One would think that serial killers are a uniquely-American thing, thanks to ‘true crime’ podcasts and TV shows that tend to overstate that phenomenon. Look at some of the most gruesome serial killers of the past few centuries or so, however, and you’d realize that serial murder is a shockingly-common occurrence throughout the world, from countries like Indonesia to China to Russia to Japan.
10. Ahmed Suradji, Indonesia
Ahmad Suradji, also known by nicknames like Nasib Kelewang or just ‘Datuk’, was an Indonesian cattle breeder who later turned into one of the country’s most notorious serial killers. Born on January 10, 1949, he admitted to the brutal murder of 42 girls and women over an 11-year period. His victims, aged 11 to 30, were usually strangled with a cable after being buried up to their waist in the ground, all as a part of a ritual he believed would grant him enhanced powers.
Suradji was arrested on May 2, 1997, after bodies were discovered near his home in Medan, North Sumatra. He claimed that he had received instructions from the ghost of his deceased father, urging him to kill 70 women and drink their saliva to become a mystic healer. He also practiced as a sorcerer – or ‘dukun’ in local culture – leading to a number of women seeking his advice on matters like beauty and wealth.
Suradji’s trial began on December 11, 1997, resulting in a guilty verdict on April 27, 1998. He was sentenced to death by firing squad for his crimes and executed on July 10, 2008.
9. Mikhail Popkov, Russia
Mikhail Viktorovich Popkov was a Russian police officer and convicted serial killer responsible for a series of brutal crimes in Siberia between 1992 and 2010. Born in March, 1964, in the Angarsk region of the Soviet Union, Popkov worked as a security guard and later as a police officer in Irkutsk.
Popkov, also known as ‘The Werewolf’ and the ‘Angarsk Maniac’, would lure his victims by offering them a free ride in his police car while in uniform. Once alone, he would sexually assault and brutally kill them using various weapons like knives, axes, and baseball bats, with the bodies often being mutilated beyond recognition. Despite widespread suspicions and even testimonies from surviving victims, Popkov eluded capture for over two decades.
A breakthrough came in 2012, when random DNA tests were conducted on 3,500 police officers including Popkov. The evidence decisively linked him to the crimes, ultimately leading to his arrest in 2015, when he was convicted of 22 murders and sentenced to life in prison. Popkov confessed to an additional 59 killings two years later, bringing his total victim count to at least 81.
8. Andrei Chikatilo, Russian SFSR
Andrei Chikatilo, also known as ‘The Butcher of Rostov’ and the ‘Rostov Ripper’, was an infamous Soviet-era serial killer who operated in the Rostov region of the Russian SFSR between 1978 and 1990. Born in Ukraine in 1936, Chikatilo originally served in the Soviet Army and worked as a teacher. His murder spree began in 1978, when he abducted and murdered a nine-year-old girl, followed by multiple rapes and murders of women, children, and prostitutes across the region.
Despite numerous complaints and rumors about his behavior from students and other peers, Chikatilo evaded conviction for many years, largely due to the deteriorating social and economic conditions of the Soviet Union during that time. Ultimately, an intensive police investigation led to his arrest in 1990. Chikatilo was convicted of 53 instances of murder in 1992, and executed for his crimes in February 1994.
7. Yang Xinhai, China
Yang Xinhai, also known as ‘The Monster Killer’, was born in July, 1968, in the Henan province of China. Growing up in poverty as the youngest of four children in his family, he dropped out of school and began working as a laborer, though his criminal activities soon landed him in the re-education labor camps for theft and robbery.
From 1999 to 2003, Yang committed a series of crimes including the murder and rape of at least 67 people and 23 women across several provinces of China, respectively. His modus operandi involved breaking into victims’ homes at night and killing the entire family with improvised weapons. Yang managed to evade capture by planning his attacks carefully, as he was adept at changing his appearance at will and getting rid of the evidence.
All that would come to an end in November, 2003, when he was arrested during a routine inspection and subsequently linked to the crimes through DNA evidence. For his horrible crimes, Yang Xinhai was sentenced to death and executed by firing squad on February 14, 2004.
6. Alexander Pichushkin, Russia
Also sometimes called ‘The Chessboard Killer’, Alexander Pichushkin was another notorious serial murderer to emerge from the chaos of the final years of the Soviet Union. Born in April, 1974, in Moscow, Pichushkin suffered a serious head injury as a child and spent time in an institute for the disabled. He became an exceptional chess player, often playing and winning against much older opponents in Bitsa Park. The death of his beloved grandfather and his subsequent drinking habit, however, led to a drastic change in his personality.
