Children of War – How WWI and WWII Fuelled the Serial Killer Boom of the 1960s–1990s By Sensei Liam Musiak

When most people think about the 1960s, they picture Woodstock, flower power, and cultural freedom. But the 1960s also marked the beginning of something much darker — the largest surge of serial killers the modern world has ever seen.

From the 1960s through the 1990s, the U.S., UK, and Europe saw hundreds of serial killers active at the same time. Ted Bundy, John Wayne Gacy, Jeffrey Dahmer, David Berkowitz, Dennis Nilsen, Peter Sutcliffe, Fred & Rose West, and the Green River Killer all became household names. Criminologists call this the “Golden Age of Serial Murder.”

Many theories exist: hitchhiking culture, nightlife, poor policing, and the lack of DNA forensics. And yes, those were huge factors. But the deeper cause goes back further — to World War I and World War II.

Trauma Passed Down

The wars didn’t just kill millions. They scarred millions more who survived.

Fathers came home broken by shell shock and combat trauma (what we now call PTSD). Many turned to alcohol, violence, or emotional withdrawal.

Mothers had endured years of bombings, rationing, and raising children alone. Many became hardened, controlling, or unstable under the pressure.

Children grew up in homes dominated by silence, fear, abuse, and neglect.

This broken foundation created the conditions that would shape the next generation — the serial killer generation.

The Serial Killer Generation

Most of the notorious killers of the 70s, 80s, and even early 90s were born between the mid-1940s and early 1960s — directly in the shadow of WW2.

Ted Bundy (1946) – instability from birth, raised without a father figure.

Peter Sutcliffe (1946) – Yorkshire Ripper, born during Britain’s harsh recovery.

Dennis Nilsen (1945) – father, a soldier, abandoned the family.

John Wayne Gacy (1942) – abused by an alcoholic WW1 veteran father.

David Berkowitz (1953) – adopted into a fractured post-war family.

Jeffrey Dahmer (1960) – child of a WWII veteran, raised in chaos.

Gary Ridgway (1949) – later convicted as the Green River Killer, also born into a war-scarred home.

These men didn’t grow up in peaceful, stable environments. They grew up in households still reeling from the wars their parents survived.

Why the Spike Lasted into the 1990s

By the 1960s, these children of war were reaching adulthood. They became active during a period when:

Social changes created opportunities — hitchhiking, sexual freedom, nightlife.

Policing was fragmented — killers could move between states or counties unnoticed.

Forensics were primitive — DNA didn’t become widely used until the 1990s.

Victim types were neglected — sex workers, runaways, and the poor were not given the same protection or attention.

This lethal mix meant the spike wasn’t short. It stretched from the 1960s through the 1970s and 1980s, finally beginning to decline in the 1990s as DNA testing, databases, and improved policing caught up.

Final Thought

The “Golden Age of Serial Murder” wasn’t random. It was the collision of two forces: the trauma of two world wars passed down into broken families, and a society in the 60s–90s that gave killers opportunity, freedom, and invisibility.

Today, the numbers have dropped sharply — but the lesson remains. Violence echoes across generations. Trauma doesn’t end when wars do. It lives on in the homes, children, and societies left behind.