By Chris Bartholomew
Serial killers become whatever they need to be in order to get close to their victims. We can agree with that, but in the long run, not many of them used disguises that we know of, although we can also agree that because of the fact that they blend in so well with society, the so called 'mask of sanity' is always there. Most of them look and act like regular members of the community.
Mark Goudeau: wore a wig of dreadlocks and a floppy fisherman's hat as well as wearing disguises.
Andrew Phillip Cunanan: the FBI warned while looking for him that he may be dressed as a woman. Chameleonesque Andy, he was known for adroitly using disguises and makeup to change his appearance.
Ted Bundy: disguised as a person in need.
Dennis Rader: dressed as a Southwestern Bell employee, wearing a yellow hard hat and carrying a company manual and fake identification. His disguise was used to gain entry to the Wegerle home. Rader also wore a mask that he had put on his last victim. Rader had drawn in eyebrows, eyelashes, red lips and nostrils to a mask to make it look more life-like. "I pose myself in bondage pictures with my mask," Rader told authorities. Authorities found masks, some with red cheeks and long, dark eyelashes, at Rader's home. They also found photos of Rader tied in bondage while dressed as a woman in a wig and wearing a mask.
The Zodiac Killer: used a black mask with his symbol on it.
Luis Alfredo Garavito: often used a number of disguises to attract and lure his victims. He posed as a monk, street vendor, disabled person and even as a charity representative for a pretend children's organization.
Charles Sobhraj: a master of disguise, 'The Serpent' used stolen passports for different identities.
Angel Maturino Resendiz: used false identity papers to slip in and out of the country.
The Axeman: rumors had it that he dressed up as a woman.
John Horace Oughton: the paper bag rapist, wore a paper bag over his head.
John Charles Eichinger: wore a "Scream" mask he stored in a cooler.
Ed Gein: wore the facial skin of women.
East Area Rapist: EAR, he wore a ski mask, gloves, dark clothing with long sleeves, and tennis shoes or military-style boots.
Danny Rolling: wore black clothes, a ski mask and glove, and camped out in the woods during his Gainesville crime spree.
Kenneth Bianchi and Angelo Buono, Hillside Stranglers: pretended to be policemen making an arrest.
Sipho Dube: pretended to need directions or pretended to be a person of authority.
John Robinson, Internet Slavemaster: made people think he was a social service provider using the internet.
Yoo Young-chul: he pretended to be a policeman, showing a forged identification card which he had made himself.
The Harps, Big and Little: they pretended to be the posse out after themselves.
George Russell, Eastside Serial Killer: pretended to be a cop.
Randy Woodfield: often wore a false beard and hooded sweat shirt during his attacks.
Bill Bradford: pretended to be a photographer looking for models.
Unidentified possible serial killer in London: posed as a television researcher to trick his way into the woman's home and try to strangle her. He also pretended to be looking for a room to rent for his daughter.
Juana Barraza: ruled the Mexican women's wrestling circuit as "The Silent Lady," but she became infamous for another moniker, "La Mataviejitas", the old-lady killer. Starting in the 1990s, Barraza knocked on the doors of Mexico City's elderly women, pretending to be a social worker. Once inside, she grabbed a sock, piece of string or phone cord, whatever was handy, and strangled her victims to death (until blood oozed from their ears).
Rafael Resendez-Ramirez: changing names and Social Security numbers and using glasses and facial hair to hide his identity.
Editor's note: this list was written by Chris Bartholomew for the magazine in 2008 to 2009 and is reproduced as written, apart from three name spellings the archive settles: Dennis Rader, Luis Alfredo Garavito and Yoo Young-chul. One entry has been removed. The original list included Andre DiMera, the Salem Slasher, who is not a person; he is a character in the American soap opera Days of Our Lives, and the mask he wore was worn on television. Two of the remaining entries are one man. Rafael Resendez-Ramirez was the name Angel Maturino Resendiz was travelling under when he was on the FBI's Ten Most Wanted list, and both lines describe the same false-papers method; Resendiz was convicted of the murder of Claudia Benton in 2000 and executed in Texas on June 27, 2006. The East Area Rapist has since been named. Joseph James DeAngelo pleaded guilty in June 2020 to thirteen murders and thirteen kidnappings and is serving life without parole, so the ski mask in that entry belongs to a case that is now closed. Two cases were still open when the article was written and are not now: Mark Goudeau was convicted of nine murders in November 2011 and sentenced to death, and Juana Barraza was convicted of sixteen in 2008. Four of the names have no entry in this archive at all, and the list is the only place they appear here: Andrew Cunanan, who died before any trial, John Charles Eichinger, Danny Rolling, and John Horace Oughton, who was convicted of sexual assaults rather than murder. The London entry describes an attack by a man who was never identified and never charged, and it should be read that way.