Serial Murder Books

Denis Meilke has managed to make a very thorough examination of the myriad and varied appearances of Jack the Ripper in movies and television quite an entertaining book. This is a remarkable feat as he details every thing from the times "Ripper" is used in the title of a direct-to-video motion picture to make the mere suggestion of Jack the Ripper to the times when the historical figure makes the bizarre leap into the future on a television show, such as his appearance on the original Star Trek, as well, of course, on the movies based directly on the actual crimes, such as From Hell. Through all of this, the author gives descriptions of the movies, both as entertainment and as ways of seeing the true history of the crimes. The reader will learn much of interest and be amused by the author's opinions.

Being from the area it brought back a lot of memories. Made me realize that I forgot so much about what happened years ago. I have actually met three of the suspects mentioned in the book due to working in the Sheriff's Office for the past nine years. Still unsolved to this day. We may never find out who the killer was and if he will ever strike again.

Signature serial killers are the rarest of all multiple murderers. On each victim they leave their unmistakable signature, or `calling card', so that their pursuers know that the killing is the handiwork of the same offender.

So rare are captured signature serial killers that access to them by anyone other than the authorities is seldom granted. To find a signature serial killer who is both accessible and willing to talk about his crimes is all but impossible.

For these reasons, no signature serial killer has ever told his story in intricate detail to an author.

UNTIL NOW.

To write this book, Paul B. Kidd, an acknowledged authority on Australia's serial killers, spent many hours in prison with Australia's most infamous signature serial killer and probed deep into hiss mind to reveal for the first time why he committed such unimaginable crimes.

Victim by victim, the killer tells in his own words every bone-chilling details of the murders and why he performed his unique ritual on their corpses, the likes of which has never been seen before, or since.

A true story stranger than any fiction, The Knick-Knack Man is addictive reading as it builds to its astonishing climax as the killer is captured in arguably the most extraordinary set of circumstances ever experienced in a murder investigation anywhere in the world.

But buyer beware: the explicit facts and photographs in this book are a new dimension in true-crime horror and are not for the squeamish.

THE POST-MORTEM ARCHIVE PICTURES OF VICTIMS ARE GRISLY.

FOR THE INITIATED TRUE CRIME READER.

The eighth of Turnbull's eleven Glasgow-set "P Division" police procedurals follows the squad over the course of a few days in which a young boy goes missing and a teenage girl's corpse is discovered in the nearby countryside. The prose is clipped and the characterization minimal, as Turnbull lets the story unfurl in a strict chronological progression. Squad members who go off duty generally shuffle off-stage as the action is picked up by the new shift of characters. While occasional diversions are made to the coppers' off-duty lives, this never reaches the psychological complexity or detail of, for example, John Harvey's series. (Of course, as with any series, the characters will be much richer to those who have read the previous seven books.)

Adhering the strict framework of procedurals, the police systematically pursue each case, and further details slowly accrue, including a potential link to a 25-year-old case. Some of the procedures show their age (for example, suspect parameters are given to the unit's "collator", who works some kind of computer magic to yield potential suspects, and skull-based facial reconstruction is a brand new field), but it all holds together quite well. I'm not generally a fan of serial killer plotlines, but Turnbull's light touch and avoidance of spending fifty pages delving into the killer's motivation makes this one palatable. Readers who prefer to focus on procedure over character will find this an excellent read, and I will certainly be going back to start the series from the beginning.

a detective and historic read, if you're interested in early nineteenth century london and their ways of life and also interested in murder most horrid, THEN GET YOUR CASH OUT. superbly written, flows like a flowy thing and keeps you hooked like a sharp hooky type object.if you can't get hold of it then i'll sell you mine

This book was hard to read, to say the least. This book is not for the faint of heart, nor is it an everyday book that sits by your nightstand. However, if you're interested in reading about serial killers, this book will definitely interest you. The book is a quick-paced book about one of America's most bizzare serial sex killers. Jeffery Lionel Dahmer is responisble for at least seventeen confirmed murders. All men that were all strangers to this sick serial killer. This book chronicles Dahmer's life. From a young age Jeffery Dahmer found himself fascinated with death. When most kids were collecting sports cards, toys, ect., Dahmer collected dead animals. That wasn't all though. He would take a chemist-set his parents bought him and see what chemicals would disolve the dead animals (the same method he would use on numerous humans; victims). As his parents' marriage fell apart, so did Dahmer and his soul. He quickly found himself indulging in large ammounts of alcohol, which started around the age of fourteen.
His first victim was Stephen Hicks, who had failed to return to his parents' home after a weekend rock concert. They filed a missing persons report, but little did they know that the infamous serial killer Jeffery Dahmer had killed the poor young man, and destroyed his body through the use of chemicals and then took a sledgehammer and crushed his bones and hid them. At the young age of eighteen, Dahmer had begun a killing spree that would last for thirteen years and involve sixteen other victims. Jeffery Dahmer was a insane sex killer, who prayed on innocent victims and seen that any of them that were in Dahmer's grasp meant certain death. Dahmer would lure his victims in with the promise of money, what they got is unmentionable. Dahmer was a closet-homosexual, that would try to disolve the dead bodies in diffrent kinds of chemicals (trying to dispose of their bodies), he was a cannibal (in one section of the book, authorities asked him why he had a human heart in his freezer, he replied "I was saving it to eat later"), he was also a necrophiliac who had a terrible fear of abandonment. This book is very informative, taking interviews from neighbors, childhood friends, family members and local authorities. However, this book isn't for anyone with a weak stomach, they explain EVERYTHING. This book is also a little out of date -- it didn't mention his death in prison (he actually died at the hands of another inmate) nor did it take it any further than a month after the bizzare discovery. If your a reader of the minds and actions of serial killers, then I highly recommend this book, even if you're interested in the murders that Dahmer committed. This book delves deep into the mind of the serial-sex-killer and will leave you speechless.

