All the real serial killers and convicted murderers featured on Netflix's 'Mindhunter' (2024)

Table of Contents
Edmund Kemper, the "Co-Ed Killer," was found guilty of ten counts of murder, as well as dismemberment and necrophilia. Monte Rissell sexually assaulted 12 women and murdered five before he was arrested at age 19 and sent to a correctional facility. Jerry Brudos strangled four women in the 1960s. He was known as the "Lust Killer" or the "Salem shoe-fetish killer." Richard Speck murdered eight student nurses in one night in 1966. Dennis Rader, aka the "BTK Killer," was active in Kansas from 1974 to 1991. David Berkowitz, also called "Son of Sam," pleaded guilty to eight shootings which killed a total of six people in New York City. William Pierce Jr. was charged with the murder of 10 people, one of whom was the 13-year-old daughter of a state senator. William Henry Hance was convicted of killing three women in 1978 and had his death sentence carried out in 1994. Elmer Wayne Henley Jr. was convicted for the murder of 27 young men and boys in 1974. Charles Manson was not a serial killer like many of the other "Mindhunter" murderers were, but he was charged for orchestrating the deaths of seven people. Charles "Tex" Watson was one of Manson's followers who carried out plans to kill several people. Paul Bateson was convicted of one murder, and prosecutors initially implicated him in a series of other deaths but no additional charges were brought. Wayne Williams was convicted for the murder of two adults, and the deaths and disappearances of over 20 children were attributed to him by authorities though no charges were brought. Read next

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All the real serial killers and convicted murderers featured on Netflix's 'Mindhunter' (1)

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  • Warning: Minor spoilers ahead for Netflix's"Mindhunter"season two.
  • Netflix's inspired-by-true-events drama series "Mindhunter" features actors playing real convicted killers.
  • The second season features fictionalized interviews with David Berkowitz, William Joseph Pierce Jr., Charles Manson, Wayne Williams, and more.
  • Visit Insider's homepage for more stories.

Netflix's true-crime centric thriller series "Mindhunter" was inspired by the true story of how the FBI's Behavioral ScienceUnit began studying psychopaths and serial killers in the late 1970s. While the names of the special agents involved were changed, several of the convictedmurderers they interview are pulled straight from history.

Keep reading for a look at the 13 major convicted criminals featured in the show to see how their fictional versions stack up to the real people.

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Warning: The belowarticle contains descriptions of graphic violence.

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Edmund Kemper, the "Co-Ed Killer," was found guilty of ten counts of murder, as well as dismemberment and necrophilia.

All the real serial killers and convicted murderers featured on Netflix's 'Mindhunter' (2)

Kemper is the first accused murderer Special Agent Holden, who's played by Jonathan Groff, interviews on the show.While the show doesn't go into much detail, all the information presented about Kemper stays true to the real story behind the "Co-Ed Killer."

Kemper, who was six-foot-nine and weighed 280 pounds, was found guilty of 10total counts of murderbetween 1964 and 1973. He confessed to killing his paternal grandparents at age 15. After being incarcerated for those murders and released at 21, Kemper continued to kill.

Kemperkidnapped and murdered six young women, all students, in the Santa Cruz area in addition to killinghis mother and her friend.

His victims were killed using various methods — shooting, stabbing, or choking — but Kemper confessed to practicing necrophilia with eight of thevictim'scorpses after separating their heads from the body.

The show goes into Kemper's childhood and abusive mother, but leaves out a couple details from his past. He also killed two cats (one of which he dismembered) when he was a young boy, and also had two near-death experiences at the hands of one of his sisters.

Kemper is still aliveand incarcerated in California.

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Monte Rissell sexually assaulted 12 women and murdered five before he was arrested at age 19 and sent to a correctional facility.

All the real serial killers and convicted murderers featured on Netflix's 'Mindhunter' (3)

Though "Mindhunter" goes into detail about Rissell's victims, identifying the first as a prostitute, there isn't as much about him on public record as is the case with the other killers interviewed.

According toreporting from the Washington Post, Rissellraped and killed five women over a nine month period in the fall of 1976 before he was arrested and charged. He was 18 at the time, and had already been convicted of robbery and rape once before at age 16.

Rissell was eligible for parole beginning in 1995, but is still currently imprisoned at the Pocahontas State Correctional Center in Virginia. He is 59 years old.

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Jerry Brudos strangled four women in the 1960s. He was known as the "Lust Killer" or the "Salem shoe-fetish killer."

All the real serial killers and convicted murderers featured on Netflix's 'Mindhunter' (4)

As "Mindhunter" reveals, Brudos developed afetish with women's shoes at a very young age. He was incarcerated for nine months at age 17 for sexually assaulting a woman, but was released after evaluations concluded he was not psychotic.

