12 Killer Couples of History

1.

Richard Loeb and Nathan Leopold: These lovers thought they could commit the perfect crime. So, in 1924, they kidnapped Bobby Franks, a 14-year-old boy and Leopold’s second cousin, and murdered him. The problem was they weren’t very good at committing their crime and police traced the murder back to them. It was murder just to see if they could get away with it, a sick sort of game that Leopold and Loeb believed. Then again, they also thought they were a superior form of human. They were tried and convicted. Loeb would eventually be murdered by fellow inmates.

2.

Bonnie and Clyde: Perhaps the most infamous duo in American history, they are responsible for the deaths of nine police officers and several civilians. Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow would be the subject of movies, novels and documentaries for their reign of terror that included robbing gas stations, banks and stores and shooting it out with police and civilians. They even helped stage a breakout of Eastham Prison in 1934. They led a gang that robbed and murdered from the south to as far north as Minnesota. They would eventually be ambushed by lawmen in Louisiana and be killed in the gun fight in 1934. Armed robbery, kidnapping and murder were all common for the Barrow gang.

3.

The Moors Murders: The Moors Murders were committed by Ian Brady and Myra Hindley around Manchester, England from 1963 to 1965. They kidnapped and murdered five boys and girls ranging in age from 10 to 17. At least four of their victims were also sexually abused. The murders are still considered some of the grisliest committed in England. The couple would lure the children into Hindley’s van and take them to the Moor under the pretense of looking for a lost glove. They would then be sexually assaulted, murdered and buried. Brady, however, did kill one victim in his home and couldn’t remove the body himself so he enlisted the help of his 17-year-old brother-in-law, David Smith. However, Smith had second thoughts and went to the police who searched the house and found the body of 17-year-old Edward Evans in a bedroom. They were both given life imprisonment and Hindley died in prison. Brady was diagnosed a psychopath in 1985 and was moved from prison to Ashworth Psychiatric Hospital. He has since made it clear he never wants to be released.

4.

Paul Bernardo and Karla Homolka: These married Canadians raped and murdered three women during their reign of terror from Dec. 24, 1990 to Apr. 19, 1992 in Scarborough, a suburb of Toronto. The last victim was Homolka’s own sister, Tammy. They were sentenced to prison after getting caught and initially Homolka tried to plea that she was forced to go along. However, videos surfaced where she made it clear she was a willing participant and she was found guilty of manslaughter. Oh, those pesky videos. Homolka was released from prison in 2005 but Bernardo was still serving time. Bernardo scored a 35/40 on the Psychopathy Checklist while Homolka scored only 5/40. Just two weeks before they were married they had kidnapped, raped and murdered a 14-year-old girl.

5.

David and Catherine Birnie: This Australian couple murdered four women and attempted to murder a fifth in what was called the Moorhouse Murders, named after the street on which the Birnie’s lived. What makes this couple especially despicable is that their murders took place over such a short time span, from Oct. 6, 1986 to Nov. 5, 1986. Their victims ranged in age from 15 to 31 and all were raped by David Birnie. They were both apprehended after their fifth potential victim escaped and called police. Birnie died in prison by his own hand while he was awaiting trial for raping a fellow inmate. Catherine is still in prison and it is unlikely she will ever be allowed to leave.

6.

Ray and Faye Copeland: This is the stuff they base horror movies on. Ray was already a petty criminal, stealing livestock and forging checks before he met Faye. He actually met her after a prison stint in 1940. They fell in love, moved to Missouri, married soon after and had several children. Because of his past, and the fact he was still stealing livestock and forging checks, he had a hard time getting himself set up and couldn’t buy livestock on his own. To get around this he started hiring drifters as farmhands, a somewhat common practice during the Great Depression, and they would buy the livestock for him using bad checks. Ray would then sell the livestock at a profit and then the drifter would vanish. This went on for years until police were tipped off by a farmhand that he had seen human bones on the farm and that Ray had tried to kill him. During the investigation in 1989 they found three bodies in a barn and further investigation turned up more bodies. They were all shot with the same weapon, a .22 rifle. Faye, for her part, made a quilt out of the clothes of the dead men. Ray would be convicted on five counts of murder in 1990 with his suspected death toll possibly being as high as 12. Both were given the death penalty, but Ray died of natural causes on death row in 1993 and Faye had her sentence commuted to life in prison. She was paroled in 2002 and died of natural causes in 2003.

7.

Henry Lee Lucas and Ottis Toole: This couple was said to be responsible for the murders of over 100 people. Toole made the statement that he and Lucas killed 108 people but they were convicted on far fewer counts with Toole being given the number of six-plus and Lucas being given the number three-plus. The two men began their murderous careers separate from each other but continued them after they became romantically involved, usually using arson as a means of murder. Their reign of terror around Florida came to an end in 1983 but nobody can be entirely certain when it began. Both died in prison.

