Talking with Serial Killers 2: The World's Most Evil Killers Tell Their Stories


Christopher Berry-Dee - 2005
    He has penetrated their minds and gained their trust to produce one stomach-churningly compulsive selection of tales already, and his unique collection of audiotape and videotape interviews has been collected into another disturbing book. Not only does he describe the circumstances of his meeting with some of the world's most evil men, he also reproduces their very words as they describe their crimes. This book is a fascinating glimpse into the world's worst of the worst, and a deep examination of the workings of the criminal mind.

The Shark


Mary Burton - 2016
    When she was a teenage runaway, she was kidnapped, drugged, and left unconscious on the streets. She has no memories of what happened, only strange recurring dreams of two men playing cards.Former FBI agent Clay Bowman, Riley’s old flame, is Shield Security’s newest member. He’s plagued by the unsolved case of a serial killer nicknamed the Shark who murdered girls as part of a sadistic poker game. Only one girl survived. With the Shark now bent on evening that score, Clay has a chilling suspicion: Riley is the girl who escaped the Shark’s deadly amusement—and she is his next prey.As the Shark gets ready to play his hand, can Riley and Clay stop him—or will this killer finally claim the one who got away?

Dismembered


Susan D. Mustafa - 2011
    I wanted to keep those legs."One by one, investigators found the women's bodies. Each one carefully posed. Each one brutally mutilated. An arm here. A leg there. A breast, nipples, a tattoo. The killer was cutting his victims to pieces. . ."At that point, I pretty much went for the head."For ten years in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, the killings went on. Women of slight stature were hunted down, bludgeoned and strangled. And what the killer did with their bodies in the privacy of his car, his home, his kitchen, and his shower was beyond anything police could imagine."I was pure evil."When investigators finally caught mild-mannered, Star Trek fan Sean Vincent Gillis, he couldn't wait to tell his story. In the presence of shocked veteran detectives, Sean told them every detail of his killings, everything he did with the bodies. . . And he smiled the whole time. . .Includes 16 pages of shocking photographs. Warning: Contains graphic details.

Manson: The Life and Times of Charles Manson


Jeff Guinn - 2013
    The most authoritative account ever written of how an ordinary juvenile delinquent named Charles Manson became the notorious murderer whose crimes still shock and horrify us today. More than forty years ago Charles Manson and his mostly female commune killed nine people, among them the pregnant actress Sharon Tate. It was the culmination of a criminal career that author Jeff Guinn traces back to Manson’s childhood. Guinn interviewed Manson’s sister and cousin, neither of whom had ever previously cooperated with an author. Childhood friends, cellmates, and even some members of the Manson Family have provided new information about Manson’s life. Guinn has made discoveries about the night of the Tate murders, answering unresolved questions, such as why one person on the property where the murders occurred was spared. Manson puts the killer in the context of his times, the turbulent late sixties, an era of race riots and street protests when authority in all its forms was under siege. Guinn shows us how Manson created and refined his message to fit the times, persuading confused young women (and a few men) that he had the solutions to their problems. At the same time he used them to pursue his long-standing musical ambitions, relocating to Los Angeles in search of a recording contract. His frustrated ambitions, combined with his bizarre race-war obsession, would have lethal consequences as he convinced his followers to commit heinous murders on successive nights. In addition to stunning revelations about Charles Manson, the book contains family photographs never before published.

Never Smile at Strangers


Jennifer Jaynes - 2011
    But few clues are unearthed, and before long another young woman disappears.As locals continue to vanish, residents begin to discover that they might not know those closest to them as well as they had thought. Lies and insecurities quickly surface, leading everyone to question one another…and their involvement in the disappearances.Meanwhile, an unstable, twisted killer is hiding quietly in their midst. Ever since his mother’s murder four years earlier, he’s been forced to raise his disturbed teenage sister. He’s terrified of her—and of women in general—and his world revolves around his fear of and obsession over them.In this USA Today bestselling thriller, debut novelist Jennifer Jaynes delivers a psychologically riveting page-turner that is packed with surprises and will have readers guessing to the very last page.

This Is the Zodiac Speaking: Into the Mind of a Serial Killer


Michael D. Kelleher - 2001
    The Zodiac became the most elusive and frustrating adversary ever encountered by the law enforcement community in the San Francisco Bay Area. A series of letters, allegedly written by the murderer himself and published in local newspapers, only added to the mystery and panic. Over 30 years after he exploded onto the headlines of the San Francisco Chronicle, the Zodiac serial killer remains an enigma that is unparalleled in the history of crime in America, and the case remains unsolved. Violence expert Michael Kelleher and psychologist David Van Nuys attempt to provide a glimpse into the mind of this mysterious murderer.Kelleher and Van Nuys reconstruct the crime scenes, delve into the records, and psychoanalyze the Zodiac's letters to newspapers and the law enforcement agencies. The facts of the case and the fragmentary glimpses of the Zodiac's psychodynamics that came through his letters forced the authors, reluctantly, to draw a conclusion that is sure to be controversial-namely, that the Zodiac suffered from multiple personality disorder. They also debunk many popular legends and myths about the case, laying out the limited facts that we do have on the notorious Zodiac.

