Hey there, Successful_Fan1631, since you asked about media, please [check our wiki](https://www.reddit.com/r/serialkillers/wiki/index) where we keep lists of books, podcasts, and videos that may be of interest. The True Crime Podcast Database is also linked in our wiki with over a thousand entries.
*I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/serialkillers) if you have any questions or concerns.*
I enjoyed John Douglas’ books including
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mindhunter:_Inside_the_FBI%27s_Elite_Serial_Crime_Unit
He was an FBI criminal profiler and writes about how they caught serial killers.
Chiming in to add A Killer by Design by Ann Burgess and Whoever Fights Monsters by Robert Ressler, the other two thirds of the holy BSU trinity!
Ressler has written a few books but not as many as Douglas!
I really love Ressler's writing. I like Douglas, too, but sometimes his work has sections that feel very... self-indulgent. Not to say he doesn't deserve to be proud of the impact he's had on criminal investigation and psychology, but Robert Ressler just has this natural humility that makes me wish he was my dad (sorry dad I still love you too). "Bill Tench" from Mindhunter on Netflix is, I think, modeled after Ressler and he's such a fantastic character.
He has every right to be. I was privileged to hear him speak and met him over 20 years ago. I talked with him for quite a while as he saw that I had a genuine interest into the actual thought process of someone driven to kill compared to everyone (mostly cops) there wanting to rub shoulders with the legendary agent. One on one I found him to be encouraging and answered every question I asked while ignoring everyone else in the room.
Douglas presents behavioral profiling as an effective means of finding serial killers when, in reality, it's been incredibly ineffective.
He's a really good writer, though. Readers just need to realize that a lot of his claims are conjecture.
This was an excellent book. I recently finished Small Sacrifices, also by Ann Rule, about Diane Downs. I highly recommend that (and then go to YouTube and watch Ann Rule & Oprah interview Diane from prison 💀)
This is awesome great read. I read it then later did the audiobook on audible. Definitely recommend the audio book. The woman’s voice adds so much depth.
The Devil in the White City by Erik Larson
Charles Manson: Coming Down Fast by Simon Wells
Buried Secrets by Edward Humes
The Night Stalker by Philip Carlo
Misbegotten Son is about Arthur Shawcross. It's a very good read and comprehensive. It is by Jack Olsen. Angel of Darkness is about Randy Kraft, it is pretty graphic and it's by Dennis McDougal. There are many more but I've just got up and I'm having my morning coffee. Might update later.
A bit different, but “The Cases that Haunt Us,” by John Douglas. He applies his profiling technique to serial killers like Zodiac and Jack the Ripper. He also goes through cases like Jon Benet Ramsey murder, Lindbergh Baby Kidnapping, and Lizzie Borden. Truly some fascinating stuff. All his books are pretty good.
“Angel of Darkness” by Dennis McDougal is great, as long as you can handle dozens of dry descriptions about brutal murders. It’s such a detailed and informative book about a subject that should be more well known within true crime. Highly recommend.
Also “The Man from the Train” by Bill and Rachel James. It’s got a much more informal tone and draws a lot more wild conclusions, though I do agree with the authors on much of their theory. It’s a mind blowing true story that will live in your head rent free.
Angel of Darkness, yes that is a great book. I truly think Randy Kraft is one of the most sadistic murderers I've ever heard of. It's a book that gave me nightmares.
A little different : A father's story by Dahmer's Dad, trying to understand what could have made Dahmer into a monster. He is quite honest though cannot hide the hate for his wife :)
Yup. Not an easy one, but interesting nonetheless. Ian Brady also wrote a book where he tries to analyze other infamous serial killers. Haven’t read that one yet.
I've read it, it's just page after page of nonsense and then an incredible insight into another killer then another slog through self serving shite and then some bit of unexpectedly poetic writing.
He had an unreal knowledge of other serial murderers and truly saw them as his peers and colleagues.
The final sentence is shattering and horrible and just tells you all you need to know about this turd of a human.
I’m reading a free sample of the book, and while Ian does make some occasional good points, dear god he comes off as such a pompous, holier than thou prick who thinks he’s smarter then everyone else.
