Almost every year, we believe that nothing can top the abject horror of the last 12 months when it comes to true crime stories, homicides, execution-style murders, or serial killers that are still on the prowl, leaving behind a trail of blood, tears, and sorrow.

Then, of course, the New Year begins.

And so, too, begin the murders, bodies dumping beneath the snow, behind dumpsters in the worst parts of town, or left just where they fell, killed by a madman with a gun.

Unfortunately, terrible, barbaric things have happened since the beginning of time, when medieval torture devices included the iron chair (a victim was forced to sit in a chair made of iron spikes, while restraints were tightened so the spikes would slowly, painfully penetrate the body) and the pear of anguish (device with four sections that stretched outward after the instrument was inserted into any orifice of a victim's body - vagina, anus, or mouth - and stretch, causing permanent damage, while the Catholic Inquisition gave us the rack, which essentially tore its victims limb from limb to elicit a confession. When one inevitably came, the broken confessor was set on fire for his or her crime. So why should we be surprised to learn a serial killer is stalking Alaska, shooting people in the dark at the city's peaceful parks, while another makes his home in Phoenix, randomly shooting his victims, leaving residents looking over their shoulders with nervous anxiety wherever they might go?

People have been capable of terrible things since the beginning of time, and they seem in no hurry to put an end to their sadistic actions.