Tags:serial killers
Serial Killers
A comprehensive examination into the frightening true crime history of serial homicide—including information on America’s most prolific serial killers such as:Jeffrey Dahmer • Ted Bundy • “Co-ed Killer” Ed Kemper • The BTK Killer • “Highway Stalker” Henry Lee Lucas • Monte Ralph Rissell • “Shoe Fetish Slayer” Jerry Brudos • “Night Stalker” Richard Ramirez • “Unabomber” Ted Kaczynski • Ed Gein “The Butcher of Plainfield” • “Killer Clown” John Wayne Gacy • Andrew Cunanan • And more...In this unique book, Peter Vronsky documents the psychological, investigative, and cultural aspects of serial murder, beginning with its first recorded instance in Ancient Rome through fifteenth-century France on to such notorious contemporary cases as cannibal/necrophile Ed Kemper, the BTK killer, Henry Lee Lucas, Monte Ralph Rissell, Jerry Brudos, Richard Ramirez, “Unabomber” Ted Kaczynski, Ed Gein, John Wayne Gacy, Ted Bundy, Jeffrey Dahmer, and the emergence of what he classifies as the “serial rampage killer” such as Andrew Cunanan, who murdered fashion designer Gianni Versace.Vronsky not only offers sound theories on what makes a serial killer but also makes concrete suggestions on how to survive an encounter with one—from recognizing verbal warning signs to physical confrontational resistance. Exhaustively researched with transcripts of interviews with killers, and featuring up-to-date information on the apprehension and conviction of the Green River killer and the Beltway Snipers, Vronsky’s one-of-a-kind book covers every conceivable aspect of an endlessly riveting true crime phenomenon.INCLUDES PHOTOGRAPHS
The Want-Ad Killer
From the #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Stranger Beside Me comes a true crime story of a serial killer who was sentenced to die—yet lived to murder again....and again.... After committing his first grisly crime, Harvey Louis Carignan beat a death sentence and continued to manipulate, rape, and bludgeon women to death, using want ads to lure his young female victims. And time after time, justice was thwarted by a killer whose twisted legal genius was matched only by his sick savagery. Complete with the testimony of the officers who put him behind bars and the women who barely escaped with their lives, The Want-Ad Killer is one of the most shattering and thought-provoking true-crime stories of our time.
The Burn Farm
First, She Seduced Them. . .Sheila LaBarre liked to troll the personal ads and homeless shelters, looking for men whom society had rejected for one reason or another--men she could easily dominate both verbally and sexually. One by one, she invited them to her remote New Hampshire farmhouse, where she engaged them in S&M. But over time, sex gave way to brutal acts of torture as she mercilessly flogged and beat her captives until they confessed to committing unspeakable acts. Once satisfied that they had paid for their sins, Sheila savagely slaughtered them and burned their remains on her farm. . . Then, Humiliated, Tortured, And Killed Them. . . From the disturbing audiotapes Sheila made of her victims' confessions to her own bizarre statements in which she claimed to have returned from the dead to be God's avenger, The Burn Farm takes you behind the scenes of the scandal that rocked a quiet New England town, and into the twisted, depraved mind of a manipulative, cold-blooded murderer. . . Includes 16 Pages of Shocking Photos
Killer Twins
The chilling true story of the Spahalski brothers, who looked alike, acted alike—and killed alike . . . Robert Bruce Spahalski and Stephen Spahalski were identical twins. Same hair, same eyes, same thirst for blood. Stephen was the first brother to kill—by viciously bashing in storeowner Ronald Ripley’s head with a hammer. Unlike Stephen, Robert didn’t stop with just one victim. With the cord of an iron, Robert strangled prostitute Morraine Armstrong during sex. With his bare hands, he choked his girlfriend Adrian Berger. He brutally bludgeoned to death businessman Charles Grande. Even his friend Vivian Irizarry didn’t escape his lurid killing spree. Robert ultimately confessed to the four murders in vivid detail. But police suspected there were many more. The twins’ twisted story became even more bizarre as the true nature of their sick psyches came to light. In Killer Twins, through extensive interviews, Michael Benson reveals for the first time the horrific details of Robert Spahalski’s life and crimes in a disturbing look at the inner workings of a homicidal mind.
