Famous Serial Killers Who Are Pisces

The 12th sign of the Zodiac houses those born between February 19 and March 20. According to Astrology, those born with this birth sign are "selfless, spiritual, and very focused on their inner journey." There have been great figures from history that have been Pisces, including Albert Einstein, Dred Scot, and George Washington. Hollywood has also seen many Pisces rise to fame, with a list ranging from Desi Arnaz to Lou Costello to Elliot Page.

While there are a good number of positive traits associated with those born under this Zodiac sign, Pisces can also have some warning signs to be aware of. The worst of them are moody, overly emotional, secretive, and pessimistic. They can be closed off emotionally and are sometimes difficult to employ (via Your Tango). Many Pisces are also easily manipulated and have problems maintaining healthy romantic relationships.

But every sign of the zodiac has those that may fit the sign's description but represent the worst of its attributes. For every world leader and A-list star that is in the 12th house, there's an infamous figure lurking alongside. There are a shocking number of serial killers that are Pisces, too many to list in detail in this article. With that said, here are some of the most infamous.

Throughout the 1970s and 1980s, the people of Wichita lived in fear of a brutal assailant who was known to police and the media with the initials "BTK." Short for "bind, torture, kill," BTK savagely killed 10 people in this Kansas town from 1974 until 1991. According to Psychology Today, BTK enjoyed playing a cat and mouse game with the local authorities and the press, sending them multiple letters over the years.

After his 1991 murder, BTK went silent for nearly 15 years. In 2005, he resumed his taunts to the police, who were able to track the IP address of the email sender. The investigation revealed that BTK was Dennis Rader, a middle-aged family man from Wichita. The killer had been sending emails to police from a computer at his local church, where Rader served as a church worker (per Biography). Rader's victims included men, women, and children. He would break into their homes, often forcing the occupants to tie each other up at gunpoint. Rader's preferred form of execution was strangulation, as he enjoyed the lengthy amount of time it took for his victims to succumb in this manner.

Like many Pisces, Rader had a secretive side that he was able to successfully conceal from his wife and children. Had he not made the mistake of using email to contact the police, Rader might very well still be free today. Rader was sentenced to serve 10 consecutive life sentences and will likely die behind bars.

There is probably no form of life more horrifying than one that preys on the young. During the 1970s, John Wayne Gacy did just that, showing the master manipulation skills that are akin to some of the worst Pisces on the planet. 

Gacy ran a construction company and would often lure teenage boys to their deaths with the promise of work. Newsweek reports that Gacy would sexually assault and strangle his young victims, disposing of many of their bodies inside a crawl space underneath his house in Chicago.  When he was arrested in 1978, it was revealed that Gacy had stored 26 bodies of his victims in this crawl space. But he killed more than what was recovered there — additional bodies were located in the Des Plaines River, and even more were found buried elsewhere on Gacy's property. Altogether, Gacy confessed to murdering 33 young men and boys, not all of whom have been identified. Authorities believe he could be responsible for even more.

A chilling detail in Gacy's life was one of his hobbies. Known as "Pogo the Clown," Gacy would often dress up to entertain the children of friends and acquaintances. After news of his crimes broke, Gacy was given the apt moniker of the "Killer Clown." According to ABC News, Gacy was found guilty of 33 murders in 1980. He was executed by lethal injection in 1994.

If you or anyone you know has been a victim of sexual assault, help is available. Visit the Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network website or contact RAINN's National Helpline at 1-800-656-HOPE (4673).

It's hard to estimate how many lives Ottis Toole was responsible for taking. When he and his partner in crime, Henry Lee Lucas, were finally apprehended, authorities all over the country made their way to the jail that held them while Lucas confessed. Though the confession count from Lucas was sometimes as high as 600, the district attorney who prosecuted him thought that he only killed as many as 12 (per The Cinemaholic). 

Toole also confessed to a high number of murders, claiming responsibility for more than 100 (he stated that he and Lucas did them together). What is known for sure, according to Biography, is that Toole was arrested and convicted for the murder of 64-year-old George Sonnenberg, who perished after Toole intentionally started a fire. After being charged with Sonnenberg's murder, Toole was charged with an additional five murders. He was convicted and sentenced to die, though he succumbed to liver failure in 1996 before he ever faced the gas chamber.

