OCTOBER 10: TEN SERIAL KILLERS NAMED PETER

 se·ri·al kill·er  (n.)  A serial killer is traditionally defined as an individual who has killed three or more people over a period of more than a month, with down time (a "cooling off period") between the murders, and whose motivation for killing is usually based on psychological gratification. (Wikipedia)

 Peter Sutcliffe ~ "The Yorkshire Ripper" - A British serial killer responsible for the deaths of thirteen women (he also attacked seven others), he was a shy child who was intimidated by his overly-masculine father. A victim of severe bullying, he hated school passionately and quit at age 15.  He had no interest in girls until age twenty when he met future wife Sonia.  He had a penchant for prostitutes and most of the women he assaulted and murdered were streetwalkers or women out alone.

Peter Kurten ~ "The Vampire of Düsseldorf" - German Kurten was active from February and November 1929 and was a poster boy for typical serial killer statistics.  Born into a destitute family that was extremely abusive, he followed in his father's footsteps by sexually assaulting his own sisters.  He moved on to petty crime, ran away from home several times, and committed acts of arson and animal cruelty before moving on to murder. He claimed to have killed two children at the age of 9 by drowning them. Some of his most heinous crimes are beating a girl to death with a hammer, killing a man by stabbing him twenty times, and strangling and stabbing a five year old 36 times with scissors. Eventually he confessed, was arrested, and finally sentenced to death.  He later told a biographer that the amount of times he stabbed someone all depended on how long it took him to get sexual gratification from the violence. Death by guillotine came in 1931.

Peter Stumpp ~ "Werewolf of Bedburg" - Another German, this monster did unspeakable things to his victims.  Apparently he raped and feasted on fourteen children and two pregnant women, and those were just the ones he confessed to. He claimed that he'd been practicing black magic since he was twelve and the Devil himself had given him a 'belt' that turned him into a wolf and this is when he would commit his crimes. It is also alleged that he got his own daughter pregnant, had a son with her, and then ate the brains of this boy.
His death is legendary in that it is supposed to be one of the worst in history.  He was captured and put on the rack, which essentially rips you apart limb from limb. They then tore off his flesh, broke all his bones, and burned him (and his daughter as they considered her an accomplice - ?) in a pyre.

Peter Dupas ~ Moving on to Australia, we have a man who has a criminal history that spans over thirty years. A violent sexual predator, he was in and out of prison until his unholy crimes finally put him away for the rest of his life. His only reasoning he would admit for committing said crimes is that he "gets the urge", and it became obvious that he had no control over himself.  A knife was Dupas's weapon of choice, and he didn't just go about stabbing his victims countless times - he mutilated their bodies, cutting off their breasts and other body parts.  Nice guy.

Peter Woodcock ~ Notorious in his native Canada, Woodcock was given up and placed in foster care where he was apparently abused.  Unfortunately this led to his penchant for molesting and killing children. He was convicted of killing three children under the age of ten and put in an asylum. Once, he convinced  a  man that aliens were coming and he could avoid detection if he was to help Woodcock murder a fellow inmate who resided at one of the insane asylums that Paul had been seen in.  Woodcock died in prison at age 71  (having served 53 years) in 2010.

Peter Bryan ~ "Britain's Hannibal Lecter" - Bryan believed that the human body was a natural food source that made him stronger.  His first victim was killed with a claw hammer then attempted suicide. He unfortunately survived only to dismember his next victim and admitted to police that he'd eaten his brain fried in butter. Almost humorously, he stated that the victim's arms and legs "tasted like chicken".  When he was accidentally transferred to a medium risk cell block in a different prison, he beat a fellow inmate to death with his bare hands and told the warden he didn't have much time or the proper cooking equipment but would have like to have cooked and eaten the man. He is still serving life in prison in the UK.

Peter Manuel ~ "The Beast of Birkenshaw" - Though born in America, Manuel committed all his crimes in Scotland, having been convicted of nine murders but blamed for at least eighteen (for which he eventually admitted to after capture).  Another victim of bullying, Manuel started with petty crime and moved on to felony assault, for which he served time in jail at age sixteen.  Not one for sticking to a specific MO, he killed by various means: strangulation, bludgeoning, and shooting.  His own death came in 1958 at the gallows.

Peter Tobin ~ Another Scottish serial killer (and sex offender), Tobin was one of eight children and was in reform school by the time he was seven years old.  He did manage to marry, yet he abused, raped, and tortured his own wife - once even cutting with a knife so badly her inside her vagina that she was unable to ever have children.  He also slit her puppy's throat so it would stop yelping. (Nothing worse than killing a puppy in my book!) Though they divorced, Tobin thoroughly abused both of his other wives. He preferred to simulate strangulation to get sexual satisfaction, and even took to bringing home prostitutes that could pass as children, and got off on choking them to near-death in front of his young third wife. And this is all before he even gets arrested and sentenced to life in prison for the murder of three women. The atrocities that were committed against these women (and probably many more, as he is implicated in several other deaths) are far too heinous to write.

Peter Moore ~ "The Man in Black" (yeah, the other one)- Though he looks like he could be somebody's grandfather or maybe your aging plumber, Moore was the manager of a theatre in North Wales and had apparently developed a special fondness for Jason Voorhees (Friday the 13th series). He is responsible for the stabbing deaths of four men (and attacks on at least 50 more) in the mid-90's.  Horror fans will find it particularly interesting that he alleged the murderer was his gay lover "Jason", but the courts weren't buying that and sentenced him to life in prison, where he remains to this day.

Peter Kudzinowski ~ Though born in Poland, Kudzinowski committed all his crimes in New Jersey and strangely, was active at the same time as the far-better known Albert Fish - therefore he didn't get the notoriety or "fame" that the cannibalistic Fish received.  Kudzinowski was fond of slashing throats and generally just left his victims where they lay dead. He was arrested and sentenced to death for the murders of three children from 1924-1928 and was fried on the chair in December of 1929. Not much else is known about Kudzinowski, and finding a picture of him proved a fruitless search.