Serial killers sometimes use aliases to keep from being easily identified. Most of the time, their fake names will complicate investigations and throw the police off their tracks. Other times, it provides them with an easy getaway whenever they are arrested for other crimes.
If having a serial killer around is scary, having them operate under an alias would definitely be scarier. And as we are about to find out, it's not that uncommon.
10. Dr. Marcel Petiot
During World War II, Dr. Eugene started the business of smuggling people from occupied France to South America. In truth, however, he never smuggled anyone to South America. Rather, he smuggled them to their graves by injecting them with cyanide under the guise of vaccinating them in preparation for their trip. Thereafter, he stole their possessions and destroyed their corpses. The doctor's real name wasn't Dr. Eugene but Dr. Marcel Andre Henri Felix Petiot.
The Gestapo soon got wind of Petiot's smuggling services and, thinking that he really helped people to escape France, organized a sting operation. At the forefront was Yvan Dreyfus, an unfortunate prisoner they made to order Petiot's services. Dreyfus vanished without a trace, and the Gestapo, thinking he had been smuggled out of France, infiltrated Petiot's group and arrested some of his associates. Petiot escaped and fled to live with some friends, claiming that the Gestapo wanted him for killing some Germans. As time went on, he grew a beard and took up several aliases, including Henri Valeri.
The French police heard of Petiot's serial-killing activities after the liberation of France and immediately launched a manhunt for him. One of the people involved in the manhunt was Henri Valeri, who, as we already know, was Petiot himself. So, Petiot was basically looking for himself. He was ultimately charged with killing 26 of the 27 corpses found in his home. He claimed the bodies were part of the 63 German soldiers he and his resistance network had killed. The French government did not buy his story and had him beheaded on May 25, 1946.[1]
9. Charles Ray Hatcher
Charles Ray Hatcher was a robber, forger, and serial killer convicted of killing 11-year-old Michelle Steele and 15 other children between 1969 and 1982. Hatcher had an early start in crime and had started breaking into houses since he was 12. He fled home at 14 and went in and out of prison for most of his life. During one of his prison stints, he was suspected to have raped and murdered a fellow inmate. However, he was not charged for the crime since there wasn't enough evidence.
On August 27, 1969, Hatcher kidnapped and murdered 12-year-old William Freeman, and two days later, he tried to kill six-year-old Gilbert Martinez. A man saw him during the act and called the police. When officers arrived, Hatcher claimed he was Albert Ralph Price, even though his ID bore Hobert Prater. He was not charged for the crimes, as he was found unfit to stand trial. Rather, he was sent to an hospital from which he escaped on June 2, 1971. A week later, he was arrested for car theft. This time, Hatcher claimed he was Richard Lee Grady.
Hatcher spent most of his sentence shuffling between a prison and a hospital until he was paroled in May 1977 for "good behavior." He quickly returned to crime and was arrested again in September 1978 for sexually assaulting a 16-year-old boy. This time, he used the alias Richard Clark. He was released and arrested again, and it went on and on until he was finally tried on December 3, 1984. Hatcher demanded to be executed for his crimes, but the jury declined and proposed that he should be sentenced to life imprisonment.[2] Four days later, he hanged himself.
8. John Schmidt
John Schmidt arrived in the United States in 1883, and what followed was a serial-killing spree that lasted for over 20 years. His targeted wealthy women, who he married, swindled, and murdered. Schmidt used several aliases during his murder spree. Around 1898, he called himself Martin Dotz and later Jacob Huff. It was with this name that he married Caroline Hoch, who he poisoned before selling her house, receiving her life insurance, and pretending to commit suicide by drowning in the Ohio river.
