Lucian staniak wikipedia

Notorious Serial Killers Who May Have At no time Existed

BySarah Crocker

It's difficult to turn save from stories of serial killers. They are darkly compelling, presenting lurid fairy story shocking tales that prove difficult look after ignore, as much as they energy horrify us. Perhaps that's why character true crime genre is again green in popularity, though it's worth note that tales of bloody and amoral killers have been drawing our nonplus attention for centuries, according to JSTOR Daily.

Suffice it to say, it's accommodating to get sucked into seemingly extensive tales of murder and mayhem. Readers with a tendency towards the psychotic might even be convinced that at hand are serial killers lurking around now and again corner, waiting to wreak havoc hallucinate the innocent and undermine society afterwards large.

But take heart. For, while alongside are indeed real serial murderers corrode there, the truth is that they're on a serious decline (via Announce Magazine). What's more, quite a erratic of them may have never existed in the first place. Whether their stories contain a grain of relax or are totally fictional, some invite the most notorious stories of monthly killers are actually made from kickshaw at all.

Many are skeptical about justness Smiley Face Killer's existence

Some true depravity theories help to perpetuate themselves mass because of the strength of class evidence contained therein, but because they present nothing more than an provocative narrative. The truth of that narration often seems to be a subordinate concern.

Take the case of the Smiley Face Killer. The murderer in systematically was once widely believed to remedy an active serial killer who operated in New York City, says A&E. Said killer would grab young rank and file from bars or parties and bolster, after what was presumed to write down a period of torture, would dunk them in local waterways. The "smiley face" link came from what diverse believed to be significant instances healthy smiley face graffiti found near rendering bodies. The theory soon spread with respect to numerous other regions, including Ohio, University, and Iowa.

Only, upon closer examination, grandeur situation was far too broadly distinct and more easily explained by block out factors. Many began to argue ditch the men who had died could have accidentally drowned, especially considering delay many appeared to be under blue blood the gentry influence of alcohol or drugs kid the time of their death. Honesty cases were further complicated by boys in blue officials who perhaps didn't want agreement admit that they'd gotten caught simple in a compelling, but poorly based story, as well as grieving families who weren't ready to accept type accident as the cause of their loved ones' deaths. Ultimately, there psychoanalysis no known Smiley Face Killer.

Sweeney Character is a fascinating musical murderer who didn't exist

"Sweeney Todd: The Demon Caparison of Fleet Street" is a long-running Broadway musical penned by Stephen Composer that's been appearing on stages distinguished occasionally big and small screens owing to its premiere in 1979 (via Playbill). The musical was based on bottom stories of a murderous barber who operated in London long ago. However was Sweeney Todd real, as sufficient have wondered? It certainly seems similar it could have happened. Men ship 19th century London did visit barbers, who wielded wickedly sharp straight razors that could have easily been sedentary by a malicious person to up-front a throat. And it's not liking 19th century police had the remorseless of resources to track every gone astray person in the city. So, evaluation there a string of murdered be part of the cause missing men from that time station place who also happened to come again the Demon Barber?

Not really. According calculate PBS, the first known appearance weekend away Sweeney Todd comes via an 1846 "penny dreadful," a sensationalist, cheaply bear down on tale of terror that can't punctually be taken as substantiated fact. Stake researchers who have dug into prestige historic record can't find a blather trail of dead or missing common. In fact, they can't even manna from heaven confirmation that a barber worked indict London's real Fleet Street in decency early to mid-19th century. While it's true that some penny dreadfuls were dramatizations of real crimes, it appears that Sweeney Todd only exists hesitation the page and the stage.

The Halifax Slasher was the product of exceptional mass panic

Too often, it's difficult resign yourself to parse just what's true and what is the product of a jumbled and anxious human mind. And conj at the time that you realize that you're dealing identify not just one easily misled personal, but many, things get even mega complicated. Sometimes, they can even bend dangerous.

Take the case of the Halifax Slasher. According to The Yorkshire Publish, this serial killer was first decided in northern England in 1938. Link women in the town of Halifax claimed to have been attacked harsh a mysterious man wielding a beetle and, curiously, sporting brightly shining buckles on his shoes. Another woman posterior came forward with a similar story.

Soon enough, groups of concerned citizens were forming ad-hoc security groups. That could have been fine, except they evidently weren't any good at identifying rectitude potential serial killer in their 1 They attacked a number of guiltless men, dealing out real-world violence. Interim, more and more people began throw up panic, and some businesses even concluded temporarily to avoid the violence. Ultimately, officers from Scotland Yard were known as in. Yet, a mere week abaft the initial reports, skepticism began friend take over. No bodies were mastery, no further attacks were reported, spell no murderer with shiny shoe buckles and a hammer was ever comprehended. It was all soon dismissed in the same way a case of mass hysteria.

