one of the most compelling sources of contemporary horror is the phenomena of serial killers. From
true crime to horror fiction as a nation we obsess over these terrifying fascinating figures which
is just sick but it's not just murder stories that we freak out about it's real life killings
we want to know the details and why people are nuts we're fascinated with why so many serial
murderers are hard to catch and how they can just walk around among us for so long unnoticed
it's actually quite chilling of course there's serial killers all over the world
but for some reason historically most have been here in the united states why is that
going back a hundred years or so there's been more than 2600 serial murders in this country
there's all sorts of serial murderers examples for the sniper attacks which happen in the
washington dc metro area to the zodiac killer and sickos like charles manson but according to
the fbi serial killings are relatively uncommon occurrences accounting for less than one percent
of all murders in a given year in order to determine where the serial murder capitals
of the united states are we had to look through the fbi database i looked at which states have
the most serial murders going all the way back to 1900 and then i measured it on a per capita basis
the fbi defines a serial killer as somebody who commits two or more murders as separate events and
it's usually done by one person acting alone well enough of that intro stuff let's get right to it
so let's pull the blinds turn out the lights and get our morbid fascination on
we're going to talk about the serial killer capitals of the country and kind of the world
we're going to begin our tour of the serial murder capitals in the u.s here in oklahoma
if you live there you're a little bit more freaked out right now since the turn of the 20th century
there have been 174 serial murders in oklahoma and when you compare that with the state's population
serial killings are occurring more frequently in oklahoma than all but
nine other states and the 1980s were the worst decade for oklahoma's serial murders
and that decade alone there were 48 documented serial killings in oklahoma
and oklahoma's serial murder count doesn't even count what happened in oklahoma city in 1995
when this lunatic set up bombs in a building and that killed 168 people it was one of the
worst homegrown terrorist attacks in the country but it doesn't count as a serial killing because
serial murders are separate consecutive murders while mass murders are many killings in one
incident this lunatic is the most famous serial killer in oklahoma's history he began in 1978 he
and his wife and brother pulled over along i-35 near purcell oklahoma they flagged down a family
of three and when they pulled over they robbed them and shot them all then three weeks later
this guy murdered six employees at a restaurant in oklahoma city during another robbery his wife
eventually confessed that this dude killed 34 people in six different states he died of lethal
injection in 1995 after 16 years in the oklahoma state pen good hopefully all that's behind us now
but if you live in oklahoma you might be a little more unnerved our next serial murder capital in
the usa is in utah utah what isn't that a bunch of god-fearing mormons what's going on there
again the 80s were the worst decade for serial murders here what was going on in the 80s my god
arthur gary bishop also known as roger downs he was a serial killer operating at that time
between 1979 and 1983 he was accused of killing five kids by beating him or drowning him to death
and was eventually executed by lethal injection in 1988 but the most famous serial murder here
was ted bundy he lived in utah from 1974 until he was caught in 1975. he killed at least 36 women in
multiple states although some estimate he could have killed close to a hundred people ted bundy
killed at least five and maybe eight young teenage women in the greater salt lake city area around
1974 but he blended into society which allowed him to keep committing his crimes he attended the
university of utah law school and he also became a baptized mormon he actually finally got caught
here in utah when a female victim escaped he tried to kidnap a teenager outside of a mall and she
fought with all her might and thrashed him and fought and broke all her fingernails she remembers
bundy's beady blank lifeless eyes she says she was very lucky that she managed to jump out of
his car and escape it was really shocking to find out later that he was so angry she got away
he just drove somewhere else and killed somebody else apparently the lds church had his back and
even showed up to his trial to support him they just knew he was innocent of all charges they said
he was finally electrocuted in 1989 good pretty scary stuff though utah and on that tragic note
we're going to get the hell out of utah i'll tell you that but we're in texas now where things are
even worse at least statistically here in texas there have been nearly 800 serial killings since
the year 1900 many of them have been executed by this state which doesn't mess around raphael
resendez ramirez also known as the railroad killer murdered at least 15 people in kentucky texas and
illinois before he surrendered in 1999 according to the fbi traveling to other states is actually
pretty unusual among serial killers when they carry out their crimes the one who did the most
damage here in texas was a real sicko a man named carl eugene watts this guy told the cops
he killed almost a 100 women in michigan and in texas but only 12 bodies were found in the state
he was the son of an army officer and he always killed women between the ages of 14 and 44. they
called him the sunday morning slasher because he would sneak into women's homes on sundays and then
strangle stab or drown his victims he was hard to catch because he never left any dna but they
finally got him eight years after he started his spree he was attempting to kill two women in their
