Very Scary People

John Gotti's expensive suits and swagger earned him the nickname Dapper Don. But, in reality, he was a man to be feared. A ruthless, dangerous mafia gangster who ordered hits on his enemies, his friends, and anyone who crossed him.

Samantha Koenig was closing shop in Anchorage, Alaska, when a man known in the community as a business owner and caring father, approaches. After kidnapping Samantha, an intense manhunt took authorities on a cross country investigation.

In the fall of 1977, bodies of young women begin piling up in LA. Almost all of the victims are nude, discarded on hillsides showing signs of torture. It is nearly a year before two murders 1200 miles away uncover the Hillside Stranglers.

Sammy "The Bull" Gravano was the right-hand man to mafia kingpin, John Gotti. He carried out multiple murders. After his arrest, he broke the sacred oath of silence and cut a deal with the government, testifying against his former boss.

When college-aged women go missing, the investigation leads authorities to a local star athlete.

From 1987 to 1992, young women were abducted and murdered north of the U.S.-Canadian border. A tip led cops to an unlikely suspect: a blond, blue-eyed accountant who lived with his wife in a pink house in the suburbs.

A string of horrifying fires plagues California in the Eighties and Nineties, one of them fatally trapping four people inside. Are these raging infernos accidental or is someone setting them deliberately? Years of meticulous investigation leads law enforcement to uncover a wave of terrifying fires set by a man some call the most prolific arsonist of the Twentieth century, who turns out to be none other than renowned fire investigator Captain John Orr. In a game of cat and mouse, colleagues discover dark secrets behind the man who thrived on the chaos of igniting the fires he was supposed to be fighting.

He was a family man, living in a New Jersey suburb with his wife and three kids. But unbeknownst to his neighbors, Richard Kuklinski held a dark secret: he was the "Iceman" – a cold-blooded killer who was part-time mob hitman for hire, and full-time psychopath. This intimidating, oversized killer managed to evade the police with ease for years. That is, until a few smart investigators started connecting the dots between seemingly unrelated murders and a mystery man known as "Big Rich."

In 1968, an 8-year-old girl is abducted and raped. The Los Angeles police were just moments from catching her attacker, but he eludes them and escapes to New York where he kills a young woman. This is the beginning of a monstrous killing spree of young girls and women. When police discover who is behind these horrific murders, they are shocked to find it's a handsome, charming photographer. With a string of murders already behind him, incredibly, Rodney Alcala is chosen to appear on the national game show, "The Dating Game." What happens next makes Rodney Alcala one of the most horrific serial killers in US history.

In November 1974, six members of the DeFeo family were found murdered inside their beautiful seaside home. The mother, father, and four of their children were shot in the back as they lay sleeping in their beds. The bodies were discovered by the only family member left alive – the oldest son Butch DeFeo. What really happened that night in Amityville? Who murdered the DeFeo family and why? What caused the strange events in the house near the sea? Parapsychologists and psychics descend on the house to investigate claims of levitating objects and demonic possession in an attempt to explain why, 50 years later, this house is still a source of nightmares.

The Butcher Baker was one of the most prolific serial killers in Alaska's history. For more than a decade, he kidnapped young women and brought them into the wilderness where he stalked them like prey. He got away with his crimes for years, living a double life as a soft-spoken baker and church-going family man by day, and prowling the streets and strip clubs at night, looking for more victims. But when one woman escaped and lived to tell her harrowing story, police made a shocking discovery inside Robert Hansen's home, which would expose the baker as the monster he truly was.

he Golden State Killer invaded homes, tortured and terrorized families, committed fifty brutal rapes and thirteen vicious murders, and was on the loose for forty-four years. Cold case Investigators chased down thousands of leads without ever getting their man. But a new forensic tool breaks the case and exposes this remorseless predator – Joseph DeAngelo – his family, his background, and his life story; and finally, scores of victims get a measure of long-awaited justice.

