As you well know, the world is filled with sick and twisted criminals who don’t blink twice when it comes to committing some of the worst atrocities. Most of these things are so bad, that none of us could ever even imagine them, let alone commit them.
But somehow, there are people out there who can. Even worse than that, some of these crimes were committed by couples. Which makes you kinda wonder…what does it take for TWO crazy people to join their forces and commit such crimes?
Whether we’re talking about killing sprees or methodical murders, some of these couples had some twisted relationship mechanics, and it’s worth talking about ’em. Here are some of the most notorious killer couples:
Paul Bernardo and Karla Homolka
Have you ever heard of the “Ken and Barbie Killers”? Paul Bernardo and Karla Homolka were apparently two good-looking individuals who went down in history as one of the cruelest and most twisted couples.
Throughout their relationship, the pair killed three women, including Barbie’s younger sister Tammy, who was only 15 years old when she was murdered. They reportedly met each other in 1987 at a hotel restaurant in Scarborough, when Homolka was only 17, and Bernardo was aged 23.
The couple married in 1991, and by this time they had already killed two people. Bernardo was already a serial rapist and a criminal, but when he got married, his wife encouraged him to be even more depraved than he was.
Bonnie and Clyde
Bonnie and Clyde are the most notorious criminal couple. You’ve probably heard of them from multiple movies, as their lives have been considered by many as the perfect movie scenario. But who was this couple, after all? They killed 13 people, before being shot to death by a police officer during an ambush in Louisiana.
They met in Texas, back in 1930, when she was only 19 years old and she was already married to Roy Thornton, who was in jail. Clyde was unmarried and 21 years old, but not long after they’d met, he was convicted for burglary and went to jail. The couple ran away together and initiated their two-year crime spree alongside their gang.
Suzan and James Carson
Suzan and James Carson were also known as the “San Francisco Witch Killers”. They earned this reputation after killing two people who they strongly believed to be witches. They first met in 1977, and they seemed like a normal couple.
They married while they were in England, in Stonehenge, under the light of the moon, which is pretty romantic for two criminals. Then, in 1981, the two criminals started killing people. It is believed that Suzan was the mastermind of the two, which resulted in killing three people before being arrested, after being chased by the Los Angeles Police Department.
It could have been even worse if they wouldn’t have been stopped, as they had Johnny Carson and President Ronald Reagan on their bucket list.
David and Catherine Birnie
This Australian couple has had such a dark story, that their lives were turned into a movie called “Hounds of Love”. They met through mutual friends when they were only teenagers: she was 12 and he was 14.
They bonded through a common wound: Catherine’s mother was dead, and David’s mother was an alcoholic. They continued to get in trouble with the law, and Catherine went to jail. She lost contact with David for a while, marrying another man and having 6 children with him.
But at some point, she went back to David, and there they started their killing spree. The criminals murdered four women for five consecutive weeks.
Charles Starkweather and Caril Ann Fugate
Charles Starkweather was just a James Dean wannabe who was extremely bullied when he was in school, and Caril Ann Fugate was a simple schoolgirl. She was 14 when she met Charles. It is believed they were so in love with one another, that Starkweather even took a job at Furgate’s school.
What caused them to initiate their murder spree is the fact that her mother and her stepfather didn’t approve of their relationship. Because they prevented her from seeing Charles, they got murdered, as well as their 2-year-old daughter. The couple was responsible for the deaths of ten other people in 1958.
Gwendolyn Graham and Catherine May Wood
Gwendolyn Graham and Catherine May Wood were two lesbians who met at a nursing home, where they both worked as nurses. As some reports are showing, the two criminals had killed five retirees at a nursing home back in 1987.
It is considered that Graham was the first one to commit a murder, by smothering an elderly lady who suffered from Alzheimer’s, or at least she was portrayed by her partner as the one behind the killings. What is truly strange about these two is that they tried to improve their personal relationship by killing people, as they felt deeply aroused after murdering someone.
Carol M. Bundy and Doug Clark
Carol M. Bundy and Doug Clark were also known as “The Sunset Strip Killers”. Bundy had been involved in many abusive relationships before she met Clark at a bar in 1980. She immediately fell for him, and as some reports are showing, he moved into her apartment on the same night.
They murdered because it fuelled their sexual desires, which is extremely odd. They murdered six teenage prostitutes because that’s what made them feel good. But they didn’t murder just prostitutes, as Jack Murray is also one of their victims. Apparently, Bundy had a crush on him and confessed their crimes to him while she was drunk. Then, she decided to get rid of him.
Raymond Fernandez and Martha Beck
Martha Beck and Raymond Fernandez became famous for being the “Lonely Hearts Killers”. How did they earn this reputation? Well, they used to find their victims the same way they met: on the lonely hearts section of a newspaper ad.
They wanted to seduce and rob women through the ads, with Martha pretending she was Fernandez’s sister. But as things sometimes don’t happen according to plan, the pair is believed to have murdered around 20 people in the span of two years. Beck was a chubby and extremely jealous lady. In fact, she was so jealous, that she murdered a woman in a rage.
Alton Coleman and Debra Brown
While we could say that Debra had a normal childhood, she suffered a severe head trauma, which clearly affected her mental abilities. She was suffering from a borderline mental disability. However, Alton Coleman was already charged for various crimes, including sex crimes by the time he met Brown in 1983.
In 1984, he was charged with the rape of a 14-year-old, and ran away, taking Brown with him. From this point, their 2-month killing spree started. They murdered eight people and raped seven women, not to mention episodes of abduction or armed robbery. According to Brown’s attorney, Coleman was the mastermind in their relationship.
Daniel and Manuela Ruda
The German couple Daniel and Manuela Ruda met in 2000 after Daniel posted an ad with a heavy metal music magazine. The ad read: “Pitch-black vampire looks out for princess of darkness who hates everything and everyone and has bidden farewell to life.”
The couple got together and immediately fell into their strange type of love, sleeping in a coffin and practicing Satanism. They had a very strange appearance. In June 2001 they got married, and one month later they killed Frank Hackert. According to reports, his death was part of a ritualistic killing, where they drank his blood. He was stabbed 66 times.
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