I originally imagined this article to be quite short. I got the idea after a run of watching and listening to true crime documentaries. However, the more I dug into things, the more I realised that the decade of the 70s crime list was much bigger than I anticipated.

Originally, I was just going to focus on the serial killers active in the UK and USA, but that idea was propelled into looking at all active serial killers worldwide once I realised just what I was dealing with. This one article has now become a series of articles.

In the decade of the 70s there were 201 active serial killers worldwide! I posed the question to some friends and colleagues who all guessed numbers in the millions. I don’t know whether I expected the number to be higher or lower. I should point out that the number does not include unsolved murders (that will be another part of this ongoing article series).

Would it surprise you more or less then, to know that of that 201, 123 of the serial killers came from the USA? Coming in second place was Russia with 16 and in third, UK with 12. The other countries land somewhere between 1-5 serial killers each.

Based on the number, and all the extensive research I have done, the articles will be split as such:

• The 1970s – A Decade of Crime: USA
• The 1970s – A Decade of Crime: Russia
• The 1970s – A Decade of Crime: UK
• The 1970s – A Decade of Crime: Rest of World
• The 1970s – A Decade of Crime: Unidentified Serial Killers: Worldwide
• The 1970s – A Decade of Crime: Unidentified Serial Killers: USA

What started as a niggling curiosity has expanded to much more but when I realised how much information was available on this topic, I wanted to do it justice in writing.

Of course, there is a warning.

WARNING: There will be discussion, description, and explanation of serial killers and their crimes. I’m not looking to cause any pain to anyone involve in these crimes, or to cause trauma to anyone reading these articles. If you think you will be offended, please don’t read this series.

Over the course of the six articles, I will be delving into the active serial killers, who they were, where they started and what they became, as well as adding my own opinions here and there.

At the core of these articles, I was just fascinated by how much crime was actually carried out in the decade of the 1970s and in typical me fashion, thought it would be easier to sort out in my brain if I wrote everything down.

If you are interested in True Crime, or intrigued by the title, please join me on this journey (I won’t be offended if you decide otherwise).

I shall also be doing a series of articles based on sub-categories:

• 1970s – A Decade of Crime: Mass Murders Worldwide (a lot of these are bombing from Ireland, but I thought I’d go chronologically by decade as there is a lot to cover)
  • 1970
  • 1971
  • 1972
  • 1973
  • 1974
  • 1975
  • 1976
  • 1977
  • 1978
  • 1979

• 1970s – A Decade of Crime: Sub-Categories Worldwide