People Magazine Investigates: Surviving a Serial Killer

In 1965, Rodney Alcala attacks a teenage girl. Then after a chance encounter, he assaults the same girl three years later. Guilt consumes her when she learns he attacks a child soon after – but they are merely two of this man’s countless victims.

In 1981, two men rape and shoot a young mother, forcing her fiance to watch it all. After nearly dying, the woman learns her attackers are a pair of serial killers — who are also brothers. It will take two decades before justice prevails over the men.

A man who calls himself “The Bishop” abducts a woman and holds her captive. Soon, he imprisons six women in his basement, raping and torturing them nonstop. As captives begin to die, one woman knows her only chance of survival is to escape.

In the suburbs of Chicago, a handsome man with searing blue eyes turns out to be a bloodthirsty monster hiding in plain sight and attacking young women at will. However, it takes decades for the survivors to discover he is a serial killer.

A single mom comes home to find a serial killer holding her disabled sister hostage. He then tries to kidnap her young son, but she begs him to take her instead. She is at his mercy for days, and to survive, she must get him to fall in love with her.

A new romance between two college students derails when a sadist attacks them during a nighttime walk by the railroad tracks. Only one of them lives, and she turns out to be the sole survivor of a serial murderer known as the "Railroad Killer."