Sinister smiles and beady eyes: Throwback snaps see serial killers of their yearbook pictures

They’re responsible for some of the most heinous crimes in history, but once upon a time these murderers were innocent schoolkids just like everyone else.

Just like your average college student, these twisted criminals also had to sit for their yearbook photos, and you’d be forgiven for thinking they were normal.

The black-and-white shots show some of the scariest people to have walked the earth dressed smartly and grinning from ear-to-ear as they went about their studies.

However, somewhere along the way, their lives took a very dangerous path – and while some were killed by police at the scene of one of their crimes, others are still awaiting trial.

A few of these killers have been the subject of various TV shows, movies, and documentaries, and have even earned themselves a nickname. 

From murdering children and their own spouses, to praying on innocent strangers and doing unthinkable acts to corpses, these individuals’ hideous crimes are hard to comprehend when glancing at their school pictures.

Here FEMAIL takes a look at the throwback snaps – and the crimes – of some of the most dangerous serial killers – but can you guess who they are? 

Smiley schoolgirl who became one half of the most infamous crime duos

This future bandit and murderer was born in 1910 in Rowena, Texas, and was a bright child who thrived on attention.

In two separate yearbook photos, she is seen smiling among her classmates in a group shot taken in 1925 when she was in seventh grade at Cement City High School.

The second snap shows her looking less smiley, but sat in the exact same spot a year later in eighth grade.

This particular teenaged enjoyed performing on stage and dreamt of becoming an actress, but in her second year of high school, she dropped out after meeting a guy whom she married six days before her 16th birthday.

The union was short-lived and this woman, Bonnie Parker, went on to be one half the most notorious duos in history – Bonnie and Clyde.

Bonnie and Clyde Barrow traveled the United States with their gang during the Great Depression.

The couple were known for their bank robberies and multiple murders, although they preferred to rob small stores or rural gas stations.

Their exploits captured the attention of the US press and its readership during what is occasionally referred to as the ‘public enemy era’ between 1931 and 1934.

Bonnie and Clyde were ambushed by police and shot dead in Bienville Parish, Louisiana. They are believed to have murdered at least nine police officers and four civilians.

Mass murderer who killed his own mother and wife but was described as an intelligent child

This mass murderer and Marine veteran was born in Lake Worth, Florida, in June 1941 and, as a boy, he was described as a polite child who seldom lost his temper.

He was extremely intelligent and an examination at the age of six revealed his IQ to be 139.

In his yearbook picture, he looks very smart during his Sophomore year of college in 1963 at the University of Texas in Austin where he had entered the mechanical engineering program.

He earned a reputation as a practical joker in his years as an engineering student, but his friends also noted he made some morbid and chilling statements.

In 1962, he remarked to a fellow student: ‘A person could stand off an army from atop of [the Main Building’s clock tower] before they got him.’

It’s Charles Whitman, the man who used knives to kill his mother and his wife in their respective homes, and became known as the Texas Tower Sniper in August 1966.

He then went to the University of Texas with multiple firearms and began shooting at people. Whitman fatally shot three people inside UT Austin’s Main Building, then accessed the 28th-floor observation deck on the building’s clock tower.

There, he fired at random people for 96 minutes, killing an additional eleven people and wounding 31 others before he was shot dead by Austin Texas law enforcement. 

Whitman killed a total of seventeen people – the 17th victim died 35 years later from injuries sustained in the attack.

Deadly couple who who led a Mormon religious group described as a ‘doomsday cult’

This deadly couple attended separate high schools, but fate brought them together in the deadliest of circumstances.

In their yearbook photos, they look like any other normal teenagers – with the boy grinning from ear-to-ear in 1986 at Springville High School.

Meanwhile, the girl is sporting a typical 80s hairdo as she poses in her Freshman year in 1988 at school in Rialto, California.

It’s Lori Vallow and Chad Daybell and their crimes are better known as the Vallow–Daybell doomsday murders. 

It’s a case that drew nationwide interest when Lori’s 16-year-old daughter Tylee Ryan and seven-year-old son Joshua ‘JJ ‘Vallow vanished in September 2019.

Just a few months later, Lori and her new husband were vacationing in Hawaii – with the children nowhere to be seen.

The story took a tragic turn in June 2020 when their bodies were discovered buried in shallow graves on Chad’s property. It was later revealed that the couple had referred to the children as ‘zombies’ who stood in their way.

A string of mysterious deaths then emerged involving family members who the couple referred to as ‘dark’ possessed individuals. One was Chad’s former wife Tammy Daybell, who died less than two weeks before he married Lori.

Over the next three years, the grisly saga continued to unravel and in May 2023, after weeks of gut-wrenching testimony, Lori was convicted of first-degree murder in the deaths of her children and conspiring to kill Tammy.

In June of this year, Chad was given the death penalty for killing his ex-wife and co-conspirator Lori Vallow’s two children.