During the investigation, Pichushkin claimed that he murdered his first victim in 1992. He usually targeted homeless men, luring them with offers of vodka before brutally attacking them from behind with a melee weapon, usually a hammer. He left their bodies in Bitsa Park or drowned them in a sewer, making the exact number of his victims unknown.
Pichushkin was arrested on June 16, 2006, at the age of 33, before being convicted of 48 murders and three attempted murders in 2007. Due to the suspension of the death penalty in Russia by that time, Pichushkin received a life sentence for his crimes.
5. Anatoly Onoprienko, Soviet Ukraine
Anatoly Yuriyovych Onoprienko – also known as ‘The Beast of Ukraine’, ‘The Terminator’, and ‘Citizen O’, among many other media-nicknames – was a Soviet Ukrainian serial killer who confessed to the murders of 52 people. He was active between 1989 to 1995, and his modus operandi involved selecting isolated houses, creating a commotion to gain the occupants’ attention, and then systematically killing them. He typically started with the adult male, followed by the spouse, and finally the children. To cover his tracks, Onoprienko often set the buildings on fire and didn’t hesitate to eliminate any additional witnesses that could potentially implicate him.
After his arrest on April 16, 1996, Onoprienko was found in possession of the murder weapons used during the crimes, along with several souvenirs taken from his victims. Initially confessing to eight killings, Anatoly Onoprienko later admitted to a total of 52 victims. For these murders, Onoprienko was convicted and sentenced to life in prison.
4. Martha Rendell, Australia
Martha Rendell was convicted and hanged in 1909 for committing one of the most horrifying crimes uncovered by the Western Australia Police. Married to one Thomas Morris, she murdered three of his children by swabbing their throats with spirits of salts. Although the children suffered slow and agonizing deaths, the crimes went unnoticed until one of the siblings, George Morris, reported his stepmother’s actions to the authorities.
The investigation was delayed by the difficulty in determining the effects of spirits of salts on the victims, even if suspicions were raised when it was discovered that she had purchased large quantities of the toxic substance during the children’s supposed illnesses. It was only when the autopsies proved the presence of a poisonous substance that caused inflammation and hemorrhaging of the children’s bowels that she was finally convicted. Martha Rendell was hanged on October 6, 1909, in Fremantle Prison.
3. Bruno Lüdke, Germany
Bruno Lüdke was a German murderer who’s still remembered as one of Europe’s most prolific serial killers. Born in 1909, he’s believed to have committed more than 80 murders, though the real number still remains unknown. His killing spree also involved several sadistic sexual crimes, lasting for about 15 years beginning in 1928.
Most of Lüdke’s crimes occurred during the chaotic interwar period in Germany, and he usually preyed on victims whose disappearance would not be immediately noticed. He was classified as mentally defective by the Nazi government, resulting in his forced sterilization under the eugenics policies prevalent at the time. Lüdke was arrested in 1943 on a murder charge and subsequently sent to a Vienna hospital, where he was the subject of a Nazi medical experiment that led to his death in 1944.
2. Mariam Soulakiotis, Greece
Sometimes called ‘Mother Rasputin’ in popular Greek culture, Mariam Soulakiotis was a Greek Orthodox abbess and convicted serial killer active between 1939 and 1951. Convicted for committing a series of murders in the Peukovounogiatrissas Monastery near Keratea, Greece, Soulakiotis usually lured wealthy women into the convent and tortured them until they were forced to donate their wealth. She embezzled the money and, in a few cases, ended up murdering some of her victims.
For her crimes, Soulakiotis was indicted in February 1951 and charged with homicide, fraud, forgery, blackmail, and torture. She would be sentenced to life in prison in 1952, where she died in 1954, even if she never officially confessed to her crimes.
1. Luis Garavito, Colombia
Luis Garavito is a Colombian serial killer born in January 1957, in Génova, Colombia. He’s still remembered for his brutal crimes committed during the 1990s, largely due to his troubled childhood that included persistent abuse from his father and a neighbor. He left his family at the age of 16 and became a farmhand, struggling with alcoholism and developing a morbid attraction towards children before long.
Garavito’s killing spree lasted for about seven years, and his victims were mostly young boys from impoverished backgrounds, whom he lured with promises of money or drinks while disguising himself as a monk or priest. He was finally arrested in 1999 for sexually assaulting a young boy, leading to his confession to the murders of about 140 boys. He was convicted for a total of 189 murders, however, resulting in a sentence of 835 years.