We’ve all seen enough crime movies to make us doubt our nice neighbors and think again about why they won’t allow us in their basement. Even more, TV shows about serial killers and dangerous minds keep us on the edge of our seats in front of our TVs every other night. But it’s different when the crimes take place one house down your street or when you’ve had what turns out to be a serial killer over for pizza. If you’ve seen Dexter, you’ll probably find the following top 5 gruesome houses of murder interesting (in a weird way).
5. The Fred West House
The English couple formed of Fred and Rosemary West was a peculiar one. Since they both came from abusive households, their dysfunctional fit was powered by violent needs to torture and harm other people. The spouses had no shortage of crimes, including kidnapping, torturing, raping and killing. The two used to attack both female strangers and family members. They killed one of their daughters and buried her in their patio. They were finally exposed in 1992 when police found three dead bodies in their yard and other 9 in their basement.
4. Dorothea Puente’s Boardinghouse
Another example of abusive behavior, Dorothea Puente managed a boarding house in the ’80s and all was looking fine from the outside. Despite this, her residents were being terribly mistreated and cheated by the evil woman who wasn’t afraid to steal or even kill. She seduced older men, forged checks and tortured and drugged helpless elder tenants. She was first imprisoned after a tenant’s complaint and she went behind bars for 5 years. Prison didn’t tame her one bit and she continued with her old ways after her release, only to be incarcerated again for the rest of her life.
3. John Christie’s House
John Christie had a history of petty crime when he moved at 10 Rillington Place in the winter of 1938 with his wife, Ethel. Ruth Fuerst, a prostitute, was his first victim, whom he killed by strangling. After Ruth, he tricked a coworker into coming by his house, by claiming he had a remedy for her bronchitis. Little did Muriel Eady know what expected her at 10 Rillington Place. She had the same faith as Fuerst, and was killed by strangulation. Both women were buried in his back yard. But his victim list didn’t stop there. He killed a neighbor and her little daughter, leaving the husband to take the blame and receive the death penalty. This criminal’s killing pattern was always the same: he used to gas his victims, rendering them powerless, then raped them and strangled them. Continuing his killing spree, he murdered his wife and three other women. He was caught in 1953 and he confessed his heinous crimes before getting the death penalty.
2. The Pickton Farm
Canadians are known for their cool temper, but they too have their criminal minds. Robert Pickton was an inventive serial killer who took advantage of living at a farm by feeding the corpses of his victims to hogs. Pickton killed dozens of prostitutes and couldn’t keep up with the hints and rumors that were starting to point exactly at him and his property. Nothing prepared the police for their raid on Pickton’s farm in 2002. Besides the clothes and IDs of the missing women, they found bits of flesh, bones and teeth scattered throughout the farm and packed in the freezers. Pickton is believed to have killed as many as 50 women over a course of a decade, but the police investigation went on to unearth more unsettling facts. Police was led to believe the public may have been sold human meat combined with pork by the devious serial killer.
1. The Lizzie Borden House
We’ve kept the top of the list for an alleged matricide and patricide that took place in Massachusetts. Lizzie Borden was living with her parents and sister in the house on 92 Second Street, Fall River, but she was not happy with the way her father was spending his money. Jealous and craving more money, Lizzie chose a hatchet as a murder weapon and proceeded to kill Mr. Borden in his sleep by hitting him 11 times. Mrs. Borden took a fatal blow across her skull and 19 more across her back. The cold blooded murderess claimed to have discovered the bodies and got away with her double crime, getting to enjoy her impressive inheritance alongside her sister. The two Borden girls were quick to buy a new house in the same neighborhood were they lived happily ever after.
