BTK suspect Dennis Radner has pleaded guilty to killing 10 in a spree that terrorized Wichita, Kansas. Here are some articles from the TIME Archive about other serial killers who have held a city in a grip of fear:
At the Gein farmhouse, filthy and choked with the clutter of a dozen years, police found a chamber of horrors. Bernice Worden's body was strung up by the heels in a summer kitchen. It had been eviscerated and dressed out like a deer.
From Portrait of a Killer
Dec. 2, 1957
Bailey ... set out to convince the jury that his client was the notorious Boston Strangler, and so guilty that he must be insane.
From Bailey & the Boston Strangler
Jan. 27, 1967
When he was seized, Berkowitz was carrying a manila envelope; in it was the .44-cal. pistol that had been used in all of the Son of Sam murders. He also had a semiautomatic rifle, simulated to look like a submachine gun, in the car.
From "Sam Told Me To Do It... Sam Is the Devil"
Aug. 22, 1977
The police got a warrant to search Gacy's house. They discovered a trapdoor in a bedroom closet concealing a 40-ft. crawl space. They began poking around in it. By this time, Gacy was babbling. He had murdered 32 young men and boys, he said.
From "I Do Rotten, Horrible Things"
Jan. 8, 1979
The defendant is an unlikely looking murder suspect. He is handsome, articulate and composed, a former law student who, in his blue suit, is almost indistinguishable from the defense lawyers clustered around him. Nonetheless, Bundy is suspected by police of being one of the worst mass murderers in U.S. history, responsible for a trail of up to 36 young women victims, spanning four years and four states.
From The Case of the Chi Omega Killer
Aug. 22, 1977
For months residents sensed that all was not right at the Oxford Apartments, a 49-unit low-rise building on Milwaukee's crime-infested west side. A power saw buzzed at odd hours. The putrid odor of rotting meat flooded the corridors. Occasionally, a tenant would hear a cry or the thump of a falling object on the second floor.
From The Little Flat of Horrors
By Alex Prudhomme
Aug. 5, 1991
The worlds of Gianni Versace and Andrew Cunanan may have first intersected in the early 1990s, when both were in San Francisco....By the time their paths began drawing ominously closer two months ago, Cunanan's aggressively social personality, authorities say, had turned murderously sociopathic.
From Tagged for Murder
By Richard Lacayo
Jul. 28, 1997
So far, the man described by the FBI last week is purely fictional, a portrait assembled in part from what little evidence is available and in part from long experience with serial killers.
From Profile of a Killer
By Michael D. Lemonick
Nov. 11, 2001
The man whom cops would call the Green River Killer was to murder at least 49 women. Some investigators think he killed as many as 90, which, if true, would make him the biggest serial murderer in U.S. history.
From River Of Death
By Terry McCarthy
Jun. 3, 2002
A killer was on the loose. He was known as BTK--for 'bind them, torture them, kill them,' from a note sent to the local newspaper after he murdered four members of the Otero family in 1974.
From Was the Killer Next Door?
By Jeff Chu
Mar. 14, 2005
Narcissism is not the only part of the psychic stew that leads to mass murder. Among the additional risk factors experts look for is a history of other kinds of emotional turmoil, such as depression, substance abuse or some kind of childhood trauma.
From Why They Kill
By Jeffrey Kluger
Apr. 19, 2007
The proposed federal "murderabilia" law takes a different approach by targeting prisoners' involvement in interstate or foreign commerce, and it applies to all prisoners, state or federal, levying fines and a minimum three-year penalty for breaking the law.
From Cracking Down on "Murderabilia"
By Hilary Hylton
Jun. 05, 2007
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