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12 Serial Killers Who Had Frighteningly Disturbing Connections To Celebrities
12 Serial Killers Who Had Frighteningly Disturbing Connections To Celebrities,What do Ashton Kutcher and Blondie's Debbie Harry have in common? They both could have easily become the victims of serial killers.

12 Serial Killers Who Had Frighteningly Disturbing Connections To Celebrities

Warning: Disturbing and graphic material ahead.

1. Ashton Kutcher stumbled upon an active murder scene of Michael “The Hollywood Ripper” Gargiulo, and later played an instrumental role in putting the serial killer behind bars.

Harry: Anthony Barboza / Getty Images Bundy: Bettmann / Contributor

Between 1974 and 1978, Bundy brutally sexually assaulted and murdered at least 30 young women (often attractive college students) across seven states. His depravity knew no bounds — he often decapitated his victims and slept with their corpses. 

Unlike most serial killers, Bundy was handsome, well-dressed, and charming, which made women more likely to trust him. He often tricked women into helping him by wearing a cast or using crutches, and had the backseat removed from his VW Bug to make more room for his victims.

Harry described her encounter with the serial killer to Dazed, saying, “I was trying to get across town to an after-hours club. A little white car pulls up, and the guy offers me a ride. So, I just continued to try and flag a cab down. But he was very persistent, and he asked me where I was going. It was only a couple of blocks away, and he said, ‘Well, I’ll give you a ride.’ It’s the classic setup that has seen many victims, especially in the seventies, meet their end.”

Universal History Archive / Universal Images Group via Getty Images

Once inside Bundy’s VW Bug, she saw it had been altered so that there were no handles to allow her to escape. It also smelled…horrible. To escape, she slowly rolled down the window and tried to open the door from the outside. 

Harry continued: “As soon as he saw that, he tried to turn the corner really fast, and I spun out of the car and landed in the middle of the street.”

Some have questioned the veracity of Harry’s claim, saying, for example that there’s no record of Bundy stalking women in New York City, but she stands by it. It sounds like, Bundy or not, she escaped a very, very dangerous situation.

3. Woody Harrelson’s father Charles was a hit man for hire responsible for at least a dozen murders including that of a federal judge and possibly even President John F. Kennedy.

Woody:  Vera Anderson / WireImage Charles: Bettmann / Contributor

In the early ’60s, the then twentysomething Charles Harrelson embarked on a career as as a violent thief and hitman. He was involved in dozens of murders,  and generally used a sniper rifle instead of a handgun. At his last trial, the prosecutor said, “Charles Harrelson damaged everyone he came in contact with.”

At different times in his life, Harrelson claimed responsibility for assassinating President John F. Kennedy, saying he was one of “three tramps” on the grassy knoll close to the Kennedy cavalcade (men photographed the day of the assassination that conspiracy theorists have long believed may actually be responsible for the killing). Harrelson also said that the presumed assassin Lee Harvey Oswald was too far away to make the shot (something Harrelson, who knew his way around a sniper rifle, had unusual insight into).

Woody — who got his big break on the hit ’80s sitcom Cheers — didn’t see much of his father growing up as he was only 7 when his father was convicted of his first murder. But he developed a relationship with him later in life, visiting him in jail.

Fotos International / Getty Images

Woody told People magazine, “This might sound odd to say about a convicted felon, but my father is one of the most articulate, well-read, charming people I’ve ever known. Still, I’m just now gauging whether he merits my loyalty or friendship. I look at him as someone who could be a friend more than someone who was a father.”

4. Saturday Night Live legend Chris Farley grew up within view of the Mendota Mental Health Institute — which held numerous dangerous inpiduals including the serial killer Ed Gein — and was terrified that one of them would escape and break into the Farley home.

Farley: CBS Photo Archive / CBS via Getty Images Gein: Bettmann / Bettmann Archive

Gein — known as the Butcher of Plainfield — shocked the nation in 1957 when he was arrested in his hometown of Plainfield, Wisconsin for the murder of hardware store owner Bernice Worden. Horrifyingly, police discovered Worden’s decapitated and mutilated body hanging upside down in a shed on Gein’s property. Upon searching his home, they found even more horrors: bowls made out of human skulls, a waste basket made out of human skin, one of his victim’s faces in a paper bag…and a whole lot more messed up stuff you can look up if you’re so inclined. 

Gein confessed to killing another woman (Mary Hogan) and was suspected of killing at least seven more. He also made many, many trips in the middle of the night to cemeteries where he dug up the recently deceased and brought their bodies back to his home. 

