Effective period / Period of releases: 1987

Members: Pingdum, Bates (4), Tim Nelson (5), Randy Mayhem, Tom Donovan (3), Robin Graves (2), Dr. Butcher, M.D. (2), Bloody Rich (2)

Punk/Rock from Philadelphia. Started in 1985 by Tim Omen from Condemned To Death.

Bio written by former member Jimmy:

The Serial Killer’s roots lie in Condemned to Death, a Frisco band that lived in the Vats (very famous punk squat) with MDC and the Dicks. In fact, much of the Serial Killers first sets were songs Tim wrote for, or played with, C2D. I heard Tim say once that Jello Biafra was going to be the singer for the Serial Killers but a bad breakup made him decide against it for some reason. Anyway, Paul Bearer was in Frisco with Ruin for their shows there and must have found a good pot smoking buddy in Tim Omen, cause eventually Paul Bearer returned to Philly and a little while later Tim moved to Philly and the Serial Killers started soon after. The first show was opening for Samhain at the kennel club.

Mixing gran Guignol with rock and roll and pro wrestling was actually a new concept at the time and though they will probably dismiss the idea, I personally saw a member or two of Gwar at a Serial Killers show in the audience and then Gwar having a similar stunt to one the Serial Killers just did at their next show. Not many people remember when Gwar was a little straight edge band with no makeup and Gwar stood for Germ Warfare And Recovery. Well the Serial Killers ruled Philly for a while playing with DOA, Mudhoney, TAD(opened for us), White Zombie, Murphy’s Law, The Hard Ons, L7,and many others. There were many personnel changes, but the core of Strangler Tim Omen and The King Paul Bearer was consistent. By the time the album was released the lineup was Tim(guitars), Paul(vox), Randy the rapist Mayhem(drums), Bates(bass), and Mega Jimmy (background vox, sound check vox, stunts, effects coordinator). Our steady go-go victim, Ghoulina Bately, had just left (and later was a real victim in a famous Philly Murder)and Mega jimmy usually recruited victims from the audience, or talked one of his girlfriends into it. By the time the first tour started Bates had been replaced by Robin Graves on Bass.