15 Notorious Murderers' Homes

Photo: TruTV

There are curious questions surrounding the places where murderers lived. Did they bury their dead inside their homes? Did they live with the dead or pieces of them? Did they have really nasty, rundown homes? Whatever happened to their homes? And who would want to buy those places and live in them? The above picture shows the home of Lizzy Borden, where she hacked to pieces by her father and step-mother. The house was turned into a bed and breakfast.

15. Home of Amanda Knox
Photo: TruTV

The above picture was the home of Amanda Knox, who infamously murdered Meredith Kercher in the central Italian suburb of Perugia. As foreign exchange students, the pair was housed together while attending the Università per Stranieri. The home sits in a quaint town of only 34,000. Once known for its chocolate, Perugia is now famous for the murder and media circus surrounding the homicide case. Italian boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito was also given a life sentence for his participation in the murder of Kercher. The case is now being appealed.

14. Home of Ronald "Butch" DeFeo Jr.Photo: TruTV

Unless you were born in the early 1970s, chances are that you don't remember Ronald "Butch" DeFeo Jr. He killed his parents and four younger siblings in 1977. The home you see above is located on 112 Ocean Avenue in Amityville, Long Island.

Raised by parents who had unusual parenting styles, "Butch" was abused, demeaned and beaten. Later, his parents went to the extreme opposite and bought him anything he wanted. These mixed messages led Butch to get into serious hardcore drugs like LSD and heroin as a teen. Butch tried to kill his dad with a pistol, but the gun malfunctioned. Not long after, Butch finally got his moment of tyranny and destruction. Armed with a gun, he blasted his dad's head off and tore his mother's body almost in half, while his siblings were dismembered just from the bullets that tore through their bodies. One of his siblings didn't die instantly; he lay there twitching and convulsing for what seemed like forever as Butch stood there and watched.

13. Home of Andrea Yates
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I'm sure everyone remembers Andrea Yates. This story was particularly horrible for me to watch unfold. I had four children of similar ages to hers at the time. In fact, two of my kids shared her kids' names! She drowned her children in the bathtub of the home above on Beachcomber Lane and Sea Lark Road in Houston, TX. She felt she was not only a bad mother, but that the devil wanted her to kill her children.

12. Home of Anthony Sewell
Photo: TruTV

What's worse – living beside a sausage factory that reeks of carcasses or living next door to a serial killer whose home on Imperial Avenue in Cleveland, Ohio smells like carcasses? Thanks to the smelly environment, neighbors didn't know where the darker smell was originating from. But one thing was for sure. A 50 year old man named Anthony Sewell brutally murdered 10 people in the house above. The victims were black, homeless, not missed or reported missing, were drug addicts, and police were later blamed for not giving a darn about these missing people. In the living room, basement, flower garden and crawl spaces, these women rotted and mummified, not missed by a soul. No one knows for sure if there are more victims out there that Anthony is responsible for murdering. Many unsolved cases linger today (much like the smells in this neighborhood). Rape followed rape, but Anthony avoided prosecution for the murders due to the women not being 'court material' and having credible testimonies. They were fearful for their lives if they did testify. At one point, Anthony was responsible for caring for his aging mother in this house, as he brought one victim after another home. (He even blamed the smells on his mother!). Sex offender registry and supervision didn't seem to faze this guy, as he continued to victimize more and more people. Finally, he was arrested in 2009. The carnage would then be put to rest.

11. House of Lizzy Borden
Photo: New England

A rather old case dating back to 1892, Lizzy Borden chopped her father and stepmother up into bits and pieces with an axe in the home, above, that she shared with them. It was August and stiflingly hot even for Massachusetts. It didn't matter that it was broad daylight and people were mingling about conducting their daily rituals outside. Lizzy was thought of as a "church-going, Sunday-school-teaching, and respectable young lady." At No. 92 Second Street, Fall River, Massachusetts, a servant girl was resting in the attic when Lizzie hacked the pair to pieces. As the doctor described the scene: "The man's head was bent slightly to the right and his face had been cut by eleven blows. One eye had been cut in half and was protruding from his face, his nose had been severed. Most of the cuts were within a small area extending from the eye and nose to the ear..." Lizzie was found not guilty on the murder charges. The home is now a bed and breakfast – a romantic getaway if one wants to consider it so.

10. House of Robert Coleman
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This fine specimen above murdered his wife Sherri and their two boys, Garrett, 11, and Gavin, 9, by strangling them. The home on Robert Drive in Columbia, Illinois was finally bought in May 2010 by Wells Fargo Bank for a whopping $256,419.96.

9. Home of Gary Ridgeway, Green River Killer
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Do you remember the Green River Killer in Washington State? On August 15, 1982, a fisherman out for a leisurely round of fishing found himself catching more than just fish that day. It turned out that Gary Ridgeway, the Green River Killer, had used the same river the poor, unfortunate fisherman used for relaxing as the place in which he dumped the bodies of at least six women. The Green River Killer had wedged rocks into the nude women's vaginas which sunk them to the river bottom. Back then, DNA and forensic evidence advancements had not been made that would have enabled investigating officers to identify the prostitutes or the killer. Detectives thought they were looking for a middle-aged man with deep set religious beliefs; one who liked to revisit the crime scene over and over to relive the kills, and who knew about police work. There were many hit and misses, as some people were arrested and then released, the true killer was questioned but not arrested, and then the police got entangled in a web of deceit and misguidance on the evidence. This case was the largest, most costly investigation ever recorded in US history. Two million dollars later, Gary Ridgeway was finally arrested. Satisfied, law enforcement officials knew they would no longer find women nearly decapitated, nude, and with fish crammed into their vaginas, wedged into their sliced throats, or stuffed in their mouths. A total of 18 women were murdered by the Green River Killer.

