The curse of the three names

The curse of the three names. It’s a myth created and sold by the media that most serial killers and assassins have three names.

The latest to join this dishonourable list is the gunman at the US gurdwara: Wade Michael Page.

While admittedly there have been many who have gone by three names, there are several who have had two names also.

Here are some infamous killers who also had three names:

James Eagan Holmes: Accused of opening fire at a Denver-area screening of the latest "Batman" film The Dark Knight Rises, killing 12 people and injuring over 58.

Westley Allan Dodd: Convicted American serial killer and child molester. His execution in 1993 was the first legal hanging (at his own request) in the US since 1965.

John Wayne Gacy: American serial killer and rapist who sexually assaulted and murdered at least 33 teenage boys and young men between 1972 and 1978.

John Wesley Hardin: Considered one of the American Wild West's greatest real killers, he’s known for being the inspiration for the name of a Bob Dylan album ‘John Wesley Harding’.

Mehmet Ali Ağca: Shot Pope John Paul II in 1981 and also murdered journalist Abdi İpekçi.

Christopher Wayne Hudson: Shot three people in Melbourne in 2007, killing one.

John Allen Muhammad and Lee Boyd Malvo: The Washington, DC snipers in 2002.

Cho Seung-Hui: This Korean-American killed 32 people and wounded 25 others in 2007, at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University in Virginia, US.

Mark David Chapman: Murdered John Lennon on December 8, 1980.

James Earl Ray: Killed civil rights and anti-war activist Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

John Wilkes Booth: Assassin of President Abraham Lincoln

Lee Harvey Oswald: Assassin of President John F. Kennedy

Charles Julius Guiteau:  Killed President James Garfield

Sara Jane Moore: Tried to assassinate President Gerald Ford.

Robert William Pickton: Canadian who was convicted of killing six women and charged with killing 20 more.

Michael Robert Ryan: Shot 16 people in Hungerford, England in 1987.

Brenda Ann Spencer: Shot dead two and injured nine others in 1978.

Jared Lee Loughner: The 22-year-old went on a shooting spree in Tucson, Arizona, in January 2011 that killed six people, including Chief U.S. District Court Judge John Roll, as well as a 9-year-old girl. The shooting also left 14 others injured, including U.S. Representative Gabrielle Giffords

Gary Leon Ridgway: Known as ‘Green River Killer’, this American serial killer was  convicted of 48 separate murders and confessed to nearly double that number.

Paul John Knowles: Known as ‘The Casanova Killer’, he was an American serial killer tied to the deaths of 18 people in 1974, though he claimed to have taken 35 lives.

Jeffrey Lionel Dahmer: He murdered 17 men and boys between 1978 and 1991,

Albert Henry DeSalvo: A criminal in Boston, Massachusetts, who confessed to being the "Boston Strangler", the murderer of 13 women in the Boston area.

Theodore John Kaczynski: Known as the "Unabomber", he is an American mathematician who was engaged in a mail bombing campaign that spanned nearly 20 years, killing three people and injuring 23 others.

Theodore Robert Bundy: American serial killer, rapist, kidnapper, and necrophile who confessed shortly before his execution to 30 homicides committed in seven US states between 1974 and 1978.