It's known that a Pisces can sometimes fall hard romantically, which was the case for Toole. He idolized his sometimes lover, Lucas. One might speculate that the developmentally disabled Toole was easily manipulated by Lucas, possibly increasing Toole's involvement in several murders. One fact about Toole that is worth mentioning is that he is widely believed to have been the kidnapper and killer of Adam Walsh, the son of "America's Most Wanted" host John Walsh. Toole confessed to Walsh's murder twice, though he later recanted. 

Another Pisces who terrorized the highways of Florida was Aileen Wuornos. The victim of horrific childhood abuse at the hands of her adoptive grandfather, the trauma from years of his physical and sexual abuse no doubt took its toll on Wuornos, who ran away from home as a teenager (per Biography). 

Wuornos had difficulty maintaining employment, displaying one of the more negative characteristics of the Pisces sign. She found herself living in Florida during the 1980s, making her living as a sex worker at Florida truck stops. What makes Wuornos interesting is that she doesn't fit the description of a typical serial killer. But her uncontrollable rage and hatred toward men drove her to kill at least six men that had solicited her for sex. 

Wuornos claimed in court that she had murdered all of her victims out of self-defense, as they were all sexually assaulting her. Her defense wasn't good enough for the courts, however, and she was found guilty of six charges of murder and sentenced to death. She was executed by lethal injection on October 9, 2002 (per WFLA). The ashes of the former sex worker known as "Lee" were later scattered near a tree in her hometown of Troy, Michigan.

If you or anyone you know has been a victim of sexual assault, help is available. Visit the Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network website or contact RAINN's National Helpline at 1-800-656-HOPE (4673).

Scotland's most notorious serial killer is Peter Manuel, known as the "Beast of Birkenshaw" (per Glasgow Live). During the 1950s, this monster terrorized the country with some of the most violent sexual assaults and murders known in this nation's modern history.

A deeply troubled youth, Manuel was sent away as a teen to live in a boarding school for juvenile delinquents (per the Daily Express). Manuel began exhibiting sexually disturbing behaviors and committing acts of sexual violence at the young age of 15, including act one against the wife of a school worker. That act resulted in Manuel being sentenced to two years in prison. Over the next twelve years, Manuel was in and out of prison for various sexual assault arrests. His violence was escalating beyond assault, however. At the age of 28, Manuel committed his first known murder, 17-year-old Anne Kneilands. The victim was also sexually assaulted.

Manuel murdered at least seven others over the next year, with his final known victims being the Smart family, whom he killed on New Year's Day, 1958. After breaking into their home, he shot and killed Peter and Doris Smart and their 10-year-old son Michael. He was convicted of seven murders at his trial in 1958 and sentenced to die by the court. That sentence was carried out in June of that year when a noose was tightened around Manuel's neck, and his body dropped from the gallows.

If you or anyone you know has been a victim of sexual assault, help is available. Visit the Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network website or contact RAINN's National Helpline at 1-800-656-HOPE (4673).

Edgar Eric Cooke has the distinction of being the last person to be hanged in Western Australia. This fellow Pisces was born on February 25, 1931, and was a terror from early childhood on. Cooke was convicted of murdering eight victims and of attempting to murder an additional 14 others (per Murderpedia).

Nine News in Australia reports that Cooke's murders resulted in the wrongful convictions of two men. In 1963, 19-year-old John Button was sentenced to 10 years of hard labor for murdering his girlfriend, who was later revealed to have been killed by Cooke. Button was released from prison early and fully exonerated in 2022. Darryl Beamish, a deaf-mute teenager, was imprisoned for the brutal ax murder of a Perth woman in 1959. Convicted and sentenced to death, Beamish would later have his execution reduced to life imprisonment. He was released after serving 15 years. He received a full commutation of the crime over 45 years after it was committed, in 2005 (per The Sydney Morning Herald).

