Book picks similar to
The Sadist by Karl Berg


true-crime
non-fiction
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Prison Days: True Diary Entries by a Maximum Security Prison Officer, June 2018


Simon King - 2018
    These are the true-life diary entries of a prison officer, working in one of the country’s worst correctional facility. The daily stabbings, rapes and murders are just the beginning of a nightmare ride into the darkness of life behind bars. It’s a raw and ruthless look behind the walls in all its brutal honesty. This is maximum-security.

Edward Gein: America's Most Bizarre Murderer


Robert H. Gollmar - 1981
    What follows is probably the most unusual case in modern times. It is the story of Edward Gein, America's most bizarre murderer, grave robber, maker of exotic household items, wearing apparel and possessor of undoubtedly the finest private collection of female heads, vagina, vulvas and unquestionably the most notorious character ever to stand before me in court..."

September Sacrifice


Mark Horner - 2004
    Original.

Perfect Victim: The True Story of "The Girl in the Box" by the D.A. Who Prosecuted Her Captor


Christine McGuire - 1989
    . . most thought-provoking."--BooklistIn 1997 twenty-year-old Colleen Stan left home to hitchhike from Oregon to California. Seven years later she emerged from hell, the victim of a bizarre and extraordinary crime.This is Colleen's incredible true story, told by the determined young district attorney who prosecuted the man who had forced her to endure years of sexual perversion . . . and held her captive in a coffin-like box under his and his wife's bed. A story of riveting psychological intensity and gripping courtroom drama, Perfect Victim reveals the whole truth about Collen Stan's real-life nightmare . . . and the psychopath who enslaved her body and her mind."Horrifying!"--The Cincinnati Post"Hard to put down!"--Chicago Tribune"A gripping and disturbing story of the secret life of apparently normal people. At once, horrific and engrossing."--Vincent Bugliosi, author of Helter Skelter

Cannibal Killers


Moira Martingale - 1993
    It is the ultimate in criminal depravity. It runs like a blood-red thread through novels like The Silence of the Lambs.Now, take a grim and terrifying journey into the world of the cannibal killer...Ed Gein the twisted trophy hunter and role model for Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho, who liked to keep his victim's lips in a small bowl.Issei Sagawa a real natural-born killer, celebrated in song by the Rolling Stones and toasted by the Japanese art world afer he killed and ate a Dutch co-ed.Jeffrey Dahmer the Milwaukee Murderer who kept souvenirs from most of his 17 victims, including three human heads in his refrigerator.Andrei Chikatilo history's worst cannibal killer who delighted in boiling and eating sawn-off body parts of his victims, often not bothering to kill them before the mutilation began.A chilling look at history's most repugnant criminals, Cannibal Killers is a horrifying story too shocking to believe-- except that it's true.

Let This Be Our Secret


Deric Henderson - 2011
    The location: a quiet, picturesque seaside town. The scene: two bodies in a car filled with carbon monoxide. Police officer Trevor Buchanan and nurse Lesley Howell have apparently taken their own lives, unable to live with the pain of their spouses’ affair with each other. The adulterous pair — Sunday school teacher Hazel Buchanan and dentist Colin Howell — had met in the local Baptist Church. Following the apparent double–suicide, they continue their affair secretly before both later remarrying. A series of disasters in Howell’s life — the death of his eldest son, massive losses in an investment scam and the revelation that he has been sexually assaulting female patients — lead to him declaring that he is a fraud and a godless man. He tells the elders of his Church that he and Hazel Stewart conspired together to murder their spouses nearly two decades earlier. What follows the dramatic confession are two of the most sensational murder investigations ever seen in Ireland, leading to both Howell’s conviction for murder in December 2010, and Stewart’s in March 2011 — despite her protestations of innocence.

Lost Girls: An Unsolved American Mystery


Robert Kolker - 2013
    Lost Girls is a portrait of unsolved murders in an idyllic part of America, of the underside of the Internet, and of the secrets we keep without admitting to ourselves that we keep them.

Shattered Innocence


Robert Scott - 2011
    The case attracted national media attention. "Shattered Innocence" is the previously untold story of the Jaycee Lee Dugard abduction. Seeking to set the record straight, it examines the case that stunned the nation first in 1991 when 11-year-old Jaycee was kidnapped, and then again nearly 20 years later, when her captors were finally arrested so she could go free. Through extensive research, interviews and investigation, Scott reveals startling new information about Phillip Garrido that has not been reported anywhere else, including 16 pages of shocking photographs never before available to the media or the public. Written by an acclaimed investigative journalist and insider who grew up in the same time and place as Phillip Garrido, this harrowing account reveals new insights and evidence about Garrido's criminal past and manipulation of the legal system. With police and psychologist testimony, this book answers the question: How could someone so evil get away with his crimes for so long?

