How These Notorious Serial Killers Were Really Caught

Parents often tell their kids monsters don't exist, but just listen to a true crime podcast or watch an episode of Mindhunters and it becomes pretty clear the world is full of bloodthirsty beasts in the form of serial killers. These real-life monsters prey on the weak and enjoy hurting others, but unlike the cinematic slashers of Halloween or A Nightmare on Elm Street, you can actually stop a serial killer. Sure, they're violent psychopaths who seem larger-than-life, but despite their twisted minds and demonic deeds, they're only human. Sooner or later, they're bound to slip up. Some bring their own downfall by taunting the cops, others get sloppy as they get older, and some are defeated by the almighty power of technology. From terrifying tales of old-timey cannibals to modern-day murderers straight from the headlines, these are the stories about notorious serial killers and how they were finally caught.

Jeffrey Dahmer was no ordinary serial killer. He collected skulls, practiced necrophilia and cannibalism, and tried turning victims into zombie slaves. Before getting caught, Dahmer murdered 17 people and turned his apartment into a shrine of death, full of bones and preserved body parts.

Dahmer would trick unsuspecting men into his apartment, where things got really nasty really fast. And while there were a few hiccups here are there, his plan was pretty much foolproof — until he picked up Tracy Edwards. Dahmer offered him $100 to pose for racy photos, but once he got his victim inside, Dahmer slapped handcuffs on Edwards and pulled out a gigantic knife. He then forced Edwards into his bedroom where they began the strangest movie night ever, with Dahmer watching The Exorcist III while chanting and rocking back and forth.

While Dahmer was distracted, Edwards bashed him over the head and escaped his lair. He quickly found some cops, showed them the cuffs, and asked for help. Together, the two officers and Edwards went to Dahmer's apartment where the killer said he'd step into his bedroom and fetch the key. But when Edwards mentioned Dahmer's knife was back there, one of the cops decided he'd search the room himself, and that's when he spotted a stash of brutal photos of body parts and dismembered corpses.

Realizing the Polaroids were real, the cop shouted for his partner to grab Dahmer. The serial killer tried fighting back but to no avail. After cuffing him, the cops found an apartment full of genitals, refrigerated heads, and an altar made of skulls. It was the grisliest decorating job in American history, and Tracy Edwards was the key to tearing it all down.

Dennis Rader was known as "BTK," a sick acronym that stands for "Bind Torture Kill." Over 17 years, Rader murdered ten victims, including almost every member of the Otero family in 1974. Like his moniker suggests, Rader was a sadist who got a sexual thrill from hurting people. In addition to his psychopathic perversions, Rader was incredibly cocky. In 2004, 30 years after the Otero murders, Rader was craving the spotlight. He'd always been the kind of killer who taunted the cops, and now he started it up again, sending documents to local news stations, letting everyone know BTK was alive and well.

But as the old saying goes, pride comes before the fall. That's especially true when you don't know the first thing about technology. See, Rader wanted to send all his letters on floppy discs, but he was unsure if the cops could track him down through the tech. So he literally asked the police if it was possible, telling them to respond through the classifieds and, most importantly, to "be honest." Obviously, the cops had no intention of telling the truth, and when Rader mailed his floppy disc, it was all downhill from there for the serial killer.

After opening a document, authorities went to the properties section, and saw it had been saved by a "Dennis" and recently used at a nearby church. So when they learned that a Dennis Rader was a respected member of this particular church's congregation, they ran a DNA test. When it came back positive, BTK was bound for life, but what bothered Rader the most was that the cops had lied to him. He was genuinely hurt by their trickery, but he had no one to blame but himself for using that floppy disc ... and also for murdering ten people.

Germany has had its fair share of murderers, but it's been decades and decades since the country has seen a killer like Niels Högel. In fact, Högel makes guys like Ted Bundy, John Wayne Gacy, and Jeffrey Dahmer look like amateurs. Between 1999 and 2005, Högel worked as a nurse at two hospitals, and death seemed to follow him wherever he went. At the Delmenhorst hospital, the ICU death rates actually doubled, probably because Högel got his kicks by poisoning people and trying to resuscitate them. It allegedly gave him an incredible high to save a patient — a patient he had put in danger — but more often than not, Högel was better at slaughtering than saving.

Using a deadly combo of drugs, Högel allegedly killed at least 100 people, all so he could feel good and impress his colleagues. But the madman was finally caught in 2005 when a member of the hospital staff walked in and saw Högel doing the deed. However, even though Högel was reported for trying to murder a patient, the head honchos at the hospital waited two whole days before contacting the authorities, and during that time, Högel killed again. Sure, he was busted, but thanks to incompetence and neglect for over six years (several other hospital employees are facing negligent manslaughter charges), Högel's nursing turned a place of healing into a living hell.

Dennis Nilsen was basically the British Jeffrey Dahmer — a gay serial killer who lured men to his apartment to strangle them and have his way with the corpses. However, since Nilsen lived in a North London apartment, body disposal posed a bit of a problem, especially since he killed up to 15 people in just a few years. Nilsen kept stashing the corpses under the floorboards until there was no room left. When the smell (and the flies) got too awful, he had a great big bonfire in the backyard, and nobody thought to ask what he was burning.

However, Nilsen's predicament got even more complicated when he moved to an attic flat that didn't have floorboards to use as a cemetery. So he decided to try the "dead goldfish" trick: dismembering the bodies and flushing them down his toilet. This technique worked for a while, until someone else in the apartment building called a plumber because their drains were all clogged up. When the plumber investigated, he discovered the pipes were full of flesh. He decided to return the next day for a more in-depth inspection, but Nilsen worked through the night to clear out the pipes.

Of course, that only made the plumber incredibly suspicious when he returned. That's when the cops got involved, and they eventually wound up at Nilsen's flat. The serial killer still had body parts in his bedroom, and the stench was awful. So when the cops got a whiff, Nilsen didn't even resist. He immediately admitted there was bodies bagged up in the back, and just like that, Nilsen was flushed out of hiding by his own stupid scheme.

The Soviet Union had a problem. According to the state, the USSR was a utopian society where serial killers couldn't exist. However, between 1978 and 1990, one of those nonexistent serial killers was wreaking havoc across Russia. Known as "The Rostov Ripper," Andrei Chikatilo was an absolute savage, killing at least 50 people in the most brutal ways possible. He would lurk around train stations and bus stops and then lure his victims, both young males and females, into the woods where things would get really messed up.

The state's denial of serial killers made things difficult for Soviet police to catch this creep, but they did their best to keep an eye on Chikatilo's stomping grounds. Eventually, that paid off when a watchful policeman noticed Chikatilo at a train station, looking a tad conspicuous. His clothes were covered in leaves and mud like he'd been doing something in the woods, and he had an odd amount of blood on his earlobe and cheek, plus a hand injury. Even though he couldn't prove Chikatilo had done anything wrong, the cop had a feeling this squirrely-looking guy was up to no good.

Concerned, the officer filed a report, and when a body later showed up in the area, the cops looked through records to see if anybody weird had been stopped near the crime scene. They stumbled across Chikatilo's record and discovered he'd been questioned in regards to multiple murders connected to the Rostov Ripper. Intrigued, they watched Chikatilo for six days, and after witnessing him harass a lot of young women and kids, they hauled him into the station where he cracked under some Soviet-style interrogation.