Oh, did you think Canada was the land of politeness, saying sorry, and that nothing ever bad happened there? Clearly you need to stop making sweeping generalizations. You’re dead wrong. Canada is a great place to live but it also has its fair share of terrible crimes. Yes, even serial killers. Wait, but what’s a serial killer? Just someone who kills a lot of people, right? Wrong. A serial killer is defined as someone who kills more than three people but with a ‘cooling off’ period between each killing. But some definitions also define this type of individual as someone who’s killed two or more persons in separate events. Regardless of the definition, we can agree on one thing: these people sure are terrifying.

20. Scott William Cox

Okay, so the first guy on our list isn’t technically Canadian. But he was a long haul trucker who did travel to Canada and he’s a suspect in several Canadian murders. The serial killer murdered sex workers as he travelled long distances on stretches of highway in his truck. He confessed to murdering women in the United States as well as in Canada. It’s estimated that Cox killed upwards of twenty women during the 1980s. Cox was arrested in 1991 and charged with two counts of murder. He was sent to prison to serve a twenty-five-year sentence in Oregon for the murders of Rheena Ann Brunson and Victoria Rhone. In 2013, Cox was released with the company of a GPS tracking device.

19. Paul Bernardo

Paul Bernardo and his wife Karla Homolka committed a series of murders together dubbed the ‘schoolgirl murders’. Before the killings, Bernardo was a serial rapist and was given the name the ‘Scarborough Rapist.’ The couple even murdered Karla’s younger sister, Tammy. The plan was to drug her so that Bernardo could rape the young girl. Her official cause of death was asphyxiation due to choking on her own vomit. When the two were arrested, Homolka received a reduced sentence in exchange for her testimony against Bernardo. She claimed that Bernardo abused her and forced her to participate in the awful killings. Bernardo was sentenced to life as a dangerous offender. He’ll likely never get out of prison. In 2005, Homolka was released from prison.

18. Wayne Boden

Wayne Boden was a Canadian serial killer who was dubbed ‘The Vampire Rapist.’ The Montreal native was young and charismatic which helped him get the attention of women. He was known to leave bite marks on his female victims and he had a particular fascination with women’s breasts. His victims were left with savage bite marks on their breasts, which earned Boden his nickname. He raped and strangled four women to death before being caught in 1971. At his trial, bite marks were a key piece of evidence. He was sentenced to a total of four life sentences and thankfully never got out. He died in prison in 2006.

17. John Martin Crawford

Likely to their delight, many serial killers get nicknames. John Martin Crawford’s nickname is ‘The Lady Killer.’ In 1981, Crawford was actually arrested for killing Mary Jane Serloin. Because he agreed to enter a guilty plea, his sentence was reduced from first-degree murder to manslaughter. He was released in 1989 and went on to commit a series of rapes and murders. He would stab and strangle his victims. Four murders have been attributed to him but it’s likely the number is higher. At the time of Crawford’s trial, Paul Bernardo and Karla Homolka’s case was generating a lot of media attention. It’s thought by some that Crawford’s killings didn’t get the same media attention because his victims were First Nations women.

16. Léopold Dion

Léopold Dion is another killer from the province of Québec. He was dubbed ‘The Monster of Pont-Rouge.’ He was active during the ’60s. Dion was a sexual predator who preyed on young pre-teen boys. He would pretend to be a photographer to gain the trust of his victims. He raped over a dozen victims, including women. He would suffocate his victims by either strangling them or smothering them. During his trial, he was well defended and ended up being only convicted for a single murder, instead of four. His death sentence was commuted to a sentence of life in prison and he met his end in 1972 when he was stabbed to death by another inmate.

15. William Patrick Fyfe

William Patrick Fyfe is another murderer who committed his kills in the province of Québec. We’re sensing a pattern here. Fyfe is also known as ‘The Killer Handyman.’ He was found guilty of murdering four women but confessed to killing an additional five others. His general pattern was to rape, murder, and rob his female victims. How was he eventually caught? A single fingerprint. It seems that at some point, most killers are going to get over-confident and become sloppy. Thankfully, the same is true of Fyfe. He was put away for life, but not in prison. Fyfe is serving a life sentence at a psychiatric institution.

