Serial killers have been a subject of fascination in various forms of media, including television shows, news reports, and films. However, the portrayals in popular culture often focus on white male serial killers like Ted Bundy, creating a skewed perception. In reality, there have been documented cases of serial killers from diverse racial backgrounds, including Latino, Asian-American, and Black serial killers.
African-Americans make up a significant portion of all serial killers, representing approximately 20 percent of the total number of serial killers in the United States. From Wayne Williams, the ‘Atlanta child murderer,’ to Derrick Todd Lee, dubbed the “Baton Rogue Serial Killer,” there have been several notorious black serial killers throughout history. In this post, we will take a look at ten of the most notorious black serial killers of all time.
Wayne Williams
Wayne Williams is one of the most feared black serial killers in history. He is believed to be the perpetrator of the Atlanta Child Murders, where the lives of twenty-eight children were tragically cut short.
In 1982, Williams was apprehended by the police for the murder of two men, Jimmy Rayne and Nathaniel Carter, in Atlanta, Georgia. The arrest shed light on his potential connection to the Atlanta Child Murders. Williams was tried for these murders and subsequently sentenced to two life sentences, which he is currently serving in a prison in Georgia.
The investigation into the Atlanta Child Murders began to focus on Williams when, on May 22, 1981, a police surveillance team monitoring the James Jackson Parkway Bridge over the Chattahoochee River heard a big loud splash. Two days later, the naked body of 27-year-old Nathaniel Cater, who had been missing for four days and was last seen with Williams, was found in the river.
The arrest of Wayne Williams marked a turning point in the Atlanta Child Murders. With his arrest, the series of horrific crimes seemed to come to an abrupt end, lending support to the theory that he was the perpetrator. However, Williams has consistently maintained his innocence and has never been officially charged with the murders of the twenty-eight children.
Derrick Todd Lee
Derrick Todd Lee, infamous as The Baton Rouge Serial Killer, left a trail of terror in his wake as he embarked on a spree of violence that claimed the lives of seven women between 1992 and 2003. Lee’s disturbing criminal history includes previous arrests for stalking women and invading their privacy by watching them inside their homes. Shockingly, despite this troubling behavior, law enforcement initially overlooked him, blinded by the incorrect assumption that the killer they were hunting was white.
Born in St. Francisville, Louisiana, in 1963, Derrick Todd Lee was linked to the deaths of seven women in Baton Rouge through DNA tests. He was convicted and sentenced to death for the murders of Geralyn DeSoto and Charlotte Murray Pace in 2004. However, authorities did not have sufficient evidence to establish his connection to the other five killings in the region attributed to him by the newspapers. Despite receiving a death sentence, Lee never faced execution. Instead, he passed away due to heart disease while in a Louisiana hospital on January 21, 2016.
Benjamin Atkins
Benjamin (Tony) Atkins, also known as the Woodward Corridor Killer, was an African American serial killer who terrorized the streets of Detroit, Michigan. Born on August 26, 1968, Atkins unleashed a reign of terror between December 1991 and August 1992, taking the lives of 11 women. His victims were mainly middle-aged s*x workers and drug addicts, whom he subjected to r*pe and torture before ultimately murdering them.
Having experienced s*xual assault himself at the age of eleven, it is speculated that this trauma influenced Benjamin Atkin’s path of violence. The investigation into Atkins gained traction when he was identified by Darlene Saunders, a survivor of his assault in October 1991. However, Atkins vehemently denied any involvement in the murders, claiming to be homosexual.
As the police delved deeper, they discovered Atkins fits the psychological profile they had constructed of the killer. He eventually confessed to the heinous crimes after hours of grueling investigation, even providing intricate details about the appearance, clothing, and whereabouts of his victims. Atkins revealed that his motive behind killing stemmed from his deep-rooted hatred for girls and women engaged in prostitution.
