Known as the "French Ripper," Joseph was a sight for sore eyes. He suffered from partial paralysis on the right side from a self-inflicted head injury from when he was 25. Apparently, after being scorned by a woman, he shot her three times and unsuccessfully tried to blow his own head off. [ReadOn]

In a case of insults leading to serial mayhem, Greek serial killer Dimitris Vakrinos claimed he murdered his victims after they made fun of his height. Standing at five feet four inches, Dimitris, 35, proved to be a powerhouse killer after confessing to committing -- over a decade -- five murders, six attempted murders, one attempted rape, four armed robberies and one attempted armed robbery. Arrested on April 9, 1997, the former taxi driver committed suicide while awaiting trial on May 12. He was found by a prison guard in the showers of the prison's isolation ward hanging by the neck from shoelaces tied to a shower head.

For years, this quiet college town was perhaps best known as home of the national Boy Scout museum. Now it is newly notorious, and its residents increasingly afraid, with the discovery that some of its teens belonged to a vampire cult. The news that four area teen-agers are suspected of beating a Florida couple to death was frightening enough. [ReadOn]

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Jose Antonio killed at least 16 old widows in and around Santander, a coastal city in Northern Spain. A bricklayer by trade, Vera conned his way into the houses of old ladies under the pretext of doing a job for them. Once inside the killer would be "overcome by excitement" and would jump his geriatric victims. [ReadOn]

A classic "black widow," Maria Velten spent twenty years killing her loved ones, around Kempten, West Germany, before she was Snally arrested at age 67. Her father was the first to die, in 1963, followed by an elderly aunt in 1970. [ReadOn]

A "black widow" whose activities spanned the turn of the century, Louise Vermilyea came to grief when greed exceeded her discretion and she started reaching out to prey upon acquaintances, instead of relatives. [ReadOn]

Hero Policeman Remembered TEN years ago on Sunday, Chingford policeman Sgt Alan King was brutally stabbed to death as he tackled two burglars. He is thought to be the first and only police officer to be murdered on duty in Waltham Forest in the 20th century. The long-serving police officer, who had joined the force in 1969, left behind a wife and four children. [ReadOn]

A homosexual drifter, 26-year-old David Villarreal was arrested in March 1981, after an informant tipped police to his involvement in a seven-year series of murders around Dallas and San Antonio, Texas. [ReadOn]

Paroled from a Mississippi prison in the spring of 1985, after serving time for killing his second wife, 38 year-old Viser walked into a local police station on April 29, 1986, and confessed to fatally stabbing his third wife, Ineta. In custody, Viser claimed he had killed the 49-year-old woman in self-defense, but homicide investigators found no evidence that would corroborate his story. As one county official declared, "I guess there's a lesson to be learned. If you're a woman, don't marry Thomas Viser."