Larry Dean Bright was born on July 8, 1966, in Peoria County, Illinois. Little information is available about his early childhood or family background. He grew up in an area that would later become significant due to his criminal activities.

As a young adult, Bright often found himself in trouble with the law. He had multiple run-ins with the justice system. These encounters shaped the course of his life, leading him down a path lined with criminal behavior.

By the early 2000s, Bright began to spend a lot of his free time around sex workers. He showed a particular interest in African-American women. This change in his social interactions marked the beginning of a troubling phase in his life.

In his late 30s, Bright's lifestyle became increasingly isolated. He lived alone with his mother, which allowed him to keep a low profile while engaging in dangerous activities. During this time, his behavior became more aggressive and violent, especially toward women involved in sex work.

Between July 2003 and October 2004, Larry Dean Bright murdered eight women, mostly sex workers, in central Illinois. His first known victim was Sabrina Payne, a 30-year-old woman. Bright picked her up on the outskirts of Peoria and offered her money for sex. After taking her to his home, he killed her, reportedly by strangulation. Bright then loaded her body into his SUV and disposed of it in a cornfield outside Tremont, where it was discovered on July 27, 2003.

In August 2004, Bright met Laura Lollar, a 33-year-old sex worker. He again offered money for sex and strangled her during the act. To conceal his crime, he burned her body in his backyard. In late September 2004, Bright met Linda K. Neal, a 40-year-old sex worker, in a furniture store parking lot. He offered her drugs for sex and strangled her after they used crack cocaine. With his mother at home, he decided to discard Neal's body along a roadside in Tazewell County.

Bright's last confirmed murder occurred on October 14, 2004, when he killed 41-year-old Brenda Erving. Bright stated he had no memory of her name or their meeting place. After taking drugs with her, he attacked and strangled her, disposing of her body near a dairy farm in Peoria County.

After his arrest on January 20, 2005, Faced with mounting forensic evidence, Bright eventually confessed in May 2005 to murdering eight women. He described how he disposed of the bodies by burning them and crushing the remains with a hammer. Charged with multiple counts of first-degree murder, Bright pleaded guilty and was sentenced to eight consecutive life terms without the possibility of parole.