The Most Notorious Serial Killers from Texas

Our society is at once intrigued and repulsed by serial killers. Popular TV shows like Dexter, Hannibal, and Bates Motel feed into our morbid fascination with murderous psychopaths, while at the same time, true crime stories and graphic news headlines remind us of the disturbing and terrifying realities of such crimes.  

The FBI defines a "serial killer" as a person who has committed at least two murders on separate occasions. With over 2,625 documented cases, the United States has produced more serial killers than any other country. And Texas, in particular, has produced some of the most notorious.

From the Servant Girl Annihilator in the 1880s to the Candyman in the 1970s, Texas law enforcement officers have been burdened with many high-profile serial murder cases over the years. Here are the most notorious serial killers from Texas.

Ángel Maturino Reséndiz was a Mexican serial killer who was active in the '80s and '90s in the US. After being apprehended in 1999, Reséndiz confessed to 15 murders, eight of which occurred in Texas. He became known as the "Railroad Killer" because he would train-hop across the country and commit burglary, rape, and murder near railways. On June 27, 2006, he was executed by lethal injection.

During his murder spree in the early '90s, Charles Albright assaulted and shot three prostitutes in the Dallas area. He became known as the ''Eyeball Killer'' because he removed the victims' eyeballs from their corpses. In December 1991, Albright was found guilty of murdering Shirley Williams and sentenced to life imprisonment.

Between 1970 and 1973, Dean Corll murdered at least 28 young men and boys in the Houston area. With the help of his two teenage accomplices, Elmer Wayne Henley and David Brooks, Corll abducted, raped, and tortured his victims before burying their bodies. He was called the "Candy Man" because he once worked at his mother's candy factory and would hand out candy to local kids. In August 1973, Corll's sadistic spree finally came to an end when Henley shot and killed him.

In the 1980s, Genene Jones murdered between 11 and 46 children while working as a pediatric nurse in San Antonio and Kerrville, TX. She injected her victims with lethal doses of drugs that induced paralysis or heart failure. In 1985, Jones was sentenced to 99 years in prison for the murder of 15-month-old Chelsea McClellan; she was concurrently sentenced to 60 years in prison for the attempted murder of one-month-old Rolando Santos. Jones is serving her sentence at a women's prison in Gatesville, TX, though she is expected to be paroled in 2018.

After his arrest in 1983, Henry Lee Lucas boasted that he had claimed the lives of thousands; however, the majority of his confessions are believed to be false. Only three murders can be linked to Lucas with certainty, and these include the 1960 stabbing death of his mother and the 1982 murders of 15-year-old Becky Powell and 82-year-old Kate Rich in Texas. On March 12, 2001, he died of heart failure while serving a life sentence in prison.

Joe Ball was a 1930s bootlegger who is believed to have killed between two and 20 women. In Elmendorf, TX, he opened a saloon and built a pond that contained five alligators to which he fed live animals. When deputies began questioning Ball about the recent disappearances of several women, he shot himself with a pistol. Over time, Ball has become a part of Texas folklore, and many details of his life and crimes are still unknown.

In 1966, Kenneth McDuff and Roy Dale Green abducted and murdered a group of teenagers; the two boys were shot, while the girl was raped and then strangled with a broomstick. After serving time in prison, McDuff was paroled in 1989 and quickly resumed his killing spree, which included the murders of at least five other women. McDuff was eventually caught and convicted, and on November 18, 1998, he was executed by lethal injection.

The Servant Girl Annihilator (aka the Austin Axe Murderer) was an unidentified serial killer that terrorized Austin in the 1880s. Of his eight victims, five were African-American women employed as domestic servants. The killer's MO involved attacking his victims with an axe while they were asleep and then sexually assaulting them. Some theorists believe 19-year-old Nathan Elgin committed the murders, while others believe the Annihilator moved to London and became Jack the Ripper.

In the spring of 1946 in Texarkana, TX, the Phantom Killer murdered five people and injured three others during a 10-week period. His MO involved shooting young couples parked on secluded lovers' lanes late at night. The first couple survived the attack and described the assailant as wearing a white sack with holes cut out for his eyes. To this day, the Phantom Killer's identity is still unknown.

Johnny Meadows was an active serial killer between 1968 and 1971 in Odessa, TX. Though his exact victim count remains unknown, he is generally believed to have abducted and killed four women. In 1972, he was sentenced to 99 years in prison for the murder of Gloria Sue Nix Green.