Serial Killers


William Murray - 2007
    Yet they must be caught because the one unifying characteristic all serial killers share is their inability to feel remorse for their actions, and consequently their need to keep on killing...Some profilers believe that serial killers don't learn from their mistakes. This book explores the greed-factor that sets in and explains how killers come to think that the more they kill and get away with it, the easier it will become.

I'm Not Guilty: The Development of the Violent Mind: The Case of Ted Bundy


Al Carlisle - 2013
    Imprisoned for almost 15 years before his execution in the Florida electric chair in 1989, Bundy was interviewed for hundreds of hours by psychologists, journalists, and law enforcement professionals. He offered insight into the thoughts and methods of other serial killers of the time—but almost never spoke about his own crimes.Dr. Al Carlisle evaluated Bundy for the Utah court when he was first arrested in 1975 and conducted extensive interviews with him after that. Carlisle has painstakingly reconstructed the life of Ted Bundy through conversations with his friends, family, neighbors, lovers, investigators, and surviving victims—and with the killer himself. I’M NOT GUILTY finally answers the questions about Bundy’s own crimes through a fictional dialogue between Carlisle and Bundy on the day before his execution, and sheds light on the development of the violent mind.

Death in the City of Light: The Serial Killer of Nazi-Occupied Paris


David King - 2011
    As decapitated heads and dismembered body parts surfaced in the Seine, Commissaire Georges-Victor Massu, head of the Brigade Criminelle, was tasked with tracking down the elusive murderer in a twilight world of Gestapo, gangsters, resistance fighters, pimps, prostitutes, spies, and other shadowy figures of the Parisian underworld.The main suspect was Dr. Marcel Petiot, a handsome, charming physician with remarkable charisma. He was the “People’s Doctor,” known for his many acts of kindness and generosity, not least in providing free medical care for the poor. Petiot, however, would soon be charged with twenty-seven murders, though authorities suspected the total was considerably higher, perhaps even as many as 150.Who was being slaughtered, and why? Was Petiot a sexual sadist, as the press suggested, killing for thrills? Was he allied with the Gestapo, or, on the contrary, the French Resistance? Or did he work for no one other than himself? Trying to solve the many mysteries of the case, Massu would unravel a plot of unspeakable deviousness. When Petiot was finally arrested, the French police hoped for answers. But the trial soon became a circus. Attempting to try all twenty-seven cases at once, the prosecution stumbled in its marathon cross-examinations, and Petiot, enjoying the spotlight, responded with astonishing ease. His attorney, René Floriot, a rising star in the world of criminal defense, also effectively, if aggressively, countered the charges.  Soon, despite a team of prosecuting attorneys, dozens of witnesses, and over one ton of evidence, Petiot’s brilliance and wit threatened to win the day.Drawing extensively on many new sources, including the massive, classified French police file on Dr. Petiot, Death in the City of Light is a brilliant evocation of Nazi-Occupied Paris and a harrowing exploration of murder, betrayal, and evil of staggering proportions.

What You See


Ann Mullen - 2003
    At thirty-one, Jesse Watson had reached an impasse in her life. It was time for a change. Her job was unfulfilling and her love life was non-existent. Something had to give. Heeding her parents’ advice, she quit her job, gave up her apartment and moved with them to the mountains of Virginia. Her intentions were to find a job and eventually get a place of her own. All that changed the day she went to work for Billy Blackhawk, private eye and Cherokee Indian. Her secretarial skills could not prepare her for what she was about to encounter and her safe and secure life would never be the same.While in search for a missing girl, a quiet, rural country life with its beautiful mountain scenery quickly becomes a place of danger, murder and mayhem. Jesse faces the wrath of a disturbed, dysfunctional family determined to save themselves at all cost, even to the point of turning on each other. Soon it becomes a race for time as Jesse realizes the life she saves might well be her own. What you see just may kill you.

Chasing the Devil: My Twenty-Year Quest to Capture the Green River Killer


David Reichert - 2004
    For eight years, Sheriff David Reichert devoted his days and nights to capturing the Green River Killer. He was the first detective on the case in 1982, doggedly pursuing clues as the body count climbed to 49 and it became the most infamous unsolved case in the nation. Frantically following all of his leads, Sheriff Reichert befriended the victims families, publicly challenged the killer, and risked his own safety -- and the endurance and love of his family -- before he found his madman. But Reichert's hunt didn't end when he finally cornered a truck painter named Gary Ridgway. It would be yet another 11 haunting years before forensic science could prove Ridgway's guilt beyond a shadow of a doubt. Told in vivid detail by the man who knows the whole story, this is a real life suspense story of unparalleled heroism.

