13 Of The Creepiest Quotes From Real Killers

Whether trying to explain their dark motives or describing how it felt to take a human life, real quotes from the mouths and minds of history's most infamous killers offer a uniquely chilling insight into the extremes of evil.

October 25, 2019

By: Mike McPadden

Photo By: Mug shots of Ted Bundy [Salt Lake County Sheriff's Office]

Photo By: Mug shots of Jeffrey Dahmer [Milwaukee Police Department]

Photo By: Jane Toppan [Wikimedia Commons]

Photo By: John Wayne Gacy [Des Plaines Police Department]

Photo By: Mug shot of Carl Panzram [Wikimedia Commons]

Photo By: Mug shots of Edmund Kemper [Santa Cruz Police Department]

Photo By: Mug shot of Gary Ridgway [King County Sheriff's Office]

Photo By: Mug shots of David Berkowitz [New York State Department of Corrections]

Photo By: Mugshots of Albert Fish [WikiMedia Commons]

Photo By: Mug shot of Aileen Wuornos [Florida Department of Corrections]

Photo By: Mug shots of H. H. Holmes [Wikimedia Commons]

Photo By: Mug shots of Dennis Rader [Kansas Department of Corrections]

Photo By: Mug shot of Susan Atkins [California Department of Corrections]

Ted Bundy

"You feel the last bit of breath leaving their body … You're looking into their eyes … A person in that situation is God!"

Theodore "Ted" Bundy was convicted of three murders in Florida, and reportedly confessed to slaying 30 women in several states throughout the 1970s.

The state of Florida executed him by way of the electric chair in 1989. [MSN] [Biography]

Watch Investigation Discovery's "Ted Bundy: Mind of a Monster" on ID GO now!

Jeffrey Dahmer

"The killing was a means to an end. That was the least satisfactory part. I didn't enjoy doing that. That's why I tried to create living zombies with uric acid in the drill [to the head], but it never worked. No, the killing was not the objective. I just wanted to have the person under my complete control, not having to consider their wishes, being able to keep them there as long as I wanted."

Jeffrey Dahmer, the so-called "Milwaukee Cannibal," confessed to killing 16 young men between 1978 and 1991. Police claimed some of Dahmer's crimes also involved eating human flesh and having sex with dead bodies.

A fellow inmate killed Dahmer in prison in 1994. [The Los Angeles Times] [Newsweek]

For more on Dahmer, watch the "Deadly Desires" episode of Investigation Discovery's "Most Evil" on ID GO now!

Jane Toppan

"That is my ambition, to have killed more people – more helpless people – than any man or woman who has ever lived."

While working as a nurse, Jane Toppan allegedly came to be called "Jolly Jane." She also allegedly acted as an "angel of death" between 1895 and 1901. Authorities alleged she poisoned victims in her care.

Upon her 1901 arrest, Toppan allegedly confessed to killing 31 people. However, she was indicted in only three cases and found not guilty by reason of insanity.

She was committed to the Taunton Insane Hospital life and reportedly died there in 1938, at age 84. [Irish Central] [Criminal Historian]

For more on Toppan watch the "The Disturbed" episode of Investigation Discovery's "Deadly Women" on ID GO now!

John Wayne Gacy

"The only thing they can get me for is running a funeral parlor without a license."

John Wayne Gacy, the so-called "Killer Clown," was executed by lethal injection in 1994 for the murders of 33 boys and young men between 1972 and 1978. Gacy stored 29 of the dead bodies in a crawl space under his home in the suburban Chicago area. [Serial Killer Shop] [The Chicago Tribune]

For more on Gacy, watch the "Bones of Contention" episode of Investigation Discovery's "Deadline: Crime With Tamron Hall" on ID GO now!

Carl Panzram

"I am not the least bit sorry. I have no conscience, so that does not worry me. I don't believe in man, God, nor devil. I hate the whole damned human race, including myself."

Carl Panzram was a self-professed serial slayer, rapist, burglar, and arsonist. In addition to a murder a court convicted him of committing in 1928, Panzram allegedly claimed to have killed 22 victims and sexually assaulted more than 1,000 men and boys.

In 1930, while being executed for killing a corrections officer, Panzram told the hangman to hurry up. [New York Daily News]

Edmund Kemper

"One side of me says, 'Wow, what an attractive chick. I'd like to talk to her, date her.' The other side of me says, 'I wonder how her head would look on a stick?'"

Edmund Kemper, a convicted murderer whom the media dubbed "The Co-Ed Killer," is currently incarcerated for eight murders, including the slaying of his mother. Kemper targeted young women and teenagers, including college students.

Prosecutors also claimed Kemper dismembered some of his victims and had sex with their body parts. As a teenager, he killed his grandparents. Because he was a juvenile, he was released at age 21, allowing him to kill again. [Psychology Today]

For more on Kemper, watch the Investigation Discovery miniseries "The Head Hunter" on ID GO now!

