The 15 Best Songs About Serial Killers

Killers: Ian Brady and Myra Hindley

On their debut album, The Smiths tackled the sort of melancholy territory that would become their stock in trade, revisiting the the Moors Murders committed in Saddleworth Moor in Manchester by the duo of Ian Brady and Myra Hindley between 1963 and 1965. The song laments the loss of five children, exploring the tragedy of innocent lives lost and the emotional damage left in their absence. The song drew controversy as it referred to several of the victims by name.

Killer: Ted Bundy

Though much of Odd Future's early output focused on the good, old ultraviolent, Tyler the Creator's "Blow" drew direct influence from a particular, famed serial murderer: "'Blow'… [is] from the mind of Ted Bundy, the way he got females with his charm, the smooth way that he got it… I wrote that song from that mindstate.“ One of America's most horrifically prolific killers, Bundy confessed to the rape and murder of 30 women between 1974 and 1978. Taking the machinations of a killer and setting them against Tyler's brand of airy, Neptunes-inflected production makes for a subtly frightening juxtaposition not usually associated with OF's brash style.

Killer: Jeffrey Dahmer

Some bands choose serial killers as inspiration for social metaphor or abstracted narrative. On "Dirty Frank," Pearl Jam made a mere name switch and kept the acts of Jeffrey Dahmer largely intact. Over the sort of funk-metal that only the early 90s could have loved, Eddie Vedder alternates between matter of fact delivery and occasional tongue-in-cheek winks to the listener, detailing the exploits of a man who's "got a recipe for Anglo-Saxon soup" and "got a cupboard full of fleshy fresh ingredients"--a reference to Dahmer's cannibalism (one of a litany of horrors perpetrated by a man whose track record includes murder, rape, dismememberment, and necrophilia).

Killers: Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold

Rap has a well-documented history of violence, it rarely takes an analytical approach to the causes behind violent acts in youth culture. Ill Bill's "The Anatomy Of a School Shooting" delves into the mind of a social reject pushed beyond breaking, with the rapper inhabiting the persona of Eric Harris, one half of the duo that perpetrated the horrific Columbine shooting in 1999. Though the song takes some liberties to prove a point, its ending strikes a chord as resonant now as it was over a decade ago, a plea for understanding of those pushed to the outskirts of society: "Don't even try to analyze me now you have no chance/Back then, maybe you could've been my friend."

Killer: Charles Manson

ATWA is an acronym for Air, Trees, Water, Animals and All The Way Alive, the radical environmentalist philosophy espoused by Charles Manson and his followers. In their song of the same name, System of a Down makes use of their trademark hybridity (a mixture of surprising melody, heavy guitar, and abruptly alternating dynamics) to paint a portrait of individuals pushed to the fringes of society. Using only a few discrete words repeated again and again, SOAD manages to craft a breathing, focused impression of the sort of mind that can be attracted to cultish activities and extreme behavior.

Killer: Jack the Ripper

The most infamous serial killer of all time seems like an appropriate subject for the illustrious Nick Cave and he proved well up to the task of putting his own spin on Jack the Ripper, delivering out a suitably unhinged piece of dark rock. The 1992 track isn't a chronicle of the serial killer, instead using his image to color the description of a toxic relationship. The imagery, though, and intensity that Cave lays out in his performance are both more than enough to make this track's chilling allusion seem appropriate.

Killer: Charles Manson

Neil Young and Charles Manson met in 1968. Young was a rising fixture in the Topanga Canyon music scene because of his time in Buffalo Springfield when The Beach Boys' Dennis Wilson introduced him to Manson, at that time just another musician trying to make his way to prominence. According to his biography, Young was intrigued by Manson both as a musician and in his mannerisms; he's quoted describing Manson as "an angry man, but brilliant... He sounds like Dylan when he talks” and recommended him to Mo Ostin, the then-president of Warner Brothers. On his 1974 album On The Beach, Young included "Revolution Blues," a song about Manson. It was part of a dark turn, musically, for Young and is an especially fascinating look into a unique perspective of one of the most truly infamous characters in American history.

Killer: Gary Ridgway

Known as the Green River Killer, Gary Ridgway is one of America's most prolific serial killers, convicted of 49 separate murders (though he confessed to nearly twice as many). On "Deep Red Bells," Neko Case paints an ethereal, abstract narrative as melancholy guitar twangs behind her mournful delivery. It's the sound of an untold sum of victims going to meet a horrible, unforeseeable fate.

