Serial Killers Who Drove Cabs or Worked for Car Services

Being a cabbie is the perfect cover for someone looking to indiscriminately kill people. Strangers are drawn to them, they're familiar with every dimly lit back alley in the city, and they've got a built-in alibi - they're at work. 

There are plenty of real-life examples where killers also were car service drivers. Cabbie serial killers feed their insatiable hunger for death by posing as people trying to make an honest living. They don't care about getting 5 stars on Uber, they only care about picking up their next victim. Climbing in the backseat of a stranger's car is always a risk, and not everyone who works in the transportation industry is trying to kill you, but there are some out there hoping to take advantage of patrons. 

So maybe think twice before jumping into that cab or requesting that Uber. You never know who you're going to get. 

David Berkowitz was known by many names: The Son of Sam, The .44 Caliber Killer.  He's also known as one of New York City's most infamous serial killers, and as a city cab driver. He killed six people and wounded several others before confessing his crimes, and was sentenced to life in prison in 1978. He was a deeply disturbed man, who was said to have heard demons telling him to kill, one of whom possessed his neighbor's dog.

He used his intimate knowledge of the streets to make extremely quick getaways from his crime scenes. His downfall? A parking ticket on his cab. Police began investigating Berkowitz after his car was ticketed near the crime scene shortly before a murder. 

Paul Durousseau is a serial killer from Beaumont, TX, who murdered seven women between 1997 and 2003. His victims, two of whom were pregnant, were killed in Georgia and Florida.

Durousseau was killing prior to his job with Gator City Taxi in 2003, but after starting the job, he ramped up his body count and killed his three final victims in the span of less than a month. It's widely speculated he met the final three women while working. 

He was sentenced to death and remains on death row in Florida. 

In 1999, limousine driver Richard Gary Beach killed five men, including his stepson and nephew, in Kansas City, MO. Beach shot each man in the face multiple times, and when his stepson didn't immediately die, Beach finished him off with blows from a hammer. When police found the bodies of the men in Beach's home, they noted the killer had left handwritten cards with the names of the dead and how they died near each body. 

Friends speculated his murderous rage was sparked by drug use and mental illness. 

While only being convicted of killing one man, police in the United Kingdom say cabbie Christopher Halliwell likely killed multiple people while working the roads.

In 2012, Halliwell was sent to prison for stabbing a man to death. Police speculated he used his cross-country cab business to prey on women and sex workers. Police pointed to Halliwell's work history showing corresponding unsolved murders to the his travels. Halliwell admitted to raping and murdering one woman, Becky Godden-Edwards, eight years prior to the murder that he was finally jailed for, and authorities have gone on record saying that it's inconceivable that he wouldn't have spent the gap slaughtering innocent men and women. 

In February 2016, an Uber driver from Kalamazoo, MI, named Jason Dalton was arrested for driving around and killing people as he picked up various fares.

Police said Dalton was drawn to the area of the first attack after an Uber rider canceled a ride request with him. Between killings he picked up at least one rider. News reports said the rider called 911 when Dalton started driving erratically. 

All in all Dalton killed six people and injured two others, all of which the police believe to be unconnected. As of September 2016, Dalton is still waiting to stand trial because of a lengthy mental evaluation. 

Jesse Matthew Jr. killed two college students from Virginia while working as a cabbie in the area. Police say Matthew killed Morgan Harrington and Hannah Graham, two coeds who went missing in 2009 and 2014, respectively. 

Matthew abducted the women and then brutally murdered them, eventually leaving their remains in a rural areas near the college towns. Some suspect Matthew killed at least four other women between 2002 and 2014, but no concrete forensic evidence has proven that claim. 

On the night of Harrington's disappearance, Matthew was working as a cabbie. It's unknown whether Harrington was one of his fares that night. 

Russell Ellwood was only convicted with killing one woman, but police suspect he might be involved in a dozen more. In 1999, the former cab driver was sentenced to live in prison for the murder of Cheryl Lewis. She was one of 26 women found dead in swampy areas around New Orleans from 1991 through 1996.

At the time of Ellwood's arrest in 1997, police suspected he was involved in as many as 15 killings. According to the FBI, they believe that someone within the Jefferson Parish Sheriff's Department had hidden or destroyed evidence that could link Ellwood to the rest of the murders. 

Glen Edwards Rogers, known as the Casanova Killer, was convicted of two murders and suspected in several others throughout the United States. He worked as a cab driver in Ohio, and was known to violently beat some of his fares.

A vagabond, Rogers lived all over the US. He would often kill his victims and steal their cars, relocating somewhere else in the country. His victims were usually women, some of whom he seduced. Police suspect killed women in Ohio, California, Mississippi an Florida. He was sentenced to death in Florida, but remains on death row as of 2014. 

This Indian serial killer began his life of crime as a rickshaw driver. Gowri Shankar used his mobile business to transport illicit items from city to city, including harems of prostitutes to service customers. It was during this time he also abducted young women to pimp them out, and killed six teenage girls. He would dispose of their bodies by cremating them and driving their remains to the Bay of Bengal. 

After the arrest of one of his members,  Shankar was turned in to police. He was hung for his crimes in 1991. He was known in India as Auto Shankar because of his profession as a cabbie.