The deadliest Aries serial killers of all time
Bold, impulsive, and fiercely determined, Aries are natural-born leaders with energy to spare. But when those fiery traits are warped, they can ignite something far more dangerous. Quick to act and rarely hesitant, Aries serial killers embody their sign’s intensity, channelled not into ambition or adventure, but into chilling acts of violence.
While not the most common sign among serial killers, Aries murderers stand out for their ruthlessness and sheer force of will. From cunning poisoners to cold-blooded assassins, join us at Crime+Investigation as we take a look at the most infamous Aries serial killers of all time.
Jane Toppan – born 31st March 1854
A nurse trusted with saving lives, Jane 'Jolly Jane' Toppan instead became one of America’s earliest known medical serial killers. She confessed to murdering 31 people and may have killed as many as 100, including patients, friends and her landlord.
She poisoned her victims slowly, often lying beside them as they died, claiming she experienced sexual pleasure watching their final moments. Her stated goal? 'To kill more people, helpless people, than any man or woman who ever lived.'
Charles Sobhraj – born 6th April 1944
A charismatic conman turned murderer, Charles Sobhraj preyed on Western backpackers across Asia during the 1970s. Known as The Serpent, he used his charm and cunning to lure victims into danger before robbing and killing them. Fluent in multiple languages and skilled at disguise, Sobhraj treated murder like a game, one that made him famous across continents.
Keith Hunter Jesperson – born 6th April 1955
The Happy Face Killer murdered at least eight women between 1990 and 1995, though he claimed there were many more.
A long-haul truck driver, Keith Hunter Jesperson used his job to roam the country freely, picking up vulnerable women along the highways before strangling them.
When others began taking credit for his crimes, Jesperson’s ego couldn’t stand it. He began sending letters to the police and media, signing them with a smiley face. That compulsion to boast, to be recognised, became his undoing. His case remains one of the most chilling examples of self-made notoriety in American crime.
John Christie – born 8th April 1899
Operating from 10 Rillington Place in London, John Christie murdered at least eight people during the 1940s and 1950s, including his wife. Posing as a man of medicine, he lured victims with promises of medical help before strangling them and hiding their bodies in the walls and floors of his home. Christie’s calm, methodical nature masked a deeply manipulative killer who thrived on control and deception.
Alexander Pichushkin – born 9th April 1974
The Chessboard Killer of Moscow, Alexander Pichushkin sought to murder one person for every square on a chessboard. Between 1992 and 2006, he killed at least 49 victims, often luring them into a park before striking with a hammer.
Pichushkin viewed killing as a kind of competition, calling it his 'purpose in life'. His obsession with completing his game showed a terrifying devotion to a self-imposed goal, as though life and death were simply moves on his board.
Richard Kuklinski – born 11th April 1935
A hulking figure from New Jersey’s criminal underworld, Richard Kuklinski was a hitman known as The Iceman for freezing victims’ bodies to obscure the time of death.
He murdered for money, revenge, and sometimes simply because someone annoyed him. Kuklinski led a double life, a seemingly devoted husband and father by day, a remorseless killer by night. When finally caught, he estimated that he’d murdered 'over a hundred' people.
Cold, controlled and terrifyingly efficient, he remains one of the most infamous contract killers in American history.
Joseph Franklin – born 13th April 1950
A white supremacist and domestic terrorist, Joseph Paul Franklin embarked on a racially motivated killing spree across the U.S. between 1977 and 1980.
He targeted interracial couples and civil rights figures, murdering at least eight people and injuring many more.
Franklin also confessed to shooting civil rights activist Vernon Jordan, and serial killer Ted Bundy’s eventual victim type was reportedly influenced by Franklin’s attacks, an unsettling intersection of evil in 1970s America.
Leonarda Cianciulli – born 14th April 1894
Known in Italy as The Soap-Maker of Correggio, Leonarda Cianciulli murdered three women between 1939 and 1940, all of whom she believed needed to die to protect her children.
She lured victims to her home, killed them and then rendered their remains into soap and teacakes, which she served to unsuspecting guests. Her crimes horrified post-war Italy not only for their brutality but for their bizarre domesticity, a mother’s love turned into madness.
Donald Harvey – born 15th April 1952
Hospital orderly Donald Harvey called himself an 'angel of death', claiming he killed patients out of compassion, but his methods and enjoyment told another story.
Over nearly two decades, he poisoned, suffocated and tampered with medical equipment to kill at least 37 people. He said the real number was closer to 87.
When finally captured, Harvey’s calm explanations and lack of remorse painted a picture of pure detachment, murder rationalised as mercy.
Joachim Kroll – born 17th April 1933
Joachim Kroll, the Ruhr Cannibal, murdered and mutilated at least eight women and girls across Germany from 1955 until his arrest in 1976. A quiet, socially awkward man, he went unnoticed for years despite his growing list of victims.
When police finally searched his home, they found human remains cooking on the stove. His crimes shocked a nation, the depth of his depravity hidden behind a face of unassuming normality.
Herbert Mullin – 18th April 1947
Between October 1972 and February 1973, Herbert Mullin murdered 13 people in California. Convinced that the Vietnam War had upset nature’s balance, he believed his killings were sacrifices to prevent an earthquake from destroying the state.
His victims were chosen at random – a fisherman, a hitchhiker, a priest – as Mullin followed the delusions in his mind. To him, the murders were necessary. To everyone else, they were senseless.
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