A serial killer is a person who commits a series of murders, often with no apparent motive and typically following a characteristic, predictable behavior pattern.
After polling students and staff at Rialto High School, the top five serial killers were Albert Fish, John Wayne Gacy, Richard Ramirez, Jeffrey Dahmer, and Ted Bundy. The poll was conducted throughout campus using a Google Form and had the 11 serial killers shown above with a description of each person and their crimes.
The serial killer with the highest number of votes was Albert Fish. He was a cannibal who molested and tortured children. He murdered several of them as well and had 400+ victims.
Senior Brandon Castillo said, “I chose Albert Fish because it said he had 400 victims who were kids!”
The next serial killer was John Wayne Gacy. Gacy was a sex offender who raped, tortured, and murdered young men and boys. He also was known as “Pogo the Clown” and had 33 victims.
Senior Shadene Headley expressed, “I chose this person because of who his victims were. His victims are more sad to me because they're little boys!”
The third one on the list was Richard Ramirez. He had 13 counts of murder, five murder attempts, 11 sexual assaults, and 14 burglaries. In total he had 13 victims.
Senior Kaila Valeros stated, “I chose Richard Ramirez because I felt that he did worse stuff for a long period of time and he got away with it too. If I didn’t watch the Richard Ramirez documentary on Netflix I wouldn’t think what he did was bad but after watching it that is why I chose Richard Ramirez.”
Jeffrey Dahmer came in 4th place. He was known for being a cannibal, sex offender, murderer, and dismembering his victims. He had a total of 17 victims. There is a new show on Netflix about Dahmer that has a lot of people talking about his crimes again.
Math teacher Jimmy Danesh said, “I choose Jeffrey Dahmer all the way because he’s scary. He was a cannibal.”
The serial killer who came in last place was Ted Bundy. Ted Bundy raped, kidnapped, and murdered 30 women.
Senior Jarek Perez chose Bundy because “he is really the only serial killer I know from the list. I feel like Ted Bundy really changed the way people saw America because before Ted Bundy, people wouldn’t even lock their door,” but after Bundy “people were more aware about security and being careful about where they are.”