Forgotten Serial Killers True Crime

On August 9, 1987, Philadelphia police forced open an apartment at 1631 North Nineteenth Street and discovered seven strangled African American women hidden inside what would become known as the “House of Death.” The tenant, Harrison Graham—locally famous for his Cookie Monster impressions—had vanished that morning, leaving behind a trail of bodies that spanned a year of undetected killings.

In the late 18th century, Scottish planter Lewis Hutchinson turned his fortified estate, Edinburgh Castle, into a killing ground, dropping dozens of victims into a deep Jamaican sinkhole now known as Hutchinson's Hole. This episode explores how a man educated in medicine became one of the Caribbean's most prolific and least-known serial killers.

In April 1989, investigators discovered a horrifying scene at Rancho Santa Elena near Matamoros, Mexico: a ritual cauldron filled with human remains and the mutilated bodies of fifteen victims. At the center of this nightmare was Adolfo Constanzo, a Cuban-American cult leader whose supernatural “insurance” racket had protected major drug shipments across the U.S.-Mexico border—until the abduction of American student Mark Kilroy brought everything crashing down.

In the summer of 1924, hundreds of human bones surfaced from Hanover’s Leine River, exposing one of Weimar Germany’s most shocking serial murder cases. Fritz Haarmann, a petty criminal and police informant, was ultimately revealed as the killer of at least 22 young men whose dismembered remains had been dumped in the water. This episode traces the discovery of the bones, the city’s growing panic, and the disturbing double life of the man known as the Butcher of Hanover.

In the early hours of May 1, 2010, Shannan Gilbert vanished after a frantic 911 call from Oak Beach, Long Island. Months later, police discovered a cluster of bodies along Ocean Parkway that would become known as the Gilgo Four, all escorts who had advertised on Craigslist. Over the next decade the search would expand, uncovering at least ten victims and leading investigators to a suspect whose own home sat just miles from the burial sites.

In this chilling episode of Forgotten Serial Killers, we examine the double life of Dennis Nilsen, a quiet Scottish-born civil servant who murdered at least twelve young men in North London between 1978 and 1983 while maintaining an unremarkable routine as a job-centre clerk and trade-union steward.

In this haunting episode of Forgotten Serial Killers, we examine the life of Cary Anthony Stayner—the overlooked older brother of Steven Stayner, whose abduction made national headlines in 1972. While America celebrated Steven’s miraculous return, Cary grew up in the long shadow of that tragedy, eventually becoming the Yosemite serial killer who murdered four women in 1999.

In this chilling episode of Forgotten Serial Killers, we unravel the horrifying true story of Paul Bernardo and Karla Homolka—dubbed the "Ken and Barbie Killers"—whose seemingly perfect lives masked a campaign of rape, torture, and murder that stunned Canada. From their lavish 1991 wedding to the gruesome discovery of Leslie Mahaffy's remains, we trace how a charming couple evaded justice for years while the system failed their victims.

In the spring of 1984, Australian-born photographer Christopher Bernard Wilder used his charm and camera to lure aspiring models from Florida malls, leaving a trail of missing women and unsolved murders across the American South.

Carroll Edward Cole was executed in Nevada in 1985 after waiving all appeals and demanding death for murdering at least thirteen women. This episode examines the Iowa-born killer whose horrific childhood, high IQ, and chilling self-awareness led him to request execution rather than fight for his life.

In this chilling episode of Forgotten Serial Killers, we trace the calculated campaign of Joseph Paul Franklin, a lone-wolf sniper who murdered across state lines in an attempt to ignite a race war. Franklin's story reveals how personal grievance, white-supremacist ideology, and meticulous planning converged into years of targeted terror from Alabama to Utah.

In May 1982, Carl Eugene Watts was caught in Houston while preparing to drown a young woman in her bathtub. What followed was one of the most controversial immunity agreements in American true-crime history, allowing the self-described “Sunday Morning Slasher” to confess to a dozen murders in exchange for avoiding prosecution on those charges.

In November 1984, 17-year-old Lisa McVey survived a 26-hour ordeal at the hands of Bobby Joe Long and provided the crucial details that ended his eight-month killing spree across Tampa Bay. This episode traces Long’s transformation from a troubled West Virginia childhood marked by repeated head trauma, genetic disorders, and unstable parenting into one of Florida’s most feared serial killers who lured victims through classified ads. It also reveals how one teenager’s composure under extreme duress finally brought the terror to an end.

In 1996, police unearthed over 10,000 bone fragments on an affluent Indiana estate, exposing the hidden crimes of Herb Baumeister. This episode traces how a skull discovered by his son, a quiet suburban life, and years of silence finally gave way to one of the largest unsolved serial murder investigations in the Midwest.

In this chilling episode, we examine the life and crimes of William Bonin, the notorious Freeway Killer, whose reign of terror claimed the lives of at least fourteen young men and boys. Through a haunting exploration of institutional failures, from juvenile detention centers to the parole system, we uncover how repeated lapses allowed a dangerous predator to remain free. Bonin’s story is not just one of murder, but of the boys the system failed to protect.

In August 1984, Larry Eyler’s arrest for the brutal murder of fifteen-year-old Danny Bridges finally halted a four-year killing spree that left at least twenty-one young men dead along the highways of Illinois, Indiana, and Kentucky. This episode traces Eyler’s troubled childhood, his repeated brushes with the law, the jurisdictional failures that let him remain free, and the slow, ongoing process of identifying his victims decades later.

In June 1985, a routine shoplifting arrest in South San Francisco cracked open one of the most disturbing cases in American criminal history, exposing a remote bunker in Wilseyville where Leonard Lake and Charles Ng had spent years abducting, torturing, and murdering men, women, and children. The episode traces Ng’s troubled upbringing in Hong Kong, his path through the Marines and repeated brushes with the law, and the fateful partnership with Lake that turned a secluded ranch into a chamber of horrors. Lake’s cyanide suicide and Ng’s six-year flight to Canada set the stage for one of Califo...

In May 1983, California Highway Patrol pulled over Randy Kraft on Interstate 5, discovering the body of a strangled Marine in his car and a cryptic list of 61 entries that would later be linked to a decade of unsolved murders. This episode explores the life and crimes of Randy Kraft, the so-called Freeway Killer, whose meticulous “scorecard” became one of the most chilling documents in true crime history.

Before the world understood the internet could be a hunting ground, John Edward Robinson was already using it to lure women to their deaths. On this episode of Forgotten Serial Killers, we trace how a seemingly ordinary grandfather and community pillar became the first documented serial killer to weaponize online chatrooms and job ads, leaving a trail of victims in barrels across Kansas and Missouri.

On a quiet Sunday morning in Spokane, a respected Army helicopter pilot and father of five was arrested as the Spokane serial killer, revealing how Robert Lee Yates Jr. had hidden at least thirteen murders behind an ordinary suburban life.