Celebrities Who Have Disturbing Connections To Serial Killers

Gargiulo is believed to have stabbed to death his first victim, 18-year-old Tricia Pacaccio, while living in Chicago in 1993. Five years later, fearing the Chicago authorities might be closing in, Gargiulo moved to Los Angeles. 

In Hollywood, Gargiulo — a wannabe actor — worked as an air conditioning repairman and Hollywood nightclub bouncer. He also continued to murder,  stabbing to death at least two more women, and attempting to kill a third. The brutality of his crimes was especially horrific. In the case of 22-year-old Ashley Ellerin, Gargiulo stabbed her 47 times, nearly severing her head from her neck. Upon being arrested, Gargiulo alluded to having murdered as many as seven other women.

Kutcher testified that he’d recently met Ellerin and the two hit it off well enough that he asked her out for drinks. The night of their date, Kutcher spoke to her on the phone at 8:24 p.m., confirming he’d pick her up at 10 p.m. Later, at 10 p.m., he called again to tell her he’d be late, but she didn’t pick up. 

When he finally knocked on the door of her Hollywood home at 10:45 p.m., she didn’t answer it. He peeked through the window and saw what he thought were fresh red wine stains on the carpet, then left, assuming she’d refused to answer the door because he was so late. The truth was her body laid dead by the bathroom. Chillingly, Kutcher was lucky to be able to leave without incident…as it’s possible Gargiulo was still inside when he was there. 

Kutcher’s testimony established a timeline for the murder which helped make the case against the defendant. Gargiulo was convicted and sentenced to death.

Between 1974 and 1978, Bundy brutally sexually assaulted and murdered at least 30 young women (often attractive college students) across seven states. His depravity knew no bounds — he often decapitated his victims and slept with their corpses. 

Unlike most serial killers, Bundy was handsome, well-dressed, and charming, which made women more likely to trust him. He often tricked women into helping him by wearing a cast or using crutches, and had the backseat removed from his VW Bug to make more room for his victims.

Once inside Bundy’s VW Bug, she saw it had been altered so that there were no handles to allow her to escape. It also smelled…horrible. To escape, she slowly rolled down the window and tried to open the door from the outside. 

Harry continued: “As soon as he saw that, he tried to turn the corner really fast, and I spun out of the car and landed in the middle of the street.”

Some have questioned the veracity of Harry’s claim, saying, for example that there’s no record of Bundy stalking women in New York City, but she stands by it. It sounds like, Bundy or not, she escaped a very, very dangerous situation.

In the early ’60s, the then twentysomething Charles Harrelson embarked on a career as as a violent thief and hitman. He was involved in dozens of murders,  and generally used a sniper rifle instead of a handgun. At his last trial, the prosecutor said, “Charles Harrelson damaged everyone he came in contact with.”

At different times in his life, Harrelson claimed responsibility for assassinating President John F. Kennedy, saying he was one of “three tramps” on the grassy knoll close to the Kennedy cavalcade (men photographed the day of the assassination that conspiracy theorists have long believed may actually be responsible for the killing). Harrelson also said that the presumed assassin Lee Harvey Oswald was too far away to make the shot (something Harrelson, who knew his way around a sniper rifle, had unusual insight into).

Woody told People magazine, “This might sound odd to say about a convicted felon, but my father is one of the most articulate, well-read, charming people I’ve ever known. Still, I’m just now gauging whether he merits my loyalty or friendship. I look at him as someone who could be a friend more than someone who was a father.”

Gein — known as the Butcher of Plainfield — shocked the nation in 1957 when he was arrested in his hometown of Plainfield, Wisconsin for the murder of hardware store owner Bernice Worden. Horrifyingly, police discovered Worden’s decapitated and mutilated body hanging upside down in a shed on Gein’s property. Upon searching his home, they found even more horrors: bowls made out of human skulls, a waste basket made out of human skin, one of his victim’s faces in a paper bag…and a whole lot more messed up stuff you can look up if you’re so inclined. 

Gein confessed to killing another woman (Mary Hogan) and was suspected of killing at least seven more. He also made many, many trips in the middle of the night to cemeteries where he dug up the recently deceased and brought their bodies back to his home. 

