20 Infamous Serial Killers from Ohio

20 Infamous Serial Killers from Ohio

*Originally  published by Faith in 2023 and Updated by Diana K in  February 2024

Documentaries on true crime have educated the public on what serial killers are and their modus operandi. Serial killers usually have different methods they undertake their crime which intrigues true crime enthusiasts. Documentaries give the audience a glimpse of what happens in different parts of the world. Therefore, this article will explore the 15 infamous serial killers from Ohio to give the reader a glimpse into how dangerous these killers are.

1 Anthony Edward Sowell

Brutal Ohio-born serial killer Anthony Sowell is also referred to as the “Cleveland Strangler.” His Cleveland, Ohio, duplex was where the bodies of 11 women who had been killed violently were discovered between 2009 and 2010. In addition, he was accused of abusing a corpse and more than 70 counts of rape, kidnapping, and evidence tampering. Since September 14, 2011, Sowell has been a death row inmate at Chillicothe Correctional Institution.

2 Donald Harvey

A mugshot of Donald Harvey by Ohio Department of Corrections-Wikimedia

He is one of the most notorious serial killers in the United States of America. Having been nicknamed The Angel of Death, Harvey was responsible for a lot of killings that happened in Marymount Hospital in Kentucky. The hospitals had decided to offer him a job after being unemployed for a long time as a nurse aide. He killed his first victim by smothering him with a pillow and then proceeded to kill 15 more using different methods. When asked why he killed, he said that he enjoyed it.

3 Thomas Lee Dillion

Dillon was convicted of murdering 5 people as a serial sniper. He killed people at random at the direction of voices in his head. Psychiatrists stated that Dillon’s grandiose illusions had a negative impact on both his own reality and the lives of his victims. 

Police did not connect them until he wrote a letter to the local newspaper. A friend of Dillon’s brought him to the attention of authorities after the FBI created a criminal profile of the murderer.

4 Jeffrey Dahmer

A mugshot of Jeffrey Dahmer by Milwaukee Police Department-Wikimedia

Jeffrey Dahmer is one of the most infamous serial killers in history. Dahmer is associated with the murder of sixteen people in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Dahmer used to lure gay men into his apartment and then kill them after raping and dismembering them. Even though all of his crimes happened in the state of Wisconsin he hailed from Ohio and was even raised in the state.

5 Gary Michael Heidnik

Six women were sexually assaulted, subjected to torture, and kidnapped by American serial killer and rapist Gary Heidnik. Two first-degree murders resulted in Heidnik’s imprisonment at the State Correctional Institution in Pittsburgh. Heidnik was found to be legally insane, given the death penalty, and put to death in July 1999 via lethal injection.

6 Michael Madison

A picture of a rope by Sascha-Wikimedia

Michael had a troubled childhood having been the result of an unwanted pregnancy and an absent father. He had many run-ins with the law and by 2002, he had been arrested for being in possession of drugs and attempting to rape a woman. He spent four years in jail for these crimes.

 After getting out, he kidnapped and strangled three women he had picked up in a bar in 2012 and 2013. He then put their bodies in trash bags and buried them in his garage. The smell emanating from his house alerted the neighbours who called the authorities. He was charged with three counts of murder and was found guilty. He was then executed later.

7 The Cleveland Torso murderer

The Cleveland Torso Killer, who sadly was never apprehended, terrorised Cleveland and Youngstown in the 1950s and did a lot of damage. Decapitating his victims with only his bare hands was this heinous murderer’s trademark. When they were savagely beheaded, the victims in some cases were still alive. The Murderer killed 40 people between the years of the 1950s in Cleveland and Youngstown.

8 Martha Wise

A picture of martha wise by murderpedia-murderpedia

Martha Wise was a poisoner and serial killer from the United States. Her family forced her to discontinue her relationship with her new lover after her spouse passed away. In what was considered to be one of Ohio’s most controversial cases of the time, Wise poisoned 17 members of her family, 3 of whom passed away. She was charged with second-degree murder, and convicted of a life sentence.

9 Shawn Grate

The serial killer confessed to killing five women in a period of ten years from 2006 to 2016. When he stood trial, Shawn was found guilty and Jury that tried his case recommended death. Shawn used to strangle his victims to death before disposing of their bodies. He is incarcerated and waiting for his execution which is scheduled for 2025.

10 Samuel Little

A picture of Samuel Little by LAPD-Wikimedia

He is one of the most infamous serial killers in the country and confessed to ninety murders with a few of them having taken place in northern Ohio. Most of the murders that he confessed to having done were matched to him. He was sentenced to four life sentences without the possibility of parole and h died in 2020 when he was 80 years old. The FBI declared him the most prolific killer in history having surpassed notorious killers like Ted Bundy.

11 Robert Berdella

Robert was born in Ohio and was one of the most notorious serial killers. Having earned the nickname The Kansas City Butcher he raped and murdered more than six men in a period of three years from 1984 to 1987 in Kansas, Missouri. He pleaded guilty and was sentenced to life imprisonment but he died of a heart attack in 1992.

12 Cincinnati Strangler

A crime scene tape bu Kidfly 182-Wikimedia

The strangler is believed to have been a cab driver known as Posteal Laskey Jr. He got his nickname from raping and strangling seven older women between 1965 to 1966 in Cincinnati, Ohio. After the Supreme Court struck down the death penalty in Furman v. Georgia, the original case against him was converted to life in prison. Laskey’s request for parole was denied in February 2007 due to the horrific nature of the act.