Dr. Michael Swango took an oath to “do no harm”… But he did just the opposite. Suspicious illnesses and deaths followed this once-trusted physician-turned-killer from hospital to hospital for nearly two decades and across two continents. His prey – unsuspecting coworkers and helpless patients. What would make a well-respected doctor become one of the most prolific serial killers in the U.S.? Interviews include survivors, Swango’s former colleagues, families of his victims, federal and local investigators, and a Zimbabwe journalist who helped uncover a series of murders in a rural African hospital.

Six weeks after jumping bail in Galveston, Texas, Robert Durst is caught on a store security camera in Pennsylvania shoplifting a sandwich and is quickly sent back to Galveston to stand trial for the murder of his neighbor, Morris Black. He would tell a jury he killed Black accidentally in self-defense, and he’d be acquitted of murder. But his story doesn’t end there. Durst decides to give a revealing look into his life in the six-part series “the Jinx” where in the final episode he is overheard in the bathroom muttering to himself, “killed them all, of course.” Before the episode airs, Durst is arrested for the murder of his best friend, Susan Berman. Now as he stands trial in Los Angeles, will his own words come back to haunt him?

n April 1973, 24-year-old Edmund Kemper had murdered 6 coeds in and around the city of Santa Cruz, California, shaking the community to its core. But Kemper reached a breaking point, and what the public would soon learn, was almost impossible to believe. Told through interview footage with Kemper himself, as well as people who were there, this episode takes viewers inside the mind of a serial killer, from a childhood wrought with abuse through an early life of violence. Kemper outlines his motives for the killing spree and describes the terrifying methods he used to slaughter young women, operating right under everyone’s noses. As Kemper explains in great detail, he spared no one from his madness, not even his own flesh and blood. With his willingness to tell his story so openly, Kemper would go on, years later, to assist the FBI in profiling serial killers, offering insight into how, and why, killers like himself commit such horrific acts.

Through the record-breaking heat of the spring and summer of 1985 in California, a savage killer was on the loose. The Night Stalker had been linked to at least 15 murders from children to the elderly, male and female, wealthy and poor. Then police get a break – a tip from a teenage boy leads to the identity of the Night Stalker. Twenty-four hours later a mob of angry citizens track him down and capture him. But the man who terrified the nation for more than a year isn’t finished yet. His trial is a new, bizarre chapter that has some wondering if the Night Stalker will escape justice.

B.T.K. stands for Bind, Torture, Kill., the name the serial killer gave himself. After terrorizing Wichita, Kansas with multiple killings from 1974-1991 he goes quiet. But he resurfaces in 2004 and residents of the midwestern city are once again petrified. For months he plays a cat and mouse game with law enforcement and the media taunting them as he seeks the attention he craves. But then… he makes a mistake. And when “BTK” is finally apprehended it is chilling to discover that he has been hiding in plain sight for years.

In 1977, the city of New York was being stalked by a seemingly faceless serial killer known as, “Son of Sam.” But after his final shooting took him to Brooklyn, a twist of fate and a little luck- led to his capture. The episode features interviews with detectives and psychologists about what he said after his arrest, why he did it… and how this quiet, soft spoken 24-year old post office employee from Yonkers turned in a serial killing monster.

More than 900 Americans died in an isolated jungle in northern Guyana in November 1978; Jim Jones has gone down in history as a madman who drove his followers to suicide, but the truth is more complicated and tragic than that.

The Zodiac Killer terrorizes Northern California in the late 1960s; he taunts the public with cryptic clues, threats of violence and ciphers that are supposed to lead to his identity, but mostly go nowhere.

A look at the deal makers and hangers-on who attached themselves to Aileen Wuornos, who is known as America's first female serial killer.

In Northern California, a masked predator meticulously plans his sexual assaults by studying the habits and routines of his female prey; after 27 years on the loose, police close in on the man they believe to be the NorCal Rapist.

Charles Manson is a violent predator who has powers of persuasion that make it possible for him to convince his hippie followers to brutally murder innocent strangers

In Chicago, community leader and part-time clown John Wayne Gacy leads a double life, transforming into a monster who preys on male teenagers and becomes the most prolific serial killer of his day.