Who is the first serial killer?

Answer 1

No one knows. There's no definite answer. The term "serial killer" is a recently created term. Back then no one new what to call the phenomenon. It can be inferred that the 'werewolves' of the middle ages were serial killers, since they commited many of the same atrocities that serial killers do today. Another problem was that there wasn't any sort of media back then, so there was no way to report or record serial killers. So the first one could have happened thousands of years ago. We wouldn't ever know. One of the first serial killers that got media attention was probably Jack the Ripper, but I can't be too sure. I wish I could give you an answer, but there's no real way of knowing.

Answer 2

It would be impossible to know for sure who the first serial murderer was. Mankind existed long before written records and law enforcement. A couple of the oldest would be the wealthy Frenchman named Gille de Rais. He used his money and influence to carry on his crimes far longer than he should have.

De Rais is responsible for the abduction, rape and murder of at least 100 young boys. History shows us that power and money make some criminals almost untouchable.

Another early serial killer would be Hungarian aristocrat Elizabeth Bathory. Bathory preyed on servant girls in the nearby village. When arrested in 1610 she was charged with the torture, and murders of appxt. 600 young girls.

And of course there is Jack The Ripper, who is considered by most to be the first modern serial killer. Although in numbers, Jack killed relatively few women, his brutality toward his victims was almost unequaled. What the Ripper did to Mary Kelly defies words.

Although most experts agree that serial murder in nothing new there is most definitely more of it after WWII. One theory, and I believe it has merit, people used to be rural, they lived with their families in one big house or at least on the same farm or land, and the communities were small. Post WWII saw a huge migration to urban centers where people lost their sense of family and community. We live among strangers. This is probably not the healthiest way for humans to live. As a result, we have seen a steady increase in violent and non-violent crimes. Our best defense is education, if we hope to ever understand and hopefully curtail these crimes, we need knowledge.

Answer 3

Herman Webster Mudgett aka Dr. Henry Howard Holmes, who confessed to twenty seven murders but it was and is suspected the body count was significantly higher. Arrested in 1894 in connection to a life insurance fraud scheme involving his business associate of whom he had murdered. Holmes proclivity towards lying, he first claimed innocence then after being paid by William Randolf Hearst a sum of $7,500 dollars, Holmes confessed and claimed he was possessed by Satan.

Answer 4

Ted Bundy was the first to have the term coined of "serial killer"
This goes back to ancient times. If we keep it in this last milenium we could put Christman Gniperdoliga who between the years 1568-1581killed 964 people after robbing them.

Answer 5

Historical criminologists have suggested that there may have been serial murders throughout history, but specific cases were not adequately recorded. Some sources suggest that legends such as werewolves and vampires were inspired by medieval serial killers.

Liu Pengli of China, cousin of the Han Emperor Jing, was made king of Jidong in the sixth year of the middle period of Jing's reign (144 BC). According to the Chinese historian Sima Qian, he would "go out on marauding expeditions with 20 or 30 slaves or young men who were in hiding from the law, murdering people and seizing their belongings for sheer sport". This is the oldest writen document about a serial killer.

Answer 6

Serial murder is not new, predating accurate written records. One of the earliest on record was French nobleman Gilles de Rais, who in the years between 1435 and 1440 sodomized and murdered hundreds of young boys at his estate in Machecoul, Pays de Retz, France. The charges read, murder of children and sodomy, the invocation of demons, the offering of Devine Majesty and heresy. He was found guilty and hanged on October 26, 1440, at Nantes.

Romainian Countess Erszebet Bathory killed an estimated 600 young girls at her castle near Trencin, Hungary, from 1602 to 1610. Finally arrested in 1611, she was banished to the tower in her own castle where she died on August 21, 1614.

Answer 7

H.H. Holmes of Chicago, Illinois in the late 1800s was often dubbed "America's first serial killer".

Answer 8

H.H. Holmes