Serial Killer Dale Hausner Posed as a Sports Writer To Take A Picture With Boxing Legend Mike Tyson

In one of the most chilling encounters between fame and infamy, former heavyweight boxing champion Mike Tyson once unknowingly shook hands with a man who would later be exposed as a serial killer.

Dale Hausner, a Phoenix-based criminal responsible for eight murders during a spree of shootings in the mid-2000s, managed to infiltrate Tyson’s circle by posing as a sports writer. Using this false identity, Hausner approached Tyson at a gym and snapped a picture with the boxing legend.

To Tyson, it seemed like a routine meeting with a journalist or fan. But just days later, police arrived to inform him of the grim truth—that the man he had met and greeted was not a reporter at all, but a cold-blooded killer terrorizing the Phoenix area.

Hausner, along with an accomplice, Samuel Dieteman, targeted random victims in a string of drive-by shootings that left Phoenix residents living in fear. The duo was eventually captured in 2006, bringing an end to their violent rampage.

For Tyson, the revelation was deeply unsettling. The handshake, once harmless, became a haunting reminder of how evil can sometimes disguise itself in plain sight.

Hausner was convicted of multiple murders and sentenced to death in 2009. In 2013, he was found dead in his prison cell of apparent suicide.

The eerie meeting remains a surreal footnote in Tyson’s life—a bizarre and chilling moment where the world of sports briefly crossed paths with a figure of true horror.