It's Friday the 13th, so we're going dark, but we'll keep it restrained. Serial killers dominate true crime, yet the real stories are stranger than the movies. These three sound made up, but every one of them is true.
1. How do serial killers finally get caught?
Sometimes the answer is a parking ticket. The Son of Sam, David Berkowitz, terrorized New York in 1976 and 1977 and killed six people. Police were buried in reports of suspicious people, and the break came from something very ordinary.
On July 31, 1977, officers ticketed a car parked near a fire hydrant. A witness noticed the ticket, and it led police to a 1970 Ford Galaxie registered to Berkowitz in Yonkers. He was arrested on August 10, 1977.
To be fair, the ticket didn't work alone. It landed on top of a mountain of detective work. He also claimed a demon in his neighbor's black Labrador ordered the attacks, a story he later admitted was made up. He received 365 years in prison.
2. How many serial killers are out there right now?
A widely cited FBI estimate says between 25 and 50 serial killers may be active in the U.S. at any given time. It's an estimate, and it includes killers whose crimes haven't been connected yet. The FBI defines serial murder as two or more killings as separate events, usually by one offender.
The number has fallen over time. Researcher Mike Aamodt's data counted 151 active in 1994, then about 30 by 2015. Experts credit better forensics, and DNA and cameras make getting away with it harder.
So it sounds scary, but serial killers account for only a tiny sliver of murders, and your everyday risk is very low.
3. Did a serial killer really win a TV dating show?
Yes. In 1978, Rodney Alcala appeared on The Dating Game, and he was already in the middle of a killing spree. He'd been convicted in 1972 of raping a child and paroled after less than three years. The show ran no background check.
Contestant Cheryl Bradshaw picked him as Bachelor Number One. Then she had second thoughts. She called a producer and said she was getting weird vibes, and later recalled, "He was acting really creepy." She turned down the date.
Another contestant, actor Jed Mills, said Alcala told him backstage, "I always get my girl." Mills also found him creepy. Alcala was later sentenced to death and died of natural causes in 2021. The lesson: trust your gut, even when the audience is clapping.
