Serial Killers: The Method and Madness of Monsters

The Serial Killer Files: The Who, What, Where, How, and Why of the World's Most Terrifying Murderers

Harold Schechter · 426 pages

THE DEFINITIVE DOSSIER ON HISTORY'S MOST HEINOUS!Hollywood's make-believe maniacs like Jason, Freddy, and Hannibal Lecter can't hold a candle to real life monsters like John Wayne Gacy, Ted Bundy, Jeffrey Dahmer, and scores of others who have terrorized, tortured, and terminated their way across civilization throughout the ages. Now, from the much-acclaimed author of Deviant, Deranged, and Deprave

The Killer of Little Shepherds: A True Crime Story and the Birth of Forensic Science

Douglas Starr

This book is a riveting true crime story that vividly recounts the birth of modern forensics. At the end of the 19th century, serial murderer Joseph Vacher, known and feared as "The Killer of Little Shepherds," terrorized the French countryside. He eluded authorities for years until he ran up against prosecutor Emile Fourquet and Dr. Alexandre Lacassagne, the era's most renowned criminologist. The

Obsession

John E. Douglas, Mark Olshaker · 379 pages

In Obsession, John Douglas once again takes us fascinatingly behind the scenes, focusing his expertise on predatory crimes, primarily against women. With a deep sense of compassion for the victims and an uncanny understanding of the perpetrators, Douglas looks at the obsessions that lead to rape, stalking, and sexual murder through such cases as Ronnie Shelton, the serial rapist who terrorized Cle

The Jigsaw Man

Paul Britton · 565 pages

An appalling, self-serving book full of pop-psychology and in some cases downright false claims. For instance, Britton tries to play down his role in the investigation of Colin Stagg in the Rachel Nickell case, despite the fact that he was advising the police even while they were interviewing Stagg at the time of his first arrest. An update on the Rachel Nickell case – in the form of an audiob

The Evil That Men Do: FBI Profiler Roy Hazelwood's Journey into the Minds of Serial Killers

Stephen G. Michaud · 307 pages

Profiler Roy Hazelwood is the world's leading expert on the strangest, most dangerous of all aberrant offenders - the sexual criminal. In a career spent investigating and studying these macabre outlaws, Hazelwood has encountered every type, from sexual sadists to serial rapists. His cases have ranged from autoerotic deaths to staged suicides, and have included famous investigations from Toronto's

Whoever Fights Monsters: My Twenty Years Tracking Serial Killers for the FBI

Robert K. Ressler, Tom Shachtman · 289 pages

Inside the Mind of BTK: The True Story Behind the Thirty-Year Hunt for the Notorious Wichita Serial Killer

John E. Douglas, Johnny Dodd · 344 pages

A dramatic and compelling true-crime psychological thriller This incredible story shows how John Douglas tracked and participated in the hunt for one of the most notorious serial killers in U.S. history. For 31 years a man who called himself BTK (Bind, Torture, Kill) terrorized the city of Wichita, Kansas, sexually assaulting and strangling a series of women, taunting the police with frequent co

The Stranger Beside Me: Ted Bundy The Shocking Inside Story

Ann Rule · 512 pages

There are actually two stories here: one describes the gradual disintegration of a seemingly normal, affable, brilliant man into a sexual psychopath so evil, so methodical in his vicious killings, that one wonders if he was at all human. The other story is that of Ann Rule herself, a decent, hard-working, middle-aged mother of four who meets and befriends a nice young man working beside her in a c

Columbine

Dave Cullen · 417 pages

On April 20, 1999, two boys left an indelible stamp on the American psyche. Their goal was simple: to blow up their school, Oklahoma-City style, and to leave "a lasting impression on the world." Their bombs failed, but the ensuing shooting defined a new era of school violence-irrevocably branding every subsequent shooting "another Columbine." When we think of Columbine, we think of the Trench Coat

Dark Dreams: Sexual Violence, Homicide And The Criminal Mind

Roy Hazelwood, Stephen G. Michaud · 288 pages

Profiler Roy Hazelwood is the world's leading expert on the strangest and most dangerous of all aberrant offenders--the sexual criminal. In Dark Dreams he reveals the twisted motives and perverse thinking that go into the most reprehensible crimes. He also catalogs the innovative and remarkably effective techniques--techniques that he helped pioneer at the FBI's Behavioral Science Unit--that allow

The Encyclopedia of Serial Killers

Michael Newton

The Bell Tower: The Case of Jack the Ripper Finally Solved... in San Francisco

Robert Graysmith · 552 pages

The Monster of Florence

Douglas Preston, Mario Spezi · 345 pages

Marshal Guarnaccia feels out of his league when he is assigned to help track down a serial killer, especially when he assigned to work under Simonetti, a man so dedicated to achieving a conviction that he is blinded to the consequences.

Portrait of a Killer: Jack the Ripper - Case Closed

Patricia Cornwell · 387 pages

"Between August and November 1888, at least seven women were murdered in London's Whitechapel area. The gruesome nature of their deaths caused panic and fear in the East End for months, and gave rise to the sobriquet that was to become shorthand for a serial killer - Jack the Ripper.". "For over a hundred years the murders have remained among the world's greatest unsolved crimes, and a wealth o

The Riverman

Robert D. Keppel · 496 pages

In Cold Blood

Truman Capote · 343 pages

On November 15, 1959, in the small town of Holcomb, Kansas, four members of the Clutter family were savagely murdered by blasts from a shotgun held a few inches from their faces. There was no apparent motive for the crime, and there were almost no clues.

American Predator: The Hunt for the Most Meticulous Serial Killer of the 21st Century

Maureen Callahan · 285 pages

Killing for Company: The Case of Dennis Nilsen

Brian Masters · 352 pages

Murderland: Crime and Bloodlust in the Time of Serial Killers

Caroline Fraser · 480 pages

The Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic, and Madness at the Fair That Changed America

Erik Larson · 464 pages

From back cover: Bringing Chicago circa 1893 to vivid life, Erik Larson's spell-binding bestseller intertwines the true tale of two men - the brilliant architect behind the legendary 1893 World's Fair, striving to secure America's place in the world; and the cunning serial killer who used the fair to lure his victims to their death. Combining meticulous research with nail-biting storytelling, Erik

Green River Killer

Jeff Jensen · 240 pages

The Blooding: The True Story of the Narborough Village Murders

Joseph Wambaugh · 304 pages

Fifteen-year-old Lynda Mann's savagely raped and strangled body is found along a shady footpath near the English village of Narborough. Though a massive 150-man dragnet is launched, the case remains unsolved. Three years later the killer strikes again, raping and strangling teenager Dawn Ashforth only a stone's throw from where Lynda was so brutally murdered. But it will take four years, a scienti

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

David Reichert · 320 pages

The riveting personal account of one sheriffs epic hunt for America's most heinous serial killer. For eight years, Sheriff David Reichert devoted days and nights to capturing the Green River Killer--the most notorious serial killer in American history. He was the first detective on the case in 1982 and doggedly pursued it as the body count climbed to 49 and it became the most infamous unsolved cas

The Anatomy of Evil

Michael H. Stone · 430 pages