The Devil at Genesee Junction
Today you’d call Ballantyne suburban, but back then, at the start of the summer of 1966, it was country — just a cluster of houses, some of them shacks, on or near Ballantyne Road, in the Town of Chili, NY. And while June 25 started like any other day it would end in a nightmare. In The Devil at Genesee Junction, veteran crime writer, Michael Benson, returns to his formerly rural hometown to take on the double homicide of his friends Kathy Bernhard and George-Ann Formiciola that took place that night. The two girls were missing for a month and then found in the bushes horribly mutilated. The double homicide changed the author’s childhood suddenly, and drastically. He went from living in a rural playland, to being encased in fear, wondering who among them was the werewolf who cut up Kathy and George-Ann. This heinous crime was never resolved, and didn’t go away. In recent years, the author has teamed up with a victim’s mom, and a local private investigator to delve deep into the 6/66 murders, developing along the way some strong new leads and shocking details. Together they have heated up this icy cold case, and their investigation has led them in a startling new direction.
Dangerous Ground
The bestselling author of Targeted shares the identity of the serial killer who co-starred with him on Dark Minds and the story of their intriguing bond.In September 2011, M. William Phelps made a decision that would change reality-based television—and his own life. He asked a convicted serial killer to act as a consultant for his TV series. Under the code name “Raven,” the murderer shared his insights into the minds of other killers and helped analyze their crimes. As the series became an international sensation, Raven became Phelps's unlikely confidante, ally—and friend.In this deeply personal account, Phelps traces his own family's dark history, and takes us into the heart and soul of a serial murderer. He also chronicles the complex relationship he developed with Raven. From questions about morality to Raven's thoughts on the still-unsolved, brutal murder of Phelps's sister-in-law, the author found himself grappling with an unwanted, unexpected, unsettling connection with a cold-blooded killer.Drawing on over seven thousand pages of letters, dozens of hours of recorded conversations, personal and Skype visits, and a friendship five years in the making, Phelps sheds new light on Raven's bloody history, including details of an unknown victim, the location of a still-buried body—and a jaw-dropping admission. All this makes for an unforgettable journey into the mind of a charming, manipulative psychopath that few would dare to know—and the determined journalist who did just that.Praise for New York Times bestselling author M. William Phelps“Anything by Phelps is an eye-opening experience.” —Suspense Magazine“Phelps is the king of true crime.” —Lynda Hirsch, Creators Syndicate columnist
I'll Be Watching You
The true-crime story of Edwin Snelgrove, an American serial killer who wanted to out-kill Ted Bundy, from the New York Times bestselling author.In September 2001, Carmen Rodriguez, a beautiful thirty-two-year-old Hartford mother of four, went missing. At first police were stymied . . . until a killer's crucial mistake led investigators down a long, dark road of cold, calculated murder . . .In 1987, single mother Mary Ellen Renard was strangled, repeatedly stabbed, and left for dead in her New Jersey apartment. Her vicious assailant had already killed once . . . and would kill again. But unlike the fiend's other victims, Mary Ellen lived to tell the tale . . .Clean-cut, popular and on the fast track at a multinational computer firm, Rutgers grad Edwin “Ned” Snelgrove shocked friends and colleagues with a plea bargain for Renard's brutal attack—and the heinous 1983 murder of college girlfriend Karen Osmun. Vowing never to be caught again, Ned spent his time in prison obsessively studying the violent career of his idol Ted Bundy . . . then was released ten years early for good behavior . . .Unflinching and brilliantly researched, this is an exclusive tour into the twisted mind of an all-American killer . . . and a state attorney's tireless efforts to lock him away forever.Praise for I'll Be Watching You“Skillfully balances a victim's story against that of an arrogant serial killer as it reveals a deviant mind intent on topping the world's most dangerous criminals. Phelps has an unrelenting sense for detail that affirms his place as one of our most engaging crime journalists.” —Katherine Ramsland, New York Times – bestselling author of Confession of a Serial KillerIncludes sixteen pages of revealing photos
Perfect Poison: A Female Serial Killer's Deadly Medicine
