20 Disturbing Quotes From Deadly Serial Killers That Will Chill You To The Bone

Many in the field of psychiatry have arrived at the one definite conclusion: 'Not all psychopaths are serial killers, but all serial killers are psychopaths.' One common mistake we all make is thinking that they're geniuses gifted with exceptional IQs. But that's where we're wrong. If anything, a serial killer is a psychopath with deadly intentions. A psychopath is not to be confused with a sociopath. A sociopath is any person displaying anti-social behaviour that is often the result of environmental factors. In the case of a psychopath, the condition is intrinsic and not acquired. According to what Dr Stephen McWilliams writes on thejournal.ie, the psychopath is not a recent product either.

Around 300 BC, one of Aristotle's students, Theophrastus, identified 'psychopathic traits' in who he called the 'unscrupulous man.' Dr McWilliams goes on to explain that Greek and Roman mythology, the Bible, even the plays of Shakespeare are filled with stories of individuals with psychopathic traits. Back in the 18th-century, French psychiatrist Philippe Pinel tried explaining immoral and antisocial behaviour with the term 'mania sans délire.' People with such traits don't really show any particular signs of mental illness and live out their life in society just fine. Take the much-known case of Ann Rule, author of countless true crime novels. She worked with Ted Bundy and the two were great friends until the day she realised he was a murderer, something she writes about in 1980's 'The Stranger Beside Me.' Ted Bundy was the same person who went on to say, "I don't feel guilty for anything. I feel sorry for people who feel guilt."

But where do serial killers, criminals come from?

Is torturing animals at an early age mean a person will become a serial killer? Is it necessary that gruesome scenes from early childhood turn an individual in to a serial killer later? How are serial killers made? Modern works of fiction, books and movies, provide some insight. Lionel Shriver’s novel 'We Need to Talk about Kevin' follows a mother's attempt to understand the mind of her teenage son after he guns down children at his school. In Thomas Harris' novels, 'Red Dragon' and 'The Silences of the Lambs' not to mention the Hannibal trilogy, made into movies later,? Hannibal Lecter was a forensic psychiatrist and cannibalistic serial killer who is is also described as a character with high intelligence but one without any conscience and moral boundaries. He tortured animals as a kid, and in one television adaptation, even saw his sister being killed and eaten. This brings us back to the question, are serial killers made or are they born?

While there's no definite answer for this, some experts suggest that most psychopathic killers have an 'overwhelming desire to kill,' and experiencing violence in childhood tips the scales greatly. An article on Psychology Today reads, the causes of psychopathy remain a mystery.' Studies have even gone as far as suggesting that psychopathic traits have more to do with genes than with upbringing. Here were revisit some

Here are 13 disturbing quotes from some of history's most manipulative and deadly serial killers:

1. Ted Bundy

"We serial killers are your sons, we are your husbands, we are everywhere. And there will be more of your children dead tomorrow."

“I’m the most cold-hearted son-of-a-bitch you’ll ever meet.”

“You feel the last bit of breath leaving their body. You’re looking into their eyes. A person in that situation is God!”

AP

Ted Bundy (Theodore Robert Bundy) is remembered as America's most evil serial killer. Between 1974 and 1978, Bundy sexually assaulted and murdered 28 women in Colorado, Utah, Washington, Oregon and Florida. Other estimates claims he killed hundreds. He was finally executed in an electric chair in Florida in 1989.

2. Zodiac Killer

"I like killing people because it is so much fun. It is more fun than killing wild game in the forest because man is the most dangerous animal of them all."

Wikipedia/Zodiac Killer Facts

The Zodiac Killer to date remains unidentified. Between the late '60s and early '70s, he claims to have murdered 37 people but officials could only tie him to five. According to one survivor's description, he had worn an executioner’s mask with a circle-cross symbol, a symbol he signed off with in the letters he wrote to Bay Area newspapers seeking credit for the murders. It was in a 1969 letter to The San Francisco Examiner that he first identified himself as the Zodiac. In 1974, the letters abruptly stopped. The search for the perpetrator continues to date.

