Serial killers are known to be lethal with weapons in their hands, but they can also incite fear with their pens as the following creepy letters have proved. They were written by some of the most notorious and twisted killers in history.
The letters became tools to taunt the police, make demands, hurt the victims' families, or make chilling confessions. Each one was likely written with the same hand that the killer used to slay his victims.
10. Albert Fish
Creepy serial killer Albert Fish was known as "The Boogeyman" as he preyed on small children and was a suspect in at least five brutal child murders. In 1928, he kidnapped 10-year-old Grace Budd. Then he murdered her and cannibalized her remains at an abandoned house in Westchester County, New York.
Afterward, Fish sent a letter to Budd's mother describing in horrifying detail how he murdered the young girl. He wrote:
When all was ready, I went to the window and called her. Then I hid in a closet until she was in the room. When she saw me all naked, she began to cry and tried to run downstairs. I grabbed her, and she said she would tell her mama. How she did kick, bite, and scratch. I (then) cut her in small pieces so I could take my meat to my rooms, cook and eat it.
The letter became the downfall of Fish as police were able to trace the killer from the unique branding on the envelope he had sent.
9. Donald Harvey
Donald Harvey was a former orderly in hospitals in Ohio and Kentucky during the 1970s and 1980s. During this time, he killed an estimated 37 patients. However, the real victim count is believed to be much higher as Harvey claimed the figure is closer to 70. His killing spree "began by accident" after hooking up a patient to an empty oxygen tank, and then he just couldn't stop.
The cold-blooded killer never showed any remorse for his crimes. In one interview, he said, "Some of those (patients) might have lasted a few more hours or a few more days, but they were all going to die. I know you think I played God, and I did."
In a chilling letter that he wrote behind bars, the serial killer joked, "Lord, Grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, change the things I can, and the wisdom to hide the bodies of those people I had to kill because they pissed me off."
8. Dr. H.H. Holmes
Dr. H.H. Holmes was a twisted serial killer who built a "Murder Castle" in Chicago with the intention to kill as many victims as possible. The 100-room building had long, winding corridors that would disorient victims. It also had trapdoors, false walls, and gas chambers. Holmes then sold the cadavers to medical research institutions, and the organs were traded on the black market.
On April 11, 1896, he wrote a full letter of confession to the Philadelphia North American newspaper:
I was born with the devil in me. I could not help the fact that I was a murderer, no more than the poet can help the inspiration to sing. I was born with the "Evil One" standing as my sponsor beside the bed where I was ushered into the world, and he has been with me since.
One month later, he was hanged at Moyamensing Prison for his crimes.
7. Gary Ridgway
Gary Ridgway became known as the "Green River Killer" after he confessed to murdering 48 sex workers and runaways in the state of Washington during the 1980s and 1990s. Ridgway said, "I picked prostitutes because I thought I could kill as many of them as I wanted without getting caught."
In 1984, he wrote a letter about the murders titled "what you need to know about the green river man" and sent it to the Seattle Post-Intelligencer. In disturbing detail, the killer wrote about necrophilia and cutting off the fingernails of victims before signing off as "callmefred."
