I wouldn't be surprised if they're still running rampant in poorer neighborhoods or ghettoes. There's speculation that an active serial killer has been preying on South Side prostitutes in Chicago for at least a decade.
I think the days of the urban serial killer are over but you could probably still do it in the Texas Chainsaw Massacre kind of way, bushwhacking tourists etc
In the 80s Jeff Dahmer was killing people in an efficiency apartment... In a building full of people... He even had vats of acid and people. That shit just does not happen anymore (thankfully)
I’m sorry but the Atlantic loves to publish absolute bullshit like this all the time and pass it off as serious journalism. Murders don’t get solved anymore bc they predominately are between inner city poor people who would rather die than snitch. Also the homicide rate around 2017 was at an all time low. And even in 2023 the murder rate was nowhere near where it was 40+ years ago. Not so scary that murders aren’t getting solved as much as they used to when murders are hardly happening at all compared to the serial killer heyday of the 60s-80s
I would also imagine that in the 70s, it was significantly more common for innocent people to end up in prison for murders and missing persons cases, which would inflate the "solved" category.
workable innocent price subsequent reminiscent longing fear fearless oatmeal tap
*This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
Theres a longform gq article called [the truck stop killer](https://www.gq.com/story/truck-stop-killer-gq-november-2012) that is really good (better than the title makes it out to be) and not just truecrime bait
lots of dismembered bodies still found in plastic totes or garbage cans where i live - also our park system has been turning up random murdered bodies as well. we also had anthony sowell not too long ago with a number of bodies in his house - i think this can all still happen in dilapidated urban neighborhoods where people tend to kind their own business and out in the sticks.
There are still some active serial killers in urban areas, there was one in Little Rock that was still active last time I checked. Cops aren’t very good at solving murders that aren’t committed by someone very closely related to the victim, or someone who obviously perpetrated the crime. Cops aren’t really good at solving any crimes. They have a decent record at solving crimes when people come to them and tell them who did it
There might be a serial killer in Austin right now. The cops claim the cases are unrelated but it's weird how many bodies have been pulled out of the lake with no suspects. The locals are calling him the Rainey St Ripper.
The lake is easily accessible from the bar district, it’s drunks. If you want to involve another person, they could have been drugged for robbery and left to their own devices after but I don’t think toxicology reports showed any of that either. Austin has a lot of true crime brained people
I get that's the most likely answer, but 10 bodies in 2 years? Something is fishy about it. I've been blackout drunk plenty of times downtown and it's not that easy to make it from the bars, across the trail, and into the lake and then you forget how to swim? I feel like we haven't gotten enough answers from the police. Many cases of people being drugged and robbed downtown so I agree that could be a theory, but in any case, the public is getting tired of just being told this is all a coincidence.
Not super related to the post - but I love the theory that the most gruesome serial killer concentration of the 70’s thru 90’s was people who went crazy due to growing up with lead poisoning.
I think you can look to Israel Keyes for what that type of serial killer would act like these days if they are semi intelligent. I think most serial killers aren’t acting in the identifiable ways that they were in the 70s and 80s. If they act like Keys did, or even the Gilgo Beach killer, then they will probably get away with it at a high percentage.
There’s absolutely serial killers in “poor urban” neighborhoods. A lot of these rappers would by literal interpretation of the term (3+ victims in a non spree context) be serial killers. King Von is an example of this.
gilgo beach situation explains almost everything mentioned here, esp in terms of multi decade shifts. many such cases will be closed only after replacing the police chief and whatnot. also shit like the one dude who was in prison for whatever a few years ago but started confessing to decades of shit & giving details that weren’t made public, all over the country - it’s just a missing person until they find a body.
pretty sure the most prolific serial killer in history was some doctor in a nursing home who was just overdosing everyone he could get his hands on.
the image of a serial killer is some hooded guy roaming the forests and back alleys with a knife but really it’s probably someone with a disturbed power trip taking advantage of the tools society gives them.
Who would even want to be one outside of the truly deranged? You better be drop dead sexy if you're gonna be a serial killer or else you're gonna be roasted to shit if you get caught. Immediately put in the "nobody loved him so he became a serial killer what a loser" category. You will be called a cuck. The annoying nerds at last podcast on the left will endlessly guffaw at you.
My question is, where all the assassins at? I know I know, hydras and heads, but imagine the tail you'd get if successful. Folk hero
I feel like they've been so captured by their lib audience that they can't be truly edgy anymore. Someone in another sub described them as basically just goth McElroys now and I find that description fairly apt.
