American Killers

James Dupree Henry was convicted of murdering 81-year-old Orlando civil rights leader Zellie Riley during a robbery at Riley's home in March 1974. Henry bound and gagged Riley before suffocating him and stealing property from the residence. Five days later, Henry shot and seriously wounded Orlando police detective Ronald Ferguson while attempting to avoid arrest. Convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to death, Henry maintained his innocence throughout his decade on death row. His case became the focus of civil rights and capital-punishment campaigns, with Jesse Jackson, Coretta Scott King and Riley's son asking Florida officials for clemency. Henry was executed by electrocution at Florida State Prison on September 20, 1984.

James “Jimmy” Rackover was convicted of murdering 26-year-old Joseph “Joey” Comunale following an after-party at Rackover’s Manhattan apartment on November 13, 2016. Prosecutors said Rackover, Lawrence “Larry” Dilione and Max Gemma were involved in the events surrounding Comunale’s death and the subsequent attempt to conceal his body. Comunale was beaten and stabbed inside Apartment 4C before his body was transported to New Jersey, burned and buried in a shallow grave. Rackover was convicted of second-degree murder, concealment of a human corpse and tampering with physical evidence and was sentenced to 28⅔ years to life in prison.

James “Jimmy” Scandirito Jr. became the focus of a bizarre Florida homicide investigation after his father, former Macomb County District Judge James “Skip” Scandirito Sr., disappeared from his Boca Raton home in March 2018. Scandirito Jr. initially told investigators that his 74-year-old father had gone missing. Police soon identified inconsistencies in his account and began monitoring his movements. On April 3, 2018, investigators followed Scandirito Jr. to the former Ocean Breeze Golf Club in Boca Raton. Human remains were subsequently discovered at the abandoned golf course and identified as those of James Scandirito Sr. His body had been dismembered and parts had been concealed in bags and buried. Scandirito Jr. was arrested and charged with first-degree murder. Prosecutors argued that he killed his father for financial gain, pointing to evidence that he was his father's sole beneficiary and had attempted to access his father's financial accounts after his death. (wpbf.com) At trial, Scandirito Jr. admitted that he had dismembered and disposed of his father's body but denied killing him. He testified that he and his father had been drinking and using drugs on March 28, 2018, and that he discovered his father unresponsive after leaving the room. He claimed that he panicked because he feared being blamed for the drugs and decided to dispose of the body rather than contact police. (lawandcrime.com) The medical examiner could not determine the cause of James Scandirito Sr.'s death because of the condition of the remains. On March 21, 2019, a Palm Beach County jury found Scandirito Jr. not guilty of first-degree murder but guilty of abuse of a dead human body. He was sentenced to 15 years in prison. (wpbf.com)

Jared James Dicus murdered his 21-year-old wife, Anggy Diaz, at their home in Waller County, Texas, on January 11, 2023, less than three months after they were married. After killing Diaz with a kitchen knife, Dicus decapitated and partially dismembered her body before confessing to investigators. He later pleaded guilty to murder, was sentenced to 40 years in prison in July 2024, waived his right to appeal and any insanity defense, and remained incarcerated until his death in prison in January 2026 from a self-inflicted injury.

Jeffrey Dahmer is one of the most disturbing figures in American criminal history, often dubbed the “Milwaukee Cannibal.” Between 1978 and 1991, he carried out a series of brutal murders involving necrophilia, cannibalism, and body preservation. His crimes shocked the world not only for their severity, but for how long he evaded capture.

Jeffrey Spence was convicted of murdering Kirby Carpenter, his daughter's boyfriend, outside Carpenter's home in Mississippi in November 2022. Spence was accused of confronting Carpenter and shooting him during a dispute involving his daughter. Investigators identified Spence as the shooter, and he was subsequently arrested and prosecuted for the killing. A jury ultimately found him guilty of murder, bringing an end to the case.

Jim Jones was an American cult leader and founder of the Peoples Temple, best known for orchestrating the mass murder-suicide in Jonestown, Guyana, in 1978. He established a following based on religious and social ideals, eventually relocating his group to a remote settlement where he exerted extreme psychological control over members. Jones’ leadership became increasingly authoritarian and paranoid, culminating in the deaths of over 900 people, including children, after he directed followers to consume a poisoned drink. The incident remains one of the largest mass deaths in modern history and cemented Jones as one of the most infamous cult leaders of all time.

James "Jimmy" Rodgers became one of Florida's most notorious contract killers after participating in the 2015 murder of Dr. Teresa Sievers in Bonita Springs. Hired through a murder-for-hire plot orchestrated by Teresa's husband, Mark Sievers, Rodgers travelled from Missouri to Florida with Curtis Wayne Wright and fatally attacked the victim inside her home. His conviction, along with those of his co-conspirators, brought an end to one of the state's most widely publicized murder-for-hire investigations.