To identify the 10 states with the most serial killings, 24/7 Wall St. reviewed the highest numbers of serial killer victims, adjusted for population, from the Serial Killer Database, produced through a partnership of Radford University and the Florida Gulf Coast University. The database has compiled documented victims of serial killers since 1900 through September of 2014. Characteristics of the victims, including sex, age, and race, as well characteristics of the killers, including motive and decade of activity, also came from the database.
To adjust for historical population levels, we calculated the rate of serial murders per 1 million residents for each decade from 1900 through 2010 using the state’s (or territory’s) population at the end of each decade.