Tommy Lynn Sells was born on June 28, 1964, in Oakland, California. He was one of five children born to an unwed mother. His father, Joe Lovins, died when Tommy was only 11 years old. When Tommy and his twin sister, Tammy Jean, were 18 months old, they both contracted meningitis. Tragically, Tammy did not survive the illness.

After Tammy's death, Tommy was sent to live with his aunt, Bonnie Walpole, in Holcomb, Missouri. At the age of five, he returned to live with his mother when she found out that Aunt Bonnie wanted to adopt him. By the time he was seven, Tommy began drinking alcohol, which he got from his grandfather’s stash.

Around this age, he started to spend time with an adult man named Willis Clark. Sells claimed that Clark molested him, and he believed his mother encouraged this relationship. This experience had a significant impact on his life. By the age of ten, Tommy began using narcotics.

At the age of thirteen, he entered his grandmother's bed while she was sleeping, which led to him being banned from her home. Soon after, his mother and siblings abandoned him, leaving town without him. Shortly after being left alone, Tommy shot a woman in anger, but she survived.

By 1978, at the age of fourteen, Sells began living a nomadic lifestyle. He traveled across the United States, frequently visiting family in different states. In May 1981, during a visit to family in Little Rock, Arkansas, his mother threw him out of the house after he allegedly tried to molest her.

Tommy Lynn Sells is connected to numerous murders across the United States. Police believe he may have killed at least 22 people over several years. His criminal activities began in the late 1970s and continued until 1999.

One of his first alleged murders occurred when he was 15 years old. He claimed to have killed a man in Mississippi during a home invasion. Throughout the 1980s, Sells continued to commit crimes. In 1979, he murdered John Cade with a gun in Mississippi. Later, in 1982, Melissa DeBoer's mother was killed in St. Louis, and although someone else was convicted, DeBoer believed Sells could be the real killer.

In 1983, he was linked to the murders of Tiffany Gill, a 4-year-old girl, and her mother Colleen in St. Louis. He beat them to death with a blunt object. In 1985, while working at a carnival, Sells was invited to a woman's home. He killed Ena Cordt and her 4-year-old son Rory, fearing that the child would tell others about the crime.

Sells went on to commit more murders in the late 1980s. In 1987, he confessed to killing the Dardeen family in Illinois after being picked up by the father, Keith Dardeen. Sells shot Keith and killed the rest of the family. He then moved around various states, killing other victims including two women in Las Vegas and a boy in Illinois.

His crimes spanned almost two decades. In some cases, he claimed to have killed people out of rage, while other times it was for sexual gratification. In his final spree in 1999, he kidnapped and killed 13-year-old Kaylene "Katy" Harris and injured her friend, Krystal Surles. Surles was able to identify Sells, leading to his capture.

Sells was arrested in January 2000. He confessed to many murders but some claims could not be verified. He was convicted for the murder of Katy Harris and sentenced to death. After spending years in prison, Sells was executed on April 3, 2014, in Texas.