Gary Ridgway

"I placed most of the bodies in groups, which I call 'clusters.' I did this because I wanted to keep track of all the women I killed. I liked to drive by the 'clusters' around the county and think about the women I placed there."

Dubbed "The Green River Killer," Gary Ridgway is serving life in prison without the possibility of parole. He has been convicted in connection with the deaths of 49 women in Washington state in the 1980s and '90s. [The News Tribune] [CBS News]

For more on Ridgway, watch the "Married to a Monster" episode of Investigation Discovery's "Who the (Bleep) Did I Marry?" on ID GO now!

David Berkowitz

“With regard to why people are so fascinated by serial killers, mass murder, and violent crime, it could be that deep inside, everyone has the desire to take out one’s anger and frustration upon someone else… Man can become violent and beast-like in a moment’s time … Concerning ‘evil,’ perhaps everyone has the potential, under the right conditions and circumstances, to do terrible, horrendous things.”

Between July 1976 and August 1977 in the New York City area, David Berkowitz killed six victims and injured seven more in a series of high-profile shootings that initially earned him the nickname, "The .44-Caliber Killer." Later, after Berkowitz allegedly sent letters to the press, he became known as "Son of Sam." Berkowitz is serving six life sentences. [CrimeFeed] [Esquire]

For more on Berkowitz, watch Investigation Discovery's "Son of Sam: The Hunt for a Killer" on ID GO now!

Albert Fish

"How she did kick, bite, and scratch. I choked her to death, then cut her in small pieces so I could take my meat to my rooms, cook, and eat it. How sweet and tender her little ass was roasted in the oven. It took me nine days to eat her entire body. I did not f*ck her, though I could of had I wished. She died a virgin."

Albert Fish reportedly wrote the above words to the mother of Grace Budd, a 10-year-old victim he confessed to torturing, killing, and cannibalizing.

Fish, known as "The Brooklyn Vampire" and "The Boogie-Man," reportedly killed at least three victims and allegedly claimed he had slain more than 100. Fish died in New York's electric chair in 1934. [CrimeFeed] [The Line-up]

Aileen Wuornos

"I robbed them, and I killed them as cold as ice, and I would do it again, and I know I would kill another person because I've hated humans for a long time."

In 2002, Florida executed Aileen Wuornos in connection with the fatal shootings of six men between 1989 and 1990. Wuornos initially told police the men had attacked her while she was working as a prostitute, and she acted in self-defense. She later reportedly changed her story and accepted responsibility for the slayings. [Clark Prosecutor]

For more on Wuornos, watch the "Monster" episode of Investigation Discovery's "Reel Crime/Real Story" on ID GO now!

H. H. Holmes

"I was born with the devil in me. I could not help the fact that I was a murderer, no more than the poet can help the inspiration to sing — I was born with the 'Evil One' standing as my sponsor beside the bed where I was ushered into the world, and he has been with me since."

The actual number of potential victims killed by H. H. Holmes remains unknown. Holmes himself allegedly claimed the total was between 27 and 200.

Holmes, who was also an accused arsonist, bigamist, and swindler, reportedly maintained a booby-trapped home with hidden torture rooms that became known as the "Murder Castle." Holmes reportedly died by hanging in 1896 after being convicted for a single murder. [Legends of America] [History]

For more on Holmes, watch the Investigation Discovery miniseries "The Murder Castle" on ID GO now!

Dennis Rader

"When this monster enter my brain, I will never know, but it here to stay. How does one cure himself … I can't stop it, the monster goes on, and hurt me as well as society … Maybe you can stop him. I can't."

According to police, Dennis Rader killed 10 victims in and around Wichita, Kansas. In letters he allegedly sent to police, Rader gave himself the nickname "BTK," which reportedly stands for "Bind, Torture, Kill." Rader is serving 10 life sentences. [The Wichita Eagle] [CrimeFeed]

For more on Rader, watch Investigation Discovery's "BTK: A Killer Among Us" on ID GO now!

Susan Atkins

"I don't know how many times I stabbed [Tate], and I don't know why I stabbed her. She kept begging and pleading and begging and pleading and I got sick of listening to it, so I stabbed her."

Susan Atkins, a follower of cult leader Charles Manson, served 38 years for her role in the Tate-LaBianca murders of August 1969. Atkins allegedly confessed to fatally stabbing pregnant actress Sharon Tate during a home invasion that reportedly involved other members of the so-called "Manson Family" cult.

In 2009, Atkins died of cancer at age 61 while in prison. [NPR] [The Los Angeles Times]

For more on Atkins, watch the "Evil Influence" episode of Investigation Discovery's "Deadly Women" on ID GO now!