Vintage True Crime Stories Vol I: An Illustrated Anthology of Forgotten Cases of Murder & Mayhem


Frank Dalton O'Sullivan - 2018
    The cold-blooded killers of today are the same as they were long ago.  To prove this theory, consider the case summaries below that are featured in this book, Vintage True Crime Stories, Volume I.Summary of Chapter One: Twenty years before the 1932 kidnapping and murder of Charles Lindbergh Jr., there was the Marie Smith case of 1910. Her killer was German, spoke with a thick German accent, and his last name was even similar to Hauptmann’s. Both men were entrapped by scientific advancements that were landmarks for future cases. And, in the end, both men were executed in the same electric chair.Summary of Chapter Two: Like a scene in a 21st Century action movie, two hitmen on a motorcycle roar down a Rhode Island road late at night. At the designated location, they stop beside the chauffeur driven automobile of a wealthy doctor who was accompanied by his mistress that night. At nearly point blank range, the assassins emptied their pistols at the two figures in the backseat. They ignored the driver and sped away, disappearing into the darkness. The events of that night lead to a one-of-a-kind murder trial with an outcome that reinforced the duality of American justice for the next one-hundred years.Chapter 7 Summary: (No one has made a movie about this next case, but they should.) During the late hours of January 10, 1895, two burglars break into the parsonage of Rev. William Hinshaw and his wife Thurza. A fight breaks out; Thurza is shot in the head and dies on the steps to the back door. Bravely, William puts up a good fight despite being shot once and stabbed many times. Instead of finishing him off, the two men thought better of it and disappeared down a snow-covered lane.Neighbors, friends, and newspaper editors declare Rev. William Hinshaw a hero. One needed only to look at his many wounds to see that that he battled it out with the two robbers—the ones who never left footprints on the snow covered lanes of Belleville, Indiana.Chapter 11 Summary: On January 1, 1914, the small cabin of a local photographer burns to the ground. Inside, they find his body. Three days later, it happens again. Autopsies prove the men were killed before the fires were set. The evidence leads investigators to an elderly Civil War veteran with a dark past filled with dead bodies. These four stories were recently discovered in one of the rarest true crime books known to exist, Enemies of the Underworld: Embracing Sixty-Eight Stories by America's foremost Detectives, by Frank Dalton O’Sullivan.His 700-page tome is a combination manual for new detectives, and true crime book featuring true stories co-authored by senior detectives and police chiefs from across the United States. Self-published in 1917, the book sold for five-dollars, the 2018 equivalent of $108--which might explain why it's nearly impossible to find a copy of it today.With this artifact, Historical Crime Detective Publishing saw it as the perfect foundation to structure a new anthology series simply titled: Vintage True Crime Stories: An Illustrated Anthology of Forgotten Cases of Murder & Mayhem.Volume I contains fifteen stories from O’Sullivan’s book, while the remaining five chapters were selected from Fifty Years a Detective by Thomas Furlong, published in 1912.Mixed in with these twenty stories are sixty-five images, fifty-two footnotes, a dozen epilogues, and ten annotations.

The Complete History of Jack the Ripper


Philip Sugden - 1994
    The murders in London between 1888-91 attributed to Jack the Ripper constitute one of the most mysterious unsolved criminal cases. This story is the result of many years meticulous research. The author reassesses all the evidence and challenges everything we thought we knew about the Victorian serial killer and the vanished East End he terrorized.

Ted Bundy: A Life From Beginning to End (True Crime Book 1)


Hourly History - 2017
     Ted Bundy is one of America’s most notorious serial killers. Between the mid and late 1970s, Bundy admitted to the murders of more than thirty young women and girls across the American states of Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Utah, and Colorado. Reports of Bundy’s murders reached the police and trickled down through the press to ordinary citizens; panic ensued. Yet while the killings were taking place, no-one could see that the string of brutal murders happening all over the northwest of America was perpetrated by the same man. Inside you will read about... ✓ Bundy’s Early Life ✓ Bundy’s First Year of Terror ✓ Bundy’s Second Year of Terror ✓ Escape and Chi Omega Sorority House Murders ✓ Arrest and Trial ✓ Second Trial, Legal Battles, and Execution And much more! Ted Bundy’s story does not end with his capture, nor does it end with his trial and conviction. Even moments before he was executed by electric chair, the most notorious serial killer in U.S. history revealed more crimes and more victims. We will never know the true number of Bundy’s victims.

Murder myself, Murder I am.


Jon Keehner - 2014
    He was supposed to be home by four o’clock that afternoon. Two days later, police discovered his abandoned car in the small town of Darrington, Washington. As my mother desperately struggled to get law enforcement to help find her husband, his killer set out to cover up his crime and evade detection. Once he was eventually captured, the shocking truth about the killer’s violent past and early release from prison deepened my mother’s resolve on her relentless quest to ensure, that despite a favorable plea deal that would have released him on January 27, 2014, that he would never walk free again.