In an interview, Jeffrey Dahmer’s neighbor said that “Jeffrey was always cooking but never went for shopping.” No one really knows what goes into another person’s life, even Dennis Rader’s wife had no idea that his husband was the BTK.
After they get caught everyone becomes aware but what about before? Their friends, family and even co-workers have no idea, with whom they are planning their weekend. Some Reddit users are haunting “what ifs” from real world who knowingly or unknowingly interacted with some of the most well known offenders, and above all, these stories are true.
Not Once But Many Encounters With New York’s Most Infamous
From user /u/mhelweg: While growing up in Poughkeepsie, NY when I was 12-14 years old, one of my brother’s friends became very close with our family. He called my mother’s mom and was considered one of the family. He even took one of my sisters out to a movie date at one point.
Coming home from work one night my brother told my mom that the cops showed up where he and Nate worked and arrested Nate. It turned out that Nate was stalking and murdering girls between the ages of 14-20 in Duchess and Orange Counties and had already killed 6, strangling and bludgeoning them and disposing of the bodies on the side of the road. Nathaniel White was his name.
If that wasn’t bad enough, fast-forward about 6 years and 2 blocks from my house, they arrested Kendall Fransious? And located 8 dead women in his home – which he shared with his mom, dad, and 14-year-old sister. Apparently, although the place reeked of decomposing bodies none of the other people in the house were even remotely aware of the corpses.
Additional Craziness: My history teacher in Poughkeepsie Middle School was Albert Fentress – a known cannibal.
Grandma Scared Richard Ramirez
From user /u/glassesnw1ne: “My friend’s grandma had a close encounter with Richard Ramirez aka the Night Stalker of Los Angeles. Grandma was doing yard work in the back and saw him jump a fence into her property. She was freaked out and started whacking him with a broom or something. It was enough for him to abort whatever he had planned and he jumped back over. Grandma sees a sketch on the news a few days later and realizes it’s the same guy that she hit in her backyard.
I’m still super scared of leaving any floor-level windows open at night, no matter how hot it is outside.”
She Scared Off Ted Bundy
From users /u/ohmygodbeckylook: “My friend’s aunt heard a knock on the door and thought it was her boyfriend, so she wanted to scare him and got one of her kitchen knives and opened the door and yelled or something. Turns out it wasn’t her boyfriend, but a man asking if she needed any plumbing work done but when he saw the knife he left. She looked out the window and saw a yellow VW bug. Ends up being Ted Bundy.”
Next Door To Jeffrey Dahmer
From user BadEskimoBrother: The man who molested me, grew up next door to Jeffrey Dahmer. He was a teenager when Dahmer was a young kid. Jeffrey Dahmer was molested by a kid in his neighborhood. That’s all I know, and I’m not really interested in learning more. It isn’t something I like to think about.
Dale Hausner’s Brother
From User /u/gogojack: About 10 years ago, I met a guy named Randy Hausner. He was a local comic and small-time promoter in Phoenix. He had a comedy night where my then-girlfriend was performing. Went to a couple of shows…seemed like a nice enough guy. If I remember correctly, he was an advocate for “clean” comedy. If you worked blue, you didn’t work for him.
A couple of years later, his brother Dale turned out to be the “Serial Shooter,” responsible for 8 deaths and at least 29 other shootings in the Phoenix area between 2005 and 2006. He [passed] a few months ago while awaiting execution. Another brother, Jeff, is serving 18 years for stabbing a guy.
Grandma Hit Albert DeSavlo With A Book
From User /u/iDebisschop: “My grandmother went to school with the Boston Strangler. After he hit on her/said something inappropriate, she hit him in the head with a book.”
Lunch Detention With Kendall Francois
This guy [Kendall Francois] worked at my middle school. When you had lunch detention it was with Francois. He was the assistant coach of the wrestling team. He was nice, although intimidating. He also stunk – turns out it was the bodies in his attic.
Michael Ross Offered Ride To Half-Sister
From Redditor /u/thewire_greatestshow: “Not me but my half-sister. When she was in middle school she was walking home from school and a guy in an old pickup truck offered her a ride home. She said no, because our dad had always said never accept a ride from strangers.