David Peace's first novel, Nineteen seventy four was a story with roots in working class English literature. The central character, Eddy, a journalist, became embroiled in police corruption, and a sordid series of child murders. The novel was set in Yorkshire, written in the first person, and explored the underside of an area that months later saw the start of a vicious series of sexual murders committed by Peter Sutcliffe, the "Yorkshire Ripper". This was a promising debut. That promise starts to be fulfilled with the second volume in Peace's West Yorkshire Quartet, Nineteen Seventy Seven.

In this novel Peace raises his work a notch. He has produced one of the finest British crime novels of recent years, and in his quartet of novels looks set to produce one of the finest series since Ellroy's Dudley Smith novels.

The narrative in Nineteen Seventy Seven focuses on two characters, Jack Whitehead, a journalist; and Bob Fraser, a police sergeant. Both characters appeared in Nineteen Seventy Four. Both are haunted by the shocking conclusion to the earlier novel. Their stories are set against the backdrop of the Sutcliffe murders, and the Silver Jubilee of Queen Elizabeth II.

Each strand is written in first person narrative, and for the most part the plot lines run parallel, although Fraser and Whitehead meet and exchange information. There are some stylistic similarities between the two strands (both have astream of consciousness feel) but for the most part the characters are sufficiently differentiated. While the strands run parallel there are some similarities in their development. For example, both are, or become, involved with prostitutes at a time when those prostitutes in West Yorkshire feared for their lives due to the Sutcliffe murders.

This is where Peace has taken an audacious step. In Nineteen Seventy Seven he begins to work on a fictionalisation of the Sutcliffe murders. However, the salient facts remain accurate. He places his characters in the main regional newspaper, and in the crime squad investigating the murders. At the centre of the novel lie the murders, and Peace - in both strands - is interested in following up the victim's reactions. His characters visit the families. Unlike some of the crossword puzzle mysteries where murder is a game with no consequences here, everyone involved is affected, from the family, to those investigating, to those that are left, living in fear. It is this agenda that underpins the novel and Peace's third novel, Nineteen Eighty, published in the UK in August 2001. And it is this dimension, developing in this novel and still further in Nineteen eighty, that gives Nineteen seventy seven a depth that much contemporary crime and thriller fiction lacks.

Aside from the social dimension, Peace's work has raised a level from his first novel in his characterisation. Neither central character is an archetypal hero, neither wholly amoral. Whitehead and Fraser are both given enough complexity to be credible. There are some powerful (and very disturbing) scenes in which Fraser assaults his lover; coupled with a tenderness between Fraser and his child. Taking mere examples from the novel may make the characterisation sound pat, the usual policeman bending the rules with personal difficulties. It is not easy to convey how unlike the orthodox approach in crime fiction this is. However, differ it does; and this is primarily through the first person narrative.

One further dimension is the series of occasional transcripts from a fictionalised talk radio show where callers talk about the Ripper, the Jubilee, and late seventies Yorkshire. These interludes punctuate the chapters, acting like a Greek chorus on the events in the main narrative.

I should also note the powerful conclusion. In Nineteen seventy four, the conclusion is overblown, excessive. Here, in retrospect, it seems inevitable. Yet, it is all the more shocking for that.

As the second book in the series, I would recommend that this be read after Nineteen seventy four. There are various references, and incidental characters (including BJ , involved in the blackmail of a councillor in Nineteen seventy four) where knowledge from the first novel is presupposed. Without Nineteen seventy four I feel that many references would have passed me by. However, as the subject matter is sufficiently different this novel could be read as stand alone.

Having praised the novel why a rating of four and not five stars? This is based on one consideration central to Peace's agenda. I am uncertain to what extent crime novelists should deal with real events, fresh in the memories. While the novelist expresses concern about those affected - and makes this a central plank of the novel, could one argue that the very action of using the murders is itself potentially exploitative and damaging.

Highly recommended. If you liked this try On Beulah Height by Reginald Hill, or The Black Dahlia by James Ellroy.

Was very well put together, but seems like reading a college term paper. Author has many good observations about the young Ted and seems to have the same questions alot of us have-Why did Ted become a serial killer?

An addiction to Ripperology and other infamous cases of true crime originally drew me to this book. A warning: THIS IS NOT AN ITEM FOR THE FAINT OF HEART. Even with the various Ripper related books I've read over the years, parts of the prose had me cringing in horror.

The most compelling prose in the various selections lies in the exploration of the six most common Ripper suspects (The Butcher, The Priest, The Poet, The Physician, The Psychic and The Prince). Even a casual reading can turn into a marathon reading session.

The language used is graphic and the images presented can be quite disturbing. Small details from the real Ripper case files such as the contents of victim Catherine Eddowes' pockets are woven in the narrative, adding that extra bit of realism to draw you into the insular world of Whitechapel during the murders.

Ripper! is not another volume in the endless flow of armchair detective volumes that litter the true crime section of your local bookseller. You will not come away with a definitive answer to who committed these crimes. Buchanan does not force his opinions or wild theories about the Ripper's true identity on the reader unlike most Ripperology selections. Instead the reader is offered a look into what visions may have filled the mind and compelled the person behind the Ripper murders.

This is the story of Robert Ben Rhoades, a trucker who preyed on hitchhikers and women he picked up at truckstops. He tortured, then sometimes killed them. Also included is an in-depth look at the woman who was first charmed by him, then slowly exposed to his darker appetites, and went on to marry him and became one of this victims. I also liked the author's detailed explanations of how facial reconstruction can be done from a skull. All in all, a very good book.