How long could a serial killer continue killing one person a day in a large city without ever getting caught?

raviet31

Well, criminologists estimate that at any given time in the United States there are between 20 and 30 serial killers that are "active" meaning killing people. However, what you describe is more a spree killer. Someone who commits multiple homicides over the course of a few minutes, hours, days or weeks. They are a type of serial killer, but are different in their approach to the crime. There are basically two types of serial killers, Organized and Disorganized. Organized tend to be the most difficult to catch. Two examples are below are: David Berkowitz and Dennis Rader.

Killing one person a day would be extremely difficult to do and would be very reckless on the part of the murderer and would probably result in their very early capture. Even the most careful serial killer can get tripped up by someone who wasn't supposed to be there. One example is David Berkowitz, aka the Son of Sam. He was arrested, in part, because of a parking ticket he received near one of the attacks. Despite all his planning, he got tripped up because he parked too close to a fire hydrant.

The most successful serial killers, like Dennis Rader aka BTK were very methodical and stalked their victims for weeks, sometimes months. Although he did not kill 1 person a day, his careful planning helped keep him out of jail for some 20 years. However, he eventually was caught because he sent a note to the police on a floppy disk that was traced back to a single computer that only 2 people had access to.

Disorganized serial killers are often less methodical. They can be easier to catch, but their lack of a "calling card" can make them more difficult to catch. One good example of a disorganized serial killer is Richard Chase aka the Vampire of Sacramento. He murdered six people within a month.

Ultimately, your question is impossible to answer. There are would be serial killers who are arrested on the first offence and there are others who get away with murder for dozens of years. A lot of it depends on the quality of the law enforcement in the area. In the United States it would be difficult for a serial killer to operate without notice. If you take your example of 1 murder a day, that would still equate to 365 additional murders. New York city had some 539 murders in 2005, your murderers additional 365 murders would raise the murder rate dramatically, nearly a 70 percent increase! That wouldn't go unnoticed. The entire police force would be mobilized to find the murderer and federal agencies would also help, plus the media would be creating a fire storm. Everyone would be looking for the guy, anything suspicious would be reported.

However, in some countries it might be possible to operate with impunity for a long time. Andrei Chikatilo aka the Red Ripper, is one that comes to mind. However, the US also had Henry Ray Lucas, who is suspected of killing some 600 people.

oianzinho

It depends on his methods, resources and connections. Some can't even succeed at killing one person without getting hauled away for attempted murder, others are mafia lords who slay their tens of thousands and go to their graves untouched.

snoozy

He isn't a serial killer until he has numerous homicides that he's responsible for. Nowadays, he'd mostlikely get caught with the first one.

Jewels

Its possible depending on how the person spread the killing out. Isolating a space would be a sure fire way to get caught. Most likely he would get caught at some point as it would be a priority case. With all the sophisticated equipment the use today.Watch CSI they get there info. from the agencies that do the investigating. Why do you want to
know? Thinking about going on a spree ? Asking on yahoo answers is a sure sign you would be caught very fast, it takes a a very intelligent person to go for any length of time.

Lela A

Serial killers..some are never caught...other takes many years to finally catch up with them..they are very manipulative and smart people in many ways not to get caught at first..mostly likely would take law enforcement some time to catch this person

crowster86

sometimes quite a long time. BTK killed a bunch of people before he got caught.

P. W

In the interests of Society, I would have to say two.

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