5 NOTORIOUS SERIAL KILLERS IN THE UNITED STATES SINCE 2000

In this current jaded age we live in when we hear of serial killers with low kill counts we tend to dismiss them as non-entities in the serial killer Hall of Fame. Serial killers now as compared to twenty or more years ago are fighting a different battle then their peers, advancements in forensics, police investigations, and deeper studies into the minds of past serial killers, has helped cut down on the kill counts. That's not to say that some serial killers are still not at large who are the drifter types who reside unnoticed in an area do their killings and then move on, they may be racking up impressive numbers, but those types are always the hardest to get a kill count accurately assigned them as sometimes other murders in the vicinity are neatly placed into their files. What we have here is five serial killers who have been caught and charged with murder as well as other things, rape, burglary, kidnapping, to name a few. These five would not rank nowhere in the top five serial killer kill counts of all time in the United States, but they are playing the game on a different field as their past serial killer brethren. Like in Baseball comparing Hank Aaron to Barry Bonds, or Ty Cobb to Pete Rose, we will never know what one player would have performed in the others historical era, all we can do is speculate and fantasize about the outcome of each, thus we will never know what a renown serial killers of the past like Ted Bundy or Jeffery Dahmer would have performed in this modern police and forensic advanced atmosphere. So I found five that I think will fit nicely into the Hall of Fame, five crazed sociopaths who may not be unanimous choices into the hallowed halls of killdom but are worthy inductees as you will see...Read on...If you Dare!

Milwaukee North Side Strangler. Water Ellis was charged with seven murders and was sentenced to seven life terms on February 24, 2011, Ellis died in prison in South Dakota on December 1, 2013. Ellis was in the South Dakota prison after being moved there from Wisconsin in the prisoners exchange program. Cause of death was diabetes related. Ellis killed seven women in the city of Milwaukee, Wisconsin between 1986 and 2007. Victims were black women aged 19-41, many if not all were known prostitutes, who willing went with Ellis up to a point. Prior to his arrest on September 5, 2009, Ellis had been arrested 12 times between 1981 and 1998. Ellis pleaded no contest and was convicted, having never admitted his guilt. All seven victims were strangled with a rope or clothing, hence the Milwaukee North Side Stranger moniker placed on him during the investigation into these murders. His case drew national attention to Milwaukee, killing grounds of one Jeffery Dahmer, flaws in the way Wisconsin collected DNA from felons in prison was especially critically lambasted by the media. Ellis who was In prison for beating his girlfriend with a hammer was required by state law to submit to a DNA sample but persuaded a fellow inmate to submit a sample for him. After tips to a taskforce which had been assembled to look into the deaths, Ellis was singled out as the lead suspect, police got a DNA sample from a toothbrush and it matched DNA samples found at the murder scenes. Ellis was arrested at a Milwaukee motel where he had been living quietly for a few months prior to his arrest.

After our first chilling entry in the top five since 2000, we raise the kill bar ever so slightly to look at one, no make that two killers who were collectively known as the Serial Shooter. Dale Hauser and Sam Dietman were a couple of killers who were known collectively as "The Serial Shooter." The duo were responsible for at least eight deaths, twenty injuries and two counts of arson. These murders in Phoenix coincided with those of another serial killer, the baseline killer, who we will look at here shortly. Dale Hausner was born on February 4, 1973 and was employed as a custodian and a boxing photojournalist at the time of his arrest. Dieteman was born October 17, 1975, had a history of crimes before his eventual arrest on murder, but mostly minor stuff like DUI and shoplifting. The victims were random people the duo would spot as they drove around at night, between 10 pm and 4 am, they would spot a target and kill them with a .22 rifle or a .410 gauge shotgun, in drive by style shootings the majority of times. One victim was stabbed in the back and face by Dieteman but survived. The terrorizing of the Phoenix area by this duo came to an end on August 3, 2006, when after receiving a tip from a Ron Horton, who Dieteman had confided to at a local bar about the murders. The Phoenix police force began trailing the man and tapped their phone calls and obtained enough evidence to make an arrest. Hauser was sentenced to death six times over and life without parole. Dieteman was sentenced to life in prison without parole, he is currently incarcerated. Hausner killed himself on June 19, 2013 after an overdose on antidepressants, these he had acquired from another inmate.

