This list of married serial killers includes some of the most notorious criminals in history. From the BTK Killer to the Green River Valley Killer, this list of serial killers who had wives or husbands includes criminals like John Wayne Gacy, Dennis Radner, and Robert Lee Yates.
Also among the many serial killers who were not only some of most notorious in history, but also happened to be married are Dr. H.H. Holmes, Albert Fish, and Marcel Petiot. Many of these serial killers were also rapists like Paul Bernardo, Russell Williams, and Andrei Chikatilo, the latter of whom may have raped, murdered, and eaten as many as 100 people, without his wife suspecting.
Other married serial killers include Harvey Carignan, Jerry Brudos, and serial child killer Marybeth Tinning. Many of the spouses of these criminals claim to not have known that their significant other was involved in vile and despicable criminal activities.
Though the crimes committed by these married murderers are appalling and horrendous, many are now behind bars, unable to commit further crimes.
17 Serial Killers Who Were Married,
Andrei Chikatilo
While authorities think that Russian serial killer Andrei Chikatilo may have raped, murdered, and eaten as many as 100 people, Fayina, his wife of 30 years, contends she didn't have a clue. Police presented a ton of evidence that finally jogged Fayina's memory, including repeated blood stains on his clothes, Andrei getting fired from his teaching job for molesting children, and police continuously bringing him in for questioning in regards to numerous murders.
He told Fayina that he was sexually impotent, so they couldn't be intimate and she believed him. Imagine her surprise when police told her that his crimes were of a sexual nature! He was convicted and executed by gunshot in 1994.
Source: New Straits Times
Dennis Rader
Three years after Paul and Dennis Rader married, he began killing. Known as the BTK Killer (Bind-Torture-Kill), Rader stopped killing in 1991, but continued to taunt police with phone calls and cryptic letters into 2004. Paula divorced him in 2005, the same year those taunts caught up to him and he was arrested. Rader was sentenced to 10 consecutive life sentences in 2005.
Source: Biography.com, The Wichita Eagle
Gary Ridgway
Judith Mawson and Gary Ridgway met in 1975 and married three years later. She described him as the "perfect husband" but accepted a lot of questionable excuses from him during their marriage. When he replaced the carpet in their house, he said their kids had messed it up. When their bed was replaced, he told her an old girlfriend had come back to reclaim her property. When police detained him several times in connection with the disappearance of prostitutes, he told her it was because he "looked like somebody."
Mawson even refused to believe Ridgway was guilty when he was arrested and only filed for divorce when he eventually confessed to 49 murders. Ridgway is serving 49 consecutive life sentences in Washington state.
Source: KIRO TV
Herb Baumeister
Julie Baumeister had some suspicion that something wasn't right when her 13-year-old son discovered a human skull while playing on the family's property. Julie confronted her husband, to whom she had been married for 23 years, and asked for an explanation. Herb replied that it was a relic of his deceased father's medical career. The bones eventually disappeared and Julie thought that animals had carried them off.
Haunted by the discovery, Julie let police search their property. They found the remains of 11 gay men who had been lured away from bars in Indianapolis. Herb never returned home, but instead, slipped into Canada and committed suicide.
Sources: People, The New York Times
Jerry Brudos
Darcie Brudos spent eight years married to Jerry and never thought to call the cops when local girls started turning up dead and her husband coincidentally brought home an actual female breast to keep as a paper weight.
While Jerry was certifiably crazy, Darcie had some mental issues herself. Jerry forbade her from going in to the attic or garage without first getting permission and announcing her presence on an intercom. She obeyed his every command, including when he told her to remain in the house naked and wear only high-heeled shoes. Darcie also never heard her husband suspend girls from hooks in the ceiling, dress them up, sexually abuse them, and then eventually strangle them to death. Jerry Brudos died in 2006 from liver cancer.
Source: Biography.com
John Wayne Gacy
Carol Huff decided not to stick out her marriage to John Wayne Gacy. After four years, she divorced him due to his bizarre behavior, uncontrollable rage, and admitted homosexuality. While Carol did leave him before he raped and killed 33 men, she was still around for some troubling clues.
A horrible stench emanated from the crawl space of the couple's home and Gacy told people that the smell was caused by moisture. His neighbors thought that it was just a dead animal, but the true source of the smell was likely the decomposing body of Tim McCoy, who Gacy killed and buried in their crawlspace in 1972. It may have also come from the body of John Butkovich who Gacy buried under his garage in 1975. Gacy was executed by the state of Illinois in 1994.
Source: Ottawa Citizen
Peter Tobin
Cathy Wilson spent three hellish years married to Peter Tobin, who she didn't think was capable of killing anyone, despite his mental and physical abuse toward her and his tendency to bring home prostitutes to rough up. Tobin was 20 years older than Cathy when they married and he would do everything from throw his dinner at her to slamming her against the wall, and nearly strangling her. When she threatened to leave him, he wouldn't let her out of his sight and warned her he would kill her and their toddler son if she went anywhere. He even dangled the child over a banister to prove his point.
Tobin banned his wife from going in to the basement and she never questioned it, despite the foul stench and the drains getting clogged for no reason. Tobin was eventually convicted of drug and sex charges and served 10 years in prison. Within days of his release, he had killed again and after that it didn't take long for police to (finally) figure out he was the reason local girls were disappearing. Tobin is currently serving a life sentence in Edinburgh Prison in Scotland.
Source: BBC News
Robert Lee Yates
Linda Yates says she never suspected anything more than infidelity from her husband Robert Lee Yates when, in 1999, she caught him burning credit card statements that included charges from seedy hotels.
Linda's biggest shock came on the day police arrested her husband and informed her that a victim had been found buried outside her bedroom window. Robert Lee Yates is currently on death row in Washington state.
Sources: The Seattle Times, Seattle P.I.
Russell Williams
Russell Williams was a well-respected colonel in the Canadian Armed Forces and his wife, Mary Elizabeth, had no reason to suspect her panty-stealing, cross-dressing husband was a rapist and murderer. The couple owned two homes and both were filled with mementos from his crimes. Williams was convicted and sentenced to two life sentences, an additional 10 years each for two counts of sexual assault and forcible confinement, and 82 years for breaking and entering.
Source: The Toronto Star
Harvey Carignan
Alice Carignan gets credit for divorcing her husband after just over a year of marriage, after she and her two kids endured beatings at his hand. Her youngest son was the smartest of the bunch, as he grew tired of it and went to go live with his birth father after just two months.
Alice got out just in time, as "Harv the Hammer's" next girlfriend was found dead in the woods with multiple hammer blows to the head. Harvey was sentenced to death in Alaska in 1949 for a rape and murder he committed while in the US Army, but had the decision reversed in 1951, and was paroled in 1960. Due to Minnesota state law, he was required to serve 40 years of his 150 year sentence beginning in 1975, meaning that in 2015, at age 88, he will be released.
Source: Ellensburg Daily Record