After her sentencing in Idaho, Lori was extradited to Arizona where she has been charged with the death of Charles Vallow and the shooting of Brandon Boudreaux. Her trial is scheduled to begin on February 24, 2025. 

Two brothers who killed their parents and are currently behind bars and awaiting their resentencing 

These siblings are convicted murderers who killed their parents at their Beverly Hills home in 1989.

The pair brutally slayed their parents when they were just 18 and 21, shooting them 14 times with 12-gauge shotguns.

Just days after they went on a $700,000 spending spree with their parents’ fortune.

They were arrested in 1990, after one of the brothers confessed the murder to his therapist.

The brothers are Lyle, now 56, and Erik Menendez, now 53. The pair have been in prison for the last 34 years for killing their parents Jose and Mary Louise ‘Kitty’ Menendez in August 1989.

After being arrested, both admitted to the gruesome killings but said they snapped after enduring years of sexual abuse at Jose’s hands and did it in self-defense.

As a result, they were both handed life without parole and sent to separate prisons – although they were eventually reunited at the San Diego lock-up in 2018. 

New interest in the case was sparked by the recent Netflix drama, Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story, and the true crime documentary The Menendez Brothers which both delved into how the brothers originally told police that they returned home from the theater to find their parents had been slaughtered.

In October, Los Angeles County District Attorney George Gascón, who has since lost his reelection bid, held a press conference recommending that the brothers be resentenced in their bid for freedom.

In attendance was Kitty Menendez’ sister Joan, 92, who has long advocated for her nephews’ release.

Gascon’s recommendation was that they be eligible for parole immediately – but it will ultimately be up to a court to determine the final sentence for the brothers.

Their re-sentencing trial was initially scheduled to begin this month but has been pushed back to January 30 and 31, 2025. 

Well-known serial killer who confessed to 30 murders and was executed in 1989

This notorious serial killer has been characterized as a ‘sadistic sociopath who took pleasure from another human’s pain and the control he had over his victims, to the point of death and even after.’

Born in Vermont in November 1946, this male murderer exhibited disturbing behavior at an early age as his aunt once recalled waking up from a nap to find herself surrounded by knives from the kitchen.

He is pictured smiling for his yearbook photo at Wilson High School in Tacoma, Washington, in 1963 in his Sophomore year – and looks like any other teenager.

Another black and white photo shows him two years later in his senior year.

He was also pictured sat amongst his classmates in a political science lesson and appeared to be engrossed by whatever the teacher was saying.

After graduating from high school in 1965, the future killer attended the University of Puget Sound for one year before transferring to the University of Washington to study Chinese.

It’s the infamous Ted Bundy, who kidnapped, raped, and murdered dozens of young women and girls during the 1970s.

After more than a decade of denials, Bundy confessed to 30 murders but the total number of his victims is likely to be higher.

He frequently revisited the bodies of those he abducted, grooming and performing sex acts on the corpses until decomposition and destruction by wild animals made further interactions impossible. 

He decapitated at least twelve of his victims, keeping their severed heads as mementos in his apartment. 

In 1975, Bundy was arrested and jailed in Utah for aggravated kidnapping and attempted criminal assault. He then became a suspect in a progressively longer list of unsolved homicides in several states.

Facing murder charges in Colorado, Bundy engineered two dramatic escapes and committed further assaults in Florida, including three murders, before being recaptured in 1978.

For the Florida homicides, he received three death sentences in two trials, and was executed in the electric chair at Florida State Prison on January 24, 1989. 

Sleepwalking killer who murdered his wife – and doesn’t remember it

This man was convicted of murdering his wife in 1997 and sentenced to life in prison.

The couple appeared to be happily married with two kids and were high school sweethearts. 

What captivated the nation about this case was the fact the killer has never denied the murder – but also cannot remember it.

The smiling bespectacled man is Scott Falater, a electrical engineer for Motorolo and devoted husband who was convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced in 2000 to life in prison.

Falater killed wife Yarmila Falate by stabbing her 44 times in her home with a neighbor waking up to hear what sounded like ‘moaning or crying’ outside. They then saw Falater put gloves on, roll his wife into the pool and hold her head underwater.

However, his defense built a case around previous sleepwalking incidents that occurred during times of stress.

Falater is still carrying out his life sentence, and in a 2021 interview with ABC’s 20/20 maintained he has no recollection of that night.

‘All I can say is I do not know what happened. I do know for sure I never planned it. There was nothing for me to gain from it,’ he told the program.

‘There’s no one else I can place the responsibility [on]. It’s on my shoulders, I accept that and I have to move on,’ he added. 

His defense’s argument has always been that the father of two killed his wife while sleepwalking, something he is still wracked with grief over.

‘We were meant for each other,’ Falater told 20/20. ‘I never doubted that and I still don’t doubt that. So, I will miss her until the day I die.’