From Ted Bundy to Carl Eugene Watts: Six Serial Killers Who Wreaked Havoc with Violence Against Women

Killers Preying on Women

Serial killers usually follow a pattern in their atrocities. This 'pattern' can be noted in their choice of victims. Many serial killers target a particular part of the populace. This choice could be associated with trauma, their life experience, or simply the ease with which certain individuals can be targeted. Women are comparatively simpler to physically subdue than their counterparts which makes them an optimal pick for many murderers. Ted Bundy targeted young girls and women because they were vulnerable and easier to overpower, The US Sun reported. Women in professions like prostitution face greater danger to their lives. According to a study, 22 percent of confirmed U.S. serial murder victims between 1970 and 2009 were known prostitutes. This number climbed to 43% in the next decade, A&E reported. Here are six serial killers who exclusively made women the subject of their violence for a variety of reasons. 

1. Ted Bundy

Ted Bundy confessed to 28 murders after he was caught. But some estimate that he was responsible for the deaths of hundreds of women between 1974 and 1978, FOX News reported. Bundy was so brazen in his killings that he often killed multiple women on the same day. On July 14, 1974, Bundy kidnapped and murdered Janice Ann Ott, 23, and Denise Marie Naslund, 19, in Seattle. In the 1970s, Bundy raped and killed multiple women in Washington and Oregon, terrorizing Pacific-northwest communities and authorities, with his violent actions, ATI reported. Bundy himself once said, "I’m the most cold-hearted son of a b**ch you’ll ever meet." Bundy was regularly beaten by his grandfather when he was a child, and for most of his life, he was not aware that his sister was his mother. It was after this revelation that he committed his first attack on 18-year-old Karen Sparks in 1974, a student and dancer at the University of Washington. He broke into her house, bludgeoned her with a metal rod, and left after raping her. Sparks went into a 10-day coma and became permanently disabled. In 1975, Bundy was arrested by authorities, the FBI reported. He was sentenced to death on multiple charges of death, kidnapping, and sexual assault. He was executed by electric chair on January 24, 1989.

2. Gary Ridgway

In the 1980s and '90s, women and girls were terrorized in the Seattle area by Gary Ridgway, who became known as the 'Green River Killer',  Fox13 reported. Some believe that Ridgway's murder count could be as high as 70. For years, authorities have been trying to give a name to the remains of Ridgway's victims. He was named the 'Green River Killer,' as most of his victims were found on the particular river's bank, King County reported. Advancing technology and investigative work helped authorities arrest Ridgway for the murder of Cynthia Jean Hinds, Marcia Faye Chapman, Opal Charmaine Mills, and Carol Ann Christiansen. In 2003, Ridgway, in exchange for the prosecutor not seeking the death penalty, pleaded guilty to all murders that he committed in King County. He was given a life sentence for 48 counts of Aggravated Murder in the First Degree.

3. Cathy Wood and Gwendolyn Graham

Cathy Wood and Gwendolyn Graham were lovers and co-workers who were involved in multiple homicides at Alpine Manor nursing home in the late 1980s, Oxygen reported. Wood's ex-husband notified the police of the crimes in 1988. During their questioning, Wood confessed that the couple had suffocated multiple patients at the facility. "According to Cathy, after Graham killed somebody, they would come back to the house and have sex. Cathy thought that it was a release for Gwen. Why they would do that is just inconceivable," Walker Police Department detective Roger Kaliniak said. The couple plotted the murders and selected their victims based on the first letters of their names to spell out the word "MURDER." They did the murders, to have something to bind them together, forever. Graham was found guilty of five counts of first-degree murder and one count of conspiracy to murder and was sentenced to life in prison. For one count of second-degree murder and one count of conspiracy to murder, Cathy was sentenced to 20 to 40 years in prison. She was released in 2020.

4. Raymond Fernandez and Martha Beck

Raymond Fernandez and Martha Beck were executed at Sing Sing Correctional Facility after being convicted of one murder, but many believe the number to be much higher, ATI reported. The pair became known as the 'Lonely Hearts Killers' because they lured their victims by posting ads asking for companionship in the 1940s. Posing as brother-sister, both of them dried up the victims of their life savings, and then, killed them. The duo got caught in 1949, after murdering 28-year-old Delphine Downing and drowning her child. Beck stated that she did it all because of her love for Fernandez, "What does it matter who is to blame? My story is a love story… but only those tortured with love can understand what I mean. I was pictured as a fat, unfeeling woman. I am not unfeeling, stupid, or moronic. In the history of the world, how many crimes have been attributed to love?”

5. John Duffy and David Mulcahy

John Duffy and David Mulcahy were dubbed as "The Railway Killers," who committed horrific atrocities on women in the 1980s throughout Southeast England and London, Sun reported. The duo had been friends since their school days. It is believed that the pair sexually assaulted 19 women, killing three of them. Starting from 1982, they abducted multiple women from the railway stations and violated them. They committed their first murder on December 29, 1985, after Duffy was called in for identification by one of their past victims. The victim was unable to select him from a line-up, and he decided to murder his future targets to avoid such situations. The pair murdered Alison Day, 19, who was dragged off a train at knifepoint, and raped repeatedly before being strangled. In November 1986, Duffy was arrested after getting caught while stalking a woman. He was put on trial in February 1988 and was convicted of two murders and four rapes. He was given a minimum sentence of 30 years. Years later, Duffy revealed Mulcahy's involvement.  On February 5, 2001, Mulcahy was given three life sentences for murdering three women.

6. Carl Eugene Watts

Carl Eugene Watts a native of Inkster, near Detroit might have killed more than 80 women, according to the Michigan attorney general’s office, The New York Times reported. During his trial proceedings, he admitted to a dozen killings in Texas and Michigan. In 1982, he struck a deal with Texas prosecutors that gave him immunity for 12 killings — 11 in Texas and one in Michigan, NBC News reported. The plea deal was encouraged by the victims' families because they wanted to know what had happened to their departed loved ones. Most of the killings to which Watts confessed occurred in 1981 and 1982 after he moved to the Houston area from Michigan. He specifically targeted the women he believed had "evil eyes." Usually, he stabbed or strangled the victims, after attacking them. He was given a 60-year sentence for burglary with intent to murder. In 2007, Watts died of prostrate cancer while serving his sentence.