10 Gardeners Who Used Their Green Thumbs for Evil

Gardens are often seen as places of peace and growth, where nature flourishes and life takes root. But beneath the serene façade of neatly trimmed hedges and blooming flowers, some gardens have concealed sinister secrets. Around the world, individuals with green thumbs have turned their love of gardening into a tool for deception, using their skills to hide unspeakable crimes or cover up their darkest deeds.

This list uncovers ten chilling stories of gardeners who used their green thumbs to commit or cover up heinous crimes. From hiding bodies beneath flowerbeds to fertilizing fields with gruesome remains, these cases reveal the dark side of gardening that lurks beneath the surface.

Related: 10 Horrific Murders in English Country Villages

10 The “Rose West” Garden of Horrors

Fred and Rosemary West were a notorious British couple responsible for the torture and murder of at least 12 women and girls during the 1970s and 1980s. Their garden in Gloucester, England, became a grisly burial ground for several victims. Fred, who worked as a builder, used his skills to dig deep graves in the yard, often under the guise of home improvement projects. Rosemary, meanwhile, maintained the surface-level appearance of a neat and pleasant garden, tending to flowers and shrubs above where their victims lay.

The Wests’ use of their garden was both practical and psychological. While Fred’s ability to dig and bury bodies undetected was key to hiding their crimes, the cultivation of an inviting and colorful garden allowed the couple to avoid suspicion from neighbors and visitors. Police eventually unearthed multiple bodies buried beneath the flowerbeds during a 1994 investigation, revealing the true nature of their carefully curated space.^[1]

9 Leonarda Cianciulli’s Human Soap Fertilizer

Leonarda Cianciulli, the “Soap-Maker of Correggio,” was infamous for her gruesome murders in late 1930s Italy. She killed women under the pretense of offering spiritual help and turned their remains into soap and cakes, but gardening was another dark element of her routine. After burning and pulverizing the bones of her victims, she mixed their ashes into soil in her garden. She saw it as a symbolic act, returning the dead to the earth while also fertilizing her plants to ensure their growth.

Cianciulli’s garden, though seemingly ordinary, reflected her bizarre rationalizations. Her belief in spiritual renewal and her deep superstition drove her to bury these remnants, convinced it would protect her from supernatural harm. Neighbors often complimented her thriving plants, unaware that their lush appearance was due in part to the macabre “fertilizer” beneath.^[2]

8 The “Babes in the Woods” Killer

In 1948, two young boys, Derek and David D’Alton, were lured into the forest of Vancouver’s Stanley Park and murdered by William Henry “Bill” Baumeister. As a groundskeeper and occasional gardener, Baumeister had access to tools and spaces that allowed him to conceal the crime. The boys’ shallow grave was dug near his personal gardening plot, where freshly disturbed soil blended in with regular landscaping work.

Baumeister’s familiarity with gardening techniques made the burial appear routine to passersby. He was known for his meticulous care of local green spaces, which helped deflect suspicion from him for years. The natural setting of the park and his association with it as a caretaker shielded him from scrutiny in one of Canada’s most chilling cold cases.^[3]

7 Robert Pickton’s “Pig Farm” and Fertilized Fields

Robert Pickton, one of Canada’s most infamous serial killers, owned a pig farm in Port Coquitlam, British Columbia, where he murdered at least 49 women. While much of the focus has been on how he used his pigs to dispose of remains, investigators also found that Pickton scattered victims’ ground-up remains across his farmland. Some of these remains were mixed into fertilizer and used to tend his crops, allowing him to further obscure the scale of his crimes.

The farm’s fertile fields, which neighbors associated with rural productivity, were cultivated using fertilizer mixed with horrifying elements. Pickton’s routine of planting and maintaining crops gave him the cover of being an industrious farmer while concealing evidence in plain sight. His knowledge of agricultural techniques ensured the bodies were dispersed efficiently, making detection more difficult for years.^[4]

6 Amelia Dyer: The Baby Farmer and Her Hidden Garden

Amelia Dyer, one of history’s most infamous baby farmers, profited by taking in unwanted infants in Victorian England, promising to care for them. Instead, many of the children died under her care, and Dyer disposed of their tiny bodies in various ways. Some of the remains were buried in her garden, where freshly dug earth and new plantings disguised the evidence. Her dual role as a caregiver and gardener allowed her to maintain an outwardly nurturing image.

