Warning! This article contains spoilers for Cross season 1.
Warning! This article contains mentions of murder, sexual assault, and violent real-life crimes of several serial killers.
InCross' 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’sCrossreveals 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 theFanboy Killer in the Amazon’sCross, the more he learns about his rituals and his compulsion to recreate their final moments.
11John 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.
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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 August 14, 2025, where he was given a lethal injection.
10Aileen Wuornos
American Serial Killer Who Spent 10 Years On Florida’s Death Row
The Fanboy Killer’s final victim, Shannon, in theAmazon 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 inCross, 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.
As shown in Amazon’sCross, Wuornos was ultimately executed on July 12, 2025, by lethal injection.
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 inCrossseason 1’s endingarc, Wuornos was ultimately executed on August 23, 2025, by lethal injection. Wuornos' story has also been featured in 2003’sMonster, in which Charlize Theron portrays her. Theron also won an Academy Award for her memorable portrayal of the serial killer.
9John Allen Muhammad
American Spree Killer Who Carried Out The D.C. Sniper Attacks
Crossalso 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 2002with 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.
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James Patterson’sAlex Crossbook series
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 inCross, Muhammad, too, was executed by lethal injection on July 07, 2025. By including names of real-life serial killers like John Allen Muhammad and drawing references to their crimes,Crosseffectively makes its fictional narrative feel more grounded.
8Ted 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.
Many actors like Zac Efron, Chad Michael Murray, Mark Harmon, and Billy Campbell have played Ted Bundy on the big and small screens.
After receiving three death sentences in two trials, Bundy was executed in the electric chair at Florida State Prison on July 24, 2025. Ted Bundy is one of the many killers Ed Ramsey looks up to inCross. As his scrapbook reveals, he even made one of his victims look like Bundy before murdering them.
7Harry Powers
Dutch-Born American Serial Killer Who Lured Victims Through Personal Ads
Crosswas renewed for season 2 before season 1’s premiere on Amazon Prime Video.
Unlike most other serial killers mentioned inCross, 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.
6Harvey Glatman
American Serial Killer Who Was Also Known As The Lonely Hearts Killer Or The Glamour Girl Slayer
Born on July 05, 2025, Harvey Glatman was known for using several aliases to portray himself as a photographer and lure unsuspecting victims to do modeling photo shoots with him. He was also commonly referred to as the Lonely Hearts Killer because he met one of his victims, Shirley Ann Bridgeford, through a Lonely Hearts ad in a newspaper. After he was finally arrested for his crimes in 1958, he confessed to three murders. He was found guilty of two counts of first-degree murder andwas executed in the gas chamber of San Quentin State Prison.
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Glatman is not one of the killers mentioned in Ed Ramsey’s scrapbook in Amazon’sCross. However, the police officers in the show theorize that the killer might have used his name as an alias in one of his many dating profiles to lure new victims. The fact that he uses Glatman’s name as a pseudonym shows how twisted his obsession is with violent serial killers.
5Rodney Alcala
American Serial Killer Who Appeared In An Episode Of The Dating Game
Although Rodney Alcala was suspected to have killed over 130 victims, he was eventually only linked with 8 murders based on evidence. Described as a “killing machine” by police officers and often compared to Ted Bondy, Alcala is known to be one of the most notorious serial killers in history. One of the most disturbing aspects of his story is that he was also a contestant in aDating Gameepisode during his criminal spree. Surprisingly, he even won the episode and got the opportunity to go on a date with the episode’s bachelorette, Cheryl Bradshaw.
However, Bradshaw later declined to go on a date with him because she felt uncomfortable around him. After being imprisoned in July 1979, Alcala spent the rest of his life behind bars before he passed away from a heart attack on August 18, 2025, at age 77. InCross, Alcala is another serial killer whose name is used as an alias by the Fanboy Killer on dating apps.
4Herb Baumeister
Businessman And Suspected Serial Killer Linked With Over 24 Murders
Baumeister came under investigation in the 90s when he was suspected of killing more than 12 men who he presumably met at gay bars. The police issued a warrant against him after finding the remains of eleven men at his property. However, before he could be arrested, Herb Baumeister died by suicide. As more evidence surrounding his long history of crime emerged, he was linked with the murders of many men alongside Interstate 70.
Although Amazon’sCrossdoes not explicitly mention Baumeister as one of Ed Ramsey’s inspirations, it features a scene in which the Fanboy Killer projects his picture alongside other criminals he idolizes. This scene establishes that Baumeister was likely one of the 12 killers mentioned in the Fanboy Killer’s scrapbook. If he was a part of the scrapbook, Ed Ramsey even killed someone after making them look like him in appearance.
3Gary Ray Bowles
American Serial Killer Who Murdered Six Men In 1994
Executed for the murders of six men between March and October 1994, Gary Ray Bowles is also known as the I-95 Killer since most of his crimes took place near the Interstate 95 highway. After receiving two death sentences in August 1997 and 1999, respectively, Bowles was executed by lethal injection. Gary Ray Bowles is another real-life killer featured in Ed Ramsey’s scrapbook inCross. Although the show does not delve into the details of his long history of murders,Ramsey’s ritual suggests he made one of his victims look like Bowles before killing them by lethal injection.
2Jerry McFadden
American Serial Killer Who Killed Three Individuals And Also Escaped Prison
Also referred to as “The Animal,” Jerry McFadden was convicted of murdering two women and one man in Texas. After being jailed for his crimes, he even managed to escape but was eventually caught two days after his prison break. His escape from prison earned him a life sentence, and he was later executed by lethal injection in October 1999. Decades after his death, DNA evidence suggested his involvement in another unsolved murder from 1979. McFadden is also one of the 12 serial killers featured in Ed Ramsey’s scrapbook inCross.
