List of mass murderers and spree killers by number of victims

This is a partial list of mass murders and spree killings perpetrated by individuals, organized by the number of dead victims, further divided into several subsections.

This list will contain every case with at least one of the following features:
 * Mass murder cases with six or more dead (excluding the perpetrator)
 * Mass murder cases with a double digit number of victims (dead plus injured)
 * Mass murders by intention with at least a dozen victims (dead plus injured)

Mass murders
For the entire list see: Mass murders

This category contains incidents that occurred at one rather confined place - typical examples would be places of worship and restaurants, as well as trains and planes - or somehow separate places that form some kind of compound, like malls and parking lots. Also included are incidents that happened in the open, where the perpetrator showed very limited movement (e.g., the case of Ami Popper). Further, all cases with uncertainty about the vastness of the crime scene are added here. This section does not include school massacres or workplace killings, which form their own categories, or murders related to robberies with more than one offender.

Killing sprees
For the entire list see: Killing sprees

The U.S. Bureau of Justice Statistics defines a spree killing as "killings at two or more locations with almost no time break between murders."

The classic form of the spree killer is "a killer on the run", who rarely kills more than one or two on every occasion, while trying to evade capture - examples would be Charles Starkweather or Andrew Cunanan - but in recent times the term is more and more applied on any mass murderer who kills at two or more locations, though instead of the former their intention is rarely not to get caught, but to kill, even at the cost of their own life. This means that the classic spree killer is rarely a mass murderer in the common sense, nonetheless both forms can be found in this category, as well as mass murderers who are strolling the streets, like Michael Ryan or Howard Unruh.

Hate crimes
Mass murders, committed by single perpetrators, that clearly and foremost have a religious, racial or political background.

Workplace killings
For the entire list see: Workplace killings

People killing their (former) co-workers; also includes soldiers killing their comrades.

School massacres
See also List of school-related attacks

Massacres at kindergartens, schools and universities

Family slaughters
For the entire list see: Family slaughters

People killing mostly relatives or people related to each other.

Vehicular manslaughter
Cases where only vehicles were used to kill as many people as possible.

Other notable incidents
This section lists notable mass murders by single perpetrators that do not fit into the upper categories, like arsons, poisonings and bombings. The notability of an event, as well as its affiliation to this list, will be ascertained by the community.

Annotation
The W-column gives a basic description of the weapons used in the murders
 * F – Firearms and other ranged weapons, especially rifles and handguns, but also bows and crossbows, grenade launchers, flamethrowers, or slingshots
 * M – Melee weapons, like knives, swords, spears, machetes, axes, clubs, rods, stones, or bare hands
 * O – Any other weapons, such as bombs, hand grenades, Molotov cocktails, poison and poisonous gas, as well as vehicle and arson attacks