14. Gilbert Paul Jordan

Gilbert Paul Jordan was nicknamed ‘The Boozing Barber.’ He’s been linked to the deaths of ten women between 1965 and 1987. Jordan used a particularly strange method of murder. Alcohol was his weapon of choice. He would find sex workers, usually First Nations women, and get them to drink with him. Jordan would convince the women to keep drinking until they would lose consciousness. Once they passed out, Jordan would continue to pour the alcoholic beverage down their throats, leading to their demise. To the police, the deaths were of little importance. It seemed that the victims had simply died of alcohol poisoning. Jordan spent a mere five years in prison and was released in 1994. He died in 2006.

13. Cody Legebokoff

Cody Legebokoff is one of the more recently convicted serial killers on this list. He’s also one of the youngest. Legebokoff was convicted of murdering a total of three women and one teen girl. He committed his crimes in the Canadian province of British Columbia. He was arrested in 2010 after an RMCP officer pulled him over for speeding. The officer started to suspect that something was not quite right with the young man. The officer noticed blood in the vehicle and on Legebokoff. Throughout his trial, he denied ever actually committing the murders. He stated, instead, that he had simply been involved. Shockingly, his defence didn’t convince anyone. He was convicted and sentenced to life in prison. He’ll be eligible for parole in 2035.

12. Allan Legere

Allan Joseph Legere is another serial killer with a nickname. He’s been called ‘The Monster of the Miramichi.’ He was convicted in the murder of John Glendenning and was sentenced to life in prison. In, 1989, Legere escaped custody and became an escaped convict. He was able to evade capture for a total of seven months. During that time, he went on to murder four more people. He also committed arson and perpetrated several rapes. Legere was re-captured in late 1989 and charged for the murders and crimes he committed while temporarily free. He’s currently serving a life sentence in a maximum security facility in Québec.

11. Michael Wayne McGray

Michael Wayne McGray committed a series of murders across Canada. He’s been linked to a total of six killings but claims to have committed up to sixteen. McGray’s claim was that his ‘demons’ made him commit the brutal stabbing murders. McGray, a drifter, received multiple life sentences for the senseless acts he committed. He’s offered to provide details regarding his other supposed killings but only in exchange for some kind of deal. Authorities have refused to provide McGray with any kind of deal. We wouldn’t cut a deal with this monster either, even if it’s giving him a better pillow.

10. Clifford Robert Olson

Don’t worry about this terrifying monster getting out of prison, he’s already dead. Clifford Robert Olson died in prison in 2011. He was nicknamed ‘The Beast of British Columbia.’ When young boys and girls started to go missing around the city of Vancouver in 1980, police honed in on Olson as one of their primary suspects. Eventually, Olson was arrested and sentenced to life in prison. Before pleading guilty, Olson managed to swindle the authorities by getting them to pay him hefty sums of money for helping locate each of his victim’s bodies. Olson was convicted of eleven murders, but it’s likely he committed more.

9. Robert Pickton

Robert Pickton is the infamous pig farming serial killer from British Columbia. Pickton would lure sex workers back to his large farm property where he would rape them and murder them. He chose to either strangle them with thin wire or shoot them. He also dismembered his victims and fed them to his pigs. It’s believed that he killed up to 49 women. He’s one of the worst known serial killers in Canadian history. He was convicted in 2007, on six counts of second-degree murder. Another twenty first-degree murder charges were stayed in 2010. He was sentenced to life in prison and we hope he never gets to see the light of day again.

8. Peter Woodcock

Peter Woodcock raped and murdered three young children during the late ’50s in Toronto, Ontario. At the time of the vicious crimes, he was still a teen. He raped and murdered Wayne Mallette, Gary Morris, and Carole Voyce. He was caught in 1957 and placed in a psychiatric institution. In 1982, Woodcock decided to change his name to David Michael Krueger. While in custody at the Brockville institution, Woodcock used a knife and hatchet to murder Dennis Kerr, a fellow patient at the facility with the help of a former patient, Bruce Hamill. In 2010, Woodcock died while still housed in the institution.

