
Anthony Sowell
The Cleveland Strangler
Convicted by a Cuyahoga County jury in 2011 of 11 aggravated murders after the remains of 11 women were found at his Cleveland home in October 2009; sentenced to death, affirmed on appeal, died in state custody in February 2021.
Rodney Alcala
The Dating Game Killer
Convicted; died on California's death row in 2021. Rodney Alcala, the Dating Game Killer, was convicted in 2010 of five murders in Southern California (1977-1979) after two overturned Samsoe convictions, and pleaded guilty in…
Herbert Mullin
Herbert William Mullin
Died in prison. Herbert Mullin admitted killing 13 people in Santa Cruz County and Los Gatos, California, in 1972 and 1973. Convicted of 11 murders in two counties, he was repeatedly denied parole and died at a Stockton prison…
Gary Schaefer
Gary Lee Schaefer
Died in prison. Gary Schaefer was convicted of the 1983 murder of 11-year-old Katy Richards in Springfield, Vermont, confessed to a 1981 killing and was charged in a third.
Joshua Wade
Joshua Alan Wade
Died in prison. Joshua Wade pleaded guilty in 2010 to murdering his Anchorage neighbor Mindy Schloss and admitted the 2000 killing of Della Brown; in 2014 he confessed to three more Alaska killings.