This is a list of serial killers with known military backgrounds. Though some may have had excellent careers in the military profession, others performed less than satisfactory and were discharged within a short period of time. There are also other serial killers who were discharged from the military for personality disorders and could not move up in the ranks.
David Berkowitz was a New York City serial killer who was arrested in 1977 for a series of shooting attacks with .44 caliber revolver. In more than a year, Berkowitz murdered six victims and wounded seven others while terrorizing New York City with acts of arson.
In 1971, at the age of eighteen, he joined the US Army and served in the US and Korea. After an honorable discharge in 1974, he located his birth mother, Betty Falco. After a few visits, she disclosed the details of his illegitimate birth, which greatly disturbed him, particularly because his birth father was deceased.
Forensic anthropologist Elliot Leyton, described Berkowitz’s discovery of his adoption and illegitimate birth as the “primary crisis “ of his life, a revelation that shattered his sense of identity .
Gary Ridgway is believed to have murdered at least 71 victims who were mostly women and prostitutes in the late 90s. He was convicted of 49 murders and is serving a life in prison sentence in Washington.
He joined the Navy and was sent to Vietnam, where he served on board a supply ship and saw combat. During his time in the military, Ridgway began frequenting numerous prostitutes and contracted gonorrhea. Ridgway himself admitted to having a fixation with prostitutes, with whom he had a love-hate relationship.
Dahmer murdered 17 men and boys between 1978 and 1971 before he was convicted of the murders and sentenced to life in prison.
In January 1979, upon his father’s urging, Dahmer enlisted in the US Army, where he trained as a medical specialist at Fort Sam Houston, before, on July 13, 1979, being deployed to Baumholder, Germany, where he served as a combat medic.
According to published reports, in Dahmer’s first year of service, he was an “average or slightly above average” soldier. One soldier stated in 2010 while stationed in Baumholder, Dahmer had repeatedly raped him over a 17 – month period. This soldier stated the abuse to his commander, but was not believed.
Owing to Dahmer’s alcohol abuse, his performance deteriorated and in March 1981, he was deemed unsuitable for military service and later formally discharged from the army, albeit honorably. On March 24, 1981, Dahmer was sent to Fort Jackson for debriefing and provided with a plane ticket to travel anywhere in the country.
Dahmer later told police he felt he could not return home to face his father, so he opted to travel to Miami Beach, Florida, both because he was “tired of the cold” and attempt to live by his own means.
Often described as the “British Jeffrey Dahmer,” Dennis Nilsen was a serial killer in London who committed the murders of 15 young men from 1978 to 1983 before he was arrested and charged with six counts of murder and two of attempted murder.
Dennis Nilsen informed his mother that he intended to join the Army, where he intended to train as a chef. Nilsen passed the entrance examinations and received official notification he was to enlist for nine years service in September 1961, commencing his training at St. Omer Barracks in Aldershot.
Within weeks, Nilsen began to excel in his army duties; he would later describe his three years of training at Aldershot as “ the happiest of my life.” He relished the travel opportunities afforded him in his training, and recalled that one particular highlight was his regiment taking part in a ceremonial parade attended by both the Queen and Lord Montgomery.
While stationed at Aldershot, Nilsen’s latent homosexual feelings began to stir, although he kept his sexual orientation well hidden from his colleagues. Nilsen never showered in the company of his fellow soldiers for fear of developing an errection in their presence, instead opting to bathe alone in the bathroom.
In the summer of 1964, Nilsen passed his initial catering exam and was officially assigned to the 1st Battalion of the Royal Fusitiers in Osnabruck, West Germany, where he served as a private. After two years deployment he returned to Aldershot, where he passed his official catering exam before being deployed to serve as a cook for the British Army in Norway.
In 1967, he was deployed to Aden, South Yemen, where he again served as a cook at the AL Mansour Prison. Nilsen completed his deployment in Aden in January 1968. Following a brief period with the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders in the Inverness, Nilsen was selected to cook for the Queen’s Royal Guard.
In January 1971, he was reassigned to serve as a cook for a different regiment in the Shetland Islands, where he ended his 11-year military career at the rank of corporal in October 1972.
