Killers: Behind the Myth

When police see a car weaving between lanes on a Californian highway late one night, they pull the car over. In the driver's seat is Randy Kraft. In the passenger seat is a dead body. In the boot is a list of names, and under the seat is a collection of photos of what look like dead bodies on a sofa. A former military airman, Kraft targeted marines and gay men, routinely sodomising and emasculating them before he killed them. The torture his victims endured became more and more extreme. A computer programmer with a high IQ, Kraft to this day maintains his innocence and despite the extensive evidence against him, denies killing anyone. He is currently appealing his death sentence in the Federal courts. Kraft now sits on Death Row in the infamous San Quentin prison, convicted of 16 counts of murder. Known as the "Scorecard Killer" because of a piece of paper he kept believed to be a death list of victims, conservative estimates allege he has killed at least 50 more. Others put his total body count at over 100.

In the summer of 2001 the bodies of several prostitutes are found, unceremoniously dumped at the sides of St Louis' highways. For over a year, police and FBI are mystified as to who is behind the murders. But then in May 2002, someone claiming to be the killer sends the police a letter along with a map printed from a computer-mapping site. The map leads police to the remains of another body. What the killer doesn't realise is that he has unwittingly led the investigators right to his door. Police are able to trace the making of the map to a computer belonging to a Maury Troy Travis, a 36-year-old waiter born and raised in St. Louis. When police descend on his home, they uncover the true horror of Travis' crimes: a torture dungeon where he filmed his horrific abuse and even some of the murders of his victims. But before Travis can be charged and receive justice for his crimes, he commits suicide in his prison cell, leaving police and relatives of victims with unanswered questions.

Bradford, Northern England, 2009 - drug addicted prostitutes start to vanish from the streets of the city. Their families contact the police who put out a missing persons report but they do not reappear. It's not unusual for street workers to go missing in a big city but everything suddenly changes when the brazen murder of a woman is caught on the CCTV of a local block of flats. The killer is a 40-year-old local named Stephen Griffiths. He seems to be performing for the camera. His arrest reveals a truly horrifying story - a local PhD student of criminology who seeks fame through re-inventing himself as the most revolting, taboo-busting serial killer that he can create. He is responsible for the disappearance of the local prostitutes - victims in his quest to turn his dark fantasies into a grotesque reality.

Anatoly Onoprienko, 'The Terminator', earned his nickname from an unprecedented spree of mass killings in Ukraine. In just 4 months he slaughtered 43 people, entering households and murdering whole families at a time. Children and even babies fell victim to this merciless killer. Onoprienko claimed he was on a dark mission for supernatural powers, that he heard voices in his head telling him to kill. But in reality he killed to make money: his arrogance and avarice led to his downfall as police found over 100 trophies stolen from victims stashed in his apartment. Onoprienko is sentenced for 52 murders, making him one of the most prolific and evil serial killers of the century.

Fritz Honka quietly lived in Hamburg's red light district of St Pauli, picking up elderly prostitutes for the price of a glass of schnapps and a bed for the night. He began to lose his temper when the women declined his sexual perversions. He retaliated by strangling his victims. Disposing of the bodies presented a problem until he came up with the idea of dismembering them and storing the body parts in the roof space next to his flat. Had a freak house fire not crept up the building to expose his collection he might never have been caught. He claimed he had been instructed by London's Victorian Jack The Ripper to perform the murders. He was sectioned at a mental institute after being convicted of 1 murder and 4 manslaughters.

For two years the baby-faced killer Karol Kot terrorised the Polish city of Krakow. Unlike many serial killers he appeared to have no fixed modus operandi when targeting his victims, which made tracking him down difficult. He began his attacks on elderly women, but after a two-year break, he moved to attacking children. An 11 year old boy is found stabbed to death: the boy's internal organs have been punctured in the frenzied attack. A young girl is targeted shortly afterwards. Witness statements link a schoolboy with the crimes. The country is horrified. The killer is finally caught when he confides in a potential partner. His attempt to impress her backfires. Instead she's horrified and goes straight to the police. Once in custody, the schoolboy Kot reveals he drank the blood of his victims as they lay dying.