Between 1968 and 1969, when Brudos was 28,he allegedly killed at least five women. Each of his victims were strangers, all young women, who he would bring to his private garage and assault. He dismembered several of the bodies, and dressed them in high heels or other clothing.

Brudos allegedly had sex with at least one of the corpses before disposing of it. He also amputated the breasts of two victims and made molds from the body parts to keep as trophies.

Brudos initially confessed to the murders, but recanted the confession. He was convicted for three of the murders andimprisoned at the Oregon Department of Corrections from 1969 until he died of liver cancer in 2006.

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Richard Speck murdered eight student nurses in one night in 1966.

All the real serial killers and convicted murderers featured on Netflix's 'Mindhunter' (5)

Speck is one of the later interviewees in "Mindhunter."Hewas a high-school dropout and alcoholic by age 15. By the time he was 24, in 1966, Speck was in Chicago looking for work. He got drunk and went to a house where eight nursing students were living. Speck forced his way in by brandishing a knife, and proceeded to systematically tie-up and kill each of the women.

A ninth woman was in the house and was bound by Speck, but she hid under a bed and Speck reportedly simply forgot to go back and kill her.

On "Mindhunter," Speck concludes his interview by aggressively telling Holden he killed the women because "it just wasn't their night."

This is a real quote from Speck, but according to The Chicago Tribune it came from a recording Speck's fellow inmates made later in his life.

Speck diedof a heart attack in 1991.He was 49 years old and still incarcerated.

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Dennis Rader, aka the "BTK Killer," was active in Kansas from 1974 to 1991.

All the real serial killers and convicted murderers featured on Netflix's 'Mindhunter' (6)

On both seasons of "Mindhunter," Rader is shown in a brief scene at the start of each episode. He was known as the "BTK" (which stands for "bind, torture, kill") killer.

Rader really was an ADT employee, just like the show's character. Hekilled10 people over the course of 20 years while living in theWichita area ofKansas before he was arrested and convicted in 2005.

He sent taunting letters and clues to police over the years. Rader was also obsessed with knots and bondage, and would bind his victims and then suffocate or strangle them. This was teased in the "Mindhunter" scene with him tying knots over and over while watching TV.

Rader is still alive and being held in El Dorado Correctional Facility in Kansas. He is 72 years old and his earliest possible release date is listed as 2180.

For more about Rader's scenes on "Mindhunter," read our explanation ofhow details of his killings were teased throughout the first season.

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David Berkowitz, also called "Son of Sam," pleaded guilty to eight shootings which killed a total of six people in New York City.

All the real serial killers and convicted murderers featured on Netflix's 'Mindhunter' (7)

Berkowitz was featured on the very first episode of "Mindhunter" when agent Holden Ford sees him on the cover of Time Magazine and later listens to part of a lecture about "random" killings.

But he didn't appear as a character until the start of the second season when Ford and Tench go to interview him.

The real Berkowitz did use .44 caliber Bulldog revolver to shoot at women seated in cars and on porch steps around the New York City boroughs starting in the summer of 1976. His first murder victim was stabbed, however. Over the course of nearly a year, he killed six people and wounded another seven.

As explored on "Mindhunter," Berkowitz initially claimed to be following the orders of a demon which was possessing his neighbor's dog. He pleaded guilty to the crimes anyways and later retracted the claim of demonic influence.

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William Pierce Jr. was charged with the murder of 10 people, one of whom was the 13-year-old daughter of a state senator.

All the real serial killers and convicted murderers featured on Netflix's 'Mindhunter' (8)

Preferring the name "Junior," Pierce is a convicted serial killer who is currently still serving prison time in Georgia. While he was already being held in state prison for the death of several other people, charges were brought against Pierce for the sexual assault and murder of 13-year-old Peggy Cuttino, the daughter of South Carolina senator James Cuttino.

On "Mindhunter," the FBI investigators look at a photo of Pierce in his cell where he is surrounded by junk food. That is a real image, captured in 1971 at the Appling County Jail in Georgia.

The original caption for the photo read: "William Joseph Pierce, Jr., charged with six counts of murder, poses in his cell here at the Appling County Jail. Items on right are some of the personal items he is permitted to keep in the cell."

The image shown on "Mindhunter" had actor Michael Filipowich's face digitally placed over the real Pierce's head.

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William Henry Hance was convicted of killing three women in 1978 and had his death sentence carried out in 1994.

All the real serial killers and convicted murderers featured on Netflix's 'Mindhunter' (9)

Hance, a former soldier, was charged and convicted for "bludgeoning" a sex worker in 1978. He maintained his innocence until his death sentence was carried out via the electric chair in Georgia almost 20 years later.