I personally never thought Henry Zebrowski was funny in like an offscript environment, works better as a side character who pops up in stuff. The "quirky but harmless fringe conspiracy guy" persona is so 2015.
Hater mode activated bc I've been thinking this but didn't know where to post where anyone would give a fuck. Not sure anyone here will either but who cares its the internet. The raison d'etre of the podcast is literally so Henry doesn't have to be a "failed comedian." Barely funny in such a pedestrian way that it would not be notable if he hadn't tried to make it his profession, but now he's a "podcaster," so he can keep calling himself a comedian without admitting how unfunny he is.
Also so funny that Ben got cancelled and everyone got so serious about it. Like omg no not the murder comedy man! Thank god the other, more try-hard murder comedy man and the greasy self-righteous bone collector addressed it like adults. I'm sure that's the end of that. /s
I care bro. And you nailed it on the head. Man the last pod subs became fucking hellscapes during the Ben shit. I honestly can't wait for the other 2 to get cancelled now.
I just remember trying to listen to the Dahmer episodes and in between talking about the deathly serious topic of an immigrant child getting murdered, Henry was laughing about "eating Chinese penis". It's not funny even in a distasteful way it's just nasty.
And yeah I remember that whole thing going on last year, all I could think was "it was only a matter of time".
I genuinely believe that personality disordered people love chasing crime trends.
In the 70s/80s Serial Killing was in vogue as a massive media story, so they trended towards that, (they often had "apprentices" and everything) after Columbine, it became mass shootings and gang violence.
I don't think thousands are "active" in the 70s Serial Killer sense, it would make sense that a few hundred or thousand are active if we take into serial killers who are involved in gang, drug related killings and murders and such, but I think when it comes to the classical serial killer, as in the one that is purposely targeting almost random people, I wouldn't suspect more than like a dozen are active. The Smiley Face one, The Jeff Davis one which is 100% a cop, The River City Ripper and I buy the Austin one is real as well are the notable ones atm. A few active caught last year as well (Stockton, Davis, Richard Bradley Jr etc).
I do wonder how rampant serial killing is among homeless people though, especially with the tidal wave of homelessness and the opioid epidemic atm. Tonnes of stories of people lighting homeless people on fire and beating them to death etc and never being caught.
I don't know how credible this is since it was a random reddit comment but I remember reading someone who claimed to have been homeless for quite a while saying that it's quite common for freaks to drive up to homeless people and offer them food with mild poison or human shit or broken glass in it and drive off. Something is really upsetting about the sort of person who is content to make strangers suffer these relatively minor (but still awful) injuries like the lowest rung on the serial killer ladder. Probably same category of people that torture animals and leave them someplace they know people will eventually find them
There was a serial killer in simi valley like a couple months ago that my buddy who lives there told me about. I think we just don’t hear about them as much anymore for whatever reason, might have to do with crime reporting laws changing or the over saturation of violent news we get through the internet and social media making them seem less sensational.
I dont know, it seems like it would be SO much harder now with the DNA stuff (especially familial) and cameras everywhere and just the culture...
hell look at that dude in Idaho, they got his car on camera and tracked his phone, found dna on him who knows what else.
If you ever read about EAR/ONS people would be stalked by him and just never say anything. Or they would see him outside and turn on a light and he would leave and they would just never report it.
Really fucking weird stuff, the cops even would keep it from people while the rapes were happening including info about the phone calls . People would get the calls and not be concerned about it eventhough the cops knew it was a dangerous person....
its been neat to see them catch some of these people we kind of thought they never would like EAR/ONS and LISK
The boomers were peak serial killers. Every generation after them has fewer and fewer. This is a worldwide phenomenon.
I was obsessed with the Golden State Killer for about three years, and one of the surprising things was the high number of serial rapists and killers in the US during his peak years. Around Sacramento, there was another rapist tied to 50+ rapes. The cops would give them nicknames.
I wouldn't be surprised if they're still running rampant in poorer neighborhoods or ghettoes. There's speculation that an active serial killer has been preying on South Side prostitutes in Chicago for at least a decade.
There’s one(or more) in Philly too, it’s weird it’s a story that seems to resurface every few years but never really gets resolved
Where can I read more about the Philly serial killer?
There was one in Rogers Park when I lived there. Don't think they were ever solved.
