16 Of The Scariest, Most Deranged Serial Killers In California's History

For many, the thought of California elicits notions of surf and sunshine. The massive, majestic state forming a boarder between much of the US and the Pacific Ocean represents a dream: a laid-back, low-stress lifestyle and maybe even the chance to chase stardom.  

But just as the palm trees that line its sunny streets can harbor nests of rats, California has been home to some of America's most famous killers. From the Zodiac to the Night Stalker to the Grim Sleeper, a who's-who of serial killers have either passed through the Golden State or committed the heft of their crimes there.

This list explores some of the scariest serial killers who have operated in California. From the historic to the very recent, California's bloody history of mass murderers is almost unparalleled elsewhere in America, casting a grim cloud over a state known for its sunshine.

Angelo Buono, Jr. was a serial killer who, along with his cousin Kenneth Bianchi, tortured and killed 15 women in the late 1970s. Operating in the Los Angeles area, the two men became known as a singular entity called "The Hillside Strangler," a moniker given to them based on where they dumped their bodies in the Highland Park area. 

Posing as police officers, Buono and Bianchi subjected their victims to a range of horrors, including rape, electric shock, and the injection of poisonous chemicals. Bianchi's desire to be an actual cop - he applied to the LAPD while the two were killing - actually led to the duo's downfall, as he had been going on ride-alongs with police officers and uncontrollably talking about the Hillside Strangler case. 

The two men were eventually arrested in 1979 and sentenced to life in prison after one of the longest trials in American legal history.

When Charles Ng was arrested for a seemingly innocuous shoplifting incident in June of 1985, authorities could not have possibly predicted what they would uncover. The northern California man would eventually lead police to a property he shared with another man named Leonard Lake, a compound of sorts in a remote area of Calaveras County near the Sierra Nevada Foothills. 

What police uncovered was truly horrifying - Lake and Ng had built a torture cabin, complete with a false wall, that was designed to hold women who had been forced into slavery. A search of the property would reveal extensive video recordings of the men with their captives, as well as over 40 pounds of charred human remains. Lake and Ng would later be linked to the disappearances of two families - both with infant children they had killed, along with their fathers, to isolate the women before ultimately killing them, too.  

It's believed the two men killed at least 12 people, but the actual number remains unknown. Lake, shortly after his arrest, swallowed a cyanide pill and died in custody. Ng was convicted of murder in 1999 and sentenced to death.

Richard Ramirez, otherwise known as the Night Stalker, was the consummate bogeyman. A deranged satanist, Ramirez raped and tortured an estimated 25 victims, killing at least 13 during his bloody streak in mid-1980s Los Angeles and San Francisco. 

A native of Texas, Ramirez moved to northern California in the early 1980s, where he began committing a series of escalating crimes. By the time he was apprehended in November of 1985, Ramirez had struck fear into millions of Los Angeles residents, as he had murdered swaths of men and woman of all ages in a variety of brutal ways, including strangulation, bludgeoning, and execution-style shootings.

In 1988, Ramirez was convicted of 13 counts of murder and sentenced to death. He died of lymphoma in San Quentin State Prison in 2013.

The Zodiac Killer is perhaps one of the most notorious American murderers to evade capture. Striking in northern California in the late '60s, the Zodiac killed at least five victims, typically targeting young couples and either shooting or stabbing them to death. 

The man who witnesses said donned a black hood, the Zodiac gained notoriety for taunting the police via a series of ciphers he mailed to the San Francisco Examiner. Thought to have contained clues to his identity, some have speculated that they were simply nonsense designed to be a red herring, but amateur sleuths still toil over them to this day. For whatever reason, the Zodiac's correspondence abruptly stopped in 1974, but the case remains open. No suspect has ever been arrested.

In 1979, Lawrence Bittaker and his accomplice Roy Norris terrorized the Los Angeles area kidnapping, raping, and murdering five young women within the span of about six months. After first meeting while in prison, the two men quickly cultivated a bond over torture and sexual assault, and in June 1979 they picked up their first victim, 16-year-old Lucinda Lynn Schaefer.

