Death Sentence Killers

John Reginald Halliday Christie became one of the United Kingdom's most infamous serial killers after murdering multiple women, including his wife, at his home in Notting Hill, London, during the 1940s and early 1950s. His crimes, committed at 10 Rillington Place, led to one of Britain's greatest miscarriages of justice when Timothy Evans was wrongly convicted and executed before Christie's guilt was uncovered. The case remains one of the most significant in British criminal history.

John George Haigh, known as the Acid Bath Murderer, was an English serial killer who murdered six people between 1944 and 1949, although he claimed responsibility for three additional killings that could not be substantiated. Haigh targeted people he believed could provide him with financial gain, killing them before dissolving their bodies in concentrated sulphuric acid and exploiting their property and possessions. His final victim, wealthy widow Olive Durand-Deacon, was murdered at his workshop in Crawley, where investigators subsequently discovered human remains and other evidence linking him to the killings. Convicted of murder at Lewes Assizes in July 1949, Haigh was sentenced to death and hanged at Wandsworth Prison on 10 August 1949.

John Arthur Spenkelink was a convicted robber and prison escapee who murdered Joseph Szymankiewicz in a Tallahassee, Florida, motel room in February 1973. Spenkelink shot Szymankiewicz twice while he was in bed and then attempted to delay discovery of the body by giving the motel proprietor a false account before leaving the area. He claimed the killing was self-defence, alleging that Szymankiewicz had robbed and sexually assaulted him, but prosecutors established that the murder was premeditated. Convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to death, Spenkelink became a major figure in the American death-penalty debate after capital punishment was reinstated. Following years of appeals and stays, he was executed by electrocution at Florida State Prison on May 25, 1979, becoming the first person involuntarily executed in the United States after the modern resumption of capital punishment.

John Wayne Gacy was an American serial killer and sex offender who murdered multiple victims in Illinois during the 1970s. He became widely known for maintaining a public image as a community figure while committing crimes in secret. Gacy’s case gained notoriety due to the scale of his offences and the contrast between his outward persona and his actions. He was later convicted and sentenced to death, becoming one of the most infamous serial killers in U.S. history.

Mark Howard Wilson Jr. was convicted of murdering brothers Robert Baker, 12, and Tayten Baker, 14, in Melrose, Florida, on August 26, 2020. Wilson was the boyfriend of the boys' aunt, Cynthia Guinan, and had moved with her and their young daughter into a shed on the Baker family's property only five days before the killings. Robert and Tayten were found beaten with a hammer and had their throats cut. Wilson was convicted of two counts of first-degree murder, burglary with assault or battery and armed burglary. A jury unanimously recommended death, and in January 2023 a judge sentenced him to death for both murders. The Florida Supreme Court affirmed his convictions and sentences in May 2025.

Mitchell Sims became one of America's most notorious transient serial killers after carrying out a series of murders across multiple states during the 1980s. Nicknamed the "Pizza Hut Serial Killer," Sims was convicted of abducting, robbing, and murdering pizza delivery driver John Harrington in Las Vegas, Nevada, while investigators also linked him to the murders of another pizza employee and a customer in South Carolina. His willingness to kill complete strangers during robberies, combined with his mobility across state lines, made him one of the FBI's most infamous traveling serial offenders before his execution in 2015.

Randy Steven Kraft became one of America's most infamous serial killers after murdering at least 16 young men and boys across California, Oregon, and Michigan between 1972 and 1983. Often referred to as the "Scorecard Killer" because of a coded list discovered in his possession after his arrest, Kraft is suspected by investigators of murdering more than 60 victims. Convicted of 16 murders, he was sentenced to death in California, where he remains incarcerated.

Richard Beasley became known as the “Craigslist Serial Killer” after orchestrating a series of murders involving fake job advertisements posted online in Ohio during 2011. Prosecutors alleged Beasley used Craigslist employment listings to lure financially vulnerable men to isolated rural locations where they were robbed, shot, and buried in shallow graves. The case generated national attention because it exposed how online classified platforms could be exploited by violent offenders targeting strangers. Investigators later connected Beasley to multiple killings and attempted murders linked to the fake employment scheme. The horrifying combination of internet deception, execution-style murders, and burial sites hidden in wooded areas made the case one of the most infamous online predator serial killer investigations in modern American criminal history.