This is a collection of drawings and paintings made by convicted murderers whilst behind bars serving time for their crimes. Some of the works of art are grizzly, others are surprisingly serene. It’s tempting to start using some ill-conceived pop-psych mumbo-jumbo on the subject matter but I think it’s better just to take a look…
A former handyman and crack addict Alfred Gaynor was born in 1967 in Springfield, Massachusetts. He murdered 9 women.
American born musician and cult leader, Manson believed that through his murders he would begin the inevitable race war that the Beatles sang about in their song “Helter Skelter”. At least that’s what he thought the song was about. He resides in jail for the murder and conspiracy to murder 7 people.
Ng is a Hong Kong-American serial killer believed to have raped, tortured and murdered between 11 and 25 victims with his accomplice Leonard Lake in California. He was born into a rich Hong Kong family with an abusive father. He is currently on death row at San Quentin State Prison.
Also known as the Gainesville Ripper, Rolling murdered and mutilated 8 people in Florida. He was born an unwanted child with an abusive and sadistic father. He was executed by lethal injection in 2006.
Lucas’ death toll is unconfirmed, he ended up getting put in prison for a murder in Texas which he probably didn’t commit, but he then admitted to killing others. His loftiest brag was that he killed 3000, but he later recanted. His death toll remains a mystery.
When Lucas was 10, his brother accidentally stabbed him in the left eye while they were fighting. His mother ignored the injury for four days, and subsequently the eye grew infected and had to be replaced by a glass eye. Lucas was bullied by his peers for his glass eye, and later mentions mass social rejection as a cause for his hatred of people.
He died in prison of natural causes.
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Gacy, also known as the Killer Clown, was convicted of the sexual assault and murder of a minimum of 33 teenage boys and young men in a series of killings committed between 1972 and 1978 in Chicago.
Robinson is a serial killer, con man, embezzler, kidnapper, and forger who was found guilty in 2003 of three murders, he received the death sentence for two of them. Robinson subsequently admitted responsibility for five additional homicides, and investigators fear that there may be other undiscovered victims.
He found his victims in online chat rooms and is often referred to as the internet’s first serial killer. He currently resides on death row in El Dorado Correctional Facility in Kansas.
Jesperson is a Canadian serial killer known as the “Happy Face Killer” for the smiley face he drew on his many letters to the media and prosecutors. He had a troubled upbringing and started his career by torturing animals. He, surprisingly, married and had three children.
Jesperson wanted to be a Canadian Mountie but he got injured and could no longer follow his dream, his wife left him at around that time. He went back to being a truck driver and began murdering. He killed at least eight women by strangulation over a 5 year period. Jesperson said the figure is more like 160 in total but there’s no evidence for that.
Toole was convicted of six counts of murder and at one time admitted to four more murder charges. However, he recanted and restated a number of confessions during his time in prison. Toole had mild mental retardation and epilepsy. He claimed that he was abused as a child after he came out to his family as gay.
Toole’s mother was abusive, he claimed she would dress him in girls’ clothing and call him Susan. His father was an alcoholic who abandoned him. As a young child, Toole was a victim of sexual assault and incest at the hands of many close relatives and acquaintances, including his older sister and next door neighbour.
He died in his cell from liver disease.