Dean Arnold Corll was an American serial killer who (with two young accomplices named David Brooks and Elmer Wayne Henley, Jr.) abducted, raped, tortured and murdered a minimum of 28 boys in a series of killings spanning from 1970 to 1973 in Houston, Texas. The crimes, which became known as the Houston Mass Murders, came to light only after Henley fatally shot Corll.
Corll was drafted into the US Army in August 10, 1964, and assigned to Fort Polk, Louisiana, for basic training. He was later assigned to Fort Benning, Georgia, to train as a radio repairman before his permanent assignment to Fort Hood, Texas.
According to official military records, Corll’s period of service in the army was unblemished. Corll, however, reportedly hated military service; he applied for a hardship discharge on the grounds that he was needed within his family’s business.
The Army granted his request and he was given an honorable military discharge on June 11, 1965, after 10 months service. Reportedly, Corll divulged to some of his close acquaintances after his release from the US Army, that it was during his period of service that he had first realized that he was homosexual and had experienced his first homosexual encounters.
Timothy McVeigh was convicted of the Oklahoma City bombing that killed 168 people and wounded more than 600 others. He was sentenced to death by lethal injection in 2001.
In May 1988, at the age of 20, McVeigh graduated from the US Army Infantry School at Fort Benning, Georgia. While in the military, McVeigh used much of his spare time to read about firearms, sniper tactics and explosives.
McVeigh was reprimanded by the military for purchasing a “White Power” T-shirt at a Ku Klux Klan protest against black servicemen who wore “Black Power” T-shirts around the army base. McVeigh was awarded a Bronze Star Medal for his service as a vehicle crewman in the Persian Gulf War.
He was a top-scoring gunner with the 25mm canon of the Bradley Fighting Vehicles used by his 1st Infantry Division. He was stationed at Fort Riley, Kansas, before being deployed on Operation Desert Storm.
In McVeigh’s authorized biography, he stated he decapitated an Iraq soldier with cannon fire on his first day in the war and celebrated. He said he later was shocked to be ordered to execute surrendering prisoners and to see carnage on the road leaving Kuwait City after US troops routed the Iraq Army.
McVeigh inspired to join the US Army Special Forces. After returning from the Gulf War, he entered the selection program. However, because he had not had sufficient time to get himself into the superior physical condition required for the program, he had to drop out.
Shortly after that, McVeigh decided to leave the army. He was honorably discharged on December 31, 1991. McVeigh received several service awards, including the Bronze Star Medal, National Defense Service Medal, Southwest Asia Service Medal, Army Service Ribbon, and the Kuwait Liberation Medal.
Andrei Chikatilo was a Russian Soviet serial killer whose victim count includes a minimum of 52 women and children from 1978 to 1990 before he was arrested and confessed to a total of 56 murders and tried for 53 killings in 1992. He was convicted and sentenced to death and executed in 1994.
He was drafted into the Soviet Army in 1957. Chikatilo performed his compulsory military service between 1957 and 1960, assigned to a KGB communications unit in Berlin. Here, his work was unblemished, and he joined the Communist party in 1960, shortly before his military service ended.
Randy Steven Kraft is an American serial killer known as the “Score Card Killer” and “The Freeway Killer” who committed the rape, torture, mutilation and murder of a minimum of 16 young men in a series of killings spanning between 1972, and 1983, the majority of which had been committed in California.
Four months after graduating from college, Kraft joined the US Air Force. He was sent to boot camp in Texas before being stationed at Edwards Air Force Base in southern California, where he supervised the painting of test planes. In his service within the US Air Force, Kraft rose to the rank of Airman First Class and supervisor -manager.
On July 26, 1969, Kraft received a general discharge from the Air Force after announcing his sexuality to his supervisors. The discharge was officially listed as being on “medical” grounds. Kraft sought legal advice from an attorney in an attempt to challenge the grounds regarding his discharge from the Air Force. The Air Force, however, refused to change the status of his discharge.
Leonard Thomas Lake was an American serial killer. He often used the alias Leonard Hill. The crimes he committed with Charles Ng became known after Lake committed suicide by taking a cyanide pill shortly after being arrested for a firearms offense. Videotapes found at his house gave evidence of the pair having kidnapped and killed numerous persons. They are believed to have killed from 11 to 25 individuals.