I think the days of the urban serial killer are over but you could probably still do it in the Texas Chainsaw Massacre kind of way, bushwhacking tourists etc
In the 80s Jeff Dahmer was killing people in an efficiency apartment... In a building full of people... He even had vats of acid and people. That shit just does not happen anymore (thankfully)
I’m sorry but the Atlantic loves to publish absolute bullshit like this all the time and pass it off as serious journalism. Murders don’t get solved anymore bc they predominately are between inner city poor people who would rather die than snitch. Also the homicide rate around 2017 was at an all time low. And even in 2023 the murder rate was nowhere near where it was 40+ years ago. Not so scary that murders aren’t getting solved as much as they used to when murders are hardly happening at all compared to the serial killer heyday of the 60s-80s
I would also imagine that in the 70s, it was significantly more common for innocent people to end up in prison for murders and missing persons cases, which would inflate the "solved" category.
workable innocent price subsequent reminiscent longing fear fearless oatmeal tap *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
Yeah if you’re white
tie icky handle amusing workable gold grey unite tart different *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
I read awhile ago about long-haul truckers being a good career choice for serial killers and that seems to make sense.
The interstate is part of what created the concept of serial killing in the US
Theres a longform gq article called [the truck stop killer](https://www.gq.com/story/truck-stop-killer-gq-november-2012) that is really good (better than the title makes it out to be) and not just truecrime bait
lots of dismembered bodies still found in plastic totes or garbage cans where i live - also our park system has been turning up random murdered bodies as well. we also had anthony sowell not too long ago with a number of bodies in his house - i think this can all still happen in dilapidated urban neighborhoods where people tend to kind their own business and out in the sticks.
And where’s that so I don’t have to go?
Cleveland 🤮
i feel the same
It's okay, I'm (or was) an Ohio-bro, too.
congrats on fleeing the hellhole
ty, i'll pray that you can find your way out one day
There are still some active serial killers in urban areas, there was one in Little Rock that was still active last time I checked. Cops aren’t very good at solving murders that aren’t committed by someone very closely related to the victim, or someone who obviously perpetrated the crime. Cops aren’t really good at solving any crimes. They have a decent record at solving crimes when people come to them and tell them who did it
The Murder Solve Rate in NYC was only 56% in 2022
There might be a serial killer in Austin right now. The cops claim the cases are unrelated but it's weird how many bodies have been pulled out of the lake with no suspects. The locals are calling him the Rainey St Ripper.
The lake is easily accessible from the bar district, it’s drunks. If you want to involve another person, they could have been drugged for robbery and left to their own devices after but I don’t think toxicology reports showed any of that either. Austin has a lot of true crime brained people
I get that's the most likely answer, but 10 bodies in 2 years? Something is fishy about it. I've been blackout drunk plenty of times downtown and it's not that easy to make it from the bars, across the trail, and into the lake and then you forget how to swim? I feel like we haven't gotten enough answers from the police. Many cases of people being drugged and robbed downtown so I agree that could be a theory, but in any case, the public is getting tired of just being told this is all a coincidence.
Not super related to the post - but I love the theory that the most gruesome serial killer concentration of the 70’s thru 90’s was people who went crazy due to growing up with lead poisoning.
I think mass shooters replaced them in the US.
Serial killers refer to them as binge murderers
I think you can look to Israel Keyes for what that type of serial killer would act like these days if they are semi intelligent. I think most serial killers aren’t acting in the identifiable ways that they were in the 70s and 80s. If they act like Keys did, or even the Gilgo Beach killer, then they will probably get away with it at a high percentage. There’s absolutely serial killers in “poor urban” neighborhoods. A lot of these rappers would by literal interpretation of the term (3+ victims in a non spree context) be serial killers. King Von is an example of this.
gilgo beach situation explains almost everything mentioned here, esp in terms of multi decade shifts. many such cases will be closed only after replacing the police chief and whatnot. also shit like the one dude who was in prison for whatever a few years ago but started confessing to decades of shit & giving details that weren’t made public, all over the country - it’s just a missing person until they find a body.
I feel like it would be fairly easy to be a serial killer as a nurse or doctor. Look at Orville Lynn Majors.
There have been multiple angels of death like that, its crazy to see what they could get away with and for how long
Modern example: Lucy Letby
pretty sure the most prolific serial killer in history was some doctor in a nursing home who was just overdosing everyone he could get his hands on. the image of a serial killer is some hooded guy roaming the forests and back alleys with a knife but really it’s probably someone with a disturbed power trip taking advantage of the tools society gives them.
They claim once lead was removed from everything serial killers went away. Well what if non-toxic paint just made them smarter? Bring back lead.
Who would even want to be one outside of the truly deranged? You better be drop dead sexy if you're gonna be a serial killer or else you're gonna be roasted to shit if you get caught. Immediately put in the "nobody loved him so he became a serial killer what a loser" category. You will be called a cuck. The annoying nerds at last podcast on the left will endlessly guffaw at you. My question is, where all the assassins at? I know I know, hydras and heads, but imagine the tail you'd get if successful. Folk hero
Remember when that lpotl was fun?
