Some murderers never stop seeing their victims. Whether they are haunted by their memories or an actual ghost is debatable, but the following certainly believed that their victims refused to give them peace.
10 Mark Bridger
Mark Bridger spent his days drinking, watching pornographic videos, and looking at indecent images of children. After he had spent a typical evening drinking in 2012, he drove around to find a young girl. He stumbled upon five-year-old April Jones. Jones went into Bridger’s car, and she was never seen again. Bridger was arrested the next day. He admitted that he had killed Jones. However, he claimed that it was an accident. Bridger said that he had accidentally hit Jones with his car. He remembered placing her body in his car before he went for help. Alcohol had blurred his memory, and he did not know what happened to her body.After a forensic expert found fragments of bone and blood matching Jones’s DNA in Bridger’s house, police rejected his story. They believe that he sexually assaulted the child before he killed her and scattered her body parts. The court agreed with the police. Bridger was found guilty, and he was sentenced to life in prison. He told a fellow inmate that he is tortured by visions of Jones, who appears in his jail cell at night.[1]
9 Jose E. Ferreira Jr.
Jose Ferreira, then 17, met Carrie Ann Jopek, 13, at a party in 1982. He shared a joint with the girl, and she asked him to join her in the basement. As they were walking down the steps, Jopek began having second thoughts. She turned toward Ferreira and said, “I don’t know if this is a good idea.”[2] Ferreira responded, “You are going downstairs,” and he pushed the girl down the steps.Ferreira looked at Jopek’s limp body, and he saw an opportunity. He “had his way with her” before he realized that her neck was broken. Jopek was dead. Ferreira snuck her body out of the house and buried it under a neighbor’s porch. The body wasn’t discovered for 17 months. Police had no leads, and the case remained unsolved. Ferreira finally confessed to the murder after three decades. He said that Jopek’s spirit had haunted him since she died.
8 Ah Fong
In Hong Kong in 1999, three members of a secret triad gang society captured Fan Man-yee. They claimed she owed them HK$20,000. The men spent a month horrifically torturing Fan before she died of her injuries. They sawed up her body, boiled the parts, and threw the pieces into the trash.One of the men had a 13-year-old girlfriend who had helped with the torture. The girl, known only as “Ah Fong,” suffered from nightmares. She kept seeing Fan’s ghost.[3] Ah Fong called the police and reported the crime. At first, they assumed that her story was just teenage delusion. However, they investigated the place where Fan was tortured and discovered parts of her body.The gang members were arrested, and the case went to court. Ah Fong testified in exchange for immunity. The three men were found guilty of manslaughter, and they were sentenced to life in prison.
7 Victor Amewugah
Victor Amewugah hired a taxi driver for a long journey in 2013. Halfway through his ride, Amewugah pulled out a gun, killed the driver, and drove off in the taxi. He soon repeated his crime. Amewugah became a suspect in the murders, and he had to go on the run. He was soon joined by his second victim’s ghost, which had started to haunt and attack him. The ghost constantly appeared in his dreams and even slapped him while he slept.[4] He could not get a decent night’s sleep. The torment became unbearable, and Amewugah told a friend about the murders. His friend called the police and told them that Amewugah was driving one of the victim’s taxis. Police found and arrested Amewugah. He confessed to the murders and expressed regret for his actions. Amewugah advised his fellow criminals to change their lifestyles to avoid being haunted by their victims’ ghosts.