In 1965, at age 19, Lake joined the Marine Corps and served two tours of duty in Vietnam as a radar electronics technician. During this time period, Lake was first diagnosed with schizoid personality disorder. Following a spell in Da Nang, he suffered a delusional breakdown and was sent home. Lake was eventually given a medical discharge in 1971 and underwent psychotherapy.
Arthur John Shawcross was an American serial killer, also known as the Genesee River Killer, in Rochester, New York. He claimed most of his victims after being paroled early following a conviction in the manslaughter of two children, which led to criticism of the justice system.
In April 1967, he was drafted by the Army at age 21. He served one tour of duty in Vietnam, where he boasted of grotesque combat exploits, such as “beheading” mama-sans and nailing their heads to trees as a warning to the Vietcong --- though in fact he never saw combat. After Vietnam, he was stationed at Fort Sill, in Lawton, Oklahoma as an armorer. An Army psychologist said that Shawcross derived “sexual enjoyment “ from fire starting.
Robert Lee Yates, Jr. is an American serial killer from Spokane, Washington. From 1996 to 1998, Yates is known to have murdered at least 13 women, all of whom were prostitutes working on Spokane’s “Skid Row” on E. Sprague Avenue. He confessed to two murders in Walla Walla and one murder in Skagit County. In 2002, he was convicted of killing two women in Pierce County. He is currently on death row at the Washington State Penitentiary.
In October 1977, Yates enlisted in the US Army, in which he became certified to fly civilian transport airplanes and helicopters. Yates was stationed in various countries outside the continental United States, including Germany and later Somalia and Haiti during the United Nations peacekeeping missions of the 1990s.
He earned several military awards and medals during his 18 ½ year military career, including three Army Achievement Medals, three Army Commendation Medals, two Armed Forces Expeditionary Medals, and three Meritorious Service Medals. Yates left the army in April 1996.
John Reginald-Haliday Christie was a notorious English serial killer active during the 1940s and early 1950s. He murdered at least eight women – including his wife Ethel – by strangling them in his apartment at 10 Rillington Place, Nottingham Hill, London. The bodies of three of his victims were found hidden in an alcove in the kitchen. His wife’s body was found beneath the floorboards.
Christie served as an infantryman during World War I. He was apparently injured by a gas attack, which he claimed left him permanently unable to speak loudly. Following his discharge from the Army, he was imprisoned several times for offenses including theft and assault. On the outbreak of World War II in 1939, he was accepted for service with the War Reserve Police, when the authorities failed to check his criminal record.
Charles Chi Tat Ng is a Hong Kong serial killer. He is believed to have raped, tortured and murdered between 11 and 25 victims with his accomplice Leonard Lake at Lake’s cabin in Calaveras County, California, in the Sierra Nevada foothills 150 miles east of San Francisco. After a lengthy dispute between Canada and the United States, Ng was extradited to California and was convicted of 11 murders. He is currently on death row at San Quentin State Prison.
Although not a United States citizen, Ng became a Marine with the help, he said, of a recruiting sergeant, and false documents attesting to his birth in Bloomington, Indiana. After less than a year of service he was arrested by military police for the theft of heavy weaponry and machine guns from MCAS Kaneohe Bay in Hawaii.
He was further charged with escape from confinement and attempted desertion, though the desertion charge was dropped. Ng was convicted on the remaining charges and sentenced to 14 years, but less than two years later his sentence was commuted and he was dishonorably discharged.
Anthony Edward Sowell is an American serial killer, identified in press reports as the Cleveland Strangler. He was arrested in October 2009 as a suspect in the murders of 11 women whose bodies were discovered at his Cleveland, Ohio, duplex at 12205 Imperial Avenue in the Mount Pleasant neighborhood.
Sowell was charged with 11 counts of murder, rape, and kidnapping, he pled not guilty by reason of insanity, but later changed his plea to simply “not guilty.”
At the age of 19, Sowell entered the US Marine Corps on January 24, 1978. He attended recruit training at Marine Corps Recruit Depot Parris Island in South Carolina, then was further trained as an electrician at Camp Lejeune in North Carolina.
