The world has witnessed a plethora of psychopaths who have committed heinous murders for largely psychological gratification. Many serial killers suffer from Antisocial Personality Disorder and usually not psychosis, and thus appear to be quite normal and often even charming. Here’s a list of these unpredictable barbaric human beings who are infamous for committing culpable homicides.

10. Alexander Pichushkin

The only Russian to make an entry in the Top 10 has a profile of a Serial Killer generally one sees in Movies. This psychopath is infamously known as “Bitsa Maniac” and also the “Chessboard Killer”. He was found guilty of 48 murders, confessed to 63. Pichushkin primarily targeted aged males by luring them with vodka. After drinking with them he would kill them, hitting them on the head with a hammer.

9. Dr.John Bodkin Adams

Dr. Adams was a British Serial Killer who is surprisingly not convicted for even a single murder of his “patients” although he has been accused of killing around 160 of them. The prejudiced trial is one of the most controversial court judgments in British court history.

8. Hu Wanlin

Unfortunately, i couldn’t get his photo but i couldn’t stop myself in featuring this Chinese medical Serial Killer. He was arrested for killing 146 people, but suspected of the deaths of more. The ‘treatments’ involved herbal preparations which were proved to contain high amounts of sodium sulphate which is poisonous in large doses. He also employed the traditional practice of qigong, in which the healer emits ‘qi’ from his body.

7. Gilles de Rais

Gilles de Rais was a French soldier in early 1400s. He was later accused and ultimately convicted of torturing, raping and murdering dozens, if not hundreds, of young children, mainly boys.The numbers run around 200. Gilles confessed (under threat of torture) to being a pedophile and homosexual in a time when either of these two activities could result in the forfeiture of life and property. He was eventually hanged at Nantes on 26th Oct 1440.

6. Henry Lee Lucas

This American has been purported to kill around 200 people. The nation’s most prolific killer’s first victim was his own biological mother!. He claimed to have been part of a cannibalistic, satanic cult called “The Hand of Death” to have taken part in snuff films, to have killed Jimmy Hoffa, and to have delivered poison to cult leader Jim Jones in Jonestown prior to the notorious mass murder/suicide of Jones’s group.

5. Dr.Harold Shipman

Dr. Shipman was an English general practitioner who was one of the most prolific known serial killers in modern history. This psychopath targeted mostly elderly women. Investigations proved that his strong pattern of killing was by administering lethal overdoses of diamorphine to his patients. He later committed suicide by hanging himself in his prison cell after being convicted of killing 15, but investigators estimate he killed 216.

4. Pedro López

Born on 8th Oct 1948, this Columbian killer had a traumatic childhood. This son of a prostitute targeted young girls and has confessed of killing over 300 people. He himself a victim of pedophilia was gang-raped in prison.

3. Luis Garavito

Luis Garavito is a Columbian Rapist and a Serial Killer.In 1999, he admitted he had murdered and raped 140 young boys. But its purported that the possible victims could be around 300. Poor children, peasant children, or street children, between ages 6 and 16 were sodomized and then he would cut their throats.

2. Erzsébet Báthory

Elizabeth Báthory was a Hungarian countess from the renowned Báthory family.This “Bloody Lady of Čachtice” is accused of murdering 600 or so people, but there was no public trial.The beautiful mistress of the manor, known for her lustrous black hair and pale skin, was of royal blood and has been accused of killing dozens of women and young girls.

1. Thug Behram

Thug Behram was an Indian who has committed or atleast been a part of around 931 homicides. His method of murdering was strangulation using a “rumal” (a large handkerchief) used by his cult. Thug’s 40-year infamous “career” was brought to an end by the British in 1840 by hanging.

Hmmm… i wonder what levels the Human Psyche can reach in order to bring the devil out from deep inside.I am grateful to Wikipedia and Crime Library for providing me information to compile this article.