History

It is defined as “A serial killer is someone who has murdered at least three or more people and has no apparent motive to do so except for pure pleasure following certain behavior pattern”

The history of humanity is full of incidents where one person  has killed others in a large number but they got apparent reasons or motives for doing so hence they can not be put in this modern characterization of the term which was introduced recently and followed ever since hence without a doubt, a "serial killing" is a modern type of killing

(a short account of some killers is given at the end of this page with the detailed information why they killed )

Jack the ripper (1888- 1891) is considered the first serial killer who introduced it in its modern meanings as his killings methods fit well in the definition of the term, a lady named Mabel collin claimed that they had a relationship and Jack used to kill for the purpose of magic who never got caught he basically killed five women (the canonical five)  and the influence of media is shown right from the very start when he killed his first victim, the media started to speculate that “there were two more bodies found” in the same area of Whitechapel (East London) there was enough evidence to believe that these two women were His victims yet they tried their best to fit them in .as two more cases to increase the sensation in the case, he was getting huge coverage through the media, .daily morning newspaper was full of news about the scary monster everyone wanted to tell something new hence he inspired millions at that time,  which obviously resulted in the copying. a detective was appointed to search for him, which gave rise to deductive stories which were widely read up till now

 Movies were made about him, countless books were written about, documentaries were made, his anniversaries have been celebrated by making videos on his astonishing crimes.

  one example of this case influence by common interest was the fact that

one day the police found a letter which was evidently believed that it was from a journalist (fake letter), and guess what the police were “swamped” by thousands and thousands of similar bogus jack the Ripper letters which were the talk of the day /every day, Hence they forced the ripper to send a letter with a kidney of his victim as a shred of evidence which shows that the ripper was well aware of the excitement of the people and hence it gave rise to copycats which are again and again copied some examples are 

1. Yorkshire ripper was the term used given to Peter William Sutcliffe(during the 1970s)by the press, who terrified Britain as he viciously murdered at least 13 women (prostitutes) and attempted to kill no less than seven others.

2.     The ripper of time square: Richard Cottingham brutally murdered prostitutes he found on the seedy streets of 1970s New York, earning his horrifying name as the American Jack the Ripper. Cottingham killed six people, but he claims between 85 and 100 murders 

3. Derek Brown (2008) he was convicted of murdering two women .he was a 47-year-old-father of seven, was said to follow the footsteps of Jack the Ripper 120 years after the original, infamous murders occurred. Brown picked his victims from exactly the area of Whitechapel (East London), exactly the area where whee Jack the Ripper had carried out his five murders.

There are so many other copy cats who told when caught that they were killed just because they were impressed by tv (see more)

·                      Seconds for the world but first for American history of serial killers was a man called HH Holms(May 16, 1861 – May 7, 1896), he builds "The Murder Castle" where he used to kill,  it is clear that he was aware of Jack the ripper, He created torture dungeons like the medieval in the basement of the castle  Mostly killed people visiting his building and sell the cleaned bones to medical colleges, when people knew about his killings he got popular overnight .. was termed at nationally notorious or the the greatest criminal of his age. He was termed as the Jack the Ripper of America (a contemporary of his). People were fascinated and started to visit the sights of the killing and his castle became the tourist's site. people even tried to make it a murder museum but was later burned by someone enraged. He wrote his autobiography “holm’s own story “ shows the amount of coverage he was receiving, he made sure he will be remembered through that publication, large coverage made him so famous that people started to copy him and hence the new era of serial killing started.

        Other Cases :

This is a list of mass murderers from the past but as specified previously they can not be called serial killers as they do not fit in the definition. as serial killers are the one who kills for pure pleasure for example

1. Elizabeth Bathory (1560-1614) is a Guinness World Record holder female for killing more than 300-600 young women but the motives are so many for example she wanted to drink the blood of these victims to get cured of her seizures or some evidence suggest that she wanted to keep herself young, some even claim that  she was doing it as some kind of ritual or black magic

2. In the 16th century Germany a person named Peter Nears, was the leader of thirty robbers, Though he never confessed the killings but was considered the killer of at least  544 people were said to deal with the supernatural devil, killed 24 women and used their unborn children for black magic, again he also is not included in our list because he also likes many others do not fit in the definition of a modern serial killer

3. The killing of  “witch of Kilkenny”(1263- 1325)of her four husbands, not a serial killer because she has done it to secure herself financially and was involved in witchcraft

4. The killings by leaders like Caligula, Vlad the impaler and Genghis khan were for material gain and not for pleasure