Let's go back to the blood filled streets of Phoenix, Arizona where along with the afore mentioned Serial shooter there was another serial killer on the loose in the years of 2005-2006. Mark Goudeau was an ex-con who was arrested on September 9, 2006 and accused of sexually assaulting two sisters. On December 2007, Goudeau was found guilty on charges in connection to the sexual assault on the two sisters. Goudeau was eventually found guilty of nine first degree murders, fifteen counts of sexual assault and eleven counts of kidnapping. Eight women and one man were killed during the killing spree, he would use a disguise or pose as a homeless person and take the women to a secluded spot and shoot them in the head, the one male death attributed to Goudeau being possibly accidental. In 1989, Goudeau was charged with kidnapping and rape, he was sent to prison and paroled in 2004, moving to the area not far from where the baseline murders took place. The murderer was known as the Baseline Killer because the murders took place along a road named Baseline in Phoenix. Goudeau was sentenced to death but still awaits his day of execution.

Leaving behind the bloody streets of Phoenix, we move to another part of the country where the second most notorious killer in the United States from 2000 onward resided and killed! Cleveland Ohio is a much maligned town first off because the "mistake by the lake" moniker attached them and because of the brutal winters afforded them in the snow belt. The town where I grew up had one of the most famous killers ever in Sam Shepard, I remember as a kid driving up Lake road and my parents speaking in hushed tones, " that's where old Sam lived, killed her." Even as a kid I knew the brutality of the winters and the cabin fever that crept in as the winds howled off the lake and the snow covered ground made that crunching sound that walking on frozen ground makes, almost could drive a person to? Kill?

While the brutal winters are not the reason behind Anthony Sowell' s murderous desires, hate and a rotten evil brain turned this mild man into "The Cleveland Strangler." Sowell was born August 29, 1959 and shortly after his 50th birthday he was arrested as a suspect in the murder of eleven women, bodies of these women were found at his Cleveland home. September 2009, Sowell invited a female friend home for drinks and when she tried to leave he choked her and raped her until she passed out, eventually escaping. October 29, 2009, Cleveland police go to Sowell' s residence with a warrant of arrest stemming from the September rape, although Sowell was not at home at the time two dead bodies were found on the living room floor. Two days later Sowell was apprehended and arrested, four bodies were found inside the home and four more buried in the backyard, a skull was found inside a bucket, bringing the total to eleven. All the victims ranged in age from 25-53, and all were women. Sowell who resided within the home with the rotting corpses was constantly noted in his neighborhood because of the stench he carried, but lived next to a sausage market and explained the smell as the markets doing. Sowell strangled his victims and was found guilty on the eleven murder charges and the Death Penalty was handed down on August 12, 2011. Sowell sits on death row awaiting his date with death, he has tried to have his case retried because of the media coverage that it generated. Sowell was charged and convicted of rape and kidnapping in 1989 where he pled guilty and served 15 years, only to be released in 2005, to open his house of murder. Cleveland my old friend another black eye for you..

This guy here at number one is one for the ages, while lacking the double life of let's say John Gacy or the intelligent charm of Ted Bundy, Ronald Dominique was a fat squat man with an ugly mop of hair who unleashed his ugliness upon the Bayou Blue area of Houma, Louisiana from 1997-2006. Born January 9, 1964, Dominique admitted to 23 murders over nine years, dropping the dead bodies around Southeastern Louisiana, his first murder was committed in 1997 and his last in 2006. The murders were sexually motivated and were mainly homeless men whom Dominique would take home and ask to tie up and then murder them, strangling or suffocating them. The ones who did not agree to be tied up were allowed to leave and one such male informed the police who had organized a task force looking into the murders. Armed with forensic evidence the police charged Dominique with two murders, while being held he confessed to a total of 23 murders. By most accounts Dominique was a social outcast who struggled with his homosexuality and had a hard time holding down jobs, forcing him to live with relatives at times. Dominique who was a blob of a man had heart problems and needed a cane to help him walk. Arrested on September 23, 2006 after the afore mentioned tip, and then sentenced to eight life sentences on September 23, 2008. Rape and killing were his specialty, saying he killed the men to avoid going to jail after raping them.

Well there wraps up my list of notorious Serial Killers who wrecked bloody havoc on the United States from the 2000's onwards. As the unsolved deaths mount each day and more serial killers are being born or created we can only guess who will be the next killers to be inducted into the Hall of Fame, these five are first time ballot inductees. So as I move toward a more global top five for the next issue, I have this last note and that is " For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies." Matthew 15:19.