Here's a tally of how many people Dexter Morgan killed throughout Dexter’s eight seasons, the New Blood reboot, and his career before the series’ timeline. Dexter's original series follows the lovable vigilante serial killer Dexter Morgan, who, not coincidentally, is a blood-spatter analyst for the Miami Metro Police Department. Throughout Dexter’s eight seasons, he has to hide his serial killer identity and self-professed “Dark Passenger” killing compulsion from his family, coworkers, and for most of the series his detective sister Debra Morgan.
Dexter is special in that he isn’t a serial killer who indulges in his killing whenever he wishes with no regard for the innocence of his victim. His adoptive policeman father Harry Morgan understood Dexter had killing impulses at a young age, so he decided to use his compulsions for good by giving Dexter a code for only killing deserving murderers who have evaded the justice system. Had Dexter's title serial killer not been given a guideline to only kill criminals and avoid being caught, he likely would have racked up a much higher kill count.
According to estimates from several fan counts detailing Dexter’s blood slide boxes, visual kills, and implied conquests, Dexter Morgan killed at least 144 people before the end of Dexter: New Blood. This includes 138 confirmed killed in Dexter's original series and another six victims revealed in New Blood. However, not all of the people on the list include victims he directly killed in one of his murder rituals. For example, the 138 kill tally includes Deb, which is debatable considering Deb's foreshadowed death came when she was braindead and Dexter pulled the plug on her life support. Additionally, the list leaves out those who Dexter physically did not kill but indirectly assisted with, such as Lumen’s Jordan Chase murder and Miguel’s Billy Fleeter kill.
How Many People Did Dexter Kill In The Original Series?
Within the count of murders that are absolutely committed by Dexter before the end of season 8, 45 of the confirmed kills came from the number of blood slides Dexter had in his first box. After his first blood slide box was found by the FBI in Dexter season 2's Bay Harbor Butcher case, which was pinned on James Doakes, Dexter had to start a new box. The second box of Dexter’s blood slides included 43 more people, bringing the total of confirmed kills accounted for by his boxes to 88. Through Dexter’s flashbacks with Harry Morgan, the series also indicated that Dexter killed at least 7 people before he started keeping their blood slides as trophies. In addition to the 88 confirmed from his boxes, there are approximately 50 more confirmed kills in Dexter's original series where the Bay Harbor Butcher either didn’t take blood from them or lost their slides.
It will be hard to ever get a concrete count of how many people Dexter Morgan killed before Dexter: New Blood's timeline, so the real tally likely goes further beyond the suggested 138 victims. Since Dexter started killing when he was 20 years old, he racked up a high total of victims in the subsequent 20 years before he faked his death. Additionally, this count only includes what Dexter confirmed in the first 8 seasons, so it inevitably leaves out many of the victims that the Bay Harbor Butcher took before Dexter season 1 or failed to mention on screen.
How Many People Did Dexter Kill In New Blood?
The premiere of Dexter: New Blood revealed that the serial killer hadn't taken any more victims in the 10-year hiatus since Dexter season 8, meaning the count was still at approximately 138 people when he finally returned to killing. During his time in Iron Lake, Dexter Morgan only killed five more people, though he also revealed a previously unseen victim from Dexter's original series. In Dexter: New Blood, the Bay Harbor Butcher killed Matt Caldwell, drug dealer Jasper Hodge, Elric Kane, The Runaway Killer/Kurt Caldwell, and the innocent Sergeant Logan. When telling his son Harrison about the Code of Harry, Dexter Morgan revealed that he had also murdered the child killer Wiggles the Clown during the original series' timeline, bringing the original tally up by one. Before Harrison killed Dexter's title character and officially ended his murder career, the kill count of the Bay Harbor Butcher was brought to at least 144 victims.