8. Home of Jasmine RichardsonPhoto: TrueTV

The above photo reminds one of the 1960s family sitcoms of Father's Knows Best or something like it. However, it was actually a home in Medicine Hat, Alberta, Canada where a set of parents and the brother of a murderer who was in 7th grade resided. The preteen, Jasmine Richardson, was arrested along with her boyfriend. The child blamed movies for her motive in killing her family. To read more about this case, click here.

7. Home of "Mrs. Wright", the Likens Murderer
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The above house at 3850 East New York Street in Indianapolis was a torture chamber for teens, most notably a girl named Sylvia Likens. The bizarre story is hard to follow, so bear with me. The Likens parents left their 16-year-old daughter Sylvia, and her severely disabled daughter Jenny, 15, in the care of "Mrs. Wright". As explained in this story, Mrs. Wright was "not quite forty years old when she met the Likens, she had been pregnant no less than thirteen times, giving birth seven times and enduring six miscarriages. A chain smoker, she suffered from asthma, bronchitis, and nervous tension. Her income consisted of haphazard child support payments (both of the fathers of her children were seriously delinquent) and the few dollars she managed to scrape together from occasional work like ironing and baby-sitting". She didn't go by her legal name, Baniszewski, because she didn't want people to know her last child was born out of wedlock (as if that was her worst problem!). Knowing Mrs. Wright for only a couple of days, the Likens left their two daughters with this woman who had no utilities, few beds, lived in squalor, and had a grand total of three spoons in her kitchen. The Likens then joined a circus. Forced to eat their vomit amid other torturous acts, the girls were eventually murdered, and their bodies were grossly disfigured prior to the police finding them. This fascinating tale can be read in its entirety here.

6. Home of Kang-Hyuk Choi
Photo: TruTV

In another case of burial within the home of a murderer, Kang-Hyuk Choi, 32, used this house on Tenafly Road in Tenafly, NJ as the place in which his friends Doo Soo Seo, 70, 58-year-old Yoo Bok Kim, and her son, Han Il Kim, 28, would decompose. Fortunately, Choi was arrested in 2008. With friends like that, who needs enemies?

5. Home of BTK Killer
Photo: TruTV

The BTK Killer will live in infamy. Here on 803 North Edgemoor Street in Wichita, 10 people were murdered. Pleading not guilty, Dennis Radar was sentenced to 175 years in prison, which included nine life sentences and a mandatory 40 years before parole would be considered. Comparing his victims and himself as "peas in a pod", the BTK killer continues to lack remorse for the savage murders he committed.

4. House of Cameron and Janice HookerPhoto: TruTV

Kidnapped in 1977, Carol Smith spent seven long, agonizing years in this home at 1140 Oak Street in Red Bluff, CA. Hitchhiking to Oregon to see her friend, the 20-year-old never suspected that Cameron and Janice Hooker would make her a sadists' slave. Forced to do all sorts of dark, gory sexual acts with the couple, Carol Smith thought she was going to die in that house. Oddly, she was able to escape, and her parents took her back, never questioning where she had been. Remarkably, Carol kept in touch with Janice. Through the assistance of a pastor, detectives arrested Cameron on November 18, 1984. According to this site, "Hooker was sentenced to consecutive terms for the sex crimes, which totalled 60 years. He received 1 to 25 years for the kidnap, plus a 5 to10 year sentence for using a knife while doing so. If he serves the maximum time sentenced, he is looking at 104 years." To read more about this story, click here.

3. Home of Betty Broderick
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In 1989, a socialite named Betty Broderick stormed into her ex-husband Dan's home, which he was now sharing with his new wife on Cypress Street in San Diego. In a fit of jealous rage, she shot both of them down in cold blood. To read more of this story, go here.

2. Mansion of Joyce and Stanley Cohen
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Joyce traded this lovely home in Miami for a cell in Florida after murdering her husband. Stan couldn't keep his pants on around other women, and Joyce wasn't willing to divorce Stan or have him leave her, only to give this luxurious lifestyle to a new woman. Greedy for everything Stan owned, Joyce shot him dead on March 7, 1986. Once a model, she now looks horrible in prison orange. (See more of this story here).

1. Mansion of Menendez brothers, Erik and Lyle
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Who could forget the Menendez brothers' murders? This 9,000 sq ft mansion on 722 Elm Drive in Beverly Hills wasn't enough for these spoiled brats. They wanted everything their parents had, and killing them was the answer. To read more of this story, click here.

Want more about where serial killers have lived? This site has an intimate portrayal and photo gallery of Ed Gein's home. This home is to die for. It's on the market, if you are interested. What is the fate of a murder house? Simple. Many sell, but a lot of them don't – ever. Of course, there might be a minute chance you have never heard of the murder. Or, the scene of the crime might take advantage of its celebrity status, like in the scene pictured top (Lizzy Borden's old house, now a Bed and Breakfast). Personally, I will take a rain check. I have lived in an apartment where someone was murdered. Though I never saw any hauntings, I had a bad, eerie feeling about the place. I inquired about anything ghastly ever having happened at the apartment. The manager confirmed there had been a brutal gang execution there!

Thank you TruTV for allowing me to use these images in this story!