The Bible says, "Love thy neighbor." But what if your neighbor is accused of brutally murdering people in unspeakable ways? If that's the case, you might have a serial killer living next door.
Serial killers are humans who, at one point, lived in a place that wasn't prison. Some of these dwellings still exist today. The places that serial killers lived aren't always the scenes of their brutal crimes, but in some cases, their killings took place in their very houses, apartments, or mansions. These killer houses have been demolished, preserved, or - in at least one case - rented out. From Jeffrey Dahmer's apartment to Gary Ridgway's quaint little house, here are some of the places serial killers once lived.
Jeffrey Dahmer, one of the most famous serial killers in history, lured people to his Milwaukee apartment and killed them there. During the nearly two years he lived there, Dahmer killed 17 people. Despite multiple complaints of strange smells and noises coming from his apartment, no one ever reported Dahmer to the police. After his arrest in 1991, police discovered skulls in the apartment, along with human hearts, muscles, severed penises, and Polaroid pictures of his various victims. The apartment complex was torn down.
Dahmer also committed murder at his family home in Ohio. His childhood home received an award from the local newspaper, the Akron Beacon Journal, for its very modern design. Dahmer committed his first murder there after he picked up a hitchhiker and brutally murdered him. His childhood home still exists. It was placed on the market in 2014, with an asking price of almost $300,000. There's no word on who lives there now, or if they hear or see spooky things related to the house's famous former resident.
Gary Ridgway, also known as the Green River Killer, lived in a small green house near the Seattle-Tacoma area in Washington state. The home was torn apart by police as they searched for clues that connected Ridgway to the murders that he committed: he killed women, weighed them down with rocks, and dumped their bodies in the Green River.
He murdered upwards of 49 women - and possibly more - while living in that house and a few others in the nearby area. The house was purchased by an unknown individual in 1999 while Ridgway was still at large and killing women.
The home where Anthony Sowell, also known as the Cleveland Strangler, lived was located right next door to a small sausage plant on Imperial Avenue, which is why he was able to get away with his crimes for so long. Neighbors noticed a strange smell but blamed it on the factory. They didn't know it was actually the smell of the corpses of 11 women slowly decaying in Sowell's home.
Sowell lived in the house with his mother before she passed away, and he committed his crimes while she lived there - and even blamed some of the strange smells on her, not his murderous proclivities. The house was torn down in 2011, two years after Sowell was arrested and convicted, but not before people stole soil samples from the yard and sold them online as serial killer propaganda.
Alfred Powell's Home In Monterey, California
Suspected serial killer Alfred Powell has thus far only been convicted of two early 1980s murders, but he has been linked to several more. The house where he lived - and the yard where he buried two of his victims - now belongs to Scott and Laura Cotes, who had no knowledge of the house's grisly past when they bought it.
They are now suing their realtor for not disclosing this information upfront.
Serial Killer Maury Travis's House
Maury Travis committed suicide in 2002 before he could be formally charged with the deaths of 17 women, all sex workers that he hired and then killed. The Ferguson, MO, house where he committed these crimes still stands and is owned by his mother, Sandra Travis, who rents it out to people without disclosing its creepy past.
According to crime scene photos, as well as videos made by Travis as he committed the murders, there were prison-like cells in the basement where he would trap and torture the women before snapping their necks or hanging them from the rafters.
The Kendall Francois House
Kendall Francois killed eight women over a two year period, capturing sex workers and taking them back to his house in Poughkeepsie, NY. After strangling them, he'd stuff their bodies in the crawl space and attic of his home. He was convicted of his crimes and died while in prison.
His home was gutted by investigators in the late '90s, but was fixed up and sold.