In custody Geir was diagnosed with schizophrenia and found mentally incompetent to stand trial. Later, he was transported to the Mendota Mental Health Institute.

He continued, “It’s a lake so you can hear everything. You could whisper and hear it echoing across the lake. And all of our bedrooms had doors that opened up into the backyard. Not very secure doors. Flimsy doors. And then, all of a sudden in the dead of night, you’d hear the sirens go off. You’d lift your head off the pillow and look out the door and you’d see the lights going off and the sirens going off (indicating a patient had escaped). You’d be like, ‘Sweet Jesus.’ There were lights and dogs.” 

John remembered that these nights especially scared his brother Chris, saying that whenever they heard the sirens, he and his other brother Kevin “would be like, ‘Oh my God, here he comes. You’d see the silhouette of Chris in our doorway with his pillow. Just a big fat silhouette saying, “Shut your mouth! I’m sleeping here in between your beds.”

In 1975, Glenn was a civilian employee at the United States Army post Fort Carson in El Paso, Colorado. There me met Michael Corbett, a soldier, and together they set out on a series of horrifying murders. First, they kidnapped Daniel Van Lone, a cook leaving his job, with the intention of robbing him. After killing him, the killers made off with all of 50 cents. A few days later, the duo kidnapped another soldier, whom Corbett murdered with a bayonet.

Two weeks after their murder spree began, Glenn, Corbett, and two others tried to rob a Red Lobster where Karen Grammer worked, but failed to steal any money. Fearful that Grammer would be able to identify them, they kidnapped her and took her to their apartment where they repeatedly raped her. Later they said they would take her home, but instead let her out at a trailer park. Before she could escape, Glenn stabbed her multiple times including in the throat. She managed to knock on a trailer door, but no one was home, and succumbed to her injuries.

Grammer has known tremendous tragedy in his life. In addition to the loss of his sister, his father was also murdered, and two other siblings drowned in a scuba diving accident. He told People magazine that he’s managed to get through his losses thanks to the strength of family and belief in God, adding: 

“I take a moment out of every morning for a moment of gratitude. There’s a great Doobie Brothers line that Michael McDonald wrote that goes, ‘You’ll always have a chance to give up. So why do it now?'”

In the early ’80s, Woodfield was dubbed the I-5 Bandit due to a spree of crimes he committed along the Interstate 5 highway (which stretches from Washington to California). Disguised by a fake beard, he robbed gas stations, restaurants, and stores, often sexually assaulting the women who worked there. 

Soon Woodfield — who had already murdered two women, including a friend he’d known since second grade — began breaking into homes along the highway, brutally raping and murdering the women who lived there. All told, Woodfield is suspected of killing as many as 44 women and girls. 

A young Hollman even considered the future serial killer to be better than most of his other babysitters because he was very active with the boy, playing games like hide and seek and tag.

“I just remember it was always fun because they were athletes,” the reality star recalled to Oxygen.com. “They were fun. They were energetic.” 

Perhaps even more incredible, Woodfield was drafted by the 1974 Green Bay Packers, signed a $16,000 contract, and went to training camp with them. He survived numerous rounds of cuts but didn’t make the opening day roster. Still, before returning home to kill dozens of women, he played alongside some of the world’s greatest football players.

In the 1980s, Penn was a young star with a penchant for letting his temper get him into trouble. When he was arrested for punching an extra on the set of 1988’s Colors (his fourth arrest in three years), the judge decided slaps on the wrist weren’t working and sentenced him to 60 days in county jail.

Upon arriving at the jail, Penn discovered one of his fellow inmates was Richard Ramirez, who threw the entire state of California into panic in 1984/5 when he killed at least 20 people (ranging in ages from 9 to 79) in Los Angeles and San Francisco. Ramirez committed most of his murders during home invasions, and would rape and mutilate the bodies. In one instance, he cut out his victim’s eyes and brought them home as a souvenir. 

Penn wrote back: “You know, Richard, it’s impossible to be incarcerated and not feel a certain kinship with your fellow inmates. Well, Richard, I’ve done the impossible, I feel absolutely no kinship with you. And I hope gas descends upon you before sanity does, you know? It would be a kinder way out.” 

