Summary

  • Mindhunter introduces viewers to some of America's most infamous serial killers, allowing for a fascinating yet repulsive exploration of their crimes.
  • Unfortunately, the cancellation of Mindhunter means that certain intriguing and famous killers were never featured or examined in the show's format.
  • While the show's portrayal of some serial killers aligns closely with real-life cases, others, such as Monte Rissell, had limited information available and required the writers to piece together their story.

Netflix's streaming service offers countless true-crime documentaries and docuseries, and thanks to the Netflix original Mindhunter, serial killers from the past came to life again in this show about the formation of the FBI's Behavioral Science Unit. Anyone who has watched Criminal Minds knows about these agents, as that show is based on the organization that this show introduces. Mindhunter focuses on FBI agents Holden Ford and Bill Tench as well as Dr. Wendy Carr as they interview many of America's most famous serial killers in the hopes of gaining some insight into their methodology to help catch similar criminals before the body count continues to grow.

The serial killers in Mindhunter featured fictionalized versions of some of the most notorious killers in American history. These people and their crimes are as repulsive as they are fascinating. Although many fans were holding out hope for a season 3, David Fincher announced earlier in 2023 that Mindhunter season 3 would not happen because of financial concerns. The surprising cessation of the fantastic series means that many of America's most intriguing and famous serial murderers were never featured and a few serial killers in Mindhunter never got the chance to be examined in this format.

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The Most Interesting Serial Killers On Mindhunter

William Pierce Jr.

Michael Filipowich as William Pierce Jr. in Mindhunter

William Pierce Jr. was introduced in Mindhunter season 2, and his case is interesting because, while he was originally in jail for a number of crimes like arson and burglary, it wasn't until after he was paroled from prison that he committed the nine murders he was tried and subsequently convicted for. Pierce's case is interesting for Mindhunter lore due to the unique character of "Junior" and his attempts to outwit the highly trained agents with his own poorly developed but wholeheartedly believed series of lies.

There is an image of this serial killer in Mindhunter that the FBI agents took of Pierce, as he was surrounded by junk food. That is a recreation of a real-life photo taken of Pierce at the Appling County Jail in Georgia. The show digitally placed actor Michael Filipowich's face over the real Pierce's head and used that actual photo to make it look like the Mindhunter serial killer.

William Henry Hance

Corey Allen as William Henry Hance in Mindhunter

William Henry Hance was another Mindhunter serial killer who thought he was smarter than law enforcement, though his low IQ was quickly demonstrated by Agents Holden and Barney during their interview. Convicted of murdering three women but suspected of four, Hance was a former soldier who killed around his army base and sent incriminating letters to the police from a made-up organization threatening to kill women (his victims) in protest of their inability to capture another serial killer known as the Stocking Strangler.

This is a case where the interview with the serial killers on Mindhunter was corroborated by the real story of Hance. He claimed his innocence up to the day his death sentence was carried out 20 years later and his statements made in his interviews on Mindhunter line up with everything he said in real life up until the Supreme Court rejected his appeal.

Paul Bateson

Paul Bateson in Mindhunter

Paul Bateson appeared in season 2 of Mindhunter, and while he was only charged with the murder of an entertainment reporter for Variety, he is often considered a serial killer on Mindhunter. This is due to the belief that he was also responsible for a series of murders in Manhattan that he was never charged with, leading to his eventual parole for time served, after which he disappeared. Bateson not only briefly appeared in 1973's The Exorcist, but he was also the inspiration for director William Friedkin's 1980 film Cruising.

Bateson's case in real life was just like it was shown in Mindhunter. While he was technically never considered a serial killer in real life, the show brought up all the other unsolved murders that authorities wanted to link him with, but they never could. In Mindhunter, the agents asked him how he could kill a person and he refused to answer, ending the interview and still claiming his innocence of any other murders.

