Paul Frederick Runge (born January 28, 1970)[1] is an American serial killer who sexually assaulted and murdered at least six women and one girl between 1995 and 1997, in Illinois' Cook and DuPage counties.

[5] During that time, he married a woman named Charlene, got a job as a shoe salesman and later a truck driver, and resettled in three different cities prior to his eventual rearrest in May 1997[2] for violating the conditions of the parole.

[5] Approximately two weeks later, on January 16, a German Shepherd named Friendly brought a severed leg to its owner's home, which it had found in a field near the border with southern Wisconsin.

At the time, the couple had moved to Glendale Heights, where Runge had begun work for a Honey Baked Ham store in the mall, while Charlene was planning to start a cleaning business.

[6] In order to get rid of their bodies, he dismembered both sisters' corpses, placed the remains in plastic bags and discarded them in garbage bins.

[3] On February 3, 1997, Runge entered 45-year-old Gutierrez's Northwest Side apartment in response to a for-sale sign for some sport equipment.

More than 200 items were seized, including a book about Charles Albright, a guide to police radio traffic, a crossbow, a stun gun and a knife.

[2] In 1999, as authorities were fighting in court to keep Runge in prison under the Sexually Violent Persons Act, citing his lack of remorse for the 1987 rape, DNA analysis linked him to the Gutierrez-Muniz murders.

In 2000, while he was being driven to a Cook County court hearing, Runge overpowered the corrections officer with the help of two other inmates during a routine stop in Plainfield.