Bittaker's M.O. was to lure young women into his van where he and Norris would violently assault their victim with a series of torture implements from his notorious tool box. They even recorded their actions on audio, which when played in the courtroom during their trial induced some to actually vomit.

Lawrence Bittaker still sits on California's death row, where he sadistically goes by the nickname "Pliers."

Depicted in the 2008 Clint Eastwood film Changeling, The Wineville Chicken Coop Murders are a grim stain on the history of Los Angeles County. In the 1920s, in what's now called Mira Loma (the town changed its name from Wineville in 1930 to escape the attention) young boys were being held captive on a ranch after being abducted from neighboring towns. Their captor, a young Canadian man named Gordon Northcott, would molest the kidnapped boys before killing them with an ax and dissolving their bodies in quicklime.

Northcott's young cousin, Sanford Clark, had been living on the Wineville property and witnessed several murders, and was subjected to abuse himself. Upon his return to his native Canada, Clark alerted authorities to his cousin's crimes, and the property was raided in September of 1928. 

Northcott was convicted of three murders, but was suspected in up to 20. He was sent to the gallows where he was reported to have been sobbing and visibly frightened - a noticeable shift from his courtroom demeanor, which found him defiant and snickering.  

Lonnie Franklin, Jr. - whom the Los Angeles press dubbed "The Grim Sleeper" due to his apparent period of dormancy in the 1990s - may have murdered as many as 25 women, making him one of the most prolific serial killers in US history. 

Preying on marginalized individuals - sex workers, drug addicts, and the homeless - Franklin carried out his offenses in 1980s south-central LA where police were either woefully inept or willfully turning a blind eye. It wasn't until 2010 that DNA evidence finally connected Franklin to at least 10 murders, though a cache of photos found in his home suggests that he could be responsible for many more.  

Lonnie Franklin, Jr. was convicted of 10 counts of murder in 2016 and sentenced to death. He currently sits on death row in San Quentin State Prison.

In 1978, Rodney Alcala - an aspiring photographer - appeared on the popular television show The Dating Game. Though his competitors would later describe him as "bizarre," Alcala managed to win a date with the bachelorette, Cheryl Bradshaw. It wasn't meant to be, however, as the young woman whose affection he had been seeking turned him down, citing the fact that he was "creepy."

Bradshaw was, in no uncertain terms, correct. Alcala had managed to appear on the game show despite his 1972 conviction for the rape of an eight-year-old girl. Beyond that, prior to the program's 1978 broadcast, he had already killed 4 victims, including the brutal murder of 12-year-old Robin Samsoe in Huntington Beach, CA.  

Alcala was convicted in 1980 and sentenced to death. In 2010, Huntington Beach Police released 120 photographs they had found in Alcala's possession, believing at least some of them to be additional victims. His official body count remains unknown, but it's speculated to be in the dozens. 

The Golden State Killer - also known as the East Area Rapist and the Original Night Stalker - is a prolific serial killer who remains a fugitive to this day. Before suddenly stopping his rampage in 1986, this violent predator was responsible for 12 murders and at least 45 rapes up and down the California coast.

Described by survivors as a small, agile man, the Golden State Killer would break into his victims homes - often those of married couples - and subdue the male while sexually assaulting the female, sometimes escalating to murdering both parties. This killer also had an eerie habit of prank calling his victims if they survived the nightmare he imposed on them.

Though it's been over 40 years since his first offense, some in the FBI believe that the Golden State Killer is still very much alive.

Randy Steven Kraft committed a string of grisly murders between 1972 and 1983. With the majority of his crimes taking place in southern California, Kraft's M.O. was to pick up young men, ply them with alcohol, then systematically rape, torture, and kill them. 

When Kraft was finally arrested in 1983, authorities made an interesting discovery in the trunk of his car: a list containing the names of 61 men, all of whom were thought to be murder victims of Kraft dating back to 1972. His attorneys fought the list's inclusion as evidence, and Kraft was ultimately convicted of 16 counts of murder. His actual kill count remains a mystery.