Her garden, often remarked upon by neighbors for its neat rows and seasonal blooms, concealed her acts of infanticide for years. Dyer’s familiarity with the labor of planting and tending vegetation mirrored the carelessness with which she buried the children, blending the evidence seamlessly into her daily life. When authorities finally uncovered her crimes, her peaceful garden became a symbol of her horrific duplicity.^[5]

5 Hadden Clark: The Killer Gardener of Maryland

In the early 1990s, Hadden Clark, a transient gardener in Maryland, committed a series of brutal murders, using his landscaping work to conceal his heinous acts. In 1992, while employed as a gardener for Penny Houghteling in Bethesda, Clark murdered the woman’s 23-year-old daughter, Laura Houghteling. After the killing, he transported Laura’s body, wrapped in a sheet, through a wooded area and buried her in a shallow grave approximately half a mile from the Houghteling residence. To mask the burial site, Clark covered it with natural debris, leveraging his knowledge of the local terrain to ensure the grave blended seamlessly with the surrounding environment.

Clark’s gardening duties provided him with the perfect cover to scout secluded areas and dig inconspicuous graves without arousing suspicion. His familiarity with plant life and soil conditions enabled him to effectively conceal evidence, delaying discovery and complicating police investigations. It wasn’t until Clark was arrested for an unrelated theft that he confessed to Laura’s murder and led authorities to her hidden grave.^[6]

4 The Long Island Serial Killer’s Beach Plant Cover-Up

The Long Island Serial Killer (LISK), active from the 1990s to the 2010s, buried his victims along Gilgo Beach in New York. The killer carefully chose areas overgrown with dense native plants, such as beach grasses and shrubs, to conceal the bodies. Vegetation analysis later played a role in identifying burial timelines, with forensic botanists examining the age of root systems intertwined with the remains.

LISK’s familiarity with the local plant life allowed him to exploit the natural environment, ensuring the graves blended seamlessly into the landscape. By selecting remote areas covered in tough, hardy vegetation, he made detection difficult even for thorough search teams. It wasn’t until 2010 that investigators stumbled upon the first remains while searching for a missing woman, leading to the discovery of more victims hidden in the brush.^[7]

3 Dorothea Puente’s Backyard Graveyard

Dorothea Puente operated a boarding house in Sacramento, California, in the 1980s, murdering her elderly and disabled tenants to collect their government checks. Puente buried her victims in her backyard, using gardening as a cover to disguise the freshly dug soil. She planted flowers and arranged decorative rocks over the graves, creating a charming garden that deflected suspicion.

Puente often invited neighbors and visitors to admire her carefully maintained backyard. Her knowledge of soil types and planting techniques ensured that the disturbed earth settled quickly, hiding any evidence of tampering. When investigators finally exhumed the yard, they uncovered seven bodies hidden beneath the flowerbeds, turning her idyllic garden into a nightmarish crime scene.^[8]

2 Peter Tobin’s Secret Garden Graves

Scottish serial killer Peter Tobin buried two of his teenage victims in the garden of a property where he once lived. Tobin, who worked as a handyman, had a knack for blending physical labor with his crimes. He dug precise graves in the garden, covering them with turf and planting grass over the disturbed soil to erase any visible signs of burial.

The properties Tobin lived in often had well-maintained gardens, which neighbors considered a testament to his work ethic. Investigators discovered the graves years later, using ground-penetrating radar to search his former properties. The carefully disguised burials demonstrated Tobin’s methodical approach and his exploitation of gardening to hide his crimes in plain sight.^[9]

1 The Hinterkaifeck Farm Mystery

In 1922, the Gruber family of Hinterkaifeck, Germany, was brutally murdered on their remote farmstead. The killer, who was never identified, stayed on the property for days after the murders. During this time, neighbors reported that the farm’s livestock continued to be fed, and the family’s garden was tended. Freshly tilled soil and organized rows of crops indicated that the murderer had deliberately maintained the property to avoid suspicion.

The upkeep of the garden suggested the killer had an intimate knowledge of farming and gardening. While investigators initially believed the maintenance was a ruse to make it appear the family was alive, others theorized it was a psychological compulsion tied to the murderer’s rural background. This unsettling detail remains one of the many mysteries surrounding one of Germany’s most infamous unsolved crimes. ^[10]