Serial Killers Who Were Executed
Profiles ending in a state or federal execution, in date order.
ColdCaseIndex currently lists 23 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 | H. H. Holmes (Herman Webster Mudgett) | Henry Howard Holmes | Illinois, Pennsylvania, Indiana | 1891 to 1894 | 1 | 27 | About 9 (8 confirmed, 1 probable); claims of 27 to 200 or more are not supported by the record | Convicted | Executed |
| 2 | Carl Panzram | Charles Panzram | Kansas, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, New York, Connecticut | 1920 to 1929 | 1 | 21 | 5 corroborated by investigators; Panzram also claimed killings in Portuguese Angola | Convicted | Executed |
| 3 | Albert Fish | Hamilton Howard Fish | New York | 1924 to 1928 | 1 | 3 | 5 to 15 (contemporary police and psychiatric estimates); he claimed about 100, unverified | Convicted | Executed |
| 4 | Velma Barfield | Margie Velma Barfield | North Carolina | 1974 to 1978 | 1 | 4 | 5 to 7 | Convicted | Executed |
| 5 | Arthur Gary Bishop | Roger Downs | Utah | 1979 to 1983 | 5 | 5 | 5 | Convicted | Executed |
| 6 | Ted Bundy | Theodore Robert Bundy | Washington, Oregon, Utah, Colorado, Idaho, Florida | 1974 to 1978 | 3 | 30 | 20 attributed by police before his confessions; the FBI put the total at more than 30, and some estimates run to 36 or more | Convicted | Executed |
| 7 | Donald Henry Gaskins | Pee Wee Gaskins | South Carolina | 1970 to 1982 | 10 | 13 | 14 to 15 | Convicted | Executed |
| 8 | Westley Allan Dodd | The Vancouver Child Killer | Washington | 1989 | 3 | 3 | 3 | Convicted | Executed |
| 9 | Timothy Wilson Spencer | The Southside Strangler | Virginia | 1987 | 4 | — | 5 (investigators also attributed the 1984 Arlington murder of Carolyn Hamm to him; he was never charged with it) | Convicted | Executed |
| 10 | John Wayne Gacy | The Killer Clown | Illinois | 1972 to 1978 | 33 | 30 | 33 confirmed; Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart has said he suspects Gacy also killed while travelling for work, which the trial prosecutor disputes | Convicted | Executed |
| 11 | William Bonin | The Freeway Killer | California | 1979 to 1980 | 14 | 21 | 22 to 36; police initially linked him to about 40 killings | Convicted | Executed |
| 12 | Gerald Stano | Gerald Eugene Stano | Florida | 1973 to 1980 | 9 | 41 | 9 to 41 | Convicted | Executed |
| 13 | Judy Buenoano | Judias Buenoano | Florida | 1971 to 1983 | 2 | — | 3 | Convicted | Executed |
| 14 | Kenneth McDuff | The Broomstick Murderer | Texas | 1966 to 1992 | 5 | — | 9 to 14 or more | Convicted | Executed |
| 15 | Gary Heidnik | Gary Michael Heidnik | Pennsylvania | 1986 to 1987 | 2 | — | — | Convicted | Executed |
| 16 | Aileen Wuornos | Aileen Carol Wuornos | Florida | 1989 to 1990 | 6 | 7 | 7 | Convicted | Executed |
| 17 | Angel Maturino Resendiz | The Railroad Killer | Texas, Florida, Kentucky, Illinois | 1986 to 1999 | 1 | 11 | 15 to 23 | Convicted | Executed |
| 18 | Danny Rolling | The Gainesville Ripper | Florida, Louisiana | 1989 to 1990 | 5 | 8 | 8 | Convicted | Executed |
| 19 | Joseph Paul Franklin | James Clayton Vaughn Jr. (birth name) | Utah, Missouri, Wisconsin, Ohio, Tennessee | 1977 to 1980 | 8 | — | 8 to 22 | Convicted | Executed |
| 20 | Tommy Lynn Sells | Coast to Coast Killer | Texas | 1987 to 1999 | 2 | — | 18 to 70 | Convicted | Executed |
| 21 | Alfredo Prieto | Alfredo Rolando Prieto | Virginia, California | 1988 to 1990 | 3 | — | 9 | Convicted | Executed |
| 22 | Carlton Gary | The Stocking Strangler | Georgia, New York | 1977 to 1978 | 3 | — | 7 to 9 | Convicted | Executed |
| 23 | Bobby Joe Long | Robert Joseph Long | Florida | 1984 | 8 | 9 | 10 | Convicted | Executed |
Profiles
H. H. Holmes (Herman Webster Mudgett)
Henry Howard Holmes
Executed in 1896. Herman Webster Mudgett, alias H. H. Holmes, was convicted in Philadelphia of murdering Benjamin Pitezel and is tied to about nine deaths in Chicago, Indianapolis and Toronto.
Carl Panzram
Charles Panzram
Executed 1930. Carl Panzram, a career burglar, confessed in 1928 to 21 murders in several states and abroad; he was convicted of only one, the 1929 killing of a Leavenworth prison foreman, and was hanged in Kansas.
