Definition of "serial killer" []

• A person who attacks and kills victims one by one in a series of incidents. (noun)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "My all-time favorite serial killer was the never-captured Zodiac, the San Francisco–based mastermind who bragged to newspapers about his murders through a byzantine code and may have actually killed people because of his interest in math.2 Somehow, that sounded like something I would come up with."
• "Woody told me that he was planning to leave the job soon, most likely after he finished defending suspected serial killer Paul Runge."
• "For example, the serial killer David Berkowitz, known as the Son of Sam, claimed that he was following instructions from “father Sam,” and that he was a victim of demonic possession."