Serial killers have most likely been around as long as people have, long before we had the term. In fact, some scholars believe that the early stories about vampires, werewolves, and other such creatures were actually created to explain the kinds of violence people didn’t have any other way to explain. The kind of violence perpetrated by what we now call “serial killer.” Ugh. Even that term is chilling, isn’t it? This is the first time we’ve told the story of one of these killers, and we’ve chosen one who—although his crimes aren’t that different from those of BTK or some of those other infamous names—is unique in at least one aspect. He was the first serial killer to find his victims via the brand-new internet. And the way he wooed them was so methodical, so cold, so premeditated, that we struggle to imagine what it would be like to live inside a mind like that. He was a consummate scammer, too, a criminal to the core.

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