Herbert Mullin

Mugshots of Herbert Mullin from Mindhunter

While Herbert Mullin's case was one of the earliest serial killers mentioned by Agent Ford when the idea to begin visiting inmates for their study first comes up in the series, they don't end up ultimately visiting the convicted killer. Mullin violently murdered 13 people of various ages over a short spree in the early seventies that was spurred on by voices in his head that warned him of a catastrophic earthquake that could only be avoided with human sacrifices. He was thankfully captured shortly after his final murder and remains incarcerated today. He was never interviewed as one of the serial killers on Mindhunter.

The Boston Strangler

The Boston Strangler movie poster

Albert DeSalvo (AKA The Boston Strangler) was another serial killer who was only mentioned on Mindhunter, though the case of the horrific strangulation murders that occurred in Boston during the early sixties is much more interesting than the brief nod it received. While DeSalvo confessed to the crimes attributed to The Boston Strangler, there is some doubt that he was responsible for the murders. DeSalvo's suspicious death in prison prior to an interview with his lawyer further adds to the lasting interest. As mentioned, in the Mindhunter serial killers, his name and crimes were only mentioned, and they line up with his real case closely.

Monte Ralph Rissell

Monte Ralph Rissell in Mindhunter

When it comes to American serial killers, there are a lot of big names whose crimes, or at least whose name, will be familiar to even the average Joe. But some of the more interesting cases that are covered in the Netflix series Mindhunter are the cases of serial killers that most people probably haven't ever heard of. One of their lesser-known but just as disturbing cases is that of Monte Rissell. Within the span of less than a year he killed five women and assaulted twelve, and what's even more astonishing and horrifying is that he committed all of these crimes and was convicted of them by the time he was eighteen years old.

This is one of the cases where the Mindhunter serial killers might not line up with what happened in real life. That is because very little is known about Rissell outside a Washington Post article written about him from 1997. This makes most of this serial killer in Mindhunter something that the writers had to piece together from outside of the normal public discourse.

Elmer Wayne Henley Jr.

Mindhunter - Elmer Wayne Henley split image of actor and real killer

But Elmer Wayne Henley Jr. is definitely a weird case, even in comparison to other serial killers. What makes Henley bizarre is that he wasn't a natural-born killer. He actually coincidentally met up with an active serial killer who started using Henley to recruit other victims, and eventually, Henley started participating in the murders himself. There are many different types of murderers that are portrayed throughout the course of Mindhunter's two seasons, but it's rare to find a serial killer who is introduced to the crimes by another person.

As his scene in Mindhunter showed, this serial killer was found guilty of several murders in the "Houston Mass Murders." However, while he was found guilty of dozens of murders, he said in his Mindhunter interview that the only man he killed was Dean A. Corll, who he claimed was the real serial killer, and he did it to escape from him and save other kids from death.

Tex Watson

Watson In Mindhunter

It's certainly not a reality that most people would like to face, but the fact that people like Elmer Wayne Henley Jr. or Charles "Tex" Watson actually existed makes it seem like most people are more capable of brutal, repeated acts of violence than anyone would like to admit. Tex was one of the members of Charles Manson's "Manson Family" and he was really the lead actor in the famous Manson murders. Watson committed some of the most atrocious killings in American history, and it would appear that he did them simply because Charles Manson told him to, which is dramatized for Mindhunter but is frighteningly true too.

When it came to the Mindhunter serial killers, Tex Watson was the easiest to open up. On the show, he found religion in prison and explained exactly how Charles Manson had manipulated his followers into killing people for him. This was also true to life, as he found Christianity in 1975 and became an ordained minister in 1981 while serving his life sentence.

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Charles Manson

Charles Manson in real life.

Within the fictionalized world of Mindhunter, an in-person interview with Charles Manson is the dream of agent Holden Ford and by extension the entire Behavioral Sciences Unit of the FBI. And it's easy to see why. While Charles Manson is a liar and the information that he gives to Holden and Tench during their interview seems all but useless, Manson also "achieved" something that most people wouldn't think was possible. He actually convinced multiple people to commit murder on his behalf, and he didn't even have to be there to ensure that his commands were followed, the people around him were just that devoted to his will.