In custody Geir was diagnosed with schizophrenia and found mentally incompetent to stand trial. Later, he was transported to the Mendota Mental Health Institute.

Farley’s brother John recently appeared on the Fly on the Wall with Dana Carvey and David Spade podcast and said, “We lived on Lake Mendota… around the bay is woods — pretty beautiful woods — but if you looked a little farther, there’s a weird smokestack and a big brown building. It looked terrifying. When we were little kids, Ed Gein lived there. He used to like to make furniture out of people.”

Wisconsin Historical Society / Getty Images

He continued, “It’s a lake so you can hear everything. You could whisper and hear it echoing across the lake. And all of our bedrooms had doors that opened up into the backyard. Not very secure doors. Flimsy doors. And then, all of a sudden in the dead of night, you’d hear the sirens go off. You’d lift your head off the pillow and look out the door and you’d see the lights going off and the sirens going off (indicating a patient had escaped). You’d be like, ‘Sweet Jesus.’ There were lights and dogs.” 

John remembered that these nights especially scared his brother Chris, saying that whenever they heard the sirens, he and his other brother Kevin “would be like, ‘Oh my God, here he comes. You’d see the silhouette of Chris in our doorway with his pillow. Just a big fat silhouette saying, “Shut your mouth! I’m sleeping here in between your beds.”

5. Kelsey Grammer was 20 years old when his 18-year-old sister Karen was murdered by spree killer Freddie Glenn.

Grammer: D Dipasupil / Getty Images for Extra, Glenn: ABC / Via youtube.com

In 1975, Glenn was a civilian employee at the United States Army post Fort Carson in El Paso, Colorado. There me met Michael Corbett, a soldier, and together they set out on a series of horrifying murders. First, they kidnapped Daniel Van Lone, a cook leaving his job, with the intention of robbing him. After killing him, the killers made off with all of 50 cents. A few days later, the duo kidnapped another soldier, whom Corbett murdered with a bayonet.

Two weeks after their murder spree began, Glenn, Corbett, and two others tried to rob a Red Lobster where Karen Grammer worked, but failed to steal any money. Fearful that Grammer would be able to identify them, they kidnapped her and took her to their apartment where they repeatedly raped her. Later they said they would take her home, but instead let her out at a trailer park. Before she could escape, Glenn stabbed her multiple times including in the throat. She managed to knock on a trailer door, but no one was home, and succumbed to her injuries.

Glenn has come up for parole twice, first in 2009 and then in 2017, but has been denied both times. At the latter parole hearing, an emotional Kelsey Grammer spoke eloquently about the loss of his sister. After remembering Karen as “a terrific kid” and saying “she was a wonderful person, and I miss her all the time,” he accepted Glenn’s apology for the crime, adding, “I forgive you. However, I cannot give your release my endorsement. To give that a blessing would be a betrayal of my sister’s life.”

ABC

Grammer has known tremendous tragedy in his life. In addition to the loss of his sister, his father was also murdered, and two other siblings drowned in a scuba ping accident. He told People magazine that he’s managed to get through his losses thanks to the strength of family and belief in God, adding: 

“I take a moment out of every morning for a moment of gratitude. There’s a great Doobie Brothers line that Michael McDonald wrote that goes, ‘You’ll always have a chance to give up. So why do it now?'”

6. Travis Hollman — the husband of Real Housewives of Dallas star Stephanie Hollman — was babysat as a child by the future I-5 Killer Randy Woodfield. Hollman wasn’t the only person in the public eye who got up close and personal with Woodfield. The entire 1974 Green Bay Packers did, too.

Hollmans: Bravo / NBCU Photo Bank / NBCUniversal via Getty Images, Woodfield: KOIN 6

In the early ’80s, Woodfield was dubbed the I-5 Bandit due to a spree of crimes he committed along the Interstate 5 highway (which stretches from Washington to California). Disguised by a fake beard, he robbed gas stations, restaurants, and stores, often sexually assaulting the women who worked there. 

Soon Woodfield — who had already murdered two women, including a friend he’d known since second grade — began breaking into homes along the highway, brutally raping and murdering the women who lived there. All told, Woodfield is suspected of killing as many as 44 women and girls. 

Years before this, though, Woodfield — then a star wide receiver on the Portland State University football team — babysat a young Travis Hollman multiple times. Hollman’s parents knew the team’s coach, who would offer up his players as babysitters.

San Francisco Chronicle / San Francisco Chronicle via Getty Images

A young Hollman even considered the future serial killer to be better than most of his other babysitters because he was very active with the boy, playing games like hide and seek and tag.

