Every Real-Life Serial Killer Referenced By The Fanboy Killer In Cross Season 1

Warning! This article contains spoilers for Cross season 1.

In Cross‘ eight-episode runtime, the central Fanboy Killer seems to draw references to many famous real-life serial killers, highlighting how much he admires them. Instead of maintaining an air of ambiguity surrounding its central killer’s identity, Amazon Prime Video’s Cross reveals who is in one of its opening episodes. The show portrays how the eccentric killer is obsessed with the lives and crimes of renowned serial killers and tries to make his victims look like the criminals he idolizes before murdering them.

As Alex Cross and his team learn more about the serial killer’s long history of crimes, they, too, notice how much he looks up to some of the most notorious criminals to have ever lived. Owing to his obsession with serial killers, they call him the “Fanboy Killer.” The closer Alex Cross gets to catching the Fanboy Killer in the Amazon’s Cross, the more he learns about his rituals and his compulsion to recreate their final moments.

5 John Wayne Gacy

American Serial Killer Also Known As The Killer Clown

When John Sampson and Alex Cross finally get their hands on the Fanboy Killer’s scrapbook, they notice that he made all his previous victims look like famous serial killers. Two pages in the scrapbook are also dedicated to the real-life serial killer John Wayne Gracy, who sexually assaulted and murdered over 33 young men and boys in Chicago. Before his criminal history came to light, Gracy made several public performances as a clown. Therefore, he was later labeled as “the Killer Clown” by the masses because of the disturbing nature of his crimes.

As reports suggest, Gracy committed most of his crimes at his home, where he convinced victims to put on handcuffs, claiming that he was performing a magic trick. Once they fell into his trap, he would sexually assault and torture them before killing them in cold blood. After being convicted of thirty-three murders, John Wayne Gracy was sentenced to death in March 1980. His execution took place at Stateville Correctional Center on May 10, 1994, where he was given a lethal injection.

4 Aileen Wuornos

American Serial Killer Who Spent 10 Years On Florida’s Death Row

The Fanboy Killer’s final victim, Shannon, in the Amazon Prime Video detective show, looks like Aileen Carol Wuornos. Although he fails to kill her because Alex Cross manages to stay one step ahead of him, the killer, Ed Ramsey, makes her look exactly like Wuornos’ twin before Cross stops him. Aileen Wuornos, who the Fanboy Killer worships in Cross, murdered and robbed seven men while engaging in sex work on Florida’s highways. According to her claims, she killed the men because they either sexually assaulted or attempted to sexually assault her.

By the time the legal proceedings surrounding her criminal case ended, she had been sentenced to death for six of the murders because the body of one victim was never found. As shown in Cross season 1’s ending arc, Wuornos was ultimately executed on October 9, 2002, by lethal injection. Wuornos’ story has also been featured in 2003’s Monster, in which Charlize Theron portrays her. Theron also won an Academy Award for her memorable portrayal of the serial killer.

3 John Allen Muhammad

American Spree Killer Who Carried Out The D.C. Sniper Attacks

Cross also mentions John Allen Muhammad in passing. Also known as the “DC Sniper,” John Allen Muhammad was responsible for orchestrating the D.C. sniper attacks of October 2002 with his accomplice, Lee Boyd Malvo. Seventeen people died during the attacks, and both John Allen Muhammad and his partner were arrested after alert bystanders spotted them. Although Muhammad’s prosecution later claimed that he carried out the attacks as a revenge plot against his wife to gain custody of his children, the claims were dismissed due to a lack of concrete evidence.

Close to four months after the beginning of the trial, John Allen Muhammad was sentenced to death. Similar to almost all serial killers linked with the Fanboy Killer in Cross, Muhammad, too, was executed by lethal injection on November 10, 2009. By including names of real-life serial killers like John Allen Muhammad and drawing references to their crimes, Cross effectively makes its fictional narrative feel more grounded.

2 Ted Bundy

American Serial Killer Who Confessed To 30 Murders

During the 1970s, Ted Bundy abducted, sexually assaulted, and killed several young women. He would lure them into his vehicle by pretending to have a physical impairment or claiming to be an authoritative figure. Once they accompanied him to his car, he would bludgeon and drive them to a remote location. After getting away with his crimes for several years, Bundy was finally arrested in 1975. Although he initially denied his crimes for a decade, he eventually came clean and confessed to 30 murders, even though the actual number is believed to be even higher.

After receiving three death sentences in two trials, Bundy was executed in the electric chair at Florida State Prison on January 24, 1989. Ted Bundy is one of the many killers Ed Ramsey looks up to in Cross. As his scrapbook reveals, he even made one of his victims look like Bundy before murdering them.

1 Harry Powers

Dutch-Born American Serial Killer Who Lured Victims Through Personal Ads

Amazon’s Cross also briefly mentions serial killer Harry Powers, who was known for luring his victims through “lonely hearts” advertisements. He would claim that he was looking for love but murder them for their money once they fell for his tricks. Harry Powers used many aliases in his letters to other women and reportedly received around 10 to 20 letters per day. After his criminal activities came to light, Powers was hanged to death on March 18, 1932.

Unlike most other serial killers mentioned in Cross, Harry Powers is not featured in the Fanboy Killer’s scrapbook. Instead, the central killer uses his name as an alias to carry out many criminal activities. The usage of Harry Powers as an alias in the Amazon show seems to be a reference to how Powers used alternate names to interact with his potential victims in his letters.