Out of all the serial killers on Mindhunter, Charles Manson is the one that people already knew the most about. In real life and on the show, Manson was not a serial killer but was a man who had the ability to influence others to kill for him. That might be why the Mindhunter story was a lot more condensed when it came to Manson's interview, and all it really added was that Manson just found people who were best suited to become murderers and didn't really create his own serial killers.

David Berkowitz

David Berkowitz, The Son of Sam.

As far as violent and gruesome acts go, David Berkowitz, better known as the Son of Sam, is actually one of the less violent and pathological offenders that Holden and Tench interview for their studies. Berkowitz terrorized New York with a shooting spree that paralyzed the city with fear, and when he was caught he came up with an absurd story about a possessed dog that told him to commit the murders. However, he still admitted his guilt and accepted a guilty plea instead of pleading insanity. And of course, he eventually confessed that his entire story about his mental illness was completely fabricated.

Mostly, when it comes to the serial killers in Mindhunter, the Netflix series got the story of David Berkowitz correct. In real life, Berkowitz also admitted that his dog story was fake when talking to John Douglas, the real-life counterpart to Ford. Also, the legal battle between Berkowitz and his attorney in Mindhunter was also real, a reference to the Son of Sam legislation that doesn't allow criminals to profit off their crimes. With that said, the show connecting Berkowitz with helping out with the B.T.K. cast was fictional for Mindhunter.

Jerry Brudos

Jerry Burdos talking to Holden Ford on Mindhunter

Serial killer Jerry Brudos manages to stand out on Mindhunter as one of the most uniquely repulsive. And that is pretty much in line with the real-life Jerry Brudos. Brudos' predilections and preferences when it came to his victims are pretty accurately portrayed within Mindhunter, and his crimes were especially unsettling for a few reasons. Obviously, the things that he did were awful, but he was convicted of only a few murders, whereas his personal collection of disturbing photographs included pictures of many women who remained unidentified and whom he was never convicted of killing.

Richard Speck

Serial killer Richard Speck

One of the main distinctions that the Behavioral Science Unit comes up with in Mindhunter to distinguish between types of killers is the difference between organized and disorganized killers. And it would seem that mass murderer Richard Speck would be an example of disorganized, impulsive killing. While it takes most serial killers a while to rack up a body count, the eight murders that Richard Speck was convicted of were all committed in one night. And if Speck is to be believed, he wasn't even planning on committing the crimes, he broke into a dormitory on a random night and then murdered eight out of the nine women inside one by one.

The interview with this serial killer on Mindhunter was accurate, as it relied on an actual recording of Speck when he was talking to fellow inmates later in his life in prison. He said that he killed the women because "it just wasn't their night," and this was an exact quote from the Mindhunter serial killer, word for word.

Wayne Williams

Mindhunter and Wayne Williams

Unfortunately, the thing that makes the case of Wayne Bertram Williams one of the most interesting cases covered in Mindhunter is also what makes it the most tragic. Although Wayne Williams is the prime suspect in almost two dozen child murders, he has never been convicted of them. Wayne Williams is currently serving life in prison for two murders that he actually was convicted of (and those particular victims were two adult men), and although he is suspected of murdering anywhere between 23 and 30 children in Atlanta, he has essentially gotten away with it.

The story of this serial killer in Mindhunter is pretty close to accurate. In this show, Williams was the main villain in the second season, and they never could link him with the murders of the children because of a lack of evidence. However, the series also had the agents question if Williams killed all the kids, and if he didn't, then there could be another serial killer who got away with it as well. In real life, the case was reopened in 2019, but it still remains unsolved.

Dennis Rader

Mindhunter BTK killer Dennis Rader.