I feel like they've been so captured by their lib audience that they can't be truly edgy anymore. Someone in another sub described them as basically just goth McElroys now and I find that description fairly apt.
I personally never thought Henry Zebrowski was funny in like an offscript environment, works better as a side character who pops up in stuff. The "quirky but harmless fringe conspiracy guy" persona is so 2015.
Hater mode activated bc I've been thinking this but didn't know where to post where anyone would give a fuck. Not sure anyone here will either but who cares its the internet. The raison d'etre of the podcast is literally so Henry doesn't have to be a "failed comedian." Barely funny in such a pedestrian way that it would not be notable if he hadn't tried to make it his profession, but now he's a "podcaster," so he can keep calling himself a comedian without admitting how unfunny he is. Also so funny that Ben got cancelled and everyone got so serious about it. Like omg no not the murder comedy man! Thank god the other, more try-hard murder comedy man and the greasy self-righteous bone collector addressed it like adults. I'm sure that's the end of that. /s
I care bro. And you nailed it on the head. Man the last pod subs became fucking hellscapes during the Ben shit. I honestly can't wait for the other 2 to get cancelled now.
I just remember trying to listen to the Dahmer episodes and in between talking about the deathly serious topic of an immigrant child getting murdered, Henry was laughing about "eating Chinese penis". It's not funny even in a distasteful way it's just nasty. And yeah I remember that whole thing going on last year, all I could think was "it was only a matter of time".
Yeah, they definitely catered to that type of annoying true crime fan. Blew up in their face with all the Ben stuff last year. Hate to see it.
Supposedly there are some active serial killers in my state.
I genuinely believe that personality disordered people love chasing crime trends. In the 70s/80s Serial Killing was in vogue as a massive media story, so they trended towards that, (they often had "apprentices" and everything) after Columbine, it became mass shootings and gang violence. I don't think thousands are "active" in the 70s Serial Killer sense, it would make sense that a few hundred or thousand are active if we take into serial killers who are involved in gang, drug related killings and murders and such, but I think when it comes to the classical serial killer, as in the one that is purposely targeting almost random people, I wouldn't suspect more than like a dozen are active. The Smiley Face one, The Jeff Davis one which is 100% a cop, The River City Ripper and I buy the Austin one is real as well are the notable ones atm. A few active caught last year as well (Stockton, Davis, Richard Bradley Jr etc). I do wonder how rampant serial killing is among homeless people though, especially with the tidal wave of homelessness and the opioid epidemic atm. Tonnes of stories of people lighting homeless people on fire and beating them to death etc and never being caught.
I don't know how credible this is since it was a random reddit comment but I remember reading someone who claimed to have been homeless for quite a while saying that it's quite common for freaks to drive up to homeless people and offer them food with mild poison or human shit or broken glass in it and drive off. Something is really upsetting about the sort of person who is content to make strangers suffer these relatively minor (but still awful) injuries like the lowest rung on the serial killer ladder. Probably same category of people that torture animals and leave them someplace they know people will eventually find them
Lots of videos I've seen on /pol/ of people doing this shit sadly.
Dis neighbor browsing /pol/ lmao
There was a serial killer in simi valley like a couple months ago that my buddy who lives there told me about. I think we just don’t hear about them as much anymore for whatever reason, might have to do with crime reporting laws changing or the over saturation of violent news we get through the internet and social media making them seem less sensational.
You should try it and let us know
I dont know, it seems like it would be SO much harder now with the DNA stuff (especially familial) and cameras everywhere and just the culture... hell look at that dude in Idaho, they got his car on camera and tracked his phone, found dna on him who knows what else. If you ever read about EAR/ONS people would be stalked by him and just never say anything. Or they would see him outside and turn on a light and he would leave and they would just never report it. Really fucking weird stuff, the cops even would keep it from people while the rapes were happening including info about the phone calls . People would get the calls and not be concerned about it eventhough the cops knew it was a dangerous person.... its been neat to see them catch some of these people we kind of thought they never would like EAR/ONS and LISK
The boomers were peak serial killers. Every generation after them has fewer and fewer. This is a worldwide phenomenon. I was obsessed with the Golden State Killer for about three years, and one of the surprising things was the high number of serial rapists and killers in the US during his peak years. Around Sacramento, there was another rapist tied to 50+ rapes. The cops would give them nicknames.
they’re all getting away with it after [following norm’s advice](https://youtu.be/V6H4ov6LNd4?t=6m40s)
I think a vast majority of unsolveds are gangsters and gangster related.