People Magazine Investigates: Surviving A Serial Killer

In 1965, Rodney Alcala attacked a teenage girl, only to brutalize her again three years later. She felt guilty when she discovered he assaulted another girl soon after, but they are merely two of this man's countless victims.

A new romance between two college students derails when a sadist attacks them during a nighttime walk by the railroad tracks. Only one of them lives, and she turns out to be the sole survivor of a serial murderer known as the "Railroad Killer."

A single mum comes home to find a serial killer holding her disabled sister hostage. He then tries to kidnap her young son, but she begs him to take her instead. She is at his mercy for days, and to survive, she must get him to fall in love with her.

A man who calls himself The Bishop abducts a woman and holds her captive. Soon, he imprisons six women in his basement, raping and torturing them nonstop. As captives begin to die, one woman knows her only chance of survival is to escape.

A lone survivor is the only witness who can help police track down a serial killer known as the Grim Sleeper, who preys on women in South Central Los Angeles.

In 1981, two men rape and shoot a young mother, forcing her fiancé to watch it all. After nearly dying, Cheryl Bartlett Fann, learns her attackers are a pair of serial killers who are also brothers. It will take two decades before justice prevails over Nathanial & Anthony Cook.