Cooke began his crime spree in Perth in 1959, later confessing to multiple counts of murder and over 200 robberies and burglaries. His MO of breaking into homes at night and surprising residents earned him the nickname the "Night Caller." A family man, Cooke was able to keep his intentions well hidden from his loved ones until he was finally caught. He was executed on October 26, 1964, in Perth (via ABC News Australia). 

Pisces are known to be compassionate folks, so it's no surprise to find so many belonging to this house of the zodiac in the field of nursing. But there is at least one such Pisces whose compassion was swapped with serial murder.

Charles Cullen had been working as a nurse in New Jersey and Pennsylvania, but he harbored a terrible secret — he had been covertly injecting his patients with overdoses of medication, killing dozens left in his care from 1987 until 2003 (per the Stamford Advocate). His murder weapon of choice was digoxin, a medication used for treating heart conditions, but he would sometimes use insulin injected into IVs if his preferred drug wasn't readily available. Cullen carried out his murders across nine hospitals, and though staff at some believed that he was harming patients, they also failed to report their suspicions to proper authorities.

After he was caught, Cullen defended his actions by stating that he was working to relieve his patients of their suffering. After his guilty plea to 13 murders in 2005, Cullen was given 13 consecutive life sentences (per New York Magazine). The only journalist to get a post-conviction interview with Cullen was Charles Graber. Graber, in an interview with NPR, discussed Cullen's severe narcissism and his uncontrollable need to "be the hero," believing that taking his patients' lives made him so. 

Cullen celebrates his birthday with other Pisces on February 22 in a prison in Trenton, New Jersey.

Of all the serial murderers born in the house of Pisces, none is perhaps more terrifying than Richard Ramirez. Dubbed the "Night Stalker" due to his MO of breaking into homes during the evening hours, Ramirez was a savage killer and brutal serial rapist. CBS News reports that he murdered at least 13 people during his murder spree that took place between June 1984 and August 1985. He used a variety of weapons in his attacks, ranging from a .22 caliber handgun to a tire iron. Not all of the people he attacked died, however, as at least five different survivors recall him leaving them for dead.

A Pisces can sometimes be impressionable to a fault, as might have been the case with Ramirez. At the young age of 13, he witnessed his older cousin committing murder. This act certainly had an impact on Ramirez and may have influenced his life of crime. Ramirez was finally apprehended after a foot chase led by angry Los Angeles residents in August of 1985. A botched carjacking by Ramirez set off a series of events that led to him being attacked and beaten before police could arrive. Ramirez was found guilty of 13 counts of first-degree murder, five counts of attempted murder, and 11 counts of sexual assault. He was given 19 death sentences.

The Night Stalker that terrorized Los Angeles died of cancer in a prison hospital in 2003.

Christopher Wilder was a wealthy Australian race car driver who resided in Boynton Beach, Florida. But this high society fellow had quite a dark side that he kept hidden from plain view. Wilder was a serial rapist and murderer whose crimes would earn him the name the "Beauty Queen Killer."

Wilder targeted aspiring models and beauty pageant contestants in the mid-1980s. His method of operation was simple — he would approach young women he found attractive while out at shopping malls, offering them jobs as models (per History). Wilder would then torture his victims, sometimes gluing their eyes shut and using electric shocks before he raped and murdered them (per 7 News Australia). 

The crime spree Wilder was going to be charged for was a short-lived one. Over six weeks beginning in February 1984, Wilder drove across the country from Florida to Los Angeles, then back again. He looked for victims throughout this trip, killing at least nine. Wilder's crimes got him placed on the FBI's Ten Most Wanted list, leading to his near capture by state troopers in New Hampshire while he was on the run. Rather than be apprehended, Wilder committed suicide by shooting himself on April 13, 1984. 

Wilder is a suspect in numerous other murders in Florida and Australia.

When studying the rich history of New Orleans, you're sure to come across tales of Madame Delphine LaLaurie. This wealthy woman lived in the Crescent City with her husband and numerous enslaved people and servants in the 1820s and 1830s (per History). LaLaurie had purchased a home on Royal Street, a lavish mansion that was the site of many large parties and formal occasions hosted by the rich occupants.

