Serial Killers True Crime Science

More than 40 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.

There was no pattern to the murders, no common thread other than the fact that the victims were all vacationers, robbed of their possessions, and slain in seemingly random crimes. Authorities across three continents and a dozen nations had no idea they were all looking for the same man: Charles Sobhraj, aka "The Serpent". A handsome Frenchman of Vietnamese and Indian origin, Sobhraj targeted backpackers on the "hippie trail" between Europe and South Asia. A master of deception, he used his powerful intellect and considerable sex appeal to lure naive travelers into a life of crime.

Serial killers are big business. From the endless books, films, and television programs to the fascination of the 24-hour news networks, there is something about these mass murderers that catches the eye and catches the attention. While many people are familiar with the better known killers like John Wayne Gacy or Jack the Ripper, this is not the end of the story. There are so many examples of serial killers from around the world that many of them have simply been forgotten about.

Jack the Ripper. Jeffrey Dahmer. John Wayne Gacy. Locusta of Gaul. If that last name doesn’t seem to fit with the others, it’s likely because our modern society largely believes that serial killers are a recent phenomenon. Not so, argues Debbie Feltonin fact, there’s ample evidence to show that serial killers stalked the ancient world just as they do the modern one.

This audiobook examines the media and cultural responses to the awful crimes of Brady and Hindley, whose murders provided a template for future media reporting on serial killers. It discusses the nature of evil and psychopaths and how they are represented in film, drama, novels and art. It also questions the ethics of the 'serial killing industry' and how the modern cultural fixation on celebrity has extended to serial killers and it explores the impact on the journalists and police officers from being involved in such cases including some interviews with them.

The second volume of my series on serial killers will introduce you to women who committed serial killings. These evil women are every bit as cruel and ruthless as their male counterparts. I am going to introduce you to a few well-known killers such as Elizabeth Bathory, a.k.a. the Countess of Blood; Aileen Wuornos, the woman who inspired the film Monster; Leslie Van Houten, a woman who committed murder for Charles Manson; Jane Toppan, a nurse, who killed dozens of her patients; and Amelia Dyer, the baby farm murderer.

We could swear some people are incapable of murdering another human being. Serial killer Ronald Dominique, also known as the Bayou Killer, was such a man. With an exterior that seems almost normal and some would say pitiful, this serial murderer was on a mission - not one anyone could have ever imagined.

Paul John Knowles, nicknamed the Casanova Killer, went on a four-month killing spree in 1974. He still remains one of the lesser known serial killers of his generation. Learn all about this psychopath who wanted fame before his life ended.

In this inspirational memoir, one of the best descriptions of UK prison life, Mo expertly tells jaw-dropping stories and brings to life the eccentric characters from a hidden world.

Empire of Sin re-creates the remarkable story of New Orleans' 30-years war against itself, pitting the city's elite "better half" against its powerful and long-entrenched underworld of vice, perversity, and crime. This early-20th-century battle centers on one man: Tom Anderson, the undisputed czar of the city's Storyville vice district, who fights desperately to keep his empire intact as it faces onslaughts from all sides.

In the early evening of June 25, 1980 in Pocahontas County, West Virginia, two middle-class outsiders named Vicki Durian, 26, and Nancy Santomero, 19, were murdered in an isolated clearing. They were hitchhiking to a festival known as the Rainbow Gathering but never arrived. For 13 years, no one was prosecuted for the "Rainbow Murders", though deep suspicion was cast on a succession of local residents in the community, depicted as poor, dangerous, and backward.

Much has been written about the brutal crimes of Peter Sutcliffe, the Yorkshire Ripper, and - 35 years after he was sentenced to life imprisonment for the murder of 13 women - scarcely a week goes by without some mention of him in the media. In any story featuring Sutcliffe, however, his victims are incidental, often reduced to a tableau of nameless faces. But each woman was much more than the manner of her death, and in Somebody’s Mother, Somebody’s Daughter, Carol Ann Lee tells, for the first time, the stories of those women who came into Sutcliffe’s murderous orbit.

They thought they had got away with murder. They were wrong. Discover the vital clues, the crucial evidence, the lucky breaks, the chases, the painstaking detective work, and the unlikely heroes that led to the capture of some of the world's most notorious murderers and serial killers, such as "The Good Nurse" poisoner Charles Cullen, finally detected by a young colleague; "Night Stalker" Richard Ramirez, spotted by a 13-year-old boy; "Son of Sam", unmasked by a parking ticket; John Wayne Gacy, connected to his final victim by a stray receipt; and, Rodney Alcala, spotted on a TV game show...

Nashville - a haven for aspiring musicians and a magnet for country-music fans. By the time Pat Postiglione arrived there in 1980, it was also the scene of an unsolved series of vicious sex slayings that served as a harbinger of worse to come. As Postiglione was promoted from street-beat Metro cop to detective sergeant heading Music City’s elite cold-case Murder Squad, some of America’s most bizarre, elusive, and savage serial killers were calling Nashville home. And during the next two decades, the body count climbed.

Michael Ross was a serial killer who raped and murdered eight young women between 1981 and 1984, and several years ago the state of Connecticut put him to death. His crimes were horrific, and he paid the ultimate price for them. When journalist Martha Elliott first heard of Ross, she learned what the world knew of him - that he had been a master at hiding in plain sight.

In this first-person account of becoming the FBI's top serial-killer hunter and a member of a religious order in an attempt to discern the true nature of good and evil, Roger L. Depue searches for an understanding of how evil develops. Between Good and Evil is Depue's look back at a life spent apprehending criminals, especially serial killers, first as a small-town police chief, then an FBI-SWAT team member, Behavioral Sciences Unit chief, and a developer of revolutionary law enforcement programs.

In his account of the sensational life and murder of Grady Stiles Jr., also known as the legendary carnival freak Lobster Boy, author Fred Rosen explains how Stiles' death was engineered by his wife, Mary Teresa, the carny known as the Electrified Girl. Rosen describes how Mary Teresa arranged for her husband's murder after years of physical and emotional abuse. During Mary Teresa's dramatic trial, Rosen becomes a character in his own book.

On July 20, 2012 in Aurora, Colorado, a man in dark body armor and a gas mask entered a midnight premiere of The Dark Knight Rises with a tactical shotgun, a high-capacity assault rifle, and a sidearm. Soon twelve were dead and fifty-eight were wounded. A Dark Night in Aurora uses the twenty-three hours of unredacted interview transcripts never seen by the public and Reid’s research to bring the listener inside the mind of a mass murderer. The result is chilling, gripping study of abnormal psychology and how a lovely boy named Jimmy became a killer.

This gang of serial killers did unthinkable crimes. It's hard to believe that their story is not a work of fiction. But it's not! Most serial killers work alone. Killing is usually a private crime, something that mass murderers are keen to keep hidden. But this is not always the case. During the 1990s, a small town in Australia witnessed first-hand how devastating, horrendous, and effective a gang of serial killers could be.

Based on interviews with family, friends, and acquaintances of Durst, law enforcement, and others involved in the case, A Deadly Secret is a cross-country odyssey of stolen IDs and multiple identities that raises baffling questions about one of the country's most prominent families - and one of its most elusive suspected killers.