The inclusion of Dennis Rader, better known as the B.T.K. killer, in Mindhunter is one of the most curious decisions made by the show's writers. While Rader was actively committing murders around this time, he wasn't actually caught and convicted of anything until many years later. The FBI did everything they could to find him, and it's true that he did tease and taunt the media as well as law enforcement. But his insatiable need to feel like he was outsmarting everyone who was searching for him didn't actually catch up to him until 2005 when he was finally caught as a result of resuming his contact with the police and media in 2004.

When it comes to the serial killers in Mindhunter, the B.T.K. killer was likely added to show the one that the FBI couldn't catch and the reason the BSU needed to keep getting better. His murders and taunting of the FBI made it necessary to interview serial killers, but even if Mindhunter season 3 had arrived, he wouldn't have been arrested as both Tench and Ford would have been retired by 2005.

Edmund Kemper

An old photo of Edmund Kemper.

Mindhunter has done a great job of examining and including a lot of terrifying real-life murderers in its storylines, but clearly, the star serial killer on Mindhunter is Edmund Kemper. Ed Kemper is an interesting character in his own right, and it seems that the Kemper that fans see on the show is a pretty close match to the real-life serial killer. Most of the people who interacted with him said that he was a very intelligent, polite, honest, and open individual who didn't seem to square up with all the horrific crimes that he had committed.

In Mindhunter, Kemper is the first serial killer that Special Agent Holden interviews, and his interview is actually re-created from the original recordings of interviews with the real man. Everything said in his interview on the show was accurate in telling the true story of this serial killer.

Who They Should Have Had On The Show

Ted Bundy

A close up of Ted Bundy

At one point Ted Bundy was having a bit of a moment on Netflix, with their docuseries Conversations with a Killer: The Ted Bundy Tapes and their dramatized movie Extremely Wicked; Shockingly Evil and Vile both coming out in 2019. But surprisingly, the ultra-famous serial killer never made it onto Mindhunter. Although the show was smart to cover killers who don't get as much media attention, it's a shame that the series didn't last long enough to feature the incredibly talkative murderer.

John Wayne Gacy

John Wayne Gacy's mugshot

Most horror fans would like to believe that killer clowns are just a fantasy designed to make horror movies more interesting, but John Wayne Gacy was a real-life clown who murdered over 30 people. More specifically, he assaulted and killed mostly teenage boys or men in their young 20's, and he managed to commit all of these horrific acts over the course of only six years. And if that isn't enough nightmare fuel, he would often offer to show his victims a "magic trick" and then handcuff them so they couldn't escape.

Angelo Buono Jr. & Kenneth Bianchi

Kenneth Bianchi and Angelo Bueno, the Hillside Stranglers

It's not entirely unheard of for a duo to commit a series of killings, but the case of Angelo Buono Jr. and Kenneth Bianchi was interesting for a few reasons. Firstly, they were originally known as "The Hillside Strangler," as the police believed that this spate of Los Angeles murders was committed by a single person. And unsettlingly, the pair were actually cousins who would pose as undercover police officers to convince the girls and young women that they killed to go with them.

Henry Lee Lucas & Ottis Toole

Picture of killers Ottis Toole and Henry Lee Lucas

This story has already been loosely adapted into the horror classic Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer, but it would have been fascinating to see these two murderers portrayed on Mindhunter as well. Both men confessed to an absurd number of killings that they didn't actually commit, but they did still murder many victims. Notably, although he was never convicted of the crime, it's believed that Toole killed Adam Walsh (son of America's Most Wanted host John Walsh, who was inspired to become a victim's advocate because of Adam's murder).

Richard Ramirez

Richard Ramirez AKA The Night Stalker

Richard Ramirez was undoubtedly one of the most notorious killers of the 80s, so if Mindhunter had continued beyond season 2, he would have made a fantastic case study for Holt and Tench.

Ramirez was a murderer, sex offender, and a devoted Satan worshiper who liked to display pentacles drawn on his palm during his trial. Bizarrely, the killer dubbed "The Night Stalker" was caught in Los Angeles after, unbeknownst to him, he had been identified and had his face plastered all over every newspaper, and many bystanders began recognizing him and chasing him down.