Atkins was ultimately sentenced to life imprisonment for the 11 counts of murder after a four-month-long trial in 1994 before eventually succumbing to HIV in 1997.
Samuel Little
Samuel McDowell, better known as Samuel Little, holds a chilling distinction of having the largest number of confirmed victims for any serial killer in the history of the United States. Born on June 7, 1940, in Reynolds, Georgia, Little confessed to the heinous murders of 93 women spanning a terrifying spree that lasted 37 years, from 1970 to 2005. His victims were predominantly prostitutes, drug addicts, and homeless individuals, primarily women. Little believed that targeting these marginalized individuals would leave fewer clues for authorities and fewer people searching for them.
Little’s criminal history was already extensive by 1975, having been arrested 26 times across eleven states for various offenses such as theft, assault, attempted r*pe, fraud, and even attacks on government officials. Despite numerous encounters with the legal system, he managed to elude justice for his killings for nearly four decades. However, the Los Angeles Police Department finally established a crucial connection that helped them link Little to two unsolved cases, leading to his eventual arrest in 2012.
Following his trial in 2014, where he was found guilty, Little received three consecutive life sentences without the possibility of parole. Although convicted for only eight of the murders, the FBI confirmed his involvement in at least 60 of the 93 murders he confessed to. Sam Little’s dark chapter came to an end in December 2020 when he passed away at the age of 80 in a Los Angeles County area hospital.
Lorenzo Gilyard
Lorenzo Jerome Gilyard, Jr., born on May 24, 1950, gained infamy as the Kansas City Strangler, a notorious American serial killer. He is believed to have committed the murder of at least 13 women by strangling between 1977 and 1993.
Gilyard’s criminal history traces back to January 1969, when he was arrested on charges of assaulting and raping an acquaintance. However, he was later released after the victim withdrew the charges following an apology from Lorenzo and a reconciliation agreement. Over the next three decades, he faced multiple arrests for r*pe and abuse, yet the charges against him were consistently dropped.
Although Gilyard was arrested for them in November 1981, he was soon released on bail. He received a four-year prison sentence for violating his probation that same spring. After being paroled on January 10, 1983, Gilyard found himself back in prison soon after for making bomb threats in Wyandotte County, Kansas. Released once again in late 1985, he secured a job as a garbage man at the Deffenbaugh Disposal Service in January 1986. Notably, there is no record of Gilyard committing any crimes after 1993, and those who knew him described him in a positive light.
The Kansas City Police Department received a substantial federal grant aimed at re-examining cold cases using advanced DNA technology in 2001. Through the analysis of a blood sample taken from Lorenzo Gilyard, investigators conclusively linked him to the murders of six women in the area. Moreover, circumstantial evidence connected him to at least six additional killings of women between April 1977 and January 1993. He faced justice when he was convicted of six counts of murder on March 16, 2007, and sentenced to life imprisonment without parole.
Paul Durousseau
Paul Durousseau, widely known as the Cabbie Killer is an African American serial killer notorious for his series of murders. He was only charged with one but is accused of raping and murdering seven women (two pregnant) in the southeastern United States between 1997 and 2003.
Durousseau’s modus Operandi was to gain the trust of his victims while working as a cab driver and gain entry into their homes. Following this, he would restrain his victims before eventually strangling them to death. All of his known victims were young and unmarried African-American women. He is also suspected of killing several German women while stationed there during his stint with the American military in the 1990s.
Durousseau was arrested on March 13, 1997, for kidnapping and raping a young woman, but the charges were later dropped after about four months. However, he was found in possession of stolen items due to which he was dishonorably discharged from the United States Army. On June 17, 2003, he was arrested and charged with five counts of murder.
Durousseau was found guilty of killing Tyresa Macka and sentenced to death by lethal injection. Notably, the evidence of his previous killings was not presented during the trial. In 2017, his death sentence was overturned by the Florida Supreme Court overturned. December 10, 2021, he was resentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole following a jury vote of 10–2 in favor of imposing another death sentence.