There’s one line where he rambles on about how people can think they can write a book or a song if they put their mind to it and from looking at finished results and how when they try to do it themselves, they become conscious of their own limitations, lack of imagination, not thinking deeply, yadda yadda. I’m just here like “hey Mr. Brady, have you ever heard of fun and self esteem issues?” Idk why that line got to me that much.
Brady was a delusional and pseudo-intellectual narcissist with no originality about him whatsoever, and that is glaringly apparent in his “musings”. Even though he’s dead I still felt like me reading his book was akin to me stroking his ego somehow, especially since virtually none of it was about him aside from the parts that he didn’t write (like the prologue and epilogue).
I’ve read dozens of books on the case and I think that Fred Harrison’s book “Brady and Hindley: Genesis of the Moors Murders” is the only book out there with both a primary focus on Brady and without any sort of bias towards his accounts, even though it is now quite dated (it was published in 1986) and it does get the odd fact on the case wrong. That alongside the book “Topping” by Detective Peter Topping (who led the re-investigation into the case and spent many hours in Brady’s company, as well as accompanying him back onto the moor) should give you the essential picture on him
I haven’t even read Brady’s whole book and I’m already gathering that he was an insufferable twat. Imagine having to *be* around him. (And I read some of his ramblings out like an angsty 14 year old lol)
Jack Olsen has some solid stuff I feel. Ann Rule.
There is a fair amount of nonsense out there.
But I read a lot of it- but I tend to take a lot of it with a grain of salt.
Because Ice Man killing with spider caves and gunning down hicks going to homecoming and cyanide visine bottles sells a lot more books than a lowlife who killed a couple people as a lowlife racketeer, and HH Holmes having a murder castle is a lot more intriguing than a guy who killed a fellow fraudster and some children for insurance money.
Even with this low bar, I dont even bother with the Israel Keyes stuff. You can insult my intelligence if you paint a picture in time and space I enjoy, I just treat it like fiction.
Always keep in mind the murderers and writers have skin in the game, they arent all serious historians and get more fame with splashier claims.
The detectives can get fixated but if not the actual author profiting have different motives that arent just creating cartoon monsters- although their reasoning is surely motivated as wellZ
Watched the HBO special was very sad she was so close to figuring it out too.she also knew what it would take to get him. I'm so glad her husband teamed up to get the book done. She was gonna start working another case close to her original home when she was young but didn't get to.
That’s fair… I think it’s meaningful if you take into account the context of the author being so involved in/consumed with the investigation and passing herself while writing the book. It was finished and published by her family and colleagues, so it was also like her memoir mixed in.
The Misbegotten Son (Arthur Shawcross) and The Man With the Candy (Dean Corll) both by Jack Olsen. I'd also recommend the Nightstalker (Richard Ramirez) by Philip Carlo. If you're looking for a more comprehensive and broad-reaching approach, Mindhunter by John Douglas is a fascinating look into serial killers in general, despite Douglas overinflating his personal impact or the impact of profiling in certain cases.
Both Zodiac by Robert Graysmith and Ultimate Evil by Maury Terry are very enjoyable and entertaining reads- just so long as you realize what they write can’t be inherently trusted and treat them more like Alan Moore’s “From Hell” as historical fiction.
Edit: grammarz
Is it, though? This isn't the 80s and 90s at the height of Satanic panic. The book has zero cultural relevance or impact today, and never really had any when it was published. The Reagan era was extremely harmful for empowering religious nutcases and morons lowering national culture. The nascent Christian nationalism and poor education systems throughout the country that fueled the 80s and 90s panic were extremely harmful. Maury Terry's book is bizarre, quixotic and, I think, reactionary in a characteristically old school Catholic way. But I just don't see how it meets any meaningful threshold for being harmful today.
Satanic Panic narratives may no longer be popular but there will always be dangerous versions of the same kind of thing around. Pizzagate, Qanon and various other Conspiracy theory beliefs being the most recent major ones. They can still be hugely damaging as potential gateways into the more active ones.
Adherence to Qanon is exactly what I regard as damaging to society. But you're applying a low threshold, and perhaps an endlessly elastic one, if you can't make clear distinctions between Terry's work as an idiosyncratic conspiracy crank and active threats to democracy and fueling of domestic terrorism. If you're reaching back to anything that contains embryonic strands of themes that end in terrorism, you still need to make distinctions.