8.

Alton Coleman and Debra Brown: Coleman had six rape charges to his name by the time he met Debra Brown. Before he was 30 he would have four sentences spanning three states for murders he committed. In 1984, Coleman, then 28, and Brown, then 21, went on a road trip of death across the Midwest. They would end up committing sexual assaults against 20 people in 13 different incidents and murder seven people, though it is believed their body count is closer to 10. Their first victim was a nine-year-old girl who was raped and strangled to death. Their next victims were another nine-year-old and her seven-year-old niece. They were both raped but only the seven-year-old died. They didn’t stick to just children, though. They would kidnap, rape and kill, men and women (the men weren’t raped) ranging in age from seven to 75. They would be captured in July of 1984 and Coleman would die in prison. Brown is still serving life in prison after her death penalty commuted to life in prison.

9.

Charles Starkweather and Caril Ann Fugate: Starkweather was just 19 when he committed his first murder and Fugate was just 14. This sick couple went on a murder spree that claimed 11 victims and two dogs from Dec. 1, 1957 to Jan. 29, 1958 in Nebraska and Wyoming. They met when he was just 18 and she just 13. When Starkweather, who had already killed one person, was told to stay away by Fugate’s parents he shot them and then killed her two-year-old sister Betty Jean by strangulation and stabbing. Fugate then helped him hide the bodies. They would go on to kill family friends and complete strangers, anyone who was unlucky enough to be alone in the area with them. They would be caught in Wyoming despite a manhunt in Nebraska by police and the National Guard. Starkweather would ride the lightning on June 25, 1959. Fugate would be sentenced to life in prison but would serve 17 years and was released in 1976. She married in 2007 but her husband was killed in a car accident in 2013, an accident that left her seriously injured. She is the youngest female in American history ever convicted of first-degree murder. Starkweather and Fugate are said to be an inspiration for several movies including ‘Natural Born Killers.’

10.

Gerald and Charlene Gallego: This couple is responsible for the deaths of at least 10 people, mostly teenage girls whom they kidnapped and kept as sex slaves before killing them. The Sacramento, Calif. couple terrorized the region from 1978 to 1980. Gerald was the son of an abusive mother and a father who was a convicted murderer who killed two policemen. They would turn to kidnapping girls to satisfy Gerald’s sexual desires and he sometimes sexually abused his own daughter and her friends. They would go on to kidnap girls ranging in age from 13 to 21. All were raped. The one exception was Craig Miller who was the fiancée to a victim, Mary Elizabeth Sowers. He was shot in the head. Gerald and Charlene murdered their victims by shooting them, beating them to death and even burying them alive.

11.

Fred and Rose West: This sick English couple is responsible for the rape and deaths of 12 women, including some of their own family. Their reign of terror lasted from 1967 to 1987 in Herefordshire, England. At age 19, Fred West was convicted of molesting a 13-year-old girl but was not sentenced to prison. Later, he would accidently kill a four-year-old boy while driving an ice cream van in 1965. When Fred was 27 he met his second wife, Rose, in 1968. She was just 15 when they met and she was just 16 when she moved in with him. In 1970, she gave birth to their first child, West’s second. While West was serving time in jail, Rose killed Fred’s stepdaughter from his first marriage. When the daughter’s mother came to get her daughter she also disappeared. The couple married and to help pay the bills, Fred encouraged Rose to become a prostitute while he would often watch her through peepholes. One of her clients was her own father. Let that sink in for a moment. In 1973, Fred raped his 8-year-old daughter in with approval from Rose. They also abused another daughter and killed her when she complained. They were caught after West filmed a rape of one of his daughters in 1992. A friend of the daughter told her mother who went to police. He was charged with rape but the case fell apart. The police, however, had begun a search for their missing daughter, Heather. They discovered human bones in their yard and that led to the West’s being arrested for murder. Fred was charged with 11 counts of murder and Rose with 10. Fred would kill himself in prison in 1995. Rose is serving life in prison without possibility of parole.

12.

The Lonely Hearts Killers: Raymond Fernandez and Martha Beck are said to have killed as many as 20 women after meeting them through lonely hearts ads, hence their nickname. Raymond was a fairly normal man growing up, having lived in Spain during WWII and serving in the Spanish Merchant Marine and British Intelligence. He would be injured on a journey to America ending up with a fractured skull and injuring his frontal lobe, which some attribute to his warped social and sexual behaviors later. Raymond was already using personal ads to meet and rob women. One woman he took to Spain where he introduced her to his wife. The woman died under suspicious circumstances and he took possession of her property through a forged will. He would meet Martha Beck through her personal ad in 1947. They would end up murdering at least 17 people but possibly more than 20. They were caught in Michigan and both died in New York by execution.