The true-crime story of a Massachusetts nurse with a dark secret, by the New York Times bestselling author of The Girl Left Behind.At the Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Northampton, Massachusetts, Kristen Gilbert was known as a hardworking, dedicated nurse. Yet so many emergencies and sudden deaths occurred under Kristen's watch that others jokingly called her the “Angel of Death.” No one suspected the horrifying truth: that over the course of six months, Gilbert had caused the deaths of as many as forty patients. With new insight into the sociopathic mindset of nurses who kill, and the latest details on Gilbert's ongoing prison sentence, M. William Phelps exposes how one person's good intentions went so chillingly, killingly wrong . . .Praise for Perfect Poison“True crime at its best—compelling, gripping, an edge-of-the-seat thriller. Phelps packs wallops of delight with his skillful ability to narrate a suspenseful story.” —Harvey Rachlin, award-winning author of Song and System“A compelling account of terror . . . the author dedicates himself to unmasking the psychopath with facts, insight, and the other proven methods of journalistic leg work.” —Lowell Cauffiel, New York Times bestselling author of House of SecretsIncludes sixteen pages of dramatic photos
Devil's Rooming House
The gripping tale of a legendary, century-old murder spree***A silent, simmering killer terrorized New England in1911. As a terrible heat wave killed more than 2,000 people, another silent killer began her own murderous spree. That year a reporter for the Hartford Courant noticed a sharp rise in the number of obituaries for residents of a rooming house in Windsor, Connecticut, and began to suspect who was responsible: Amy Archer-Gilligan, who’d opened the Archer Home for Elderly People and Chronic Invalids four years earlier. “Sister Amy” would be accused of murdering both of her husbands and up to sixty-six of her patients with cocktails of lemonade and arsenic; her story inspired the Broadway hit Arsenic and Old Lace. The Devil’s Rooming House is the first book about the life, times, and crimes of America’s most prolific female serial killer. In telling this fascinating story, M. William Phelps also paints a vivid portrait of early-twentieth-century New England.
The Killing Kind
The New York Times bestselling author of Obsessed examines the lives of a South Carolina serial killer and his victims in this true-crime story.Heather Catterton was a beautiful, beloved seventeen-year-old when her body was found in the brush by a country road in South Carolina. Sweet-natured Randi Saldana's remains were then discovered, charred and unrecognizable, in a wooded area nearby. Bestselling investigative journalist M. William Phelps delves into the lives of Danny Hembree's victims and reconstructs the twisting path from his horrifying crimes to his high-profile trial and conviction. Drawing on interviews with the killer himself, Phelps chillingly brings readers into the mind of a murderer.Praise for The Killing Kind“Phelps focuses on unrepentant killer Danny Hembree . . . [who] seizes the chance to take center stage with lurid confessions of a decades-long career of violent robbery, assault, rape, and murder . . . . Fans of the authors Discover TV series, Dark Minds, will be rewarded.” —Publishers WeeklyIncludes sixteen pages of dramatic photos
The Man Who Forgets
When we forget things, we don’t even know whether we are speaking the red truth or the white lie. Every word we mutter happens to be the thread of becoming the suspect.Robin, a man who was much addicted to reading crime thriller novels, was suffering from amnesia. He would usually forget events even after a few minutes. Last night, after doing passionate romance, when he woke early morning, he found his wife’s bloodied index finger on the floor. Mr. John & his assistant take the thread to solve the clueless case. There was no suspect except her husband Robin, who was the only person with his wife. Robin seemed to be the leading culprit. Now the burden of showing the hands clean was on him only, but how he could prove innocent as he didn’t even know what happened a few minutes ago.Will he be able to investigate his own life story? Or he slayed his wife. There are many questions with no clue of answers.Undoubtedly, this time you can’t judge the characters and predict the tale of this book.
The Truth in True Crime
Explore fifteen life-truths gleaned from both contemporary murder investigations and ancient biblical wisdom."Every murder investigation teaches two lessons: a death lesson and a life lesson."For decades, cold-case homicide detective J. Warner Wallace investigated the causes behind deaths and murders, chasing one lead after another as he attempted to solve the case. Several of these cases remain open, unsolved mysteries. . .But even those that haven't yet revealed the identity of the killer do expose the truths of human nature: what's important to us, what threatens our well-being, and what causes us to flourish.Join Wallace as he investigates life lessons he learned as a detective, so that you can:Better understand your own identity and the identity of your Creator.Rethink the nature of death so you can live a better life.Uncover life-truths gleaned from both contemporary murder investigations and ancient biblical wisdom.Discover profound attributes of human beings that will guide you down the path of true self-discovery. Each chapter introduces you to an investigation of a death as Wallace and his partner Rick chase down leads and along the way learn guiding principles to help you thrive and flourish as a human being created in the image of God.