The main difficulty about answering this question is that there is a big difference between those cases where the number of victims is definitely proven, and those where the numbers can only be guessed at. If we are looking at known number of victims, then the most 'successful' (if you know what I mean) serial killer to date is the British doctor Harold Shipman, who is known to have murdered 218 of his own patients, mostly elderly women whom he killed by poisoning them. This went on for years before he was caught, and the real figure may have been higher – possibly 450.
Where exact figures don’t exist, of course it’s much harder to find out the truth. There have been a number of murderers in history who were certainly what we would call serial killers, but historians don’t always agree on numbers. But it’s likely that Gilles de Rais, a medieval French aristocrat and supporter of Joan of Arc, was one of the worst – a number of bodies, mostly of children, were found at his castle and he was suspected of killing as many as 600 people (he is know to have killed 200.) With the 16th century Hungarian Elizabeth Bathory, the number may have been even higher – as many as 650. The only other solo killer who matches this is the US murderer Henry Lee Lucas, suspected of up to 600 victims.
I don't know if you could consider him a serial killer, but I would have to say Vlad Ţepeş had killed the most, if one would classify him as that. He allegedly tortured and killed from around 40,000 to 100,000 people; women, children, and men. Vlad III was born in 1431; his mother was Princess Cneajna of Moldavia, and his father was Vlad II Dracul. He reigned over Wallachia from 1448; 1456–1462; 1476.
Vlad the III had one favourable torture and murder method he enjoyed the most: Impalement. It's said that rows of these wooden pikes with somewhat dulled, pointed edges were lined out through the fields in an almost geometrical pattern, with body after body lined along the ground. Women, children, and men of all types were lined out. These pikes generally were inserted through the anus and came out the mouth of the victim; it's said that they survived hours, even days, in this slow, painful process.
At other times, with children, the pikes that had impaled their mother's chests were used to impale them, as well.
There are several tales as to how Vlad III died. Some reports indicate that Vlad III was assassinated by disloyal Wallachian boyars just as he was about to sweep the Turks from the field. Other accounts have him falling in defeat, surrounded by the ranks of his loyal Moldavian bodyguard. Other reports claim that Vlad, at the moment of victory, was accidentally struck down by one of his own men.
Regardless of which cause of death is true or false, the ultimatum all comes out the same: Upon Vlad's death, the Turks beheaded his corpse and sent it to Constantinople where the sultan had placed it on a stake as proof that the terror, Vlad the Impaler, was truly dead. He was reportedly buried at Snagov, an island monastery located near Bucharest.
Nifty note: Vlad the Impaler is where the real legend of Dracula came from. The idea of stabbing a stake through a vampire's heart is the same original concept as Vlad using pikes on his victims.
Another note: Other tortures that Vlad put his victims through included: Impaling, torturing, burning, skinning, roasting, and boiling people, feeding people the flesh of their friends or relatives, cutting off limbs, drowning, and nailing people's hats to their heads.
Not sure if he would count as a serial killer, but... That I'll leave for you to decide. :D
(Note: There's a chance that these numbers COULD be exaggerated, but no one can provide absolute proof of that. What they DO know is the bodies that were lined on the fields, and that Vlad burned villages and towns to the ground.)
I always thought it was John Wayne Gacey who had the most victims.... And they were under his house until he ran out of room and had to start ditching them elsewhere.
Where exact figures don’t exist, of course it’s much harder to find out the truth. There have been a number of murderers in history who were certainly what we would call serial killers, but historians don’t always agree on numbers. But it’s likely that Gilles de Rais, a medieval French aristocrat and supporter of Joan of Arc, was one of the worst – a number of bodies, mostly of children, were found at his castle and he was suspected of killing as many as 600 people (he is know to have killed 200.) With the 16th century Hungarian Elizabeth Bathory, the number may have been even higher – as many as 650. The only other solo killer who matches this is the US murderer Henry Lee Lucas, suspected of up to 600 victims.