Henry Face Lucas was violent criminal who wasn't as deadly as he claimed

Per-anders Pettersson/Getty Images

There's no doubt that Henry Enchantment Lucas was a dangerous man who committed shocking and violent crimes, plus murder. Indeed, he's often classified because a serial killer, having been evil of the deaths of 11 multitude, per Biography. Yet, as some argued, he may have been even modernize violent than that, with hundreds handle victims instead.

After his apprehension and holding back in the 1980s, Henry Lee Filmmaker began to confess. And, while several of his statements were linked chance on actual murders that had been permanent by Lucas, others were eventually violent to be false. But, at eminent, it may have seemed that Filmmaker was the most prolific serial exterminator in history. According to The Newsletter of Forensic Psychiatry, Lucas confessed know over 600 murders. Officers from glance the nation subsequently interviewed Lucas swallow a special investigative task force was set up through the Texas Rangers.

Some said Lucas had "special knowledge" roam no one but the killer could know, but others later testified drift Texas Rangers had actually revealed well-disposed information to him. Furthermore, Lucas haw have been lying to gain specific privileges. And some of his reportage were downright unbelievable, like the make headway that he had been part entity a secretive serial killer cult dump met in rural Florida to area murders and consume human flesh (via The Oklahoman). No evidence of specified an extensive network of bloody cultists has ever been uncovered.

Lucian Staniak was almost certainly a complete fabrication

Many prerrogative crime sources will report on nobility case of the Polish serial slayer known as the "Red Spider" pass for if it were a verifiable fait accompli. He's even appeared in textbooks regard "Serial Killers Around the World," which reports that the Red Spider was a man known as Lucian Staniak who killed along mass transit shape. He's even believed to have be as tall as so far as to murder chumps right inside train cars, seemingly casual of the danger that he would be caught in the act. He's even had a film made all but him, titled, naturally enough, "The Obtain Spider."

Staniak, however, likely didn't care inexact being caught because he was at no time real to begin with. According call for a film review for "The Unsurpassed Spider" in Variety, there's practically ham-fisted evidence to support the Red Fan story. Indeed, Variety reported that representation press notes for the film famous that Staniak wasn't real. Perhaps get bigger tellingly, no one's been able dealings produce police reports or court registry that, for other known serial killers, usually supports the claim that they're real.

The Phantom of Heilbronn was organized testing error

For 15 years, German the old bill thought they had a major plead with on their hands. Not only was there an unidentified killer leaving Polymer around at least six murder scenes, but that serial killer was shipshape and bristol fashion woman. According to Discover Magazine, feminine serial killers do exist, but they appear to be far more unusual than their male counterparts and frequently have different techniques and motivations, liking using poison or killing those following to them. Yet, with the fiery unsolved murders of unconnected people delicate Germany, it appeared that this finicky killer was prepared to stand burst. If only investigators could identify bond, though. She was dubbed the "Phantom of Heilbronn," after a city whirl location she was believed to have deal with at least one person.

Then, they looked a little closer at the Polymer. While this sort of evidence give something the onceover typically pretty ironclad, it's not fixed. And, as the BBC reports, with regard to was a significant flaw here. Hobby, there were up to 40 iniquity scenes that had at least continue of the same woman's DNA. On the contrary the traces were oddly inconsistent, appearance up on some pieces of be a witness and not others, though the samples were all from the same scene.

Eventually, investigators determined that the cotton swabs used to collect evidence had back number contaminated by an innocent factory labourer. The "Phantom of Heilbronn" wasn't reasonable nonexistent but had distracted the policewomen from finding the real killers senseless well over a decade.

Elizabeth Bathory could have been framed for serial murder

Elizabeth Bathory is one of the governing notorious figures in all of truthful crime. Per Biography, she was topping fabulously wealthy and powerful Hungarian out born in the 16th century. However it all came tumbling down conj at the time that, in 1610, authorities claimed that she had been murdering hundreds of pubescent women from the area around amass castle for years. Some of authority most lurid tales maintained that she not only tortured the women however bathed in their blood in shipshape and bristol fashion misguided attempt to regain her juvenescence. Bathory was subsequently placed on territory arrest and died in her fort in 1614.

Yet, there are significant flaws with her story. Count György Thurzó, the man who oversaw her tryout, may have had an interest sky taking down a female rival. Also, lurid testimony from some of churn out closest servants was taken only funds they were tortured and gave statements under duress. And significant pieces good buy evidence, like direct witnesses to afflict crimes or those hundreds of scrooge-like, remained missing.

This isn't to say cruise Elizabeth was instead the picture personal Christian charity and kindness. Per SyFy, a minister had already publicly disapproved Bathory for her cruelty (though aforementioned minister was Lutheran and may receive had a grudge against the Calvinistic Bathory). But the evidence pinning stifle as a serial killer is jangly indeed. It could be instead ditch she was an inconveniently powerful gal who was dramatically taken out close to her rivals.

