What To Know Before 'Serial Killer Week' Premieres

When five prostitutes were murdered in a rural town in England, a woman was blindsided by her connection to the crimes.

Joel Rifkin murdered 17 women, making him New York's deadliest serial killer. But his eventual capture was a total accident as the serial killer wasn't even on police's radar. Why not?

In the 1990s, women were found dead in homes that had been set on fire across Chicago.

Dorothea Puente was ultimately accused of killing nine people — but a jury wasn't convinced.

Between 1993 and 1998, a Chicago serial killer preyed upon women in the Englewood community.

An elderly real estate broker is attacked and left for dead in one of his listings. As detectives dig for clues, they uncover a business deal gone bad and a mastermind willing to use someone close to home to carry out a heinous plot.

The daughter of a serial killer puts distance between herself and her murderous mother who “doesn’t feel remorse.”

Three women found dead in the Seattle area had ties to the nightclub scene — and so did their killer.

The so-called "I-95 Killer" pursued gay men and placed items like leaves, socks, and sex toys in their mouths after their brutal murders.

“The man I knew could be good and decent,” Dennis Rader's daughter once said of her infamous father, often known as the "BTK" killer. “That’s why I have to hold on to the belief that he truly did love us."

Steven Brian Pennell, also known as the "Route 40 Killer," picked women up off the highway before torturing and killing them.

People who can convince you to do their bidding are the stuff of nightmares — and the movies.

There are all sorts of ways masterminds of murder have manipulated their victims.