13 Ariel Castro

Ariel was born in Puerto Rico but his family relocated to Cleveland, Ohio when he was just a child. He was a serial rapist kidnapper and killer. His first kidnapping victim was Michelle Knight whom he held hostage in his home in 2002 and others followed after that. It was in 2013 that one of his victims Amanda managed to escape and alerted the authorities who arrested Castro and saved the other women held in the basement. He was charged with rape, kidnapping and murder and sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.

14 Edwards Edwards

A mugshot of Edwards Edwards-Wikimedia

Edwards, who was in his late 70s, admitted to killing two couples in 2010. In 1977, a couple was shot in the neck, and in 1980, a person was slain in Silver Creek Park. The male had been stabbed, and the woman had been raped and choked. In 1996, Edwards killed his foster son.

15 Richard Eberling

Richard was born in Cleveland Ohio in 1929. He was a serial killer who killed five people between 1946 and 1983. Among his victims were four women and one man. He killed his victims while working as a cleaner and stole valuables from their houses. When the police apprehended him, he was found with many stolen goods. He was then charged with murder and sentenced to life in prison. He died at 68 years old in prison.

Check out this article about the dealiest female serial killers here

16.  William Dean Wickline Jr.

Image by Ohio DC$R from Wikimedia

He was born in Reynoldsburg and was one of several sons of William Wickline Sr. and Irma Bolen Wickline. Wickline turned to a life of crime at a young age as a member of a gang that operated across Ohio and West Virginia. Due to his large stature and violent tendencies, Wickline earned the nickname “The Butcher.” Between 1979 and 1982, he committed at least three murders across Ohio and West Virginia. His victims were often acquaintances or people he encountered in bars.

Wickline would lure his victims to secluded areas where he would brutally beat, stab or strangle them to death, earning his serial killer moniker. He was arrested in 1982 after a victim survived his attack and identified Wickline. In 1983, he was convicted of one murder and sentenced to life imprisonment. Wickline was considered a suspect in several other unsolved homicides but never faced additional charges before execution in 2004 at the age of 52 while incarcerated in Ohio.

17.  Anthony and Nathaniel Cook

Image by Ohio DC&R fro Wikimedia

They are serial killer brothers who operated in the Toledo, Ohio area between 1973 and 1981. Over 8 years, the Cook brothers committed at least 9 rapes and murders together, though the full extent of their crimes is still unknown. Their victims were young women and girls, some as young as 15 years old. The murders went unsolved for over 15 years until advancements in DNA technology allowed investigators to connect the brothers to the crimes.

Both provided confessions for multiple murders after being confronted with DNA evidence collected from their victims. Anthony Cook admitted to taking part in 8 murders while Nathaniel confessed to involvement in 5 killings. In 2000, Anthony Cook received multiple life sentences after accepting a plea deal to avoid the death penalty. Nathaniel Cook was convicted for five of the murders and sentenced to 15 years to life in prison.

18. Anthony Kirkland

Image by Ohio DC&R from Wikimedia

He was born on September 13, 1968 in Cincinnati, Ohio. In 1987 at age 18, Kirkland was charged with killing his girlfriend by throwing her off a balcony. He pleaded guilty to involuntary manslaughter and served 16 years in prison before being released on parole in 2003. Between 2006 and 2009, Kirkland committed the murders of at least four more female victims in the Cincinnati area, two women and two girls.

His victims were often lured into assisting him with promises of drugs or money before being assaulted and killed. In 2010, Kirkland was found guilty and sentenced to death for the murders of two 13-year-old girls in 2006. He remains on Ohio’s death row awaiting execution.

19.  Clifford Gayles

Image by Ohio Dept. of Corrections from Wikimedia

An American serial killer active in Ohio in the 1940s. He was originally convicted of murder in Missouri in 1941 at age 17. After being paroled three years later, Gayles went on a killing spree over Labor Day weekend in 1947. He murdered two people in Cincinnati: a cab driver whom he shot and robbed, and a policeman he shot days later.

Gayles was quickly apprehended by police after asking strangers for money to flee the state. Still a young man at just 23 years old, Clifford Gayles was convicted of the two Cincinnati murders and sentenced to death. He was executed in Ohio’s electric chair on September 30, 1948 at the Ohio State Penitentiary, just shy of one year from the date of his crimes. 

20.  Dr. No

Dr. No is the moniker given to an unidentified American serial killer believed to have been active from 1981 to 2004. He is suspected of killing at least nine women and girls in Ohio, typically targeting sex workers and prostitutes at truck stops and parking lots along Interstate 71. His victims were vulnerable women who often entered his vehicle willingly before being assaulted and murdered. The victims were found dumped along I-71, sometimes many miles from the location of their disappearance.

Law enforcement also believes Dr. No may be responsible for three other murders with similar circumstances in Illinois, New York and Pennsylvania between 1986 and 1988, though no definitive connection has been made. Despite years of investigation spanning over two decades, Dr. No’s identity remains unknown to this day. The serial killer is estimated to have claimed at least 12 victims over 20 years, avoiding arrest and earning his nickname for leaving police no evidence or leads to uncover his true identity.

Ohio has sadly been home to several notorious serial killers over the years. From Anthony Sowell, who murdered 11 women in Cleveland, to Thomas Dillon, the “Bowling Green Butcher” who killed 5 people in the late 1980s, the stories of these killers shock and horrify. While their crimes and motives varied, what unites these infamous Ohio killers is the tremendous damage they wrought on their victims and communities. Even after their arrests or deaths, the darkness of their actions still casts a shadow. As unsettling as their cases remain, may the memories of their victims and their families someday eclipse their infamous legacies.