Sadistic Killers Who Burned Their Victims Alive

In 2016, San Diego, CA was plagued with a series of mysterious deaths. A number of homeless men were found burned to death in various places around the city. Law enforcement circulated a composite sketch of the suspect in the serial killings, and as it turns out, 39-year-old Jon David Guerrero was the person causing the deaths. He is a diagnosed schizophrenic who spent time in and out of jail for years. He is also now responsible for the deaths of Angelo de Nardo, Shawn Longley, and Dionicio Vahidy, as well as an attack on Manuel Mason. He reportedly also killed several men with railroad spikes. 

Victor Castigador, a British hitman, killed 2 security guard in 1989 by lighting them on fire. Known as the "human torch" murders, Castigador received what the British called a "whole life sentence" for the crime, meaning that he will never get out of prison. Back in 1989, Castigador and four unnamed cohorts broke into an arcade in the Soho area of London. They robbed the place, then, in an additional act of cruelty, Castigador locked four the arcade's employees - a cashier, a manager, and two security guards - in some sort of security cage. He then coated them with a flammable liquid and lit a match. The security guard died at the scene, although the additional employees survived. In 2016, Castigador killed one of his fellow inmates, brutally beating the man with a rock. 

Peter Dinsdale, who changed his name to Bruce Lee, due to his love of kung fu, killed 26 people over a 7-year period in the 1970s. Dinsdale has been jailed in Great Britain since 1981. Some of his victims include children, and a pregnant woman caught in one of the homes that he set on fire survived, but lost her unborn child. In all, Dinsdale set 11 house fires, although he never really explained why he set them. He wound up confessing to the crimes and wound up in jail for manslaughter. 

A homeless man was burned to death in Palermo, Italy in March 2017. A surveillance camera caught the murder in action. It showed the suspect, Guiseppe Pecararo, dousing the Marcello Cimini with a flammable liquid, then setting him on fire. After his arrest, Pacararo claimed that he killed Cimini in revenge, as he thought Cimini was sleeping with his soon to be ex-wife. Pecararo has so far only been charged with the crime; his case hasn't gone to trial. 

Jessica Chambers died after being set on fire on December 6, 2014. She was found in her car in her hometown of Courtland, MS. By the time the fire department arrived, 98% of her body had been burned, and she only muttered a few words to her rescuers before becoming unconscious; she died the next day. Fourteen months later, there was finally a break in the case - Quinton Tellis, a gang member with a lengthy rap sheet that included another suspected murder, was arrested and indicted for the crime. His trial has not yet begun. 

When Danish authorities raided Dagmar Overbye's home in 1920, they found the burned remnants of 25 infants in her home. She claimed to have strangled them before placing their bodies in the fire, but it's entirely possible that she simply placed them on the stove or in a heater, and turned it on. Overbye was a baby farmer - someone who took in unwanted infants usually conceived out of wedlock. She charged a fee for her services, which should have included taking care of the babies. Only instead of caring for them, she simply killed them. She went on trial in 1921, and was one of the few women at the time in Denmark to be handed a death sentence, although the King at the time, Christian X, lowered it to life in prison. Overbye survived for another 8 years after her sentencing, dying in her early 40s in 1929.