Albert Fish
Hamilton Howard Fish
Executed at Sing Sing in 1936. Albert Fish was convicted in 1935 of the 1928 murder of 10-year-old Grace Budd in New York after a letter he sent her family was traced to him; he also confessed to two earlier child killings.
Velma Barfield
Margie Velma Barfield
Executed. Velma Barfield was convicted in 1978 of poisoning her boyfriend Stuart Taylor with arsenic in Robeson County, North Carolina, and admitted poisoning three others, including her mother.
Arthur Gary Bishop
Roger Downs
Executed. Arthur Gary Bishop was convicted in 1984 of abducting and murdering five boys, aged 4 to 13, in the Salt Lake City area between 1979 and 1983.
Ted Bundy
Theodore Robert Bundy
Executed in Florida in 1989. Ted Bundy was convicted of three murders in Florida and confessed to 30 killings of young women across Washington, Oregon, Utah, Colorado, Idaho and Florida between 1974 and 1978.
Donald Henry Gaskins
Pee Wee Gaskins
Executed. Donald "Pee Wee" Gaskins was serving life sentences for nine South Carolina murders from 1970 to 1975 when he killed death-row inmate Rudolph Tyner with a bomb in 1982. Sentenced to death, he was electrocuted in 1991.
Westley Allan Dodd
The Vancouver Child Killer
Executed. Westley Allan Dodd pleaded guilty to murdering three boys in the Vancouver, Washington area in 1989. A jury sentenced him to death in 1990; he waived his appeals and was hanged at Walla Walla on January 5, 1993.
Timothy Wilson Spencer
The Southside Strangler
Executed in Virginia in 1994. Timothy Spencer, the Southside Strangler, was convicted by juries of raping and strangling four women in Richmond and Arlington in fall 1987, the first U.S. murder convictions won on DNA evidence.
John Wayne Gacy
The Killer Clown
Executed in 1994. John Wayne Gacy was convicted by a Cook County jury in 1980 of murdering 33 boys and young men in suburban Chicago between 1972 and 1978; 29 were found at his home. Five victims remain unidentified.
William Bonin
The Freeway Killer
Executed in 1996. William Bonin, the Freeway Killer, was convicted by juries in Los Angeles and Orange counties of murdering 14 boys and young men along Southern California freeways in 1979 and 1980; he confessed to 21.
Gerald Stano
Gerald Eugene Stano
Executed. Gerald Stano was convicted of nine murders of young women in Florida between 1973 and 1980 and confessed to about 41 in three states, though police doubted several confessions.
Judy Buenoano
Judias Buenoano
Executed. Judy Buenoano was convicted of poisoning her husband James Goodyear with arsenic in Orlando in 1971 and of murdering her son Michael, who drowned in 1980. She was electrocuted at Florida State Prison in March 1998.
Kenneth McDuff
The Broomstick Murderer
Executed 1998. Texas killer sentenced to death for three 1966 murders, released on parole in 1989 after his sentence was commuted, and convicted of two 1991 to 1992 murders; his case drove Texas parole reform.
Gary Heidnik
Gary Michael Heidnik
Executed in 1999. Gary Heidnik held six women captive in his Philadelphia basement from November 1986 to March 1987; two died. A jury convicted him of two first-degree murders in 1988.
Aileen Wuornos
Aileen Carol Wuornos
Executed by Florida in 2002. Aileen Wuornos shot seven men along Florida highways in 1989 and 1990; a jury convicted her of the Richard Mallory murder and she pleaded guilty or no contest to five more, receiving six death…
Angel Maturino Resendiz
The Railroad Killer
Executed in Texas in 2006. Angel Maturino Resendiz, the Railroad Killer, was convicted of the 1998 murder of Dr. Claudia Benton near Houston, admitted 11 killings along rail lines in Texas, Florida, Kentucky and Illinois, and…
Danny Rolling
The Gainesville Ripper
Executed in Florida in 2006. Danny Rolling pleaded guilty in 1994 to murdering five college students in Gainesville in August 1990 and, days before his execution, confessed in writing to the 1989 killing of three members of the…
Joseph Paul Franklin
James Clayton Vaughn Jr. (birth name)
Executed. Joseph Paul Franklin, a white supremacist sniper, was convicted of eight murders in Utah, Missouri, Wisconsin, Ohio and Tennessee committed between 1977 and 1980.
Tommy Lynn Sells
Coast to Coast Killer
Executed. Drifter Tommy Lynn Sells was sentenced to death for the 1999 murder of 13-year-old Kaylene Harris near Del Rio, Texas, and pleaded guilty to a second child killing in San Antonio.
Alfredo Prieto
Alfredo Rolando Prieto
Executed. Alfredo Prieto was sentenced to death in California for the 1990 murder of a 15-year-old girl and in Virginia for the 1988 killings of two George Washington University students in Reston.
Carlton Gary
The Stocking Strangler
Executed. Carlton Gary, the Columbus, Georgia "Stocking Strangler," was convicted in 1986 of the 1977 murders of three elderly women, Florence Scheible, Martha Thurmond and Kathleen Woodruff, and executed by lethal injection in…
Bobby Joe Long
Robert Joseph Long
Executed in 2019. Bobby Joe Long pleaded guilty to eight 1984 murders of women in the Tampa Bay area and was sentenced to death for one; a survivor's account of her abduction led police to him.