These Children of Serial "Unalivers" Are Confessing What It Was Like Being Raised By a Maniac

Many of us are hopelessly addicted to true crime movies, TV series, documentaries and of course podcasts. 

But how often do you stop and think of the family members of the monsters you hear about? 

Children of notorious serial "unalivers" have spoken out about what it was like being raised by them. 

It's a different experience for all of them, but one thing they all have in common is trying to cope with the knowledge of what the people they were supposed to be able to trust most had done.

Australian serial unaliver Lindsay Robert Rose started his spree when his daughter Elisha was still an infant.

Elisha didn't find out what type of a man her father was until the police were at her house when she was 13.

"I instinctively knew something was wrong. Little did I know how irrevocably my life would change in the next few minutes."

She says her father's actions created trauma not only for the families of the victims, but to his own family as well.

"My father's actions have created horrific trauma, loss and grief to their families, 

and that will be intergenerational trauma for those families ... 

Life continued despite the upheaval, except that I carried a secret with me everywhere - my father [did away with] five people ... 

The harder I tried to understand my father's actions and to make sense of my life, the more complex and intricate the puzzle became."

Adam Kearns was framed by his mother, Helen Milner, for sending abusive text messages so bad he was placed in jail in New Zealand for 18 days.

"The hardest part was the fact no one believed me. I mean, they just looked at me like 

'You're crazy, you're just being spiteful and malicious against her.'"

Milner was already in jail for the demise of her second husband.

"No son would want to go out of their way to have their mother put in prison over something this serious ... 

It was certainly made easier when, I mean, she looked at me in court and gave me this evil, sadistic grin. 

I don't consider her my mother anymore."

Even if she gets out of jail, he wants nothing to do with her.

"She needs to finish her time and either get out and live a proper life or, you know, in turn die in there, which yeah, is probably the best option to be honest, for everyone."

Richard "The Iceman" Kuklinski did away with over 200 people working for the mob and was described by his daughter as a generous father.

"If Dad was filming, he wanted everyone to smile. We learned to take advantage of the happy moments ... He denied us nothing. He wanted his life to be like it was on television. He just didn't know how to get there."

However, he had a temper, and would abuse his wife and even hurt family pets.

"I was late at coming home once, and he took Princess and broke her neck. Princess was a Samoyed, not a small dog. He said I would never be late again, and I wasn't."

He also made his daughter help with body disposals.

"There were times when he would tell me not to look in the back seat or in the trunk, and I would drive him to some garage and pop the trunk, looking straight forward as he told me to do, while he would unload whatever it was."

His daughter is most haunted by the idea that maybe he could have been helped before it was too late.

"What haunts me most is the reality that my father was a very, very sick, demented man. Between his own background as an abused child and the experiences that shaped his adulthood, the die was cast. 

Maybe if he'd gotten treatment, some or all of this could have been prevented. That thought haunts me every day."

Mikhail Popkov, known as The Russian Werewolf, unalived 81 people. But his daughter Katya says he's innocent.

"Watch how a butcher works, he is covered in blood from head to toe. 

The women lay down meekly by themselves? I bet they would leave marks - bites or scratches. You cannot hide this. 

But my father did not have any suspicious marks on his body or face ... I do not believe any of this. I always felt myself as 'Daddy's girl.' For 25 years we were together, hand in hand. 

We walked together, rode bikes, went to the shops, and he met me from school. We both collect model cars, so we have the same hobby ...

I wanted to be a criminologist, so I read a book with tips of how investigators catch [these kinds of people], and there were also basic classifications [about them]. 

Daddy doesn't fit any of these classifications - he doesn't look like some maniac ... 

We cannot even think about this, we are shocked, and it causes us pain. 

There was no violence in our family at all. We just want to know an answer if he did this or not."

Steve Hodel believes his father, Dr. George Hill Hodel, was is the man behind the infamous Black Dahlia murder as well as several other crimes, based on evidence on the case and clues he found at home.

"It was done by a surgeon, Dad was a skilled surgeon. 

The next thing I find is handwriting. 

And I look at that, and I clearly identify it as my father's. No question about it."

Steve wishes he could ask his father why he did what he thinks he did.

"I would want to hear the why of it from his own mouth. 

Why did you become a misogynist and misanthrope of the highest order? 

Why so many random [crimes]? Why did you torture and brutalize young children? 

Tell me personally, what were the triggers that caused you to hate your fellow man so much?"

"The Bus Stop Killer" Levi Bellfield's daughters weren't surprised to learn their dad was a monster.