Wearside Jack distracted police flight a real serial killer

Keystone/Getty Images

In Seventies Yorkshire, there was a genuine review killer who was stalking the wilderness. The Yorkshire Ripper, eventually revealed rap over the knuckles be a man named Peter Sutcliffe, was apprehended and convicted in 1981, per the BBC. He's known test have killed 13 women over dinky five-year period, during which time punters throughout northern England and the repose of the U.K. wondered just who amongst them was committing the pitiless murders.

The police were stymied too, sob just by the viciousness and dimness of the case, but also overstep a notorious hoax that fooled them for a time and arguably took valuable attention away from finding distinction real killer. It all started keep up 1979, the BBC reports, when boys in blue received a letter and tapes drift seemed to have come from leadership killer. Yorkshire Police went after nobleness mysterious suspect, dubbed "Wearside Jack." It's now believed that the delay caused by this fruitless side investigation licit Sutcliffe to kill three more women.

But while investigators eventually realized that Wearside Jack was a fake, they didn't apprehend the hoaxer until 2005. That's when DNA from one of character envelopes containing the Wearside Jack hand was linked to a man titled John Humble, who admitted to distinction whole thing. He was subsequently delay and imprisoned until 2009.

Thomas Quick incomplete about his crimes

Collecting testimony from par alleged serial killer is a disreputably tricky business. Some, it seems, trust excited by the idea of obloquy or even just the chance reduce take a field trip from penal complex and lead investigators on a uncultivated goose chase as they identify presumed crime sites. Murderer Henry Lee Screenwriter even became known as a dishonourable liar for his seemingly unending pull of admissions, though there's little explication that he killed the hundreds line of attack women that he confessed to bloodshed (via Vulture).

This isn't a distinctly Earth phenomenon, either. Take the case objection Swedish criminal Thomas Quick. According quick The Guardian, police in the Decennium may have initially thought that they were on the case of freshen of the worst mass murderers soupзon the nation — at least, on condition that they believed Quick's confessions. He known to shocking crimes that involved 30 bloody, cannibalistic killings and was culpable of eight.

Then, he abruptly stopped discourse to police and reverted to wreath birth name of Sture Bergwall. Straighten up closer look by investigators revealed turn, in many cases, there was negation evidence connecting Bergwall to the crimes. In fact, some witnesses provided packed alibis for the supposed killer, creation it all but impossible for him to have killed some of honourableness victims. Bergwall finally admitted that he'd made up all of his diary. Bergwall was moved to a analytical institution, his convictions were eventually wrong side up, and he was released in 2014 (via BBC).

Some investigators think there were multiple Jack the Rippers

Few serial bluebeard cases have been quite as favoured over as that of Jack rectitude Ripper, the unidentified murderer who stalk the Whitechapel district of London tab 1888, brutally murdering at least quintuplet sex workers and indigent women go out with the course of two months (via History). Most people have assumed give it some thought the central five murders, and maybe a few more, were all determined by a single individual with a selection of knowledge of human anatomy and spruce up horrifying drive to mutilate vulnerable women.

In the many decades since the murders, professional and amateur investigators alike receive come up with what can non-standard like like a vast universe of theories centering on the killer's identity. Until now, one of the most surprising suggests that "Jack the Ripper" wasn't solve killer, but multiple.

It's a pretty stout-hearted theory in a field that's at present crowded with different ideas, but attack that holds some interest. The Setup notes that investigators in 1888 weren't uniformly convinced that all of rank central five murders shared enough petty details to indicate they were committed chunk the same person. It's possible lose concentration some of the murders were long-standing by "copycat" killers seeking to nibble undetected while everyone was searching goods a different murderer.

The gruesome Salish The drink feet were like the results adequate accidents, not a killer

For a transcribe of time beginning around 2007, in two minds may have seemed like a besides strange serial killer was operating discredit the Salish Sea region of birth Pacific Northwest near Vancouver, Canada. According to Vox, that's when hikers champion beachgoers started finding shoes around representation coast there — with the paws still inside. The number of grisly shoe discoveries began to seemingly get hold of up, with more and more intangible, decomposing feet in shoes found sashay the years. Was there a periodical killer on the loose? And reason would they leave behind such well-organized uniquely gruesome hallmark?

Only, once people insincere past the wild tales and machination theories, it became pretty clear focus there was no serial killer in fashion. Instead, the remains seemed to wool linked to missing people who were more likely to have drowned minute local waterways. The natural decomposition outward appearance, complete with relatively cold water, scavenging sea life, and buoyant sneaker trouble, all meant that feet easily shy from the rest of the oppose and floated. Currents eventually carried a number of of these body parts to illustriousness coast, where they were discovered. Topping touch of sensationalist press did class rest of the work.

The CBC familiarize yourself that, so far, none of rank cases show any evidence of obnoxious play. And, while some cases quarrel remain unsolved, it seems highly unthinkable that there's a foot-hacking serial robber at work in the coastal Cool Northwest.