Five Terrifying Serial Killers in Recent History

Sep. 7, 2010

By Brandon Scott Gorrell info

Brandon Scott Gorrell is a writer and editor living in Brooklyn, NY.

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David Parker Ray, aka “The Toy Box Killer” (arrested, 1999)

A naked, screaming, bleeding woman with chains around her neck, wrists and ankles running through the streets of a town called Truth and Consequences, New Mexico was how serial killer David Parker Ray and his accomplice Cynthia Lee Hendy were eventually caught for the torture and murder of approximately 60 people.

David Parker Ray is of particular interest as a serial killer because of his arguably ‘evil’ treatment of his victims. Aside from using torture tools and devices such as leg spreader bars, surgical blades and saws and a 12-volt motorized ‘breast stretcher’ in a homemade torture chamber he referred to as his “toy box,” Ray would, upon capturing his victims, play for them an audio tape of himself detailing what he was going to do to them.

The tape was about twenty minutes, and described the victim’s future as a sex slave. The tape said that they would be forced to have sex with animals, to give Ray oral sex at his whim, and to endure rape and other specific acts of torture. It told the victims, presumably all female, that others had died before them during acts such as these.

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Scarier are some of the aspects of the actual “toy box.” Ray had a TV monitor in the corner of it and a video camera hooked up to the TV, pointed at a gynecology chair. Victims thus watched themselves mutilated.

Pinned to the walls of the trailer were drawings of his future torture plans, photographs of the torture he’d practiced on women and dolls in various bondage and torture positions. Ray had further written a number of texts regarding how to maintain a sex slave, including a list of sixteen brainwashing techniques.

Among his possessions, police found a copy of Bret Easton Ellis’ novel American Psycho. TC mark

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Further reading

Dnepropetrovsk maniacs (Wikipedia)
Edward Gein (Wikipedia)
Issei Sagawa (Wikipedia)
Lovers of Human Flesh (Caleb Crain)
Who’s Hungry? An Interview With Issei Sagawa, Cannibal (Vice Magazine)
Cannibalism: The Ancient Taboo in Modern Times (truTV Crime Library)
David Parker Ray (Wikipedia)
David Parker Ray: The Toy Box Killer (truTV Crime Library)

  • Cooper

    Seems bleak.

  • tao

    laying in darkness in my room

    felt scared to read this at this moment

    saw the long word starting with 'd'

    seemed scary

  • Brandon

    how'd the big barnes and noble reading go

    birthday boy….

  • http://twitter.com/MollyWest12th Molly Oswaks

    Wow. Thanks for doing this piece. I love this kind of crazy.

  • Josh Henderson

    What does it say about current human culture when a depraved killer can attain cult status? Death for most people is untouchable, but someone who has crafted it with his own hand becomes, in a sense, god-like? Very strange.

  • Jordancastroisthepresident

    whassup!

  • harry

    a woman suit…
    tuna being soft and odourless…
    this shit aint right…

  • shannon

    cringed hard upon reading 'sex with animals.'

  • mario

    damn. small white kitten. damn. i normally try to think logically or something to not feel sad about things like that. fuck. i feel like i'm not actually sad about it but thinking about being sad about it in a detached way maybe. i probably will not read the rest of this. should i read the rest of this. i feel like i'm not that upset by reading about humans being murdered maybe. feeling a vaguely strong urge to read the rest of this, maybe similarly to how i feel an urge to stick my finger into the fan in my room sometimes.

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Carlos-Ortiz/1279921705 Carlos Ortiz

    Just watched that video where the Ukranian bros kill the 48 year old man, almost made me feel uncomfortable towards the end but when the feeling didn't escalate I thought I had seen enough.
    the Japanese cannibal got lucky, I resent his freedom, but not in a moral sense.
    I don't like how he consumed someone (made her life about him) and his society celebrates it, and I don't like how he fainted after shooting his victim.

  • http://%/nositeaim Ольга

    Thought Catalog…

    Подробнее читайте на сайте Женский онлайн журнал …

  • Mmsww

    This is just an internet hoax.

  • DeputyDanger

    …There's only 4 killers listed here…Who's the 5th?

  • http://triplescience.tumblr.com Lolly

    jesus christ, i knew about all the guys apart from the last one.
    i'm never leaving the house again. thanks!

  • Socratesadams

    the first 'killer' was two people

  • mole

    the 5th is the writer…. dun dun dunnnnnn

  • samanthaphoebe

    Favorite: Edward Gein was very strange.
    Hmm…oh really?

  • Someguy

    So if two out of the five are not serial killers, why the headline? 

  • Clover

    As soon as you wrote about the kitten I couldn’t read any more about the Ukrainian boys. :(

  • http://twitter.com/mitzyredmango Mitzy

    I shall never think of tuna the same way again. :|
    After reading everything, I think I wanna throw up. :

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