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Turkey’s serial killers, from the nail pounder to the well digger
Turkey’s serial killers, from the nail pounder to the well digger
This week’s arrest of a convicted serial killer who murdered another man a year after his release has brought the problem to the public attention once again. Click through for a list of Turkish serial killers...
The furniture man: Seyit Ahmet Demirci killed three furniture shopowners in Istanbul in 1998. He picked his victims randomly and shot them in the basement of their own shops. He said he was raped by a furniture shopowner in his shop’s basement when he was a child. He had a bet with another serial killer, dubbed “the hunter,” on who would kill the greatest number of people.
The hunter: Hamdi Kayapınar, 39, refers to himself as “the hunter” and his victims as his prey. He killed his brother in 1994 because his “parents loved him more.” After his release in 1998, he killed seven men in three years. He was conditionally released again last year but he was arrested again for killing another man on Aug. 7, 2018 “because he liked his gun.”
The nail pounder: Süleyman Aktaş returned to his village in western Turkey in 1994 soon after he killed a policeman but was sent to a mental institution for treatment. In his village, he strangled four of his neighbors and pounded nails into their heads, hence his nickname. He was sent to a mental institution again, from where he eventually fled but was caught soon afterward.
The Antep monster: Starting his killing spree in the 1940s, Abdullah Palaz from the southeastern province of Gaziantep was probably the first serial killer in modern Turkish history. He killed 43 in total and served 48 years in 38 different prisons because he was killing other convicts, too.
The babyface: Ali Kaya first killed his uncle in 1997. After he was released, he killed another man who he accused of raping his mother. Then he received a medical report citing his mental disorders, which helped his release. He eventually stabbed five people to death in Alanya. He also killed another convict at the mental institution he was kept at.
The monster of Artvin: Adnan Çolak killed 11 people in the northeastern province of Artvin between 1992 and 1995. Although he received a jail sentence of 112 years, he was conditionally released in 2005 thanks to a clause in an amnesty law.
The killer with a screwdriver: Born in 1967, Yavuz Yapıcıoğlu was dubbed by the media as the “most dangerous and deadliest killer in Turkey’s criminology history.” He was convicted of 18 murders in Istanbul and Ankara in the 1990s, but it is thought that the real number is 43. He used a screwdriver in the murders. He is still in jail.
The packer: Orhan Aksoy killed five people in a row in the 1990s by strangling them and then putting them into packages and parcels. He received five life sentences in 2004.
The monster of İzmir: Ayhan Kartal raped and killed at least two kids in the western province of İzmir in the 1980s. He once told police that an inner voice ordered him “to come closer to kids” who were the only ones he could have a relationship with. He was killed by other convicts in an asylum in Manisa in 2000.
Terminator with an UZI: Erdinç Tümer killed five people, including a woman, in İzmir and Bursa in the 1990s. Originally a mob hitman, he was using an UZI gun. He was arrested in 1999 and sentenced to 24 years in jail in 2002.
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