Motivations - Financial Gain

Adolfo de Jesús Constanzo became one of Mexico's most notorious serial killers after leading a violent criminal cult that combined ritualistic beliefs with narcotics trafficking during the 1980s. Operating primarily in Mexico City and Matamoros, Constanzo and his followers carried out numerous murders as part of ceremonies they believed would provide supernatural protection and success. The discovery of multiple victims at his ranch in 1989 exposed one of the most disturbing criminal conspiracies in Mexican history.

Harold Frederick Shipman became one of the most prolific serial killers in modern history after murdering patients under his care while working as a general practitioner in England. Convicted of 15 murders in 2000, a subsequent public inquiry concluded he had likely killed at least 215 patients, with some estimates suggesting the true total exceeded 250. Shipman's abuse of trust, combined with the enormous scale of his crimes, fundamentally changed patient safety, death certification, and medical oversight throughout the United Kingdom.

Alphonse Gabriel "Al" Capone became one of the most notorious organized crime figures in American history after dominating Chicago's underworld during the Prohibition era. As the leader of the Chicago Outfit, Capone oversaw bootlegging, gambling, prostitution, extortion, and numerous violent crimes throughout the 1920s. Although strongly linked to many murders, including the infamous Saint Valentine's Day Massacre, Capone was ultimately convicted of tax evasion rather than homicide. His criminal empire and public notoriety made him one of the most recognizable gangsters of the twentieth century.

Alex Murdaugh became one of America’s most infamous disgraced legal figures after being convicted of murdering members of his own family in South Carolina in 2021. The case exploded into national headlines because Murdaugh came from one of the most powerful legal dynasties in the American South, with generations of influence over law enforcement, prosecutions and politics throughout the region. As investigators examined the murders, they uncovered a far larger web of corruption involving financial fraud, opioid addiction, theft, insurance schemes and abuse of legal power spanning many years. The collapse of the Murdaugh family empire transformed the case into one of the most heavily publicized American criminal scandals of the modern era.

Charles "Chase" Merritt murdered his business associate Joseph McStay, Joseph's wife Summer, and their young sons Gianni and Joseph Jr. after financial problems developed around the water-feature business Merritt worked on with Joseph. The McStay family disappeared from their Fallbrook, California, home in February 2010, beginning a mystery that lasted more than three years until their remains were discovered in shallow graves in the Mojave Desert near Victorville. Financial records, cellphone evidence and other circumstantial evidence eventually focused the investigation on Merritt, who was arrested in 2014. A jury convicted him of four counts of first-degree murder in June 2019, and he was formally sentenced to death in January 2020.

Carol Ann Kopenkoskey is an American woman convicted of the 2012 murder of her husband in Michigan. The case involved a long-term marriage that ended in a planned domestic killing carried out in a secluded location. She later pleaded guilty to second-degree murder and was sentenced to a lengthy prison term.

Ashley Britt McArthur murdered her friend, 33-year-old private investigator Taylor Wright, near Pensacola, Florida, in September 2017 after Wright sought the return of $34,000 she had entrusted to her for safekeeping. Prosecutors established that McArthur had already spent much of the money before taking Wright to her family's rural property in Cantonment, where she shot her and concealed her remains beneath concrete and potting soil. Cell-phone records, financial evidence and surveillance footage helped investigators reconstruct McArthur's movements. She was convicted of first-degree premeditated murder in August 2019 and sentenced to life imprisonment with a mandatory minimum of 25 years.

Stanley "Tookie" Williams was an influential Los Angeles gang figure who co-founded the Crips with Raymond Washington before being convicted of four murders committed during two robberies in 1979. Sentenced to death in 1981, Williams spent more than two decades on California's death row while consistently maintaining his innocence of the murders. During his imprisonment, he renounced gang life, wrote books warning young people about gangs and became an anti-gang activist whose work attracted international attention and Nobel Peace Prize nominations. His supporters sought clemency based on his claimed rehabilitation, but California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger rejected the request, and Williams was executed by lethal injection at San Quentin State Prison on December 13, 2005.