6 Al Capone
On February 14, 1929, seven associates of the North Side Gang, including James Clark, met at a garage. Four men, including two dressed as police officers, approached them. The policemen lined the gang members against a wall and opened fire. All seven were killed.While the massacre was never solved, it is believed that it was masterminded by Al Capone, leader of the rival South Side Gang. Capone was arrested months after the murder. Prison guards would later report that he would let out bloodcurdling screams, shouting for Jimmy to leave him alone.The ghost followed him when he left prison. Capone hired a medium to get rid of the ghost, but she was unsuccessful. Later in his life, his bodyguards would hear Capone begging someone to leave him alone. When they went inside, Capone was by himself. He told his guards that he was being haunted by the ghost of James Clark.[5]
5 Bhim Shankar Giri
Bhim Shankar Giri’s brother Jeetendra Anantlal Giri would not stop harassing Bhim’s wife. He asked Jeetendra several times to leave his wife alone, but Jeetendra would not stop. Bhim grew angry at his brother, and he decided to kill him. Bhim lured Jeetendra into a secluded area with the promise of a party. He offered Jeetendra alcohol, and once Jeetendra was drunk, Bhim slit his throat. Bhim hid his brother’s body and went into hiding. Their family noticed that Jeetendra was missing, and they reported his absence to the police. A week passed, and Bhim started to constantly hear Jeetendra’s voice. Even his dreams were not safe from his brother. One night, Brim dreamed that his brother was choking him, and Jeetendra threatened to haunt him and give him sleepless nights for the rest of his life.[6] Bhim went home to his family, and he confessed to his brother’s murder. They took Bhim to the police station, where he was arrested.
4 John Nkuna
In South Africa in 2002, John Nkuna and two friends kidnapped Bob Ruel Baloyi. They tied Baloyi up with pieces of cloth and then beat him up. Nkuna and his friends doused Baloyi with gasoline and set him on fire. Baloyi’s charred remains were later found by a cattle herder, who called the police. Nkuna fled to another city to escape charges. However, he was soon haunted by Baloyi’s ghost. He heard Baloyi’s voice every night saying, “Just tell my family that you are the one who murdered me and you’ll start sleeping in peace, or you’ll follow me.”[7] Nkuna was terrified, and he went to the Baloyi family to confess to the murder. Nkuna and his friends were arrested, but charges were withdrawn from his friends. He pleaded not guilty in court, though the court used his confession to get a conviction. Nkuna was sentenced to 15 years in prison.
3 Adrian Daou
Jennifer Stewart was axed to death in a parking lot in 2010. Her murder went unsolved for nearly three years. There were no leads until Adrian Daou confessed. Police were skeptical about his guilt: A few of his statements did not match the crime. However, he did know a couple of points that only the killer would know. Police gave him a cardboard tube and told him to reenact the crime. His motions matched the murder. Daou said that he had murdered Stewart to launch his music career. He thought that if he killed someone, he would “be a really good rapper” because “people talk about that killer stuff.” Daou said that he went to smoke a joint on a bike path after the murder. While he was there, he was haunted by Stewart’s ghost flying by him.[8] Daou said that he sees her ghost a couple of times a day.
2 Daniel French
In 2012, Daniel French wanted easy money, so he decided to rob a house in a retirement community. French posed as a maintenance worker and entered 87-year-old Barbara Howe’s home. He shocked her in the neck with a stun gun. However, the woman did not go down. French grabbed Howe and started to choke her. The woman wouldn’t lose consciousness. French kept his hands around her neck, and she eventually died. He hid her body and rifled through her belongings. French found $18 and a diamond ring, which he threw out of his car’s window. Howe’s murder went unsolved for two years. Police managed to piece together evidence that led to French. They questioned French, and he confessed to the murder. French told the police that he felt terrible for the woman’s murder, and that “I seen Ms. Howe’s ghost, and I apologized.”[9]
1 Terry Childs
In 1987, Terry Childs stabbed a 17-year-old girl, Lois Sigala, to death. He was convicted of murder and sentenced to 41 years in prison. While he was imprisoned, he confessed to several more murders. One of his victims was Linda Ann Jozovich. In 1979, he had kidnapped her from a parking lot and then beat, strangled, and stabbed her repeatedly. Childs hid her body in the Santa Cruz Mountains. It took over a decade to find the remains.Childs claimed that he had to confess to the murders to “free himself from his demons.” He said that he was haunted by the ghosts of his victims. Childs saw them in his cell, staring at him and “eating up his brain.”[10] He claimed that Jozovich had haunted him; however, she disappeared after he confessed to her murder. Childs’s confessions have increased his prison sentence to life without parole.