Dark Strangler — America’s First Known Serial Sex Killer

The most prolific killer before the 1970s

Earle Nelson was born Earle Leonard Ferral on May 12, 1897, in San Francisco, California. His mother and father died of syphilis while he was still a toddler and he went to live with his maternal grandmother, a devout Pentecostal with two children of her own.

In his early years, Nelson already exhibited the signs of self-loathing and a penchant for morbid curiosities. By the age of seven, he had already been expelled from primary school for violent behavior. Somewhere around his tenth birthday, he had a collision with a streetcar that left him unconscious for almost a week. When he finally awoke, he continued to suffer from headaches, memory loss and exhibited erratic behavior such as talking to people who weren’t there, maniacally quoting the Bible, and sneaking in to watch female members of his family undress.

His grandmother said that he would often leave for school properly dressed, only to return in shredded, unkempt clothes. He was obsessed with the Book of Revelation. By his early teens, he was already frequenting brothels and bars along the Barbary Coast red-light district in San Francisco. At some point during this time, he contracted a venereal disease.

By his eighteenth birthday, Nelson was already looking at a two-year stint in San Quentin State Prison for breaking into a cabin in a remote area of Plumas County. He claimed that he had believed it was…