Throughout history, there have been a number of truly evil people straight out of a horror movie. Some have been rulers of great empires, while others seemed to be regular people, like you and me. So, are you ready to explore some of history’s most infamous killers?

1. Jack the Ripper

An unidentified serial killer active in East London in the fall of 1888, Jack the Ripper is believed to have killed at least five female prostitutes. His name comes from a letter, supposedly written by the murderer and signed by “Jack the Ripper”. There have been numerous theories about who the identity of the killer could be, from a Polish migrant to the grandson of Queen Victoria. Known as one of England’s most famous unsolved mysteries, one may never know the real Jack the Ripper was, and it is likely to never be solved.

2. H. H. Holmes

Also known as Dr. Henry Howard Holmes, this serial killer was one of America’s first. As a child, Holmes expressed a high level of intelligence and an interest in medicine, and even performed surgery on animals. After attending the University of Michigan, he moved to Chicago in 1886, where he bought a pharmacy and turned it into a hotel. Built specifically to lure in unsuspecting guests, the so-called ‘murder castle’ was where Holmes committed all of his crimes. He confessed to 27 murders, but it has been speculated that he killed up to 200.

3. Countess Elizabeth Bathory

More commonly known as “The Blood Countess”, Bathory was born to a noble family in the Kingdom of Hungary in 1560. When she married Ferenc Nadasdy at the age of 14, the couple moved into a castle in modern-day Slovakia. Given that she almost exclusively ran the estates (her husband was often on military trips), Bathory had a lot of power. She believed bathing in beautiful, youthful girls’ blood would in turn keep her young, so she lure her servants and young girls from the area to her castle, where she would torture and viciously murder them. Her body count is believed to be up to 650, and she given a trial and put in solitary confinement, where she died in 1614.

4. Zodiac Killer

Another unidentified murderer, the Zodiac Killer was active in Northern California in the late 1960s and early 1970s. It is believed he killed at least five people, ranging from the ages of 16 to 29. The killer wrote letters to three newspaper outlets, in which he took credit for the murders, and included cryptograms, only one of which has been solved. There has been a number of theories speculating his identity, including a man named Arthur Leigh Allen, and most recently, presidential candidate Ted Cruz. The Zodiac Killer mystery is likely to remain unsolved.

5. John Wayne Gacy

Along with news of clowns taking the world by storm this Halloween season, Gacy is likely to have been the first true killer clown. Growing up in an abusive household and experiencing alienation at school, Gacy had his fair share of demons. He seemed, however, to become a well-liked member of his community when he became an adult, performing at children’s parties as, you guessed it, a clown. Committing his crimes between the years of 1972 and 1978, Gacy would lure boys and young men into his home, where he would sexually assault and brutally murder them. After discovering 33 bodies under his home, he was found guilty in 1980, and executed by lethal injection in 1994.

6. Ed Gein

The real “Leatherface”, Ed Gein grew up in Wisconsin with an alcoholic father and incredibly religious mother. After his mother’s death, Gein took a dark turn; he began exhuming female bodies, using them to create a number of disturbing trophies and decorations, including masks made from human flesh and bowls made out of human skulls. In addition to his grave robberies, Gein killed at least two women in 1957. His trial began in late 1957, in which he pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity to one count of first degree murder. He, however, was found to be unfit to stand trial, and was sent to a mental hospital where he was diagnosed with schizophrenia. He eventually died at the Mendota Mental Health Institute in 1984. Gein inspired some of the most famous film characters from the movies Psycho, The Silence of the Lambs, and Texas Chainsaw Massacre.

7. Vlad Dracula

Also known as “Vlad the Impaler”, Dracula had a undeniable thirst for blood. Growing up as a political hostage of the Ottoman Empire with his younger brother, Vlad did not enjoy being kept as a prisoner. He despised his captors, which caused him to take the Hungarians’ side against the Ottomans when he became the ruler of Wallachia in 1448. According to historical texts, Vlad enjoyed impaling his enemies on stakes, and it has been speculated that he would dine with his victims and dipped his bread in their blood. There are a number of accounts of his body count, ranging from 40,000 to 100,000. Dracula met his own end fighting against the Ottomans in 1476, where it is believed he was decapitated.

8. Leonarda Cianculli

Better known as “The Soap Maker of Correggio”, Cianculli was born in Montella, Italy in 1894. She was cursed by her own mother when she married a registry clerk in 1917. The curse made itself known by causing Cianculli to have 17 pregnancies, three of which were miscarriages, while the ten other children died at a very young age. With all this misfortune, Cianculli was very protective of her four remaining children, and when she learned of her son’s plan to fight in WWII, she decided human sacrifice was the only way to protect him. She picked three unsuspecting women to be her victims, and after brutally murdering them, Cianculli made soap and teacakes out of their remains. She was found guilty in 1946, and sentenced to thirty years in prison and three years in a criminal asylum.

9. Andrei Chikatilo

Nicknamed “The Butcher of Rostov”, Chikatilo was born in rural Ukraine in the USSR in 1936. His childhood was filled with hardships; he was faced with famine and was a frequent victim of bullying in his adolescent years. After failing his entrance exam to Moscow State University, Chikatilo became a telephone engineer in 1960. After marrying a girl named Fayine in 1963, he had two children with her, and became a schoolteacher in 1971. Reports of him assaulting his students caused him to have to move from school to school, eventually settling down at a school near Rostov. After murdering his first victim in 1971, Chikatilo went to murder 53 victims, mutilating and cannibalizing their bodies. It is reported that he reeked of human flesh when he was arrested in 1990. Chikatilo was executed on February 14, 1994 by a shot to the back of the head.

10. Grady Stiles

More commonly known as “The Lobster Boy”, Stiles had a deformity known as ectrodactyly, which caused him to have claw-like hands and feet. His father participated in a traveling freak show, and when Stiles was born, he was added to the act. He had trouble coping with his deformity, which caused him to become an alcoholic in his adult years. His children later reported that he often abused them and his wife, both verbally and physically. When his daughter Donna got engaged in 1978, Stiles was infuriated; the night before the wedding, he shot her fiance with a shotgun. He admitted full guilt to the crime, but because no prison could accommodate his medical needs, he was given 15 years probation. Stiles was himself murdered by a hired assassin on November 29, 1993.