130 free Serial Killer trivia questions with answers — history quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
45 free serial killer trivia questions with answers. This serial killer trivia quiz is built for true crime podcast listeners and documentary binge-watchers. It covers the infamous cases (Jack the Ripper, H. H. Holmes, Ted Bundy, Jeffrey Dahmer, John Wayne Gacy, the Zodiac, Son of Sam, BTK, the Green River Killer, the Golden State Killer), the international ones (Harold Shipman, the Yorkshire Ripper, Andrei Chikatilo, Luis Garavito, Elizabeth Báthory) and how they were caught: a parking ticket, a floppy disk's metadata, a false number plate, a genealogy website. It also takes in the FBI profilers who coined the term, the films and series the cases inspired (Psycho, The Silence of the Lambs, Monster, Zodiac, Mindhunter, Dexter) and a few facts that even devoted listeners get wrong. Questions run from easy to genuinely obscure. Every answer has been checked against a documented reference source that appears under the explanation. The questions describe crimes only as far as needed to ask the question.
30 of 130 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Jack the Ripper's murders took place in 1888 in which district of London?
Whitechapel
The killer was never identified; the name comes from the 'Dear Boss' letter sent to the press.
Q 02The Ripper victims generally accepted as linked are known collectively by what name?
The canonical five
Mary Ann Nichols, Annie Chapman, Elizabeth Stride, Catherine Eddowes and Mary Jane Kelly were killed between 31 August and 9 November 1888.
Q 03The 'From Hell' letter sent to George Lusk of the local vigilance committee arrived with what enclosed?
Half a human kidney
The writer claimed it came from one of the victims; the 'Dear Boss' letter and 'Saucy Jacky' postcard are the other two famous messages.
Q 04Which FBI agent is usually credited with coining the English term 'serial killer' in the 1970s?
Robert Ressler
The German 'Serienmörder' had already been coined in 1930 by Berlin detective Ernst Gennat, describing Peter Kürten.
Q 05By the most common research definition, how many murders make someone a serial killer?
Three or more
The killings must be spread over more than a month in separate events, distinguishing them from mass and spree murder.
Q 06H. H. Holmes committed his most notorious crimes in Chicago around which 1893 event?
The World's Columbian Exposition
His real name was Herman Webster Mudgett; the 'Murder Castle' legend has grown well beyond what records support.
Q 07Ted Bundy was executed in Florida in January 1989 by what method?
Electric chair
He received three death sentences in two trials for the Florida murders after two escapes from custody in Colorado.
Q 08Witnesses at several Bundy crime scenes described a man in a sling or cast driving what kind of car?
A tan Volkswagen Beetle
The 'Ted' who asked women to help him carry books or a sailboat became the composite that broke the case open.
Q 09In January 1978 Bundy attacked students at the Chi Omega sorority house on which campus?
Florida State
He had arrived in Tallahassee by bus a week earlier after his second escape.
Q 10Jeffrey Dahmer, the 'Milwaukee Cannibal', was arrested in 1991 after what happened?
An intended victim escaped his apartment
He was beaten to death by a fellow inmate at a Wisconsin prison in November 1994.
Q 11John Wayne Gacy earned his 'Killer Clown' nickname because of what?
He performed as Pogo at parties
Twenty-six of his 33 victims were buried in the crawl space of his home outside Chicago.
Q 12Where were most of Gacy's victims found?
In the crawl space of his house
The investigation into the disappearance of teenager Robert Piest led to his arrest in December 1978.
Q 13The Zodiac Killer's crimes took place in and around which city?
San Francisco
He attacked three couples and a cab driver between December 1968 and October 1969, and two of his seven victims survived.
Q 21Which crime writer coined the name 'Golden State Killer' and wrote I'll Be Gone in the Dark?
Michelle McNamara
The book's title comes from a threat the attacker made to a victim; McNamara died in 2016, two years before the arrest.
Q 22Gary Ridgway, the Green River Killer, was arrested in 2001 as he left work at a plant that made what?
Trucks
He was convicted of 49 murders and avoided the death penalty by agreeing to reveal where missing victims were.
Q 23Aileen Wuornos, executed in Florida in 2002, was portrayed in the film Monster by which actress?
Charlize Theron
The performance won the Academy Award for Best Actress; Wuornos had shot seven of her clients along Florida highways.
Q 14How many of the Zodiac's four cryptograms have been decrypted?
Two
The first was cracked in 1969 by a schoolteacher and his wife; the second, the '340', was solved by amateur codebreakers in 2020.
Q 15The 2007 film Zodiac, directed by David Fincher, is based on books by which cartoonist-turned-author?
Robert Graysmith
Jake Gyllenhaal plays the cartoonist, with Mark Ruffalo as detective Toschi and Robert Downey Jr. as reporter Avery.
Q 16David Berkowitz, the 'Son of Sam', was finally traced in 1977 thanks to what?
A parking ticket
He initially claimed a demon speaking through his neighbour's dog ordered the shootings, then admitted it was a hoax.
Q 17Berkowitz was also known as the '.44 Caliber Killer' because of his weapon. What kind of gun was it?
A Bulldog revolver
His taunting letters to police and the press set off possibly the biggest manhunt in New York's history.
Q 18The Wichita killer BTK gave himself a name that stood for what?
Bind, torture, kill
Dennis Rader murdered at least ten people between 1974 and 1991 and was president of his church council when arrested.
Q 19What finally identified BTK in 2005?
Metadata on a floppy disk he mailed
He had asked police whether a disk could be traced; a deleted Word document on it was marked as last modified by 'Dennis' at Christ Lutheran Church.
Q 20The Golden State Killer, arrested in 2018, had once worked in what profession?
Police officer
Joseph James DeAngelo was identified through forensic genetic genealogy after decades as the East Area Rapist and Original Night Stalker.
Q 24Harold Shipman, thought to have killed around 250 people, worked as what?
A family doctor
He was convicted of 15 murders in 2000 and hanged himself in Wakefield prison the day before his 58th birthday.
Q 25Peter Sutcliffe, the 'Yorkshire Ripper', was finally arrested in Sheffield in 1981 for what offence?
Driving with false number plates
The investigation had been derailed by hoax letters and a tape from a man later nicknamed 'Wearside Jack'.
Q 26Andrei Chikatilo, the 'Butcher of Rostov', was executed in 1994 in which country?
Russia
The Ukrainian-born killer murdered at least 52 people in the Soviet Union; his hunt inspired the film Citizen X.
Q 27In which country did Luis Garavito, 'La Bestia', the most prolific modern serial killer, commit his crimes?
Colombia
He confessed in October 1999 after being caught during an attempted attack; his confirmed total is at least 193 minors.
Q 28Countess Elizabeth Báthory, the 'Blood Countess', was walled up in a castle in which kingdom?
Hungary
The tale that she bathed in the blood of virgins was only written down more than a century after her death in 1614.
Q 29Belle Gunness lured most of her victims to her Indiana farm using what?
Personal advertisements
'Hell's Belle' apparently died in a farmhouse fire in 1908, but her real fate has never been confirmed.
Q 30Ed Gein inspired Norman Bates in Psycho and which Silence of the Lambs character?
Buffalo Bill
Leatherface from The Texas Chain Saw Massacre also drew on Gein's crimes, discovered in 1957.