Random Creepiest Souvenirs Serial Killers Have Kept (19 items)

(#5) John George Haigh
- Dec. at 40 (1909-1949)
English criminal John George Haigh wasn’t known as the “Acid Bath Killer” because he was a nice guy. But maybe the meanest thing Haigh did was after he took out Dr. Archibald Henderson and his wife, Rose, he melted their bodies, forged a letter saying he was a representative of their estate and sold all their possessions.
(#3) Alex Mengel Made A Scalp Wig

Alex Mengel was a suspect in the random slaying of a Westchester, NY, police officer. While being chased, he lost control of his car and crashed it into a wall. Once taken into custody, the car was found to belong to a woman who had gone missing a few years earlier.

What clinched Mengel as the criminal was the car contained weapons, but what police originally deemed to be a wig, but was actually her scalp - which Mengel wore as a wig when he took his next victim. Less than two months later, Mengel was terminated trying to escape during a prison transfer.
(#1) Ed Gein
- Dec. at 77 (1906-1984)
In terms of trophies and sheer butchery, Ed Gein wins the prize. The notorious figure started as a grave robber and necrophiliac. He then moved on to slaying in the late '50s, and by the time he was caught, had racked up an array of trophies that remains jarring to this day.

Among the horrors found at his house include a wastebasket and chairs made of skin, bowls created from skulls, masks created from human faces, numerous organs in a box, and more. Gein’s crimes would inspire the fictional characters from Psycho and Silence of the Lambs, among others.
(#15) Dennis Nilsen
- 77
Known as the “Kindly Killer,” Dennis Nilsen was Britain’s version of Jeffrey Dahmer, and was just as prolific and grisly. He exterminated young men he’d lured to his house, then would bathe and dress their bodies before violating them. When Nilsen was arrested, it was because a neighbor had had her sink clogged by what turned out to be human flesh and bones he’d tried to flush down the toilet.
Investigators also found multiple plastic bags in his closet, which contained various body parts and organs.
(#8) Jeffrey Dahmer
- Dec. at 34 (1960-1994)
The infamous Jeffrey Dahmer had a side habit of keeping various parts of his victims in addition to the other components of his crimes. It started when he preserved the head and genitals of one of his victims in acetone.

By the time he was done, he had a freezer full of body parts. He also had a lobster pot full of body parts.
(#19) Dennis Rader
- 78
The infamous “Bind, Torture, Kill” murderer, Dennis Rader took the driver’s licenses of several of his victims as souvenirs.