'Crazy Mike'says he is 'proud' of the 16 murders he committed across the US

A man who claims to have killed 16 drifters while riding railroads for years across the US has insisted he is "proud" of his apparent trail of murder.

Michael Elijah Adams, who has been labelled "Crazy Mike", is serving 15 years to life for the killing of John Owens in Placer County, California.

The 48-year-old, originally from Michigan, began hopping on trains at the age of 14 and became part of the Freight Train Riders Association (FTRA), moving heroin by rail across America.

In an interview with WTVR TV, Adams said he was looking forward to "retirement" in a Virginia prison after admitting killing Robert Allen Chassereau in 2006.

He said: "We were the big dogs. We stayed on the border. We were the violent ones, I mean, guns, drugs and girls.

"Who suspects a bum with a kilo?

"All good things must come to an end. It started getting hot, bodies started stacking up, questions started getting asked.

"I'm proud of what I did. I'm a necessary part of society."

The FTRA was a group of drifters started by disassociated Vietnam veterans, according to Adams.

He claims to have killed the 16 drifters with weapons including pistols, axe handles and planks of wood over nearly 30 years on the rails.

Adams confessed to Mr Chassereau's murder while he was being prosecuted for the California killing because he does not want to serve time in the "gladiator" prisons in the state.

He told the TV station: "Society labels me as a serial killer. Other people label me as an enforcer.

"And other people just think I'm psychotic."

Detective Thomas Holsinger said Adams knew details about Mr Chassereau's clothing and injuries that only the killer would have known.

Adams is now being investigated over other unsolved drifter murders, including the 1999 killing of Edward Northington, a gay homeless man whose decapitated head was found on a footbridge in Henrico County, Virginia.

He is waiting for the Governor of California to sign off on a plea deal which would see him serving his full life sentence in Virginia.

(Sky News)