Charles Manson was the leader of the Manson Family, a cult of around 100 people that lived communally and experimented with LSD in the late ’60s and early ’70s. Over time, Manson’s teachings became increasingly unhinged (he believed the Beatles’ White Album contained secret messages predicting a worldwide race war), and he eventually encouraged his members to commit a series of nine murders in and around Los Angeles. Famously, the group murdered movie star Sharon Tate, who was eight months pregnant.

What started out as fun for Wilson (a new guitar-playing friend with lots of pretty girls at his command) quickly took a very disturbing turn. According to Wilson’s cousin and fellow Beach Boy, Mike Love, a shaken Dennis Wilson confided in him that he witnessed Manson kill a man with an M-16 assault rifle and then dump the body down a well. 

Wilson desperately wanted to disentangle from the Manson Family after this, but found it difficult as the cult’s members had taken up residency at his home. So, Wilson basically abandoned the home to shake the cult, which, considering the infamous murders had yet to occur, was likely a wise decision.

Nilsen was a government employee by day and predator by night, frequenting gay pubs in search of young men and boys he could lure back to his flat with promises of alcohol or shelter. After murdering his victims, he would photograph the bodies in suggestive positions and perform sexual acts on them. 

His crimes were eventually discovered when tenants of Cranley Gardens — where Nilsen had a flat — complained of slow drains. Plumbers quickly discovered the problem…the pipes were clogged by human bones and flesh. Nilsen had been disposing of his victim’s dismembered bodies by flushing them down the toilet. 

“He was in the pub that I used to go to,” Everett told Morgan. “Yeah, so I could be dead. He used to go to the Coleherne, which was this leather bar.”

“I didn’t know him, but he was there,” Everett continued. “I mean, that’s where he got two or three of his victims from.”

Throughout the 1970s, Gacy worked as a contractor, and, chillingly, performed as a clown for kids at children’s hospitals (and other venues) around the suburbs of Chicago. Gacy was also involved in politics, ingratiating himself with the local Democratic party, and gave off the appearance of a family man as he lived for much of the decade with his wife and her two daughters. 

Appearances were deceiving, though. During this time, Gacy also lured at least 33 young men into his home where he raped, tortured, and murdered them. 

Mrs. Carter even signed the color photo (the image above is a copy), writing: “To John Gacy, Best Wishes, Rosalynn Carter.”

One of the creepiest elements of this story is that when Carter shook hands with Gacy — who was wearing an “S” pin given to him by the Secret Service indicating someone with “special clearance” — he’d already committed the majority of his horrific crimes. 

In 2005, Bloomfield killed two people days apart during robbery attempts. Bloomfield brutally strangled both of his victims to death, in one of the instances using the victim’s own shirt. Months later, Bloomfield was arrested for armed robbery and spent 18 months in jail. His crimes didn’t end there, though. Not long after his release, he murdered a couple during another robbery. Finally, six months later on June 2, 2008, Bloomfield murdered his final victim during yet another home invasion.

It was the production of Felon starring Val Kilmer and Stephen Dorff that offered Bloomfield his best opportunity. The movie — about a family man who ends up sentenced to time in a state prison after killing an intruder — was set to film in the Penitentiary of New Mexico and needed background actors who could convincingly look like dangerous inmates. 

Bloomfield certainly had the bonafides to be cast, arriving to the audition having spent nearly 15 years behind bars…and already murdered two people. Perhaps unsurprisingly, he got the part.

The film’s casting director David Cordova told KRQE, “We were expecting actors to come to our casting calls. I’m not expecting the real thing to come through. … I don’t think anybody else was actually aware that we had cast a mass murderer on the film.”

Bianchi and Buono were cousins who terrorized Los Angeles in 1977/78 by abducting, raping, and murdering 10 young women and girls. Bianchi murdered two additional women by himself. They frequently tricked women into getting into their vehicle by posing as police officers.

Ironically, it’s likely the cousins only recognized Lorre because his most famous role in the film M was of particular interest to them: He played a serial killer.