"One time Levi came and smashed our windows, and we all sat together in the bedroom trying to comfort each other. 

I remember the curtains of my sisters' bedroom being set alight. 

Another time, he threw paint at our door. He had tried to run away, but he'd trod in the paint so we could see his footprints going down to the end of the road."

The girls also paid for the sins of their father, as locals abused them.

"People would walk up to us and shout "murderer" to our faces, like it was our fault. Hannah got beaten up at school by three boys who locked her in a cupboard and gave her black eyes and a swollen nose. 

Whenever we complained to the teachers, it was us who were taken out of class, not the people who had done it."

The two want nothing to do with him.

"I hope he rots in hell. I know it sounds harsh, but I really do. I don't ever want to see him again."

The daughter of Fred and Rosemary West said that because her parents hurt so many, 

including children, she herself can't work with kids, saying,

"It's about self-protection as much as anything, because if something happened to a child in my care 

- if they fell and hurt themselves - I'd be blamed because of my background."

She also said she was denied access to Australia when she tried to relocate.

"They wouldn't let me in the country because of what my parents did."

She also says she still suffers PTSD to this day.

"I can't bear to be cornered in a corridor or a room. I'm alert to all the awful stuff that can happen."

Keith Jesperson, otherwise known as the Happy Face Killer," assaulted and unalived eight women. 

His daughter feels like she could have become one of his victims if he wasn't caught. She says,

"He never [assaulted] or beat any of us, it was just a feeling that something was building, seething beneath the surface. 

I once tried to articulate it to a school counselor but it didn't come out right. 

I mean, a lot of kids think their dad is weird."

She also says when she asked him what was going on, he responded,

"I can't tell you, sweetie. If I tell you, you will tell the police. I'm not what you think I am, Melissa."

The Green River Unaliver Gary Ridgway was a monster, but at home, his son Matthew had no idea. 

He says he was always there for him.

"Even when I was in fourth grade, when I was with soccer, he'd always, you know, be there for me. 

I don't think I ever remember him not being there."

He also has a hard time believing he did it.

"He's just one of the guys that happened to be one place, and you know, he's my dad. He didn't do it, you know."

Gary actually used his son Matthew's photo to lure women and put them at ease.

James and Suzan Carson weren't just monsters; they were parents. James' daughter from his first marriage says her father was normal before meeting Suzan.

"When my mom met [my father], he was a nice Jewish boy. No one could have foreseen this - especially how weird it got. 

Typically your Jewish father doesn't convert to Islam, then to radical Islam, and change it to some weird religion where they grow pot and [hurt gay people]. 

If he had fallen in love with a televangelist, he would become one. 

If she had joined ISIS, he would have. He was that much of a follower. He was drawn to extremists, people he found really exciting."

Jennifer spoke out against Suzan at her parole hearing, saying,

"It's not vindictive, but it's for safety and accountability to the public, as long as [Suzan] can lift a hand... she could harm somebody."

Suzan was not granted parole, which was a relief to Jennifer.

 "She'll pass away in prison. She'll spend the rest of her life in prison, and that's what should happen."

Dennis Rader was the notorious BTK serial unaliver who worked over a span of 31 years. 

His daughter Kerri Rawson still deals with conflicting emotions.

"I have never hated him. I was extremely hurt by him, I love him after all. 

He was my dad. So I was extremely angry and hurt."

She says her father is angry that none of his family visits him in prison. Rawson responded, saying,

"You have had these secrets, this 'double life' for 30 years; we have only had knowledge of it for three months... 

We are trying to cope and survive... You lied to us, deceived us ...  

I don't know if I will ever be able to make it for a visit, but know that I love you and hope to see you in heaven someday."

Edward Edwards was actually turned in by his daughter, April Balascio, when she grew up and looked at cold case files from her area. She said she knew there was something wrong with her father.

"He could be very good with us kids. He was sociable, charming, but he could also be abusive. 

When he was abusive, it was hell ... He'd tell us that we had to move in secret because he was protecting us because there were people who wanted to hurt him or us."

Once she looked at the cold cases, she instantly knew who committed the crimes.

"I was shaking; I was shaking because immediately I knew who it was that committed the [crimes] ... 

The next day I knew, there were ambulances and sirens everywhere, he'd taken us to where their bodies were."

Even though she feels she did the right thing by turning in her father, it still haunts her.

"I live with two kinds of guilt. Not reporting him sooner and possibly saving lives, and the guilt of turning in my own father. They're both strong."