Lore and literature are filled with stories of oft-sensual, blood sucking monsters that terrorized many a small town and village. But, did you know that factual history is full of “vampires” as well? Ok, maybe they didn’t turn into bats at will (or wolves, depending on the lore), but they did all share the most important and recognized feature with our fictitious fiends: a thirst for blood.

Axar.az presents list of the killers who considered themselves as vampires:

1. Daniel and Manuela Ruda

In the year 2001, this German couple murdered Daniel’s co-worker and friend, stabbing him 66 times, hitting him with a hammer and drinking his blood. Afterwards, they had sex in Manuela’s coffin. They claim to have acted on the devil’s orders and said they chose their victim (named Frank Hackert, age 33) because he was “so funny and would be the perfect court jester for Satan” During their trial, they acted completely without remorse, threatening witnesses and flashing satanic symbols. Daniel Ruda was committed for 15 years and his wife for 13.

2. Richard Chase

Richard Chase was born in Santa Clara County, California, on May 23, 1950. Known as the “Vampire of Sacramento”, he killed six people in the span of one month, cannibalizing their remains and drinking their blood. The product of a troubled household, Chase showed signs of psychological problems at an early age and, later, gained himself a reputation as an alcoholic and chronic drug user during his adolescence. He became obsessed with bodily fluids, once being hospitalized for blood poisoning due to injecting himself with rabbit’s blood.

He committed his first murder on December 29, 1977. He would prowl homes and enter if the door was unlocked, believing that a locked door was a sign that he was not wanted but an unlocked door was an invitation to enter. On January 27, he committed his last murder, slaying 38-year-old Evelyn Miroth, her six-year-old son, Jason, and her 22-month-old nephew, David. He engaged in necrophilia and cannibalism with Evelyn’s corpse. He also drank her son’s blood and ate several of his internal organs, including his brain. On May 8, 1979, he was found guilty of six counts of murder in the first degree and was sentence to die in the gas chamber. He was found dead in his prison cell on December 26, 1980, having committed suicide with doctor-prescribed anti-depressants that he had stored up over several weeks.

3. Mauricio Lopez

When Mauricio Lopez found out that his niece (Mariella Mendez) was having an affair with her sister’s husband, Macario Cruz, he decided to end the matter with blood, Cruz’s blood. He stabbed Macario Cruz in his heart and liver in front of Mendez and her four children. He then proceeded to fill a plastic cup with Cruz’s blood and drank it before fleeing the scene. He is now facing charges ranging from second-degree murder to aggravated assault and aggravated battery with a deadly weapon.

4. James P. Riva

When James Riva was 23 years old he shot and killed his handicapped grandmother while she sat in her wheel-chair, and then stabbed her several times in the heart. The gun was loaded with gold-painted bullets. He drank the blood that gushed from her wounds and set fire to her house to get rid of the evidence. He claimed to be a 700-year-old vampire who needed to drink her blood, but claimed she was also a vampire and that she fed on him at night while he slept. He was convicted of second degree murder, arson, assault and battery. He was sentenced to life in prison on the murder charge, and ten to twenty years for the arson charge.

5. Nico Claux

Described as a “nearly psychotic sadist” Nicola Claux was a mortician at the time of his arrest, in 1994. Upon interrogation, he confessed to murder and grave robbing. When his apartment was searched, police found unidentified skeletal remains and blood stolen from the local blood bank. A self-confessed cannibal, Claux would eat strips of flesh cut from corpses to which he had access as an assistant mortician. Claux was found guilty of one count of murder and then condemned to 12 years in prison, despite debates over whether or not he was sane enough to be held accountable for his acts. After serving seven years of his sentence, he was released from prison on March, 2002. On his website (dedicated to selling his murder-themed art) he stated:

“This website is my only official website… I have worked hard to improve myself through the development of artistic abilities. I cannot erase the past, but my goal is to channel the negativity that I have caused into pure creativity … I do not encourage other people into doing the things that I have done. The spiritual and social prices to pay are far too high.”