3. Charles Manson

"I'm Jesus Christ. Whether you want to accept it or not, I don't care."

“If you’re going to do something, do it well. And leave something witchy.”

AP

Charles Manson was released from prison in 1967 after having served time for crimes that included auto theft, burglary and larceny. By '68, he was the leader of the 'Family,' a religious cult that blondly followed his equally ridiculous religious preaching. He preached in order to achieve the ultimate goal: an apocalyptic race war that would leave the Family at the top and in total control. The period between 1968 and 1969 shows how strong his hold over his followers was; there were several murders the Family committed during that time. The one gained him more notoriety was the murder of Sharon Tate, famed director Roman Polanski's wife, who was heavily pregnant on 9 August, 1969 which is when she along with three of her friends was killed in her home in Los Angeles. There was national interest in Manson's trial that followed. He finally died from cardiac arrest on 19 November, 2017.

4.? John Wayne Gacy, 'Serial Killer Clown'

“The only thing they can get me for is running a funeral parlor without a license.”

“A clown can get away with murder.”

Chicago Reader

John Wayne Gacy was a serial killer and rapist who murdered 33 boys and men. It was in 1968 when he was convicted of sexual assault that the murders were discovered. But it wasn't till much later in 1980, Gacy having maintained his innocence all these years, that he was found guilty before finally being executed by lethal injection in 1994. He was a performer who would dress as a clown at kids' parties. He was also known as 'serial killer clown' because he also liked to dress like Pogo the clown, reportedly his alter ego, when he murdered people.

5. H.H. Holmes, 'The American Ripper'

"I struck him to the floor with a heavy chair when he, with one cry for help ending in a groan of anguish, ceased to breathe."

chicago history museum

If the name confuses you and make you draw a connection between Jack the Ripper and The American Ripper, then you're not the only one. Experts have often wondered if the two men were the same. There's not much in H.H. Holmes' story to go by either; everything from the number of people he killed to the manner in which he killed them, remains shrouded in mystery. While police at the time found him guilty of murdering ten people, he confessed to murdering at least 27. Some others suggest he easily murdered hundreds. What probably adds to the mystery is the construction of the 'murder mansion' that Holmes' used to trap and kill his victims in. According to the blueprints, 51 doorways opened to nowhere, there were 100 windowless rooms and two staircases that led nowhere.

6. Jeffrey Dahmer

"The killing was a means to an end. That was the least satisfactory part. I didn't enjoy doing that. That's why I tried to create living zombies with uric acid in the drill [to the head], but it never worked. No, the killing was not the objective. I just wanted to have the person under my complete control, not having to consider their wishes, being able to keep them there as long as I wanted*."

*Interview with Stone Phillips, Dateline NBC

“I separated the joints, the arm joints, the leg joints, and had to do two boilings. I think I used four boxes of Soilex for each one, put in the upper portion of the body and boiled that for about two hours and then the lower portion for another two hours. The Soilex removes all the flesh, turns it into a jelly like-like substance and it just rinses off. Then I laid the clean bones in a light bleach solution, left them there for a day and spread them out on either newspaper or cloth and let them dry for about a week in the bedroom.”

AP

Jeffrey Dahmer breathed his last in a prison in 1994 where he was killed by a prison mate. He reached there after being found guilty of murdering 17 males between 1978 and 1991. Dahmer's notorious game concluded after he was arrested on 22 July, 1991, the same day the police saw a man in handcuffs walking down the street. This man claimed he was drugged and restrained by a 'weird dude' who turned out to be Dahmer.

7. Albert Fish, 'The Boogey Man'

“I like children, they are tasty.”

"First I stripped her naked. How she did kick – bite and scratch. I choked her to death then cut her in small pieces so I could take my meat to my rooms, cook and eat it. How sweet and tender her little ass was roasted in the oven. It took me 9 days to eat her entire body. I did not fuck her, though, I could of [sic] had I wished. She died a virgin."

