14 Chilling Serial Killer Quotes, From the Zodiac Killer to Gary Ridgway

As if their crimes weren’t chilling enough, some notorious killers have said words that cause pause. Here are some of the most chilling quotes from the world’s most notorious killers.

Which ones send chills up your spine?

“When I see a pretty girl walking down the street, I think two things. One part wants to be real nice, and the other part wonders what her head would look like on a stick.” 

Known as “The Co-Ed Killer” or “The Co-Ed Butcher,” Edmund Kemper was an active serial killer during the 1970s. Kemper’s modus operandi was to pick up female hitchhikers in Santa Cruz, California, and then kill them. Kemper’s killing spree came to an end when he turned himself in to the police after murdering his mother and her friend. 

 “I was literally singing to myself on my way home, after the killing. The tension, the desire to kill a woman had built up in such explosive proportions that when I finally pulled the trigger, all the pressures all the tensions, all the hatred had just vanished.” 

Known as “The Son of Sam,” David Berkowitz shot and killed six people and injured two others during the summer of 1977 in New York. At the time, the search for Berkowitz was the largest police hunt in New York history. Berkowitz was arrested in 1977 and sentenced to 25 consecutive life terms. 

“I like children, they are tasty.” 

Deemed “The Werewolf of Wysteria,” Albert Fish was a cannibal and pedophile turned serial killer charged with murdering three children. Fish even teased that his victim count is up to 100 children. Fish was executed by electrocution on January 16, 1936, at Sing Sing Prison.

“I don’t believe in man, God nor devil. I hate the whole damned human race, including myself...I preyed upon the wake of the harmless and the unsuspecting. This lesson I was taught by others: Might makes it right.” 

Known as “The Green River Killer,” Gary Ridgway murdered almost 50 women in Washington but confessed to as many 75-80 victims in total. Ridgway picked up the women and frequently brought them to his home, where he strangled them to death. The “Green River Killer” would then dump some of the bodies by the Green River. With the help of notorious serial killer Ted Bundy and DNA testing, Ridgway was caught in 2001.

“I’m the most cold-hearted son-of-a-bitch you’ll ever meet.” 

A serial rapist, murderer, and necrophiliac, Bundy is one of the more well-known American serial killers. Bundy is infamous for the charm that he used against his unsuspecting female victims. He is known to have killed upwards of 36 women, but there is a possibility of more unidentified victims. In 1989, Bundy was executed by electrocution at a Florida prison. 

“You maggots make me sick. I will be avenged. Lucifer dwells within us all.” 

Famously known by his alias, “The Night Stalker,” Richard Ramirez terrorized California residents during the spring and summer of 1985. A follower of Satanism, Ramirez murdered 14 people and raped several others, which typically occurred at night, hence the name “The Night Stalker.” Ramirez was sentenced to death in 1989 and later died of cancer at age 53 in 2013. 

“To me, this world is nothing but evil, and my own evil just happened to come out the ‘cause of the circumstances of what I was doing.” 

Sex worker turned serial killer, Aileen Wuornos was charged with murdering six men in Florida. Wuornos’s first victim was a client who picked her up in 1989, which eventually led to her killing five other men. Wuornos was executed by lethal injection in 2002. 

“I like killing people because it is so much fun. It is more fun than killing wild game in the forest because man is the most dangerous animal of them all.” 

The Zodiac Killer committed a string of murders in Northern California during the 1960s and 1970s. The unidentified serial killer was given the pseudonym due to the letters he sent to the newspaper and the police, signed by “The Zodiac Killer.” The unknown serial killer is responsible for five murders, and 51 years later, has not been caught. 

“I wish you all had one neck and that I had my hands on it.

Carl Panzram was an American serial killer that targeted men and young boys. Between 1920 and 1929, he committed over 22 murders by strangling, shooting, or beating his victims with a rock or iron bar. He was sentenced to death by execution on Sept. 5, 1930.

“The only motive that there ever was to completely control a person; a person I found physically attractive. And keep them with me as long as possible, even if it meant just keeping a part of them.” 

Jeffrey Dahmer was a cannibalistic and necrophiliac serial killer who lured young black men to his apartment with the promise of drugs, sex or money. He murdered 17 men between 1978 and 1991, hoping to keep some of them as sex zombies. During his prison stint, he was killed by another inmate in 1994. 

“What I liked most was the hunt, the challenge of what the thing was. The killing for me was secondary. I got no rise as such out of it...for the most part. But figuring it out, the challenge--the stalking and doing it right, successfully--that excited me a lot. The greater the odds against me, the more juice I got out of it.” 

Given the nickname “The Iceman,” Richard Kulinski was charged with four murders in 1988, with an additional murder count added in 2003. Kulinski, a serial killer, hired as a hitman for the Mafia, later confessed in interviews that he is responsible for at least 100 murders in total. He was given two consecutive terms for the five murders. “The Iceman” died at age 70 in 2006. 

“I switched (from stabbing to strangling) because I was tired of getting blood on myself.” 

Gary Lee Sampson is a bank robber turned spree killer after murdering three people over a week that spanned two states. 

“I actually think I may be possessed with demons...I was dropped on my head as a kid.” 

Dennis Rader lived the double-life of a devoted husband and father while also being a vicious killer. Dubbed “The BTK (Bind, Torture, Kill) Killer,” Rader murdered 10 women between 1974 and 1991. The BTK Killer’s identity was unknown for several decades until Rader’s alter ego and his taunting of the police with clues caught up with him. 

“A clown can get away with murder.” 

Considered one of America’s worst serial killers, John Wayne Gacy raped and murdered at least 33 young men, many of which were buried at his house. Also known as “The Killer Clown, Gacy would dress up as a clown as a hobby. Gacy’s murders went under the radar until accusations of sexual assault came to light, leading to the reveal of his murders. Gacy was executed by lethal injection at the Stateville Penitentiary in Illinois.