“I just remember it was always fun because they were athletes,” the reality star recalled to Oxygen.com. “They were fun. They were energetic.” 

Perhaps even more incredible, Woodfield was drafted by the 1974 Green Bay Packers, signed a $16,000 contract, and went to training camp with them. He survived numerous rounds of cuts but didn’t make the opening day roster. Still, before returning home to kill dozens of women, he played alongside some of the world’s greatest football players.

7. Academy Award-winning actor Sean Penn and serial killer Richard “The Night Stalker” Ramirez were briefly incarcerated together, and Ramirez took an alarming interest in the star.

Penn: Samir Hussein / WireImage Ramirez: Michael Ochs Archives / Stringer

In the 1980s, Penn was a young star with a penchant for letting his temper get him into trouble. When he was arrested for punching an extra on the set of 1988’s Colors (his fourth arrest in three years), the judge decided slaps on the wrist weren’t working and sentenced him to 60 days in county jail.

Upon arriving at the jail, Penn discovered one of his fellow inmates was Richard Ramirez, who threw the entire state of California into panic in 1984/5 when he killed at least 20 people (ranging in ages from 9 to 79) in Los Angeles and San Francisco. Ramirez committed most of his murders during home invasions, and would rape and mutilate the bodies. In one instance, he cut out his victim’s eyes and brought them home as a souvenir. 

Penn told an audience at Loyola Marymount University that after about a month of seeing Ramirez around the jail, the serial killer sent him a note via a guard asking for an autograph. Penn said it read: “‘Hey, Sean, stay tough and hit them again — Richard Ramirez, 666,’ with a pentagram and a rendition of the devil.”

Bettmann / Bettmann Archive

Penn wrote back: “You know, Richard, it’s impossible to be incarcerated and not feel a certain kinship with your fellow inmates. Well, Richard, I’ve done the impossible, I feel absolutely no kinship with you. And I hope gas descends upon you before sanity does, you know? It would be a kinder way out.” 

8. The Beach Boys’ drummer Dennis Wilson befriended Charles Manson and even got the Beach Boys to record a song written by Manson.

Wilson: Rb / Redferns, Manson: Michael Ochs Archives

Charles Manson was the leader of the Manson Family, a cult of around 100 people that lived communally and experimented with LSD in the late ’60s and early ’70s. Over time, Manson’s teachings became increasingly unhinged (he believed the Beatles’ White Album contained secret messages predicting a worldwide race war), and he eventually encouraged his members to commit a series of nine murders in and around Los Angeles. Famously, the group murdered movie star Sharon Tate, who was eight months pregnant.

In 1969, Wilson picked up a couple of hitchhiking girls who were part of Manson’s group. He ended up partying with the girls, who introduced him to Manson, an aspiring singer/songwriter. Soon, Wilson was helping Manson meet music industry people (including Terry Melcher, whose home Sharon Tate moved into), and rewrote a Manson tune, “Cease to Exist,” as “Never Learn Not to Love,” which the Beach Boys released as a B side.

New York Daily News / NY Daily News via Getty Images

What started out as fun for Wilson (a new guitar-playing friend with lots of pretty girls at his command) quickly took a very disturbing turn. According to Wilson’s cousin and fellow Beach Boy, Mike Love, a shaken Dennis Wilson confided in him that he witnessed Manson kill a man with an M-16 assault rifle and then dump the body down a well. 

Wilson desperately wanted to disentangle from the Manson Family after this, but found it difficult as the cult’s members had taken up residency at his home. So, Wilson basically abandoned the home to shake the cult, which, considering the infamous murders had yet to occur, was likely a wise decision.

9. In 2021, Rupert Everett reflected on how he could have easily become a victim of Dennis Nilsen — aka the Muswell Hill Murderer — who terrorized London in the late ’70s and early ’80s while murdering at least a dozen young men and boys.

Everett: Rose Hartman, Nilsen: Universal History Archive/Universal Images Group / Via Getty Images

Nilsen was a government employee by day and predator by night, frequenting gay pubs in search of young men and boys he could lure back to his flat with promises of alcohol or shelter. After murdering his victims, he would photograph the bodies in suggestive positions and perform sexual acts on them. 

His crimes were eventually discovered when tenants of Cranley Gardens — where Nilsen had a flat — complained of slow drains. Plumbers quickly discovered the problem…the pipes were clogged by human bones and flesh. Nilsen had been disposing of his victim’s dismembered bodies by flushing them down the toilet. 