AP

If you ignore the facade of a helpless old grandfather, Albert Fish will make you believe that monsters don't necessarily live under your bed. He grew up in an orphanage, worked as a prostitute, and was sexually assaulting young boys by the time he was 20 years old. A marriage (and six kids), a sadomasochistic relationship with a man (where he chopped off half his penis), and his wife eventually leaving him all contributed to the next stage that gained him true notoriety: cannibalism. As is the case in most 'missing' cases, he selected African-American kids no one would miss, and using his 'implements from Hell,' tortured them, slaughtered them and ate them. Once caught, he claimed to have “had a child in every state.” His victims are anywhere between three and nine in number, but the number dulls in comparison to the nature of the crimes. The Boogey Man was caught and given the electric chair treatment.

8. Edmund Kemper, 'The Co-ed Killer'

“One side of me says, I'd like to talk to her, date her. The other side of me says, I wonder what her head would look like on a stick?”

“I remember there was actually a sexual thrill . . . you hear that little pop and pull their heads off and hold their heads up by the hair. Whipping their heads off, their body sitting there. That’d get me off.”

Wikipedia/Santa Cruz County Sheriff

The one thing about 'Ed' Kemper that really stuck, alongside his crimes, was his height. He grew to 6 feet 9 inches, living days marred with abuse and neglect. At 15, his mother kept him locked in the basement for fear he would harm his two sisters while constantly reminding him no girl would ever love him. He ran away to live with his father who then remarried and sent him packing to his grandparents' house. Kemper ended up killing his grandmother with his grandfather’s .22 caliber rifle, and then shot his grandfather. Kemper was sent to Atascadero State Hospital's criminally insane unit from where he was released in 1969. He had an IQ of 145 and knew how to handle his probation psychologists: he knew exactly what to say. His crime started a year later and he raked up a list of 10 victims. He would pick up hitchhikers, women, kill them and then sex with their dead bodies. Dismemberment followed. In '73, he killed his mother, cut off her head and had sex with it. Her tongue and larynx he threw out with the trash. Kemper has attempted suicide and even asked for capital punishment but continues to live on having spent 5000 hours recording tapes for the blind.

9. Dennis Rader, 'The BTK Killer'

"Yes, I went back and strangled her again, and finally killed her at that time."

“I actually think I may be possessed with demons; I was dropped on my head as a kid.”

crime feed

The manner in which he killed his victims, a double-life leading Dennis Rader came to be known as the BTK killer. BTK stands for 'Bind, Torture, Kill.' IN 1974, he murdered a family at their home in Wichita, Kansas. He was found guilty of 10 murders carried out over three decades and was eventually caught in 2005.

10. Jack The Ripper

"That joke about Leather Apron gave me real fits. I am down on whores and I shant quit ripping them till I do get buckled. Grand work the last job was. I gave the lady no time to squeal*."

"My knife’s so nice and sharp I want to get to work right away if I get a chance*."

*In a letter dated 25th September, addressed to ‘The Boss, Central News Office, London, City.’

From hell/movie still/AP

Jack the Ripper as this unidentified man came to be known eventually was single-handedly responsible for London's East End murders in 1888, murders that terrified many and scarred history. Even now, Jack the Ripper's crimes continue to baffle us. While experts would like to say he had anywhere between three and eight victims, it's in no way certain. A 'dear boss' letter addressed to the police is another infamous angle of this case - it was in one of these 'Letters from Hell' that he first introduced himself as Jack the Ripper. Authorities know of at least five murders by him where the victims, prostitutes, were found cut open with viscera hanging out or missing altogether. His method led authorities to believe he had knowledge about human anatomy.

11. Ed Gein, 'The Butcher of Plainfield'

“She isn't missing. She's at the farm right now.”

AP

Ed Gein was a body snatcher and killer. He suffered emotional abuse at the hands of his mother and lived alone for the first time at 39 years of age by which time his mother had passed away. He would dismember bodies, women mostly, preserve their body parts and even 'wear them. He's known for his heinous acts of necrophila, cannibalism, and murder. Why'd he do it? "I had a compulsion to do it," he's been quoted as saying.