LaLaurie was known to be a cruel owner of enslaved people, even being cited for the death of one girl who fell to her death from the roof of the mansion that imprisoned her. LaLaurie was found responsible for the girl's death after it was revealed that she had chased her out onto the roof with a whip. She was ordered to sell her enslaved people but duped authorities by having friends and relatives buy them and give them back to her. 

A year later, a fire broke out in LaLaurie's mansion. When rescuers arrived, they discovered just how cruel LaLaurie was. In the attic was a torture chamber for enslaved people. Some were crammed into tiny cages, while others were stretched out, their limbs and necks pulled beyond their natural limits (per Historic Mysteries). Others were held in position with spiked iron collars. LaLaurie and her husband fled New Orleans before charges could be filed against either of them. Though her ultimate whereabouts were never officially known, she is widely believed to have escaped to France, where she supposedly died in 1842.

Todd Kohlhepp was released from prison in 2001 after serving a 14-year sentence for kidnapping (via Greenville News). At the age of 15, Kohlhepp abducted a 14-year-old girl and sexually assaulted her. CBS News reports that though he was a minor at the time, the severity of the crimes and his previous destructive history from the age of 9 forward worried the judge that sentenced him. The judge stated that Kohlhepp "has been unabatedly aggressive to others and destructive of property since nursery school." 

It didn't take him long after serving his prison sentence to re-offend. Though he managed to build himself into a successful realtor and business owner, Kohlhepp was guarding a brutal side to his double life. In 2003, the newly freed Kohlhepp robbed a Motocross store in Chesnee, South Carolina, killing four people in the process. CBS News reports that these horrific slayings went unsolved until 2016, when Kohlhepp was arrested for imprisoning a woman in a metal storage container on his rural property. The murdered remains of the woman's boyfriend were found close by.

Investigators were able to get a confession out of Kohlhepp for the kidnapping/imprisonment, as well as an admission to killing the man whose remains were found on his property. He then went on to confess to other murders, including the four committed in 2003 in Chesnee (via NBC News). 

Altogether, Kohlhepp was convicted of seven murders. His confessions were part of a plea bargain that spared him the death penalty. 

Randy Steven Kraft may very well be one of the most prolific serial killers that ever lived. Though only charged with 16 murders, Kraft was thought by prosecutors to have murdered at least 45 men and teenage boys during a murderous rampage that lasted from 1972 until 1983 and spanned the states of California, Oregon, and Michigan (per the Los Angeles Times). 

Kraft looked for victims along the freeways, picking up hitchhikers. He was believed to have drugged many of his murder victims so that they could not fight him off. After they were sedated, Kraft would sexually assault and murder them. Kraft would then dispose of the bodies along the interstates, giving him the nickname the "Freeway Killer."

But coded messages found in Kraft's vehicle gave him another nickname that he would be better known by. The handwritten note was perceived as a death list of Kraft's victims, making him known as the "Scorecard Killer." Kraft lived the ultimate double life of a Pisces, having a live-in partner who suspected nothing of Kraft being a highly motivated serial killer. 

Based on the "scorecard," it's believed that Kraft might be responsible for as many as 67 murders (per Murderpedia).

Though Albert Fish might not have a death count as high as John Wayne Gacy or Richard Ramirez, his life of crime is arguably just as chilling. History and All That's Interesting report that Fish was known as the "Werewolf of Wisteria" and the "Moon Maniac." Though it's not entirely clear exactly how many victims lost their lives to Fish, the courts believed he killed up to 10 children.

A child killer as well as a cannibal, Fish is best known for the murder of 10-year-old Grace Budd in 1928. After the young girl was left in his care for the afternoon, Fish strangled her to death before cutting her body into pieces with a saw. Thought to be a sadomasochist, Fish's children recalled how he would instruct them to strike him with hairbrushes, and how they saw him paddle himself with a board studded with nails. 

In a horrible letter written by Fish to Budd's mother, he wrote in detail how he made a stew from her flesh and dined on her body for over a week. It was this letter that was able to tie Fish to the murder of Budd, leading to his arrest for her murder. Fish was tried, convicted, and sentenced to die at Sing Sing Prison in New York. He was strapped into the electric chair on January 16, 1936, but only after stating his last words: "It will be the supreme thrill, the only one I haven't tried."