7. Russell Maurice Johnson

Also known as ‘The Bedroom Strangler,’ Russell Maurice Johson was active during the 1970s. He was a serial rapist that ended up murdering several women. He was charged with the murders of three women but ended up being found not guilty by reason of insanity. Despite the charge of ‘not guilty,’ Johnson was still locked up in a mental institution. Since his incarceration, he’s claimed that he committed more murders and a number of other sexual assaults. He was known to stalk his victims. And if that’s not creepy enough he apparently even watched them while they slept. Eeek!

6. Gerald Thomas Archer

Gerald Thomas Archer was a serial killer that was active from 1969 to 1971. He committed his murders in the town of London, Ontario. He was nicknamed ‘The London Chambermaid Slayer’ because his targeted victims were women that worked in hotels. After sexually assaulting his victims he would then proceed to beat and stab them to death. Archer was arrested in 1971 and was sentenced to life in prison. In 1985, though, he was paroled and was able to walk free. We can only hope he didn’t commit more murders during his time as a free man. In 1985, he died of a heart attack.

5. Christian Herbert Magee

Christian Herbert Magee’s nickname is the ‘Mad Slasher.’ He was active during the late 1970s. Magee raped and killed three women during that time period. He was arrested in 1976 for the brutal sexual assaults and killings of Judith Barksey, Patricia Jenner, and Susan Lynn-Scholes, all young girls under the age of twenty. In 1977, he was found not guilty by reason of insanity. In 2006, Magee petitioned to be transferred to a less secure facility in Toronto’s downtown core. Thankfully, his bid was denied. He remains at a maximum security institution called Penetanguishene Mental Health Centre. We hope he stays there until he dies.

4. Clayton Bo Eichler

Clayton Bo Eichler is the first known serial killer to have prowled the city of Regina. He’s one of the more recently convicted monsters on this list. Instead of going through a potentially long, drawn out trial, Eichler pleaded guilty to the two murders he was accused of committing. One victim, Kelly Nicole Goforth, was killed and left in a dumpster. The other, Richele Lee Bear, has never been found. In September of 2016, Eichler was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole for the first twenty years of his sentence. Apparently, Eichler sobbed at his sentencing appearance. Yeah, right. You’re sorry. Bullshit.

3. Mark Twitchell

This murderer is actually pretty unique. He compared himself to the fictional television character Dexter Morgan. This scored him the nickname ‘Dexter Copycat Killer.’ He’s the only one on this list who only has one kill in his name. So, he’s technically not a serial killer. Still, he compared himself to one and it seems clear that if he hadn’t been arrested he’d have gone on to commit more murders. Mark Twitchell was also charged with attempted murder. Twitchell would lure men using the online dating website ‘PlentyofFish.com,’ and when the men arrived for their supposed “date,” Twitchell would ambush them.

2. Russell Williams

David Russell Williams is one of the most despicable serial killers on this list. Although, it’s hard to rank these evil people in terms of most awful. They’re really all in the same ballpark. Russell Williams was formerly part of the Canadian Forces, serving as Colonel at Base Trenton. In 2010, he was arrested and charged for his crimes. We’ve listened to his confession tape and it’s pretty tough to listen to. His crimes are vile and thinking about what his victims went through is heartbreaking. He beat one of his victims and suffocated her to death. He also filmed many of the acts he committed and tortured his victims. Williams also committed numerous break-ins and would do disturbing things in the homes he entered unseen.

1. Elizabeth Wettlaufer

Elizabeth Wettlaufer is the only woman on this list. She’s also the only person on this list who has yet to be convicted of the murders she’s accused of committing. The former nurse stands accused of killing a total of eight elderly patients over a span of seven years. The forty-nine-year-old woman was arrested in 2016 and is accused of delivering fatal amounts of a certain drug to her patients. It’s shocking to think that she was potentially able to commit these killings without anyone noticing for such a long period of time. The most recent update surrounding the Wettlaufer case occurred early in April when it was revealed that the case would go straight to trial. We’ll be monitoring this case very closely to see how it concludes.

Sources: cbc.ca, theglobeandmail.com, thespec.com, thestar.com, vancouversun.com