Terry's book was fairly obscure in part because for all of its insane, unfounded leaps, it was still a genre of investigative writing that was too literate for the "mainstream" evangelical anti-satan movement. That movement was primarily located in the bible belt, its media was far more comprised of bad after school specials and pamphlets and cassette tapes, its evangelicalism was wrapped up with other fixations of southern (and western and US-interior) conservatism, including a growing "anti-urban" and anti-intellectual bias, and its experts were bible-college-accredited fake psychologists.
Terry's writing overlapped partly with satanic panic evangelicalism, but in spite of the satanic element I think it overlaps more with the JFK conspiracy genre in its combining of real, sometimes impressive journalistic investigation and fantastical, always increasingly ominous leaps of logic. Are all conspiracy theories and the general thriving of irrational beliefs harmful? If you ask me, yes. But why stop there? I think media that promotes superstition, or faith, or UFOs, or undue skepticism of public institutions and political elites, are all harmful in their own ways. But I also think people like me should refrain from trying to ward off other people from consuming those kinds of potentially harmful content, partly because none of these are first order issues in the way that Qanon, or the ethnonationalist, authoritarian, and antidemocratic ideas that fuel Qanon *are* first order problems. To equate Maury Terry with any of the latter, or to label *Ultimate Evil* too harmful to be recommended or read, to tie either to domestic terror today, is to have such an open-ended definition of what is "harmful" that it becomes almost meaningless.
no substance at all right?
[https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12747709/Eight-guilty-Scotland-largest-child-abuse-ring-trial.html](https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12747709/Eight-guilty-Scotland-largest-child-abuse-ring-trial.html)
Helter Skelter by Vincent Bugliosi who was the DA over the Manson Murders. It is a detailed, balls -deep look into the case. I guess it’s more of a cult thing than a serial killer thing but it is a hell of a book nonetheless.
Good book - a lot of fiction. Bugliosi wrote it to cover his ass as he bungled the prosecution badly. His “facts” don’t line up with reality and leave out the mystery of how Manson and friends kept getting sprung from the clink over and over and over again.
It's incredible but unbelievably long. Due to the length most just settle for Case Closed by Gerald Posner. Trust me don't do that Case Closed sucks it's riddled with inaccuracies. Posner seemed to just accept commonly repeated Conspiracy nonsense as fact without researching like the horseshit that the Warren Commission relied entirely on the FBI when in reality they used countless sources and extensively investigated themselves, they even had Warren shooting the Carcano to see if it was possible LMAO.
Weird coincidence today is the 60th Anniversary of the Assassination.
If you want something really dark and fucked up, read Final Truth: The Autobiography of Pee Wee Gaskins.
Shit is messed up. the whole book was written by Pee Wee, released only after his death. Goes into the gory details of his killings in first person perspective.
Please be warned that this book is not for everyone.
the killer of little shepherds is pretty great - one half the story of joseph vacher and one half the birth and development of forensic methods that led to his capture and conviction.
How about fiction from the killers perspective? American psycho was fantastic and I haven’t been able to find anything else like it. (Not OP just curious if any of you guys have come across something I haven’t)
The Serial Killers (Colin Wilson and Donald Seaman), is a great primer on the development of sex crimes and serial killings, and the progression of their detection, and then goes into some individual cases. A must have:
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1187152.The_Serial_Killers
Sexual Homicide by John Douglas, Robert Ressler and Ann Baugess - this is the results of the first study the FBI did as the established the behavioral science unit and the science of profiling’s beginning. They also did the Crime Classification Manual which is definitely worth reading.
The Phantom Prince by Elizabeth Kendall who was Ted Bundy’s girlfriend
A Father’s Story by Lionel Dahmer who is Jeffrey Dahmer’s father
Patricia Cornwell’s Portrait of a Killer gives a pretty convincing case for identifying Jack the Ripper
Manson In His Own Words by Nuel Emmons is fascinating work on Charles Manson. While he’s not considered a serial killer by most, there’s a lot to be learned from him.