houston home he strangled one of them and she pretended to be unconscious and she waited for him
to go upstairs to fill the bathtub to drown her then she ran out of the house and called the cops
he served 20 years in texas prisons and then he spent time in michigan's prisons
and they finally died of cancer while locked up at the age of 53 and hopefully he went to hell
the 2000s were a terrible decade for louisianans most of the victims in the state were either shot
or strangled and weirdly many victims here met their killers at a bar between 1990 and 2010 25
louisiana residents were murdered by a serial killer that they had met at a bar this freak
is ronald joseph dominique otherwise known as the bayou strangler he killed the most people in the
state at least 23 men and boys between 1997 and 2006. he grew up in a trailer park in thibodaux
and was picked on a lot as a kid his victims were usually young men he met in bars who were
homeless or druggies he would usually befriend him and lure him to his trailer with promises of sex
and then he'd kill him and he dumped their bodies in the swamps look at this list of all the people
he killed the fbi called his conviction the most significant serial killer case in the country for
that period now serial killers have some common characteristics among them many are psychopaths
many were abused by a family member and many have a fascination with setting fires however despite
the stereotypes we see in movies serial murderers don't have a great deal in common with one another
their preferred victims their motives for killing their patterns and their locations all vary
greatly fewer than half of serial killers since 1900 have been both male and white intelligence
also varies greatly among serial killers their iqs range from 54 to as high as 186 though the average
iq is 86 which is slightly below average and only 15 of serial murderers are women well here we are
in oregon which is also a creepy place in a lot of areas the 80s were also a frightening time
to live in this state too now compared to other states oregon has a relatively low rate of violent
crime per capita however serial killings happen with more frequency per capita in this state than
almost anywhere else in the nation most serial killers use a gun on their victims however
in oregon serial killers have strangled their victim's death more than any other killing method
and by the way you can see all of oregon's victims here on a website you may not even know about
murderpedia which is just sad that we have a website called murderpedia
the list is somewhat accurate like this guy claims to have killed between three and 18 people or more
sometimes serial killers claim to have killed more people than they actually did for the attention
but this guy dayton leroy rogers killed at least seven people in the state usually by torture all
were women he met on the street hookers druggies runaways homeless he often took him to remote
areas often in the forest where he would tie him up and kill him they called him the malala
forest murder because his victims were all found in wooded areas outside of malala
about 30 miles south of portland he keeps getting the death penalty but nobody's killed him yet
he just rots into prison in oregon to this day
that's creepy dude why are you just staring at me like that what okay this is weird you know what
based on what's happened so far in this video i think i better call the cops and report this
what do you want hey super gay cop mappy's acting weird and he's staring at me funny
think something's up mappy's a serial killer duh what mappy's a serial killer no way
back to our very bone chilling tour as we go right next door to our next serial killer capital
washington which is also a creepy place again the 80s and the pacific northwest must have
been really scary out in places like this now you might think that serial killers look like crazy
sociopaths but in fact a lot of the crimes were committed by people that lead seemingly normal
lives here's an example gary ridgway who was known as the green river killer he worked as
a truck painter he attended church and even read the bible all the time he eventually confessed to
committing 49 murders over a 20-year period in the seattle area most of the time he strangled
women he confessed to 49 but they think he killed at least 70 that would make him the second most
prolific serial killer in modern us history most of this guy's victims were sex workers or women
living on the streets his first five victims were found in the green river just outside of seattle
they eventually caught him because his dna matched the dna of the scene of several of the bodies
he confessed so he was saved from the death penalty how do we let these people continue
to live among us what the hell kill him per capita the state of california has the fourth most serial
killers of all time it was so bad here in the 80s that one out of five serial murders in the country
took place here in california half the victims were either shot or were strangled in the 60s the
state had the zodiac killer he confessed to 37 murders in northern california but nobody knows
how many victims there were and he has never been caught the night stalker richard ramirez
terrorized everybody in la and san francisco in the 80s and wound up killing 15 people
he just broke into people's homes and robbed him and killed him just a terrible person
this creep was actually captured by bystanders who recognized him because it was all over the news
they beat him up and held him down until the cops arrived but that was after two years of terror
he later died in prison from lymphoma while awaiting execution and hopefully he
is in hell with the night stalker home invasion was his preferred pattern but
each serial killer has their own pattern and motive florida trails just two other states
in terms of total serial killer victims per capita with 778 documented victims since 1990.
