10 Horrifying Serial Killers You've Never Heard Of

6. The Spirit Of Hatred And Vengeance

Serial killer, rapist, arsonist and burglar: Carl Panzram was a horror story in human form. In his autobiography, he claimed to have committed twenty-one murders, but raped a thousand men. Constantly being imprisoned or escaping from prison, Panzram would attack and kill guards and fellow prisoners too.

Panzram claimed that he was "rage personified", and recalled that he would usually rape the men he robbed - not because he was homosexual, but because he loved to humiliate them. Possessed of enormous physical strength, Panzram was capable of overpowering most men with ease.

He began a murder spree that spanned eight years and multiple countries in 1920, purchasing a yacht, which he used to lure away his victims. Often, they were sailors: he'd get them drunk, take them sailing, and rape them and shoot them, dumping their bodies overboard, ten in all. Those killings stopped when his boat ran aground and sank, allowing two of his victims to escape

Fleeing to Africa, he continued raping and murdering at random and at a whim, rarely bothering to hide the evidence, simply moving on. He'd attack both men and boys, seemingly indiscriminately: however, in prison he lovingly related fantasies about increasing the scale of his crimes: poisoning a city water supply, or attempting to start a war to sit back and watch cities burn.

Panzram was hanged in 1930 after killing a man in an American prison. Panzram refused to appeal the death sentence, and threatened to kill human rights activists who tried to intervene for him. While the noose was fitted around his neck, he spat in his executioner's face, shouting, "I wish the entire human race had one neck and I had my hands around it!"