On July 13, 1978, he was assigned to the 2nd Marine Aircraft Wing at Marine Corps Air Station Cherry Point, also in North Carolina. In 1980, Sowell spent a year overseas with the 3rd Force Service Support, then returned to Cherry Point.
He was then ordered to Marine Corps Base Camp Butler in Okinawa, Japan, on January 20, 1984. A year later, he transferred to Camp Pendleton in California for three days until his discharge on January 18, 1985.
During his 7-year Marine Corps career, Corporal Sowell received a Good Conduct Medal, with one service star , a Sea Service Deployment Ribbon, a Certificate of Commendation, a Meritorious Mast, and two Letters of Appreciation.
John Allen Muhammad was an American convicted murderer from Baton Rouge, Louisiana. He along with his 17-year-old partner, Lee Boyd Malvo, carried out the Beltway Sniper attacks of October 2002, killing at least 10 people. Mohammad and Malvo were arrested in connection with the attacks on October 24, 2002, killing at least 10 people.
In August 1978, Muhammad enlisted in the Louisiana Army National Guard at Baton Rouge as a combat engineer. Muhammad transferred to the Regular Army on November 6, 1985 and Muhammad’s first tour was with the 15th Engineer Battalion at Fort Lewis, in 1985.
In 1991, he served in the Gulf War with a company that dismantled Iraqi chemical warfare rockets. In 1992, he was at Fort Ord, California, with the 13th Engineers, and in 1993 back at Fort Lewis with the 14th Engineer Battalion.
While in the US Army, Muhammad was trained as a mechanic, truck driver, and specialist metal worker. He qualified with the Army’s standard rifle, the M16, earning the Expert Rifleman’s Badge. This rating is the Army’s highest of the three levels of basic rifle marksmanship for a soldier.
Muhammad served in an engineer unit during the 1991 Gulf War. Muhammad received the Southwest Asia Service Medal, the Kuwait Liberation Medal (Saudi Arabia), and the Kuwait Liberation Medal (Kuwait).
Muhammad was honorably discharged from the Army on April 24, 1994, after 17 years of service with the rank of sergeant. For his service in the Army, Mohammad received the following awards: Army Service Medal, National Defense Service Medal, Overseas Ribbon, Noncommissioned Officers Professional Development Ribbon, and an Army Achievement Medal.
Douglas Daniel Clark is an American serial killer. Clark and his accomplice Carol M. Bundy were known as the “Sunset Strip Killers.” They were accused and subsequently convicted of a series of killings in Los Angeles.
For a while, Clark was sent to an exclusive international school in Georgia and he later attended Culver Military Academy while his father continued to move around the world. When he graduated in 1967, Clark enlisted in the Air Force. His life began to unravel at this point and he was discharged from the Air Force and he drifted around for the next decade.
Charles Whitman committed Mass Murder on August 1, 1966. In the early morning hours of August 1, Whitman murdered his wife and mother in their homes. Later that day, he went to the campus of the University of Texas at Austin where, over an approximate 90 to 95 minute period, he killed 16 people and wounded 32 others in a mass shooting in and around Tower.
During Whitman’s initial 18-month service in 1959 and 1960, he earned a Marine Corps Good Conduct Medal, a Sharpshooter’s Badge, and the Marine Corps Expeditionary Medal. Whitman received 215 out of 250 possible points on marksmanship tests, and did well when shooting rapidly over long distances and aiming at moving targets.
After completing his assignment, Whitman applied to a US Navy program, intending to complete college and become a commissioned officer.
Gary Michael Heidnik was an American murderer who kidnapped, tortured and raped 6 women, and held them prisoner in his basement in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Heidnik was sentenced to death and executed by lethal injection in July 1999.
Heidnik dropped out of school and joined the US Army when he was 17. He served in the Army for thirteen months. During basic training, Heidnik’s drill sergeant graded him as “excellent. “ Following basic training, he applied for the military police, but was rejected.
He was sent to Antonio, Texas, to be trained as a medic and did well through medical training. However, Heidnik did not stay in San Antonio very long and was transferred to the 46th Army Surgical Hospital in Landstuhl, West Germany.
