David Elliott Penton

David Elliott Penton (born February 9, 1958) is an American child molester and serial killer. Penton, an Ohio native and mechanic, was convicted of manslaughter in the child abuse death of his own infant son in 1984; during an appeal of his sentence, he fled and remained a fugitive until 1987, when he was charged and convicted with the murder of a friend's 9-year-old niece in Ohio.

Penton was extradited to Texas in 2003 and charged with the deaths of three young Dallas-area girls in the mid-1980s. He signed a plea agreement admitting to the murders. Officials in Texas and several other states are investigating the possibility he may be involved with other unsolved cases and suspect that he could be the most prolific child killer in American history.