People Who Married Serial Killers After Their Convictions

Have you ever heard of hybristophilia? It's a psychological condition where someone is aroused by the idea of someone else committing a terrible act, including murder, rape, and robbery. While sitting behind bars - or glass, these days - Ted Bundy, Richard Ramirez, both Menendez brothers, and several members of the Manson family managed to find Read on to find a number of people who may suffer from hybristophilia, because they all chose to marry people who had committed and been convicted of horrifying violent crimes. Or maybe they just liked to feel needed? By captive partners who could neither cheat nor do the dreaded "pop-in"? These ladies (and one man) engaged in prison marriages with psychotic murderers, most of whom were sentenced to be incarcerated for the rest of their lives.

While it may seem insane to most people, believe it or not, there are people who are attracted to murderers. Many of these people get married to serial killers even after their convictions - though in some cases, they continue to believe their partner is innocent even when the evidence suggests otherwise.

Richard Ramirez was the famous "Night Stalker" serial killer and rapist, who terrorized the Los Angeles and San Francisco area from 1984 to 1985. Ramirez received hundreds of letters from women in prison, including more than 75 from Doreen Lioy.

Ramirez proposed to Lioy in 1988, and the two were married eight years later, in San Quentin Prison. Lioy insists that her husband is innocent.

"He's kind, he's funny, he's charming," she said. "I think he's really a great person. He's my best friend; he's my buddy."

Notorious serial killer Ted Bundy was famous for killing more than 30 women. He was also known for being extremely handsome and charming. Perhaps that's why a former coworker of Bundy's, Carole Ann Boone, married the murderer after he famously proposed to her in court. (In fact, Bundy married her right then and there, using a bizarre loophole in Florida law stating that just a declaration of marriage in the presence of a judge constitutes a legal marriage.)

Boone would later give birth to Bundy's daughter, even though conjugal visits weren't allowed in his Florida prison.

Zayd Rashid killed a woman during a botched robbery in New York. While imprisoned, Rashid read poetry at a class his future wife, former Essence Editor-at-large Asha Bandele, was taking. Bandele would later write a book detailing their romance called A Prisoner's Wife.

The younger of the Menendez Brothers, who killed their own parents for financial gain, Erik Menendez married Tammi Ruth Saccoman in the waiting room of Folsom State Prison.

Tammi Menendez described the marriage as"something that I've dreamed about for a long time. And it's just something very special that I never thought that I would ever have."

Erik is not allowed conjugal visits, and Tammi has said, "Not having sex in my life is difficult, but it's not a problem for me. I have to be physically detached, and I'm emotionally attached to Erik."

Tammi and her daughter Talia drive 150 miles every weekend to visit Erik. Talia calls her stepfather "Earth Dad," in contrast to her deceased biological father.

Tammi published a book, They Said We'd Never Make It - My Life With Erik Menendez, covering her relationship with Erik.

One half of the Hillside Stranglers, who claimed the lives of 10 women in the late 1970s, Kenneth Bianchi would go on to marry Shirlee Joyce Book, a pen pal, via phone call while he was imprisoned in 1989. 

Susan Atkins is another infamous member of the Manson Family. She was convicted for eight of the nine murders committed by the group.

Atkins would go on to marry twice while imprisoned. First she married Donald Lee Laisure in 1981 - after Donald had previously been married 35 times. The two divorced after he planned to marry yet another woman.

Then Atkins married James Whitehouse in 1987. He was a Harvard Law graduate who was 15 years younger than she.

Tex Watson was a member of the Manson Family, who together murdered five people, most notably actress Sharon Tate. After converting to Christianity in 1975 and publishing the book Will You Die For Me? in 1978, Watson married Kristin Joan Svege in 1979.

Together through conjugal visits, they had four children. The couple divorced in 2003 after being married for 24 years, though the two remain friends.

Charles Manson was the leader of the Manson Family, a group of young people who famously killed nine people in Los Angeles over the course of five weeks during the summer of 1969, though Manson was never convicted of killing anyone personally.

Manson intended to marry Afton Elaine "Star" Buron, who was 53 years his junior, but their wedding was called off after it was discovered that Burton was attempting to make money from Manson by allegedly planning to display his corpse in LA once he'd died.

Oscar Bolin was a carnival worker who killed three women in Florida and was executed in 2016. He was famously married to Rosalie Martinez, who was a member of his own legal defense team, while he was on death row in 1996.

Martinez left her husband, also a lawyer, to marry Bolin. Martinez said she made the dramatic move in part to demonstrate Bolin's innocence.

Martinez never stopped believing in that innocence. The two remained married until his execution in Florida in January 2016. 

One half of the infamous Menendez Brothers, who killed their own parents for financial gain, older brother Lyle Menendez married his prison pen pal and former model Anna Eriksson on July 2, 1996. The two were subsequently divorced on April 1, 2001, after Eriksson discovered that Menendez was cheating on her by writing to another woman.

Two years later, Menendez remarried, this time to his long-time friend Rebeccea Snead, at a ceremony in the maximum security visiting area of Mule Creek State Prison.