News reports from the time corroborate the story told during the fictionalized interview on "Mindhunter" — Hance was accused of writing letters to the police he signed as "Chairman, Forces of Evil" in order to try and throw authorities off his scent.

Hance's appeal for his case made its way all the way to the US Supreme Court, where it was ultimately rejected (Justices Harry Blackmun, John Paul Stevens, and Ruth Bader Ginsburg all dissented).

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Elmer Wayne Henley Jr. was convicted for the murder of 27 young men and boys in 1974.

All the real serial killers and convicted murderers featured on Netflix's 'Mindhunter' (10)

As explored during his scene on "Mindhunter" season two, then-18-year-old Henley was found guilty by a jury for the murder of dozens of his peers. This series of deaths is often called the "Houston Mass Murders."

"Police said Henley, one of two defendants in the case, had procured young boys — some his friends and neighbors — for Dean A. Corll, 33, who homosexually raped and tortured them," the Argus Press reported on July 16, 1974.

The second defendant was David Owen Brooks, a 19-year-old who was charged with four counts of murder.

Henley shot and killed Corll in 1973, which was ruled by a jury as self-defense. After killing Corll, Henley called the police to confess and later accompanied authorities to the burial sites of the victims.

He is currently serving his life sentence in a Texas prison called the Mark W. Michael Unit.

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Charles Manson was not a serial killer like many of the other "Mindhunter" murderers were, but he was charged for orchestrating the deaths of seven people.

All the real serial killers and convicted murderers featured on Netflix's 'Mindhunter' (11)

Manson infamously led a cult of people referred to as the "Family," and together the group killed nine people over the course of several months in 1969. The most famous of these are the Tate-LaBianca murders, when pregnant movie star Sharon Tate and several others were brutally stabbed and killed in two subsequent nights.

Actor Damon Harriman plays Manson on "Mindhunter," and also appeared as Manson in Quentin Tarantino's recent movie "Once Upon a Time in Hollywood."

Read more:The horrific true story behind the 1969 Manson Family murders that changed America forever

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Charles "Tex" Watson was one of Manson's followers who carried out plans to kill several people.

All the real serial killers and convicted murderers featured on Netflix's 'Mindhunter' (12)

In 1969, Watson participated in the murders of Sharon Tate, Jay Sebring, Wojciech Frykowski, Abigail Folger, and Leno and Rosemary LaBianca.

Along with some of Manson's other "Family," Watson was convicted of seven counts of first-degree murder and one count of conspiracy to commit murder. His death sentence was invalidated when California outlawed the death penalty in 1971, so Watson is now still serving prison time at the Richard J. Donovan Correctional Facility in San Diego, California.

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Paul Bateson was convicted of one murder, and prosecutors initially implicated him in a series of other deaths but no additional charges were brought.

All the real serial killers and convicted murderers featured on Netflix's 'Mindhunter' (13)

Bateson — who worked as radiologist and even appeared in 1973's "The Exorcist" during the memorable angiogram scene — stabbed and killed reporter Addison Verrill in 1979.

At the time of his conviction, police in New York City were investigating a series of unsolved murders of gay men. As mentioned during the "Mindhunter" scenes involving Bateson's case, some authorities believed he was also responsible for these serial killings but he never confessed to any murders other than Verrill's.

Bateson served just over 24 years in prison before his release in 2003. His current whereabouts are unknown.

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Wayne Williams was convicted for the murder of two adults, and the deaths and disappearances of over 20 children were attributed to him by authorities though no charges were brought.

All the real serial killers and convicted murderers featured on Netflix's 'Mindhunter' (14)

The Atlanta Child Murders was a series of killings carried out in Georgia from 1979 to 1981. As "Mindhunter" shows in its closing minutes, Williams was only charged with two of the nearly 30 deaths being investigated at the time by local authorities and the FBI.

Williams, now 60 years old, is still serving out his sentence in prison, though he denies all involvement in the crimes and maintains his innocence.

Coincidentally, several months before the return of "Mindhunter," the current Atlanta police chief announced that new DNA technology would be used to retest evidence in the Atlanta Child Murder cases.

  • Read more:
  • What to know about the Atlanta Child Murders, including what the real FBI agent who investigated Williams believes about his guilt
  • Watch as 'Mindhunter' actor Cameron Britton transforms into one of the most menacing serial killers in history
  • 47 Netflix original drama series, ranked from worst to best
  • Watch the real-life interviews with serial killer Ed Kemper that were recreated on 'Mindhunter'

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All the real serial killers and convicted murderers featured on Netflix's 'Mindhunter' (2024)
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