To be honest, I don’t believe in the occult any more than I believe in a heavenly father or an afterlife. Satan, to me, is no more believable than God. Having said that, when you add Satanism and the occult to a murder story it adds an even more sinister vibe to an already sinister tale.

Murder is grim, there’s no other way of cutting it. It’s one of humanity’s bleakest wrongdoings. Somehow by adding “ritual” before “murder” makes it all the more grotesque.

Worryingly, some experts reckon that there are up to 30 serial killers operating undetected in the UK as we speak. I don’t mean to terrify you, you’re still very unlikely to come across one, but that’s a pretty fearsome stat, right?

Below are a handful of murders that, in some way, involve the occult. They’re not for the fainthearted. You have been warned. Hold on to your hooves and horns.

1) Charles Walton

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We’ll start with a farm worker called Charles Walton who lived in Lower Quinton, England. In 1945 he was 74 and had worked on farms all of his life. He was well-liked in the village, but there was something a bit strange about him.

According to the locals, he could calm rabid dogs with the sound of his voice and wild birds would feed from his hand.

On Valentine’s day, 1945, Walton was working with a trouncing hook and a pitchfork up on Meon Hill, an area with a wealth of supernatural history to it. Since time immemorial, the locals have spoken with hushed voices about ghost dogs and spirit horses parading across Meon Hill in the depths of night.

Meon Hill would be where Walton met his end. He was found alone and dead on that creepy, cursed hill. His hook had been used to slit his throat, and the fork pinned him to the floor through his torso. A cross was carved into his chest.

Some believe that Walton was a witch and had put a curse on someone; to break the Satanic bond, the cursed individual had murdered him.

If that isn’t creepy, bizarre and unsettling enough for you, it gets weirder. A little while later, police came across a book – Folklore, Old Customs and Superstitions in Shakespeareland. It included the tale of a man called… wait for it… Charles Walton. This guy had died in 1865, shortly after seeing a ghost. Strange twist, isn’t it?

Some people believe that Walton was either a reincarnation of the original Walton, or perhaps his ghost. Or, it could be a massive coincidence. That’s probably more likely. But still, the murder was weird and they never solved it.

2) Leroy Carter Jr.

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Leroy, a man down on his luck, was sleeping in the bushes in a park. No one knows exactly what occurred that night, but he ended up being decapitated.

The police force was stumped and brought in an occult expert (a sure sign that they’re stick). The expert thought that it might have been a ritual killing by a shadowy group known as Palo Mayombe, a black magic offshoot of the Afro-Caribbean religion Santeria.

The ritual involves making a stew from the brains, and sometimes the ears and nose of the victim. The occult expert predicted that, once the ritual was complete – which takes 42 days – the head would be returned.

Sure enough, like Satanic clockwork, the head rocked up 42 days later. But, despite the return of the gory item, no one was ever caught or charged.

3) Howard Green And Carol Marron

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In 1979, the police were treated to an unusually grizzly sight. Howard and Carol were discovered on the hard shoulder of Route 80 in West Patterson, New Jersey. Both had been bludgeoned on the left hand side of their face and stabbed through their right eye.

And, if you can believe it, it gets weirder still. Both had a clump of hair in their hands and all of their blood had been drained from their bodies.

When the police searched their flat, they found it to be scattered with occult items; apparently, Green had been investigating the Ordo Templi Orientis, a religion started by famous weirdo and obsessive occultist Aleister Crowley.

Although one of the couple’s neighbors was under suspicion for the crime (he was known to kill mice and drain them of their blood – alarm bells), he managed to leg it and was last seen in Oklahoma.

4) Rachel Runyan

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This awful story begins in August, 1982. Rachael was playing with her little brother in a Utah park, when a man with a mustache (you should never trust them) came over and offered them sweets. She followed him to his car and her body was found 24 days later, naked in a stream.

Initially, the police dealt with the murder in the way that they would handle any murder. But, over time, a number of strange occultist happenings changed the complexion of the investigation.

Every so often, a black rose turned up on Rachael’s grave. Then, 2 years after her death, on the walls of a laundromat, the following sign appeared:

“I’m still at large . . . I killed the little Runyan girl! Remember Beware!!!!” Below it was an inverted cross and the text book evil number – 666.

Decades on and no one has been caught.

5) Patrick Erhabor

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Now we’re headed over to London town. In September 2001, the torso of a young boy was found floating down the Thames. The body had been dissected in the way that a professional butcher might cut up a body. That’s not usual in murders.

The skin had been sliced and diced and each limb severed by a single blow. They reckon he might have been killed to appease one of the 400 gods of the Nigerian Yoruba people.

Strangely, the boy was originally from Benin City, Nigeria, and was believed to have been brought to England for the sole purpose of ritual murder.

One guy called Kingsley Ojo was suspected of the murder. When the police checked his residence they found a bag of bones, sand, and gold flecks. A similar compound had been found in the stomach of the boy. But, even more damning, was a video they found of someone else performing a ritual sacrifice of a human being in a similar manner to the youngster.

That wasn’t enough to prove his guilt, though. Ojo spent 4 years in a British prison for smuggling a child, then got deported back to Nigeria. Although the killer, or killers, were never found, occult experts reckon he was murdered to bring “good luck,” so that’s nice.

Ahhhh… human sacrifice. Sleep soundly, everyone.