Killer: Wayne Williams

Though Goodie Mob was a few years past invoking their special brand of earthy wisdom and informed paranoia, Big Gipp used a slot on his solo album Mutant Mindframe to directly address a source of that unquiet: Wayne Williams. Williams was convicted of two murders, but police claimed him responsible for 23 of 29 child murders between 1979 and 1981. Those years comprise an era of tremendous social (and political) unrest in Atlanta, a time when parents were afraid to leave their children unsupervised in the streets of the city. Williams' conviction remains controversial, drawing a significant share of doubt inspired by the psychological state of the perceived killer. On "Creeks," Big Gipp enlists resident Dungeon Family mystic Witchdoctor to create a fitting embodiment of the fear and uncertainty that surrounded Williams and his alleged murder spree.

Killer: Albert DeSalvo (the Boston Strangler)

Capturing the spirit of classic blues and rock tracks that detail the exploits of folk heroes and villains (think Lloyd Price's "Stagger Lee"), the Rolling Stones' "Midnight Rambler" sets the vicious exploits of Albert DeSalvo (better known as the Boston Strangler) to a rollicking, bluesy groove. For nearly seven minutes, Mick Jagger sings of the mysterious midnight rambler, at first trating him like a shaded legend before revealing himself to be "hit-and-run raper in anger" himself.

Killer: Peter Sutcliffe

Plodding and morose, Siouxise and the Banshees' grim "Night Shift" lyrically and musically personifies the crimes of British serial killer Peter Sutcliffe, "The Yorkshire Ripper." Growling and gray as the rainy Leeds nights Sutcliffe prowled, "Night Shift" sings of the man who murdered prostitutes, with a frightening nihilism emboided in the succinct couplet, "Fuck the mothers, kill the others/Fuck the others, kill the mothers."

Killer: Wayne Williams

A prevailing mood of paranoia and a series of violent events inspired one of Prince's strangest early records, "Annie Christian." A fascinating example of the biting social eye the Purple One would develop throughout his ascent in the 80s, "Annie Christian" was inspired by the assassination of John Lennon at the hands of Mark David Chapman. Its first half, however, is largely concerned with a fictionalized female composite character, inspired by Wayne Williams, who "killed black children." "Annie Christian" perfectly captures the frightening end of an era, the death of '60s icon set alongside the inexplicable, brutal murder of innocent children.

Killer: Peter Kürten

Brooding and darkly evocative, Randy Newman's "In Germany Before the War" presents an intriguingly multilayered vision of the horror capable at the hands of human beings. "In Germany Before the War" draws direct inspiration from a crime committed by Peter Kürten, a German man who came to be known as the Vampire of Düsseldorf for a series of sexual assaults and murders in the late 1920s (and provided the basis for Fritz Lang's classic film M. The song gains added resonance as an allegory for a country on the brink of unspeakable inhumanity and carnage at the hands of Adolf Hitler.

Killer: John Wayne Gacy, Jr.

Eclectic and often brilliantly offbeat, Sufjan Stevens has spent his career training a sharp eye on singular stories and characters. "John Wayne Gacy, Jr." (from Stevens' career highlight Illinois) is perhaps the singer's most poignant statement, a hauntingly empathetic examination of the titular serial killer and rapist, a man convicted of 33 murders and executed in 1994. Detailing Gacy's life from his childhood through his crimes, Stevens explores a seeming monster with chilling humanity, building on the principle that "we're all capable of what [Gacy] did." "John Wayne Gacy, Jr." unnerves to the very end, with Stevens singing: "And in my best behavior, I am really just like him / Look beneath the floorboards for the secrets I have hid."

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Killer: n/a

While not about a particular serial killer (though widely misconceived as a response to the Son of Sam), the Talking Heads' enduring debut single "Psycho Killer" makes for a fitting #1 on this list. Written from the perspective of an antisocial individual on the verge of breaking, "Psycho Killer" masks a frightening portrait of a man on the brink of breaking with a catchy chorus and memorable, driving bassline. Speaking of his inspiration for the song, Heads frontman David Byrne has said, "When I started writing this (I got help later), I imagined Alice Cooper doing a Randy Newman-type ballad. Both the Joker and Hannibal Lecter were much more fascinating than the good guys. Everybody sort of roots for the bad guys in movies." "Psycho Killer" is the ultimate toast to the bad guys, eerily empathetic, exploratory and illustrative. A portrait of the killer a young man.

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