Steven Hayes, the Connecticut man convicted of killing a mother and her two daughters in a brutal home invasion has boasted about how he killed 17 others in letters revealed to the press yesterday.

Hayes admits in horrifying detail that in two of the attacks he tied up, tortured, and killed two women – even making a 16-hour video of him murdering one of them.

Hayes, 48, who is now on death row for his role in the fatal 2007 Connecticut home invasion, boasted in a series of letters that he had collected the sneakers of each of his victims as trophies.

In 2010 Hayes was convicted of raping and strangling Jennifer Hawke-Petit, 48, then tying her young daughters, Hayley, 17 and Michaela, 11, to their beds and setting the house on fire.

Hayes' accomplice Joshua Komisarjevsky was also convicted for his role in the killings and is due to be sentenced today. Hayes is currently appealing his conviction.

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Hayes confessed to more killings in four letters written in August and September, even admitting that he would have killed his accomplice Komisarjevsky because while he had the same 'capacity for evil', Hayes believed he was 'not worthy to be his partner' in crime.

Hayes wrote to a female in North Carolina, identified only as 'Lynn', telling her that he wanted to share his 'dark secret' because he believed that 'someone else really should know the truth about' him.

'Yes, I've killed before,' Hayes wrote in the shocking letters quoted by The Daily Mail yesterday. 'I have 17 kills throughout the Northeast United States. Perfect victims and well executed, controlled endeavors.'

Over the course of 17 handwritten pages, which were intercepted by prison authorities, Hayes recounted the rape and murder of his first victim in 1982 and of his eighth victim. All of his victims were aged between 14 and 25, he claimed.

According to the report in the Daily Mail, Hayes describes in detail how he sexually assaulted the women before killing them.

'This carried on with my top 17 sexual conquests and kills,' Hayes reportedly wrote. 'The trophies, the signature kill, the thrill of the hunt and the disposal of my adventure buddies.'

Hayes claimed he tied his eighth victim to his bed for an entire weekend and tortured her before killing her. 'The more pain and emotional abuse she went through, the better I liked it,' he wrote. 'And believe me, I was in heaven.'

Connecticut State Attorney Michael Dearington has declined to say whether Hayes' purported crimes are being investigated.

Hayes reportedly asked the recipient of the letters to hold on to them until after his execution because he believed the information 'could be worth millions to the right people.'

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READ MORE:

More stories on crime in the US here

Massacre killer Steven Hayes may face execution

Former Irish death row worker calls for death penalty to be abolished