Süleyman Aktaş is a Turkish
serial killer
A serial killer (also called a serial murderer) is a person who murders three or more people,An offender can be anyone:
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* (This source only requires two people) with the killings taking place over a significant period of time in separat ...
who murdered five people. He has been nicknamed "The Nailing Killer" due to his signature of nailing his victims' heads post-mortem.
Background and first murder
Süleyman Aktaş was born in Çambaşı. He was employed as a worker at the Turkish Electricity Company in
Denizli
Denizli is a city in Aegean Region, Aegean Turkey, and seat of the province of Denizli Province, Denizli. The city forms the urban part of the districts Merkezefendi and Pamukkale, Denizli, Pamukkale, with a population of 691 783 in 2024.
Denizl ...
, Turkey.
He was severely injured by high voltage during work at a 31.5
kV electric power distribution line.
After this accident, he killed police superintendent Nuri Keskin in
Antalya
Antalya is the fifth-most populous city in Turkey and the capital of Antalya Province. Recognized as the "capital of tourism" in Turkey and a pivotal part of the Turkish Riviera, Antalya sits on Anatolia's southwest coast, flanked by the Tau ...
in 1986.
He was arrested, and was placed in
Manisa
Manisa () is a city in Turkey's Aegean Region and the administrative seat of Manisa Province, lying approximately 40 km northeast of the major city of İzmir. The city forms the urban part of the districts Şehzadeler and Yunusemre, with ...
Psychiatric Hospital after the court ruled his mental disorder.
Aktaş stayed four and a half years in the hospital before his
release.
He returned to his hometown of Çambaşı village in
Bozkurt, Denizli.
Later murders, institutionalization, escape, and incarceration
In 1994, Süleyman Aktaş strangled four elderly neighbours three years after he came back to his hometown.
He nailed the couples Ayşe (65) and İsmail Güneş (66), and Rukiye (77) and Ramazan Kocatepe (78) in the eyes and heads.
In his testimony after his arrest, he stated that "He can not stand nails. He wants to nail people in the head."
Aktaş was nicknamed "The Nailing Killer".
He was hospitalized as diagnosed with
paranoid schizophrenia
Schizophrenia () is a mental disorder characterized variously by hallucinations (typically, hearing voices), delusions, disorganized thinking and behavior, and flat or inappropriate affect. Symptoms develop gradually and typically begin ...
.
He escaped from the hospital but was apprehended in the coach terminal.
In 2007, Aktaş was seen publicly for the first time after twelve years in a rehabilitation show program of the hospital.
At noon of 28 May 2008, he assaulted his roommate, the
child killer Ömer Yılmaz, and wounded him by hitting him in the head with a rock in the exercise yard of the hospital, where he had been kept in a special department for 13 years.
Yılmaz underwent head surgery in a nearby state hospital, and survived the attack.
Aktaş also shared the same ward as
Ayhan Kartal, the latter of whom feared him before his death in 2000.
See also
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List of serial killers by country
This is a list of notable serial killers, by the country where most of the killings occurred.
Convicted serial killers by country Afghanistan
* Abul Djabar: killed 65 men and boys by strangling them with turbans while raping them; suspected o ...
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Aktas, Suleyman
Living people
People from Bozkurt, Denizli
People with schizophrenia
Turkish escapees
Turkish serial killers
Year of birth missing (living people)
Turkish people with disabilities