In October 1962, Heidnik was transferred to a military hospital in Philadelphia, where he was diagnosed with schizoid personality disorder and honorably discharged from military service.
Israel Keyes was an American serial killer, rapist, arsonist, burglar and bank robber. Keyes admitted to violent crimes as early as 1996, with the violent sexual assault of a teenage girl in Oregon. He committed a long series of rapes and murders until his capture in 2012. He was being held in custody, awaiting trial for the murder of Samantha Koenig, when he committed suicide in prison.
Keyes served in the US Army from 1998 through 2001 at Fort Lewis, Fort Hood, and in Egypt.
David Russell Williams is a Canadian convicted murderer, and rapist.
Williams was regarded as a model military officer over the course of his 23-year-career. He enrolled in the Canadian Forces in 1987, and received his flying wings in 1990, and was posted to 3 Canadian Forces Flying Training Schools, based at CFB Portage la Prairie, Manitoba, where he served for two years as an instructor.
Promoted to Captain on January 1, 1991, Williams was posted to 434 Combat Support Squadron at CFB Shearwater, N. S. in 1982, where he flew the CC-144 Challenger in the electronic warfare and coastal patrol role.
In 1984, he was posted to the 412 Transport Squadron in Ottawa, where he transported VIPs, including high-ranking officials and foreign dignitaries, also on Challengers. Williams was promoted to Major in November 1999, and was posted to Director General of Military Careers, in Ottawa, where he served as the multi-engine career manager.
In June 2004, he was promoted to Lieutenant-Colonel and on July 19, 2004, he was appointed commanding officer of 437 Transport Squadron at CFB Trenton, Ontario, a post he held for two years. From December 2005 to May 2006, Williams also served as the commanding officer of Camp Mirage, a secretive logistics facility believed to be located at Al Minhad Air Base in Dubuai, United Arab Emirates that provides support to Canadian Forces operations in Afghanistan.
He was posted to the Director of Air Requirements on July 21, 2006, where he served as project director for the Airlift Capability Projects Strategic and Tactical, and Fixed-Wing Search and Rescue. In January 2008, he was posted to the Canadian Forces Language School in Gatineau, Quebec, for a six-month period of French Language training, during which he was promoted to Colonel.
On July 15, 2009, Williams was sworn in as the Commander at Canadian Forces Base, Trenton by the outgoing Wing Commander Brigadier General Mike Hood. Williams had been described as an elite pilot and “shining bright star” of the military.
William George Bonin was an American serial killer and twice-paroled sex offender, who committed the rape, torture and murder of a minimum of 21 boys and young men in a series of killings between 1979 and 1980 in Southern California.
He is sometimes referred to as the “Freeway Killer,” a nickname he shares with two other-separate-serial killers. Bonin is also suspected of committing a further 15 murders. He was executed in 1996.
After graduating from high school, he joined the US Air Force. He served in the Vietnam War as an Ariel Gunner, logging over 700 hours of combat and patrol time and earning a Good Conduct Medal.
While serving in Vietnam, Bonin risked his own life under fire to save the life of a fellow airman, but also later admitted to sexual assaulting two fellow soldiers at gunpoint. Bonin was honorably discharged from the US Air Force in October, 1968.
Marcel Andre’ Henri Felix Petiot was a French doctor and serial killer. He was convicted of multiple murders after the discovery of the remains of 23 people in his home in Paris during World War II. He has revendicated the murder of around 60 victims during his life, although the true number remains unknown.
After the 1940 German defeat of France, French citizens were drafted for forced labor in Germany. Petiot provided false medical disability certificates to people who were drafted. He also treated the illnesses of workers who had returned.
Petiot later claimed that, during the period of German occupation, he was engaged in Resistance activities. Allegedly he developed secret weapons that killed Germans without leaving forensic evidence, planted booby traps all over Paris,and had high level meetings with Allied commanders. In 1980, he was cited as a World War II source.
Although this not a complete list of serial killers who served in the military, it still shows a side of these individuals that was somewhat disciplined. Did serving in the armed forces trigger their need to kill or maybe even teach them how? Some of these killers were even given medals and even seen as leaders. Although we must salute them for their service, we must also make them accountable for their crimes.