Serial Killers: Butchers & Cannibals


Nigel Blundell - 2010
    For some, it was never enough. The real thrill came after their victims were dead.In this shocking anthology, true crime journalist Nigel Blundell brings together more than two dozen chilling profiles of the world's most unforgettable fiends, including: Ed Gein, the Plainfield necrophile and inspiration for The Silence of the Lambs; Andrei Chikatilo, the "Rostov Ripper", whose uncontrollable hunger was satiated by more that fifty victims; Dennis Nilsen, whose London house of horrors so overflowed with body parts that they blocked the drains; Germany's Fritz Haarmann who killed and consumed more than two dozen men, then peddled the left-over meat on the black market; Hungarian countess Elizabeth B�thory whose lust for the blood of virgins--a body count estimated to be in the hundreds--has branded her the most prolific female serial killer in world history; and many more human monsters whose appetites are still the stuff of nightmares.

Hunting Whitey: The Inside Story of the Capture & Killing of America's Most Wanted Crime Boss


Casey Sherman - 2020
    The leader of Boston’s Winter Hill Gang and #1 on the FBI’s Most Wanted list, Bulger was indicted for nineteen counts of murder, racketeering, narcotics distribution, and extortion. But it was his sixteen-year flight from justice on the eve of his arrest that made him a legend and exposed deep corruption within the FBI.While other accounts have examined Bulger’s crimes, this remarkable chronicle tells the story of his life on the run, his capture, and his eventual murder inside one of America’s most dangerous prisons—”Misery Mountain”—in 2018. Interweaving the perspectives of Bulger, his family and cohorts, and law enforcement, Hunting Whitey explains how this dangerous criminal evaded capture for nearly two decades and shines a spotlight on the dedicated detectives, federal agents, and prosecutors involved in bringing him to justice. It is also a fascinating, detailed portrait of both Bulger’s trial and his time in prison—including shocking new details about his death at Misery Mountain less than twenty-four hours after his arrival.Granted access to exclusive prison letters and interviews with dozens of people connected to the case on both sides, Sherman and Wedge offer a trove of fascinating new stories and create an incomparable portrait of one of the most infamous criminals in American history.Hunting Whitey includes an 8-page photo insert.

Criminal Minds: Sociopaths, Serial Killers, and Other Deviants


Jeffrey J. Mariotte - 2010
    This book tells the story of those examples.Published to coincide with the release of season five of Criminal Minds on DVDOrganized by type of criminal, including solo serial killers, sexual predators, and killers with famous victims; and tells the stories of many famous murderers, including David Berkowitz, Jeffrey Dahmer, Mark David Chapman, and the Zodiac killerFeatures photographs from the showCriminal Minds: Sociopaths, Serial Killers, and Other Deviants is a fascinating, terrifying book about the criminal minds who live among us.

The Poisoned Glass


Kimberly Tilley - 2019
    Auerbach, City Historian, Passaic, New Jersey At the dawn of the 20th century, the social unrest in Paterson, New Jersey was palpable. Thousands of Dutch and Italian immigrants flocked to the city, hoping for a job in Paterson’s famous silk mills. The burgeoning population ushered women into the workplace, grew suffragist sympathies, and produced an anarchist movement.In this charged environment, Jennie Bosschieter, a 17-year-old Dutch immigrant and mill worker, was murdered. Sorrow turned to shock when four wealthy, influential citizens were accused of killing her. The resulting criminal trial held the city – and eventually the nation – transfixed.

Freed to Kill: The True Story of Larry Eyler


Gera-Lind Kolarik - 1990
    Reprint.

Profiling Violent Crimes: An Investigative Tool


Ronald M. Holmes - 1989
    New chapters cover criminal behavior theories and psychological profiling; autoerotic deaths, and occult crimes, plus two new chapters detailing infamous unsolved crimes/criminals: Jack the Ripper and the Jon Benet Ramsey case. The authors′ continuing research and activities in the field result in a multitude of new case studies for this book, often included as boxed inserts.

Invisible Darkness


Stephen Williams - 1996
    A definitive true-crime account unravels the facade behind the unsettling case of Paul and Karla Bernardo and the couple's seemingly storybook marriage, which involved kidnapping, imprisonment, and the murder of high-school girls to satisfy their sexual cravings.