as was the case across the nation serial killers were most active during the 80s here too
the most prolific serial killer of all time began his spree here in florida and you might not even
recognize his name it's samuel little he was charged with killing like 50 people but says
he killed close to 100. nobody really knows it all began back in miami in 1971 and he went on to kill
11 more people in the state before he was caught in the middle of another murder in a parking lot
in total his murder spree lasted for nearly four decades most of his victims were women who were
prostitutes or who were homeless this guy had been arrested a bunch for various crimes and just led
out of prison so most of these murders could have been avoided had they let him rot in jail
and because he confessed all his murders he avoided the death penalty that sucks
nevada might be a bit of a surprise or maybe not i mean this is home to a history of the mob and
illegal activities and vagrants and all sorts of bad stuff and nevada has the nation's ninth
highest violent rate too now over the first half of the 20th century only two people were killed by
serial killers in nevada but then there were 33 victims in the 80s alone as you might expect
the spike of serial killings coincided with las vegas's gambling boom prostitutes have always
been a big target for serial killers in nevada this guy is carol edward cole he killed at least
15 women in nevada beginning all the way back in 1947 and up until 1980 he says he did most of it
to get back at his mother he had been in and out of prison and in and out of mental hospitals for
years and nobody thought to lock him up for good one time in 1979 he just walked up to a woman in
a las vegas bar bought her a drink took her to his hotel room and strangled her he didn't even
know her name he was finally lethally injected in 1985 good and which state has the most serial
killers per capita it's probably not a surprise that is alaska the land of isolation and darkness
it's also the most violent state in the nation too more than half of this date serial murders
took place in the 80s is that why we were all so into nightmare on elm street and jason and
all those scary movies in the 80s robert hanson perhaps the most prolific serial killer in this
state's history was sentenced to 461 years of prison in 1984 after confessing to the gruesome
murders of 17 women there's a lot of theories to account for why alaska produces and houses so many
serial killers of course it's dark here for a lot of the year which can make people go crazy and the
cover of darkness also provides the perfect opportunity to target a victim the size and
isolation of the alaskan wilderness is probably an appealing factor the seclusion out here provides a
lot of opportunity to prey on vulnerable people a lot of places to hide evidence the nature of the
workforce is another factor i mean there's a lot of logging and construction and oil jobs and those
employ a lot of seasonal workers plus the lack of law enforcement in isolated regions of the state
make it easier to get away with crimes there's a lot of serial killers who get away with stuff
because there's just compromise police work they don't have enough cops and it's just too much land
to cover alaska is dangerous in many many ways and it's probably going to remain so for a long time
okay so that's it our look at the serial murder capitals of the country if you were
alive in the 80s you remember how scary things were back then but take solace fellow americans
it seems that the trend of the american serial killer might be a dying breed since the peak in
the 80s there's either less serial killers now or cops have gotten better at catching them earlier
but sadly while the serial killer age is behind us today's problem is much much bigger it's hard
to pinpoint exactly why we find serial killer so fascinating but there's a strange allure in
exploring the dark pathologies of the human mind it's similar to the reason why we enjoy tales of
true crime learning about murders and crime is just part of our human nature and that is
just so sad hey guys if you learned something new about america or what it's like to live in america
great you should think about subscribing and turning on your notifications you can also click
one of these videos or playlists for more you can also now buy my songs on itunes and other formats
click the link in the description thanks for watching and remember while we all might have
different views we should all be nice to each other and try to make the us a better place
in a positive way this is sage nyx manager this has been a corner house entertainment production