Debra Brown
During a chilling killing spree that spanned 53 days, Debra Brown, together with her partner and accomplice Alton Coleman, unleashed a wave of terror across six states. Their violent rampage claimed the lives of numerous individuals, including seven-year-old Tamika Turks, who tragically fell victim to their heinous acts in Gary, Indiana. Tamika and her aunt were lured into the forest, where she was mercilessly murdered. However, her aunt managed to escape and alerted the authorities, leading to the arrest of Coleman and Brown.
Throughout their crime spree, which lasted over seven weeks, Coleman and Brown were responsible for a shocking array of offenses. They were involved in 14 armed robberies, 8 murders, and multiple cases of s*xual assault. The extent of their brutality left a lasting scar on the communities they targeted.
Originally sentenced to be executed in Ohio for her involvement in the crimes, Brown’s death sentence was commuted to life imprisonment by Governor Richard Celeste in 1991. Governor Celeste cited Brown’s low IQ scores, ranging from 59 to 74, as well as her coerced “master-slave” relationship with Coleman as factors influencing her actions.
Despite her lack of violent history prior to the spree, Brown initially showed no remorse for her acts. During the sentencing phase of her initial Ohio trial, she even sent a note to the judge containing the disturbing message: “I killed the bitch and I don’t give a damn. I had fun out of it.” She is currently serving a life sentence without the possibility of parole at the Dayton Correctional Institution in Dayton.
Chester Turner
Chester Dewayne Turner, born on November 5, 1966, has gained notoriety as one of the most infamous black serial killers in American history. His reign of terror unfolded in Los Angeles, where he was convicted of 10 murders spanning the years 1987 to 1998. Turner was sentenced to prison on seven occasions during the period from 1995 to 2002. Six of these sentences were for nonviolent offenses, while the seventh was for assaulting an officer and animal cruelty.
In March 2002, Turner committed a despicable act of s*xual assault against a 47-year-old woman, subjecting her to a terrifying ordeal lasting approximately two hours. To ensure her silence, he threatened her life if she were to report the incident to the police. Subsequently, Turner was convicted and sentenced to eight years in a California state prison. As part of his legal proceedings, he was obligated to provide a DNA sample, which was entered into California’s Combined DNA Index System (CODIS).
The DNA sample provided by Turner matched two additional victims of unsolved murders. This breakthrough led detectives to examine Turner’s background in detail, uncovering a disturbing revelation. Through the use of DNA evidence, it was determined that Turner was connected to nine out of the 11 previously unsolved murders.
Anthony Sowell
After serving time in prison for a r*pe conviction, Anthony embarked on a horrifying killing spree that earned him the notorious moniker of the Cleveland Strangler. His victims were predominantly s*x workers and individuals struggling with drug addiction, as they were less likely to draw attention when they went missing. Anthony enticed these women to his residence by offering them alcohol and drugs, only to ultimately take their lives.
One woman managed to escape from Sowell’s clutches and bravely provided the crucial tip to the police. In 2009, authorities apprehended Sowell after discovering the remains of ten individuals in his residence. Sowell eventually succumbed to a terminal illness at the age of 61 while confined at Ohio’s Franklin Medical Center.
Mark Goudeau
Mark Goudeau, also known as the Baseline Killer, faced charges for a series of heinous crimes that occurred in the Phoenix area between 2005 and 2006. His offenses included nine murders, 15 s*xual assaults, and a range of other criminal acts. In 2017, new DNA evidence connected him to a r*pe that had taken place several decades earlier.
Goudeau was first arrested for assaulting two sisters in 2004, one of whom was pregnant at the time. The collection of DNA evidence confirmed his involvement in the assault, leading to his trial and subsequent sentencing of 438 years in prison. However, further investigations revealed that Goudeau was the notorious Baseline Killer and his sentence was later amended to include the death penalty.