Paul B Kidd - The Mutilator. And Australias Other Signature Serial Killers

The History of Signature Serial Killers Around the World

Signature, or calling card, serial killers are not only the rarest individual serial killers in the world they are also the most infamous. These are the psychopaths that legends are made of even when they are not captured. In fact, the granddaddy of them all, Jack the Ripper, is still at large. So is Zodiac.

The reason for the signature serial killers notoriety is simple. It is because they leave their victims on display with their signature there for all to see. Their murderous rampages are a work in progress until they are caught unlike the less entertaining killers, who conceal their victims and the hunt begins once the bodies turn up weeks, months or years later.

The killers signatures vary. It can be the repetitive manner of the murders. It might be similar specific injuries, or even a cryptic note telling where the next murder will take place. It could simply be the randomness of the murders when it is virtually impossible that there would be two identical killers out there. Or it could be any one of the many unique murder signatures that you will read about in this book.

Its no secret that some of these killers love reading about themselves in the newspapers in the days following their latest triumph. In many of the cases of signature serial killers who have been apprehended, investigators have found a collection of newspaper articles they have kept about their achievements.

And they are proud of their work. While standing in a nearby club and listening to the ambulance wailing in the distance soon after he had bashed another little old lady to death in the streets of Mosman in suburban Sydney in broad daylight, John the Granny Killer Glover, commented to those around him; Gee, I hope there hasnt been another little old lady killed, as he was putting the contents of his latest victims handbag through the pokies.

Its also not hard to arrive at the conclusion that signature serial killers want to get caught. By leaving their victims where the police can find them they also leave a multitude of clues such as DNA, fingerprints and shoeprints for detectives to track them down.

Unlike Australias most notorious serial killer, Ivan Milat, the Backpacker Killer who concealed his victims deep in the Belanglo State Forest south of Sydney, and would have gone on killing as long as his victims never turned up, signature serial killers almost always have a death wish and, in the majority of cases, were only allowed to go on killing because of the ineptitude of the police or the lack of scientific resources to track them down at the time.

It would be fair comment to say that most of the cases in this book would have been solved within days had the offences taken place last week.

When it comes to never letting the truth get in the way of a good story, fictional signature serial killer movies are by far and away the most successful of the genre with plots far beyond the pale of reality. But then again, in the world of signature murder, there are no guidelines to speak of.

For example, in Manhunter and its subsequent remake Red Dragon , the killers signature was that he murdered entire families in the full moon. In Sea of Love , detective Al Pacino found his victims shot dead in bed to the repetitive tune of the 1959 Phil Phillips 45 rpm classic The Sea of Love, which would have been enough to kill them anyway. There was no mistaking Buffalo Bills signature in Silence of the Lambs he cut triangular pieces of skin from his victims bodies for a dress he was making. And the calculating killer in Se7en murdered to Chaucers Seven Deadly Sins from Canterbury Tales . But fictional movies are exactly that even though a vast majority of signature serial killer movies are loosely based somewhere along the line on a slither of truth.

Signature serial killers are very rare. Famous murderers who werent signature serial killers but were among the worst serial killers the world has ever known were the infamous necrophiliac John Christie of 10 Rillington Place; John Wayne Gacy who murdered 33 boys and buried them under his house; Fred and Rose West who buried their numerous victims in the backyard; Jeffrey Dahmer who kept his 18 victims in his apartment and ate them; and Myra Hindley and Ian Brady who buried their young victims in the English moors.

But you wont read about any of them here. This is about the killers who wanted us to know what they were up to without us really knowing them at all.

And in the beginning there was Jack the Ripper

No other signature serial killer in history has inspired so much interest through the years as Jack the Ripper. The knowledge that his identity still hasnt been conclusively proven adds a sinister twist to the frightening tale the fact that such a deplorable man could apparently get away with his evil deeds under the nose of the law without having to face justice from society. Jack the Ripper was the original signature serial killer in the modern era.

But what is sometimes forgotten is the brutality and outright viciousness with which the mysterious Jack attacked his five female victims using a strong, sharp knife with an inch-width and at least six inches long before the file was officially closed in 1892, proving that acts of shocking cruelty and horrendous depravity are by no means a modern invention.

From one terrible murder to the next there wasnt a shadow of a doubt that it was the work of the same deranged killer. Jacks grisly calling card was disembowelment.

Jack the Rippers first victim was 42-year-old Mary Ann Polly Nichols, the daughter of a locksmith and former wife of printers machinist William Nichols. The pair had five children, but had broken up years earlier as a result of Pollys drinking. At the time of her death, the tired, destitute, but well-liked alcoholic, was making a meagre living for pennies as a prostitute.

Pollys butchered body was found shortly before 4a.m. on Friday, 31 August 1888 in Bucks Row in the respectable London neighbourhood of Whitechapel. It was a typically wet and cold morning when a man named Charles Cross noticed what he thought was a tarpaulin on the ground in front of a stable yard. When he got closer, though, he saw that the dark shape was a female body, with her dress lifted up almost to the waist. Believing the woman to either be drunk or the victim of an assault, he enlisted another passer-by to help. Together they adjusted her skirt and went in search of a policeman. Neither noticed the blood or excessive wounding Polly had suffered.

Before they could return, though, Constable John Neil came across the body while on his regular patrol. With his lantern he immediately saw that blood was flowing out of a neck that had been slashed from one ear to the other, while her eyes were wide and stared blankly with the long, cold glare of death. He called out to another officer who went to get a doctor and ambulance. In the meantime, Neil canvassed the immediate area, but nobody had heard a sound.

When Dr Rees Llewellyn arrived, he noted that the body was still warm, and estimated that the woman had been dead less than 30 minutes. The two knife wounds to the neck had been fatal, slicing open the windpipe and oesophagus. The corpse was then taken to the mortuary, where it was stripped to show that the victims abdomen had been mutilated, with long, deep and aggressive knife wounds. Dr Llewellyn made a note that there was bruising on the lower jaw.

It didnt take long for word of the grisly find to spread, and police soon knew Pollys name. Her father and husband came and identified her the next day.

Inspector Frederick George Abberline, a 25-year veteran of the police force, was placed in charge of the investigation, but it was soon clear that Pollys killer had left behind no clues. There were no witnesses, and no sign of a weapon. The best lead at the time pointed towards three men employed to slaughter horses nearby, but they had been working at the time so had a confirmed alibi.