Everett — the star of films like 1997’s My Best Friend’s Wedding with Julia Roberts — told Piers Morgan that he and the serial killer had something in common. At the time Nilsen was committing his crimes, they both called the Coleherne in West London their favorite pub, and frequented it regularly.

Tristar Pictures / ©TriStar Pictures/Courtesy Everett Collection

“He was in the pub that I used to go to,” Everett told Morgan. “Yeah, so I could be dead. He used to go to the Coleherne, which was this leather bar.”

“I didn’t know him, but he was there,” Everett continued. “I mean, that’s where he got two or three of his victims from.”

10. Rosalynn Carter — the former First Lady of the United States and wife of Jimmy Carter — met and shook hands with notorious serial killer John Wayne Gacy.

Carter: Universal History Archive / Universal Images Group, Gacy: Donaldson Collection / Via Getty

Throughout the 1970s, Gacy worked as a contractor, and, chillingly, performed as a clown for kids at children’s hospitals (and other venues) around the suburbs of Chicago. Gacy was also involved in politics, ingratiating himself with the local Democratic party, and gave off the appearance of a family man as he lived for much of the decade with his wife and her two daughters. 

Appearances were deceiving, though. During this time, Gacy also lured at least 33 young men into his home where he raped, tortured, and murdered them. 

It was through his interest in politics that Gacy served as the director of Chicago’s annual Polish Constitution Day Parade from 1975-78. On May 6, 1978, the first lady attended the event and posed for a photo with the serial killer of young men and boys.

Chicago Sun Times / AP

Mrs. Carter even signed the color photo (the image above is a copy), writing: “To John Gacy, Best Wishes, Rosalynn Carter.”

One of the creepiest elements of this story is that when Carter shook hands with Gacy — who was wearing an “S” pin given to him by the Secret Service indicating someone with “special clearance” — he’d already committed the majority of his horrific crimes. 

11. Clifton Bloomfield — when he wasn’t breaking into homes and murdering people — was a background character on productions like Breaking Bad starring Bryan Cranston and Felon starring Val Kilmer.

Bloomfield: KOAT ABC 7, Cranston: Amc / ©AMC / courtesy Everett Collection / Via youtube.com

In 2005, Bloomfield killed two people days apart during robbery attempts. Bloomfield brutally strangled both of his victims to death, in one of the instances using the victim’s own shirt. Months later, Bloomfield was arrested for armed robbery and spent 18 months in jail. His crimes didn’t end there, though. Not long after his release, he murdered a couple during another robbery. Finally, six months later on June 2, 2008, Bloomfield murdered his final victim during yet another home invasion.

After being paroled for the armed robbery, Bloomfield found work as a background actor in the many film and TV productions around the Albuquerque area, most notably Breaking Bad. This allowed the serial killer to spend hours onset with stars like Bryan Cranston and Bob Odenkirk.

Sony Pictures / ©Sony Pictures/Courtesy Everett Collection

It was the production of Felon starring Val Kilmer and Stephen Dorff that offered Bloomfield his best opportunity. The movie — about a family man who ends up sentenced to time in a state prison after killing an intruder — was set to film in the Penitentiary of New Mexico and needed background actors who could convincingly look like dangerous inmates. 

Bloomfield certainly had the bonafides to be cast, arriving to the audition having spent nearly 15 years behind bars…and already murdered two people. Perhaps unsurprisingly, he got the part.

The film’s casting director David Cordova told KRQE, “We were expecting actors to come to our casting calls. I’m not expecting the real thing to come through. … I don’t think anybody else was actually aware that we had cast a mass murderer on the film.”

12. And lastly, the “Hillside Stranglers” Kenneth A. Bianchi and Angelo Buono approached a woman with plans to abduct and murder her, but changed their minds when they learned her father was acting legend Peter Lorre.

Bettmann / Bettmann Archive

Bianchi and Buono were cousins who terrorized Los Angeles in 1977/78 by abducting, raping, and murdering 10 young women and girls. Bianchi murdered two additional women by himself. They frequently tricked women into getting into their vehicle by posing as police officers.

In November 1977, the Hillside Stranglers approached 24-year-old Catharine Lorre Baker with the intention of making her their next victim. However, upon looking at her identification, they spotted a photo of Baker as a girl sitting on the lap of her father, actor Peter Lorre. Fearing the attention that murdering a celebrity’s daughter would bring, the serial killing cousins let Baker go.

Sunset Boulevard / Corbis via Getty Images

Ironically, it’s likely the cousins only recognized Lorre because his most famous role in the film M was of particular interest to them: He played a serial killer.