A few weeks later, a girl went missing from her class. They found her [body] sometime later. They later caught the guy, who turned out to be Michael Ross. All in all, he assaulted, abducted, and killed somewhere around 8 young girls in the CT area. He’d later get the death sentence.
From what she’s told me, our dad and her mother tried to keep the details of the trial away from her at home, trying not to freak out their young daughter. She said, however, the first time she caught a glimpse of his mug shot she recognized him immediately as the man who offered her a ride.”
Taught By Jeffrey Dahmer’s Father
From user /u/JPCnp: “Jeffery Dahmer’s father was my physics substitute teacher for an extended amount of time. The real teacher was old and I think just “checked out” of high school education. He now teaches at a close-by university. When the current teacher just didn’t feel like showing up, we had a teacher by the name of Mr. Dahmer for about two weeks. He asked to be called by his first name, and as we did a bit of Internet investigating, sure as shi* his son is Jeff. Go class of WHS 2004.
Israel Keyes Was Like An Older Brother
From user /u/bloo_regard: My sister dated Israel Keyes, and he was like an older brother to me when I was growing up. He moved to Alaska when I was 14, and I didn’t hear from him until he began to show up in the news after being caught for killing up to five people.
Co-Worker Kenyon Tolerton
From user /u/dnvrjeep:”I worked with Kenyon Tolerton, who [had] multiple victims. I was at home and saw him being arrested on the news. Freaked me out. I didn’t know him well, but what I did know of him would not have tipped me off that he was bonkers.”
Mom Lived Near John Wayne Gacy
From user /u/Glastonberry48: “While we were driving through a Chicago suburb, my mom starting point out how she lived in this neighborhood and pointed out the house she grew up in. She continued on about houses in the neighborhood, and my attention span started to tune out, up until she pointed to a house a few doors down from hers and said: “That was John Wayne Gacy’s house, the [infamous] clown.” Looking back on that, it explains why my mom was so overprotective of me when I was growing up.”
BTK Held My Roommate As A Baby
From user /u/anonymous: “BTK has been inside my house. He held my roommate as a baby and even knew my roommate’s grandmother. Going to and from school and various places, I walk some of the same streets that he would walk as he was scouting for potential victims. I asked my roommate if this bothers him, and he replied, “I try not to think about it. The dude was just intertwined with my family, and it is what it is.”
Met Richard “The Iceman” Kuklinski
“[…] When the prison sent an inmate out to the hospital they always sent two corrections officers with them. Sometimes they wore sidearms, sometimes they didn’t. Mr. Kuklinski was accompanied by six of the biggest COs I have ever seen, all wearing sidearms, two carrying shotguns. I have never seen this level of protection before and never saw it again. I turn over my patient and am standing at the nurses’ station getting info for my report. I catch myself looking at him and realize I am staring at him when he looks me in the eye and says, “What […] are you looking at?” I replied, “Nothin’. I just never met anyone that had three HBO specials done on them before.” He chuckled. I left. That was the time I met Richard “The Iceman” Kuklinski.
Lived Near Mark Goudeau
From user /u/severinusofnoricum:”The Baseline Killer lived about a block or so away. We walked past his house every night when we took the dog for a walk. It was pretty clear that he lived in the area based on the sites where he killed his victims so it came to an as little surprise to find out just how close he lived to us.”
More Random Encounters:
- From user Valkrik: Not me, but my grandpa went to high school with Ted Bundy and had a history class with him.
- From user zook54: I picked up Aileen Wuornos one afternoon when she was hitchhiking. This was before she began her killing spree.
- Did work for Robert Pickton, Canada’s worst serial killer, seemed like a real nice guy, but three or four months later the truth came out.
- kiwias: My dad’s first wife is the sister of one of the Zodiac victims. The girl killed in a park when she was with another guy (who survived) in a car. I think she was the third victim.
- A buddy of mine from high school suffered from depression and told me he would kill any five people I wanted before killing himself. He crashed at my house and when I was just about to pass out the drops that on me, tells me he’s going to kill himself in five months and if there’s anyone I hate, he will kill them for me. I shrugged it off and thought he was joking, I asked him about, and he told me he was dead serious and to keep it between us. Well, I thought [screw] that. I told his old man, and he got some help and is doing much better. Last I heard he’s in the Air Force. I don’t know if this counts but whatever.
