Many serial killers become so enamored of their own crimes that they take souvenirs and trophies from their victims. Sometimes these are as simple as an item of clothing, other times it's a body part or a piece of personal identification. Occasionally, it's something completely bizarre and disgusting - even for a torturing, raping, monstrous serial killer.
The killers on this list have taken everything when they've taken lives. Heads, eyes, organs, clothes, property - even pets. But what they rarely take is money. For serial killers, the point of the murder is the murder itself, not something as base and filthy as financial assets. And how do they commemorate the glory of their kill? By taking something by which to remember it.
What are the weirdest serial killer trophies and serial killer souvenirs kept by some of the most prolific serial killers in history? This list includes many famous murderers, and what they took from their victims. In many cases, these items were used as evidence when these horrible killers were eventually put away. But if you asked them (and please don't), they'd say it was all worth it.
21 of the Creepiest Souvenirs Serial Killers Have Kept,
Ahmad Suradji
Indonesian serial killer Ahmad Suradji believed he was a sorcerer, so he murdered 42 women in order to gain their powers. He would bury them up to their necks, then strangle them with a cable and bury their bodies in a complicated ritual. The worst part of this (other than the murder) is that it included draining and drinking the saliva of the victim. He was eventually apprehended and executed.
Charles Albright
Texas serial killer Charles Albright had an especially gruesome trophy he took from his victims – their eyeballs. He had taught himself to remove a body’s eyeballs without disturbing their eyelids, an operation that led police to think he might have been a doctor. But he wasn’t, he was just a psychopath. He was arrested in 1991, a year after his first killing, and charged with three murders, but only convicted of one. He’s still in prison.
Ed Gein
In terms of trophies, sadism, and sheer butchery, Ed Gein wins the prize. The notorious killer started his reign of terror as a grave robber and necrophiliac. He then moved on to murder in the late '50s, and by the time he was caught, had racked up an array of trophies that’s still legendary. Among the horrors found at his house were a wastebasket and chairs made of human skin, bowls made of skulls, a corset made of a female torso, masks made of human faces, numerous sexual organs in a box and a belt made of nipples. Gein’s crimes would inspire the fictional serial killers from Psycho and Silence of the Lambs, among others.
If you think that's bad, see more horrible serial killer moments here.
Ivan Milat
Australian serial killer Ivan Milat murdered at least seven people and buried them in a forest in New South Wales. When he was finally caught, authorities found a trove of stolen camping supplies, including sleeping bags, clothes, equipment, and tents – all taken from the people he’d brutally murdered.
Jeffrey Dahmer
Horrible cannibal killer Jeffrey Dahmer had a side habit of keeping various parts of his victims. It started when he preserved the head and genitals of his fifth victim in acetone, and by the time he was done, had a freezer full of heads, torsos, skin, and internal organs. He also had a lobster pot full of genitals.
John George Haigh
English killer John George Haigh wasn’t known as the “Acid Bath Killer” because he was a nice guy. But maybe the meanest thing Haigh did was that after he shot and killed Dr. Archibald Henderson and his wife, Rose, he melted their bodies, forged a letter saying he was a representative of their estate and sold all of their possessions. The one thing he didn’t sell: their dog Pat, a Red Irish setter which he kept for himself.
John Christie
John Christie was an English serial killer with eight murders to his name. He gained the nickname “The Rillington Place Strangler” after both his method of killing and the street where he did it. When Christie moved out of his flat on 10 Rillington Street, he sublet it to several renters, who soon found three corpses in a wall behind his kitchen alcove. Christie was arrested soon after.
Ted Bundy
Ted Bundy was as creepy, psychotic, and determined as serial killers get. Among the tortures heaped on his nearly three dozen victims was Bundy's practice of chopping off their heads and putting them on display in his apartment. He’d also sleep next to their headless corpses. Because beheading wasn’t awful enough.
Robert Hansen Kept His Victims' Jewelry
The scourge of Alaska, Robert Hanson spent 10 years abducting and flying women to remote areas of the frozen tundra and hunting them for sport. He killed at least 17 prostitutes, bartenders, and waitresses before being caught. When he was apprehended, he was found to have a large collection of trophies taken from the women, including numerous pieces of jewelry. He’d also funded much of his killing spree with insurance money from the fraudulent theft of actual, legitimate hunting trophies.
Alex Mengel Made a Scalp Wig
Murderer Alex Mengel was a suspect in the random murder of a Westchester, New York police officer. While being chased, he lost control of his car and crashed it into a wall. Once taken into custody, the car was found to belong to a woman who had gone missing a few years earlier. What clinched Mengel as the woman’s killer was that the car contained not just two guns, but what police originally deemed to be a wig, but was actually her scalp – which Mengel wore as a wig when he kidnapped and murdered another of his victims. Less than two months later, Mengel was shot dead trying to escape during a prison transfer.