Previous Serial Killers
California had never seen anything like the Zodiac killer, the people were in shock and the police had no clue as to what to do. The world had experienced a couple of serial killers prior to the Zodiac but still did not know how to handle these types of cases because at the time these types of murders were out of the ordinary.
Here are the known, worldwide, serial killers before The Zodiac Killer.
 Jack The Ripper |  Ed Gein |
 Nannie Doss |  Mary Ann Cotton |
Jack the Ripper: Responsible for the murders of prostitutes from the Whitechapel Area of London in 1888, Jack the Ripper’s identity is yet unknown. His victims were prostitutes and they were brutally murdered and some of their internal organs were surgically removed by the killer.
Ed Gein: He was a famous serial killer in 1957 and proved to be an inspiration for Thomas Harris for creating the famous character of Hannibal Lecter in "The Silence of the Lambs". Ed Gein would skin his victims, exhume corpses and then decorate his home with parts of their bodies and use the skin to make clothes and furniture items. He died on the 26th of July, 1984 in a mental institution.
Nannie Doss: Also known as the "Giggling Granny" she was responsible for the killing of 11 people between 1920 and 1954. Her victims included her two sisters, her mother, a grandson, a nephew and her four husbands. She was sentenced to life imprisonment in 1955 and died 10 years later of leukemia.
Mary Ann Cotton: She was an English Serial Killer and had killed more than 20 people, including her own children, by using arsenic and then collected their insurance money. She was hanged on the 24th of March, 1873 at the Durham County Jail.(Madhavi Ghare)
