Pa. (WTAJ) – You may recognize names like Jeffrey Dahmer, The Zodiac Killer and Son of Sam, serial killers of the 60s, 70s and 80s, but do you know about murderers with Pennsylvania ties?

According to a report prepared by news weekPennsylvania ranks in the top 10 states for serial killers with five states. So we took a scroll murderpedia.org I want to tell you a little more.

Are there criteria for being considered a serial killer?

There are a few things law enforcement considers before labeling someone a serial killer. Most importantly, multiple murders with no real connection to each other. There is often a “cooling off” period between these murders. Most serial killers are known to operate within a certain area, a “comfort zone”. According to the FBI.

The Zodiac Killer remained in the San Francisco area. Dahmer found solace in the Milwaukee area, and HH Holmes, perhaps the most prolific serial killer of all time, relied on his “murder castle” in Chicago to murder his victims.

Interesting fact: HH Holmes’ hotel was in Chicago, but his trial and eventual death by hanging (1896) took place in Philadelphia. happened documented He said Holmes did not die immediately, but instead hung painfully from the noose for about 15 minutes. died due to asphyxiation.

It’s worth noting that Murderpedia uses criteria to label serial killers, mass murderers, and serial murders. The following list focuses only on serial killers.

Alleged crypts and creatures you can find in Pennsylvania

What about serial killers in Pennsylvania?

Dr. Morris Bolber: Bolber was born in 1886 and later became part of the Philadelphia Poison Ring. It is estimated that he played a role in the deaths of more than 30-50 people between 1932 and 1939. According to Michael Newton, author of An Encyclopedia of Modern Serial Killers, Bolber’s favorite murder weapon was poison and a punching bag with which he would club people in the head. with.

Bolber surrendered and was sentenced to life imprisonment in 1939. He died nearly 15 years later, in 1954, at the age of 68 at Eastern State Penitentiary.

William Dean Christenson: Christenson, nicknamed “The Real American Jack the Ripper,” was born in 1945. Between 1981 and 1981, he worked in Quebec, Canada, as well as in Scranton and Philadelphia, Pa. and was linked to rape, death and dismemberment of men and women in Trenton, NJ. 1982. Police suggested he was linked to 13 more deaths and that the number may actually be more than 30, according to author Michael Newton.

Christenson was sentenced to life in prison without parole in a Pennsylvania prison in 1983. Newton also noted that his parents were accused of harboring a fugitive in the ’80s after he stopped at their home in Lancaster to take $5,000 from them.

Charles Edmund Cullen: Cullen, born in 1960, pleaded guilty to murdering 33 people while she was a nurse. Cullen murdered patients between 1984, when he was arrested, and 2003. He overdosed 11 patients in PA and 22 in New Jersey. It is suspected that this number may be much higher (in the hundreds), as many overdose deaths may have been overlooked as homicides.

“We may never know exactly how many patients it killed.” NYmag.com In 2007, she wrote about Cullen trying to donate a kidney to one of his ex-girlfriend’s family members. Cullen was ultimately sentenced to a total of 18 life sentences; 11 in New Jersey, where he is currently incarcerated, and seven in Pennsylvania.

Jeffery Daugherty: Daugherty was 21 when he left Michigan for Florida with his girlfriend and his uncle in 1976. During the three weeks leading up to his arrival, Daughtrey killed at least six women, including two women, in Altoona, Pennsylvania.

Daugherty was tried for his crimes in Pennsylvania and Florida. He was sentenced to life imprisonment at the Pennsylvania State Penitentiary in Huntingdon, Pennsylvania. Florida had similar results before a trial in a third murder that led to the death penalty in the Sunshine State. Author Michael Newton wrote that before his execution in 1988, he loudly declared himself “the sacrificial lamb of an unjust system.”

Harrison “Marty” Graham: Graham was born in 1958 and lived in Philadelphia. Between 1986 and 1987, he rented an apartment from which he was evicted due to the “smell”. Police later found seven bodies in various stages of decomposition in the apartment. Author Michael Newton wrote that Graham entertained children with puppets but was also often seen digging graves, claiming they were for dead animals.

Graham admitted to strangling all seven women while having sex and even having sex with the corpses. In 1988, he was sentenced to life imprisonment for seven counts of first-degree murder and seven counts of maltreatment of a corpse.

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Interest in serial killers is nothing new in America. But lately, streaming giants like Netflix and Hulu have taken off with hit series that focus on prolific killers like Jeffrey Dahmer and Ted Kaczynski, The Unabomber, in a cinematic style.

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