Creepy Houses Once Occupied by Serial Killers

God once said "love thy neighbor." But what if your neighbor is accused of brutally murdering people in unspeakable ways? If that's the case, you might have a serial killer living next door. 

Serial killers are humans who, at one point, lived in a place that wasn't prison. Some of these dwellings still exist today. The places that serial killers lived aren't always the scene of their brutal crimes, but in some cases, their killings took place in their very houses, apartments or mansions. These killer houses have been demolished, preserved, and - in at least one case - rented out. From Jeffrey Dahmer's apartment to Gary Ridgway's quaint little house, here's some of the places serial killers once lived. 

Jeffrey Dahmer, one of the most famous serial killers in history, lured people to his Milwaukee apartment and killed them there. During the nearly two years he lived there, Dahmer killed 11 people. Despite multiple complaints of strange smells and noises coming from his apartment, no one ever reported Dahmer to the police. After his arrest in 1991, police discovered seven skulls in the apartment, along with human hearts, muscles, severed penises and 74 Polaroid pictures of his various victims. (Warning: The photos in this link might be disturbing to some.) The apartment complex was torn down.

Dahmer also murdered at his family home in Akron, OH, and at his grandmother's house in West Allis, WI. His childhood home received an award from the local newspaper, the Akron Beacon Journal, for its very modern design. Dahmer committed his first murder there after he picked up a hitchhiker and brutally murdered him. His childhood home still exists. It was placed on the market in 2015, with an asking price of almost $300,000. There's no word on who lives there now, or if they hear or see spooky things related to the house's former famous resident.

Kendall Francois killed eight women over a two year period, capturing prostitutes and taking them back to his house in Poughkeepsie, NY. After strangling them, he'd stuff their bodies in the crawl space and attic of his home. He was convicted of his crimes and died while in prison. His home was gutted by investigators in the late '90s, but was fixed up and sold.

Gary, IN, serial killer Darren Deon Vann strangled at least seven women, leaving crucifixion-like marks on their hands and feet. Around Halloween, he would hang some of the bodies on walls in an abandoned house and marketed it as a haunted house. Obviously, the too-realistic gore scared off visitors to the house, who then called the police. One of the abandoned houses used by Vann, located at 413 East 43rd Street, still stands, although it is now a memorial for the victim found within. 

Maury Travis committed suicide in 2002 before he could be formally charged with the deaths of 17 women, all prostitutes that he hired and then killed. The Ferguson, MO, house where he committed these crimes still stands and is owned by his mother, Sandra Travis, who rents it out to people without disclosing its creepy past. According to crime scene photos, as well as videos made by Travis as he committed the murders, there were prison-like cells in the basement where he would trap and torture the women before snapping their necks or hanging them from the rafters. 

Serial killer Dennis Nilsen has been compared to Jeffrey Dahmer, as he lured in and murdered young men, hacking them to pieces before disposing of their bodies. The London apartment where Nilson lived once had body parts and human entrails stuffed down its drains. Despite the fact that when Nilson was caught three entire human heads were found in the kitchen cabinets, the apartment still exists and its current resident bought it for 300,000 pounds. The new unnamed owner knows all about the flat's grisly history, but doesn't seem to mind it all. 

Gary Ridgway, also known as the Green River Killer, lived in a small green house near the Seattle-Tacoma area in Washington state. The home was torn apart by police as they searched for clues that connected Ridgway to the murders that he committed: he killed women, weighed them down with rocks, and dumped their bodies in the Green River. He murdered upwards of 49 women - and possibly more - while living in that house and a few others in the nearby area. The house was purchased by an unknown individual in 1999 while Ridgway was still at large and killing women. 

The Spahn Movie Ranch, built and owned by George Spahn, was the film set of several westerns including Duel in the Sun and episodes of Bonanza and Zorro. It was also the lair of Charles Manson and his notorious "family." Manson and his followers lived in the ranch's buildings and paid rent in the form of labor, not money. This is where they hatched the plans for their Helter Skelter murders. The buildings on the property burned down in the 1970s and were never rebuilt. The land now belongs to the state of California and is a part of Santa Susana Pass State Historic Park, which is open to the public. 

The home where Anthony Sowell, also known as the Cleveland Strangler, lived was located right next door to a small sausage plant on Imperial Avenue, which is why he was able to get away with his crimes for so long. Neighbors noticed a strange smell but blamed it on the factory. They didn't know it was actually the smell of the corpses of 11 women slowly decaying in Sowell's home.

Sowell lived in the house with his mother before she passed away, and he committed his crimes while she lived there - and even blamed some of the strange smells on her, not his murderous proclivities. The house was torn down in 2011, two years after Sowell was arrested and convicted, but not before people stole soil samples from the yard and sold them online as serial killer propaganda. 

The house used as a body dumping ground by Nathaniel White is now abandoned, but it once was the home of this notorious serial killer. White admitted to the deaths of six women, and the bodies of two of them were found on the Goshen, NY, property in the early 1990s. One of the girls he stabbed to death was his girlfriend's niece, and was only 24. It's clear whether White lived in the farmhouse at the time of the murders, but he did dispose of his victims there, making it into a farmhouse of horrors. 

Suspected serial killer Alfred Powell has thus far only been convicted of two early 1980s murders, but he has been linked to several more. The house where he lived - and the yard where he buried two of his victims - now belongs to Scott and Laura Cotes, who had no knowledge of the house's grisly past when they bought it. They are now suing their realtor for not disclosing this information upfront.