How many serial killers walk among us?

The FBI once acknowledged that anywhere between 35 and 50 serial killers (active) in the United States at any given moment. Now it looks like those numbers could be a gross understatement, if you go by what an Indiana University criminologist has recently indicated. Kenna Quinet believes that serial killers could be responsible for up to 10 times as many murders than previously figured. When you take that into consideration it could only mean that there are likely far more serial killers than the previously estimated 35 to 50.



 In just the past year alone there have been at least three cases of potential serial killers including Israel Keyes, Brandon Scott Lavergne and Dr. Ali Salim -- who is accused of preying on women he meets off Craigslist. Those are just a few examples of the cases of serial murder becoming more and more prolific in media headlines. But what about murders of the past? If one could speculate that serial killers claim 10 times more victims than once believed, is it likely that many historical cold cases could be attributed to serial predators as well?

Online discussion that remains regarding cold cases often evolves into discussion about serial killers. For instance, the 1971 disappearance of Susan Rae Perron has been linked in conversation to Rodney Alcala -- the Dating Game Killer -- due to her being similar in appearance to a ginger girl depicted in photos of unidentified people found in one of the killer's storage lockers. However, Susan Rae Perron was kidnapped and murdered in Las Vegas. Rodney Alcala wasn't in Las Vegas at this time, as he was claiming his first victim in New York. This connection was debunked in more detail in "The Sin City Strangler," an analysis of seven cold cases that share uncanny similarities in Las Vegas.

The cold case murders discussed in "The Sin City Strangler" only exemplify the claims made by criminologist and professor Kenna Quinet -- that serial killers claim more lives than people like to think (or admit to themselves). Over the past couple of years there have been murders and disappearances that remain unsolved such as the disappearances of Holly Bobo, Lauren Spierer, Katelyn Markham, Paige Johnson and Misty Blu Gwinner. All of these girls have been connected in theory to a potential serial killer that has yet to be acknowledged officially, much less stopped. When you add the potential of a killer picking off pretty young girls throughout the Midwest and Southern states to the shocking reports of serial killers like Lavergne, Keyes and others being captured, it's easy to speculate the possibility that many more exist. And with each cold case that goes unsolved, that's just even more potential of a predator going unchecked, left to prey on more targets. That is indeed a sobering realization.

 Photo credit: Serial Killer Collage; When the Freaks Come Out