To ask if you've ever personally known an infamous killer/serial killer/

[gentlyscented]

I'm fascinated with true crime and was having a conversation with my Grandad once. He told me that one of his brothers mates was friends with peter sutcliffe,and that he had met him a couple of times.

Interested to know if others have have had encounters or known a serial killer

Another Kray one. My mum lived in same street in Bethnal Green

I've met loads of murderers because I used to work with offenders. Some that were locally high profile (rather than the really famous/infamous/notorious ones). I've heard things that have literally made my blood run cold and kept me up at night, both in regards to what they did, and also their own lives, childhoods etc. Horrible.

My grandmother met Ted Bundy. She worked at a hotel in Michigan and he was there during his (second?) escape from prison. She said he was very polite.

I interviewed a few serial killers (many years ago) for a piece of investigative journalism.

One of my colleagues was approached in a job centre years and years ago by someone who said he could give her bed and board if she'd help his wife look after their kids. Friend got a weird vibe from him and told him to do one.

It turned out to be Fred West.

Absolutely @SamanthaBrique . He, like the other one, has an assumed name. Wonder if the whole family have to change names as well ?

A relative of mine went to his girlfriend's family gathering. When we asked him how it was, he said he'd had a nice time but that one of her nephews was really weird and gave him the creeps. Considering that this relative is very introverted it really struck a chord that he would call someone weird when (unfortunately) he is often labelled that way.

Years later, before the arrest, same relative happened to have popped round when an interview with Ian Huntley was on the news. He pointed at the tele and said "Do you remember (ex-girlfriend)? That's her nephew. Creepy bloke, I bet you anything he's got something to do with those girls."

To answer the thread though

Years ago I briefly met a man who was friends of a chap my friend was seeing at the time . We all spent an evening at a cinema together and then a bite to eat and it was a good night as I recall .

Fast forward some years and he was in the news, as he was on the run for an armed robbery with intent . Never did find out if he was caught or not though.

No, not personally. I did however once work with a woman who had a couple of dates with Peter Sutcliffe.

Serial killer junkie just placemarking!!

Not exactly famous, but my eldest cousin is married to a man convicted of killing his last wife...

Taught two murderers....

#cabbagepatchkid40 I was a student nurse at the same time as Colin Norris and he was a lovely guy he was so caring and the patients loved him I was very upset when he was done for those crimes didn't think he would be capable of that

If you Google the Mayerthorpe Alberta shootings you'll find out what I'm referring to here. My father grew up in that area and went to school with James Roszko, the perpetrator. My uncle cleaned seed for him. My uncle said he had eyes like a wolf and you didn't cross him - my uncle was just glad when the man paid him and the check cleared!

Everyone in the north west thinks they’ve met one of the bulger killers. They often confuse them, like the poster above who said Robert Thompson was rumoured to have worked in a restaurant. That was actually Jon Venables, and I know which restaurant you are talking about. I believe it’s true.

My mother in law was convined Jon Venables lived next door to her. He didn’t.

A boy I sat next to for a while at secondary school went on to murder someone 6 years later when he was 19. Nasty piece of work. My dad arrested mad Frankie Fraser in the 1960s

where i live the west family are very well known fred worked with my father who said he often had sex with women at work and my mother worked with rena his first wife he murdered.
years ago i was good friends with someone but he was very mixed up over a woman he was going out with. we all tried to tell him she would never ever leave her husband all she wanted out of him was money. she even got him a job working with her husband so she knew how much money he was earning. one night he was so upset every time he asked her when she was leaving dh it would be one excuse after another well no way would she leave a four bed house in the best part of the city to live in a scruffy bedsit. i was home this particular night and mum called me saying their was a phone call for me it was my friend who told me he had killed this woman by accident he had lost his temper and shook her when her neck snapped and he was going on the run. i told him not to do that as it would make things worse. the police picked up couple hours later i had to make a statement as he had contacted me and go to court he got 5 years manslaughter as they agreed he had been provoked far as i know he moved to the lake district where he originally came from when released but i lost touch with him

What was Rena west like? I'm a bit of a Fred and rose documentary addict! Fascinating stuff - met a taxi driver who knew a lot about them but that's as close as I've come

Many years ago as a very junior Secretary I worked for the solicitor who was representing John Cannan.

Even then the people representing him were of the opinion he had also killed Suzy Lamplugh. But of course no-one has ever been able to prove it.......

So glad I started this thread, it's been so interesting to read.

Everyone in the north west thinks they’ve met one of the bulger killers. They often confuse them, like the poster above who said Robert Thompson was rumoured to have worked in a restaurant. That was actually Jon Venables, and I know which restaurant you are talking about. I believe it’s true.

Thinking about it, the boys were pretty interchangeable really when it came to which one had worked in the restaurant. The people who I knew all said Thompson but an equal amount probably said Venables as well. I have no idea. As far as I am aware I have met neither one of them and I don't think I would want to know if I had really.

My father grew up in the same street as the family of Nevill George Cleavly Heath- a convicted serial killer in the 40s. He was a boy at the time but said they were seen as a nice family - shame about the vaguely dodgy son before it happened, and then everyone was in shock afterwards. My father remembers they day they hanged GNCH and said it was a very strange, tense, sad atmosphere over their street.

DP was at school with the girl arrested as the accomplice in the recent Clandon train stabbings. A friend of mine reckons Levi Bellfield tried to pick up her and her mother off the street. This was before he was liked for the Russell murders, but they've always insisted it was him and the possible Russell link makes it more plausible.

To the Pp I think @cricketmum who mentioned a hanged relative? Try capitalpunishment.org - they have a page on each "hanging' jail in the uk and that's the sort of fact they'll have. I also went to uni with someone descended from the last public executioner of Paris.

I went to school with a girl who was raped and murdered when we were teens. Very very sad. When her killer was caught he needed hospital treatment (I think the cops roughed him up), and my mum had to treat him. She said it sickened her.
dH went to school with a bloke who later murdered a family member, it was a complex case and was headlines for about a year where I live.
I have a few friends who knew one of our most infamous mass killers. A good friend of mine was also questioned over the murder of a teenager in the late 90s, her killer has never been found (we were with my friend the night she was murdered, in a different part of the country, so know he didn’t do it). He drove a distinctive car and a similar one had been seen in connection with the case.
I live in a small country so it is easy to have these connections I think.

To all those who are questioning whether I did work with Robert Thompson - you are quite right, it may not have been. I can only say that he was the spitting image of the photos that we are all so well acquainted with, and his personal records that the organisation held on him was like no others I've ever seen. And no, he obviously didn't introduce himself as Robert Thompson

This thread is fascinating, thanks OP for starting it.

My ex almost murdered me (strangulation).

Apart from that, because of a previous job, I had some dealings with murderers.

My cousin was nanny to the twins Jeremy Bamber killed. She always said he was lovely and kind and was so shocked he was convicted