19 of the Creepiest Souvenirs Serial Killers Have Kept
Many serial killers become so enamored with their own crimes that they take "souvenirs" from their victims. Sometimes these are as simple as an item of clothing, other times it's something much more gruesome. Occasionally, it's something completely bizarre and disgusting.
The inclusions on this list have taken everything when they've taken lives. What's perhaps most interesting is the fact they rarely take money. For serial killers, the point of killing is all in the minute details, not something as baseless as financial assets.
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 names and what they took from their victims. In many cases, these items were used as evidence when these horrible people were eventually put away. But if you asked them, they might just say it was all worth it.
In terms of trophies and sheer butchery, Ed Gein wins the prize. The notorious figure started as a grave robber and necrophiliac. He then moved on to slaying in the late '50s, and by the time he was caught, had racked up an array of trophies that remains jarring to this day.
Among the horrors found at his house include a wastebasket and chairs made of skin, bowls created from skulls, masks created from human faces, numerous organs in a box, and more. Gein’s crimes would inspire the fictional characters from Psycho and Silence of the Lambs, among others.
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Australian Ivan Milat took out at least seven people and buried them in a forest. When he was finally caught, authorities found a trove of stolen camping supplies, including sleeping bags, clothes, equipment, and tents.
This was all taken from the people he’d brutally terminated.
Alex Mengel Made A Scalp Wig
Alex Mengel was a suspect in the random slaying of a Westchester, NY, 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 criminal was the car contained weapons, but what police originally deemed to be a wig, but was actually her scalp - which Mengel wore as a wig when he took his next victim. Less than two months later, Mengel was terminated trying to escape during a prison transfer.
Ted Bundy was as creepy, psychotic, and determined as these figures get. Among the crimes perpetrated against his nearly three dozen victims included Bundy's practice of taking off their heads and putting them on display in his apartment.
He’d also sleep next to their headless corpses as if the initial action wasn't bad enough.
More Ted BundyEnglish criminal 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 after he took out 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 their possessions.
More John George HaighCharles Albright had an especially gruesome trophy he took from his victims - their eyeballs.
However, he wasn’t, he was just a psychopath. He was arrested in 1991, after which he was convicted and imprisoned.