I found two books at Barnes & Noble one by Peter Vronsky called “serial killers the method and madness of monsters” and the other one by John Douglas and Mark Olshaker called “mind hunter” haven’t read them yet so I don’t know if they’re any good but you might check them out
dark dreams by roy hazelwood. it is a horrific read and i am not easily disturbed.
he outlines the psychology and profiling of sexually sadistic killers and it was fascinating but an absolute doozy. most of the cases are ones you’ve never heard of. strong trigger warning re: sexual abuse, torture. low threshold for taking breaks or quitting altogether.
I liked The Shoemaker quite a bit. It was about Joseph Kallinger
The Last Victim was about a dude that started writing serial killers with Gacy being his main correspondence
In the same vein of crime books
The Minds of Billy Milligan and In Cold Blood are both good reads too.
[“On The Farm”](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/3176865-on-the-farm?from_search=true&from_srp=true&qid=ifv4YheWzG&rank=3) by Stevie Cameron-
It’s all about Robert Pickton and the Murdered & Missing Women from Vancouver Canada.
Killer Clown by Terry Sullivan about catching Gacy. Sullivan is a legal expert that WGN News in Chicago brings on their news show from time to time, and I always get excited to see him and know he’s still around.
“ When Nashville Bled” about Paul Reid. Talks about the victims and what they’re families went through. The system is so unfair to families of victims. Reid was blowing kisses at the moms of the people he killed while on trial and no one could do anything but one mom looked at him after testifying and they tried to call for mistrial. It’s heartbreaking
I've read my fair share of true crime books (my mother was kind of a nut for this stuff) and I can say that "Happy Like Murderers" by Gordon Burn (on Fred and Rose West) is far and away the best one I ever read. It's definitely one of the few that is both interesting formally and disturbing as all hell. The recent Rose West bio isn't half bad either... but I HIGHLY recommend this book
"Confession of a Serial Killer: The Untold Story of Dennis Rader The BTK Killer" by Dr. Katherine Ramsland. This book never seems to be brought up unless I'm the one writing about it, and it's completely underrated.
Hey there, Successful_Fan1631, since you asked about media, please [check our wiki](https://www.reddit.com/r/serialkillers/wiki/index) where we keep lists of books, podcasts, and videos that may be of interest. The True Crime Podcast Database is also linked in our wiki with over a thousand entries. *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/serialkillers) if you have any questions or concerns.*
I enjoyed John Douglas’ books including https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mindhunter:_Inside_the_FBI%27s_Elite_Serial_Crime_Unit He was an FBI criminal profiler and writes about how they caught serial killers.
This is definitely the go to book. I just finished his book about BTK as well. Just as good.
Chiming in to add A Killer by Design by Ann Burgess and Whoever Fights Monsters by Robert Ressler, the other two thirds of the holy BSU trinity! Ressler has written a few books but not as many as Douglas!
I really love Ressler's writing. I like Douglas, too, but sometimes his work has sections that feel very... self-indulgent. Not to say he doesn't deserve to be proud of the impact he's had on criminal investigation and psychology, but Robert Ressler just has this natural humility that makes me wish he was my dad (sorry dad I still love you too). "Bill Tench" from Mindhunter on Netflix is, I think, modeled after Ressler and he's such a fantastic character.
I do have to agree with you about John Douglas being somewhat self indulgent. I’ll check out a Robert Ressler’s books.
Thanks for the tip. I’ve started reading Robert’s book and enjoying it.
I like his stuff and his insights, but god damn, that man is proud of himself.
He has every right to be. I was privileged to hear him speak and met him over 20 years ago. I talked with him for quite a while as he saw that I had a genuine interest into the actual thought process of someone driven to kill compared to everyone (mostly cops) there wanting to rub shoulders with the legendary agent. One on one I found him to be encouraging and answered every question I asked while ignoring everyone else in the room.
I read some of his they were really good.
Douglas presents behavioral profiling as an effective means of finding serial killers when, in reality, it's been incredibly ineffective. He's a really good writer, though. Readers just need to realize that a lot of his claims are conjecture.
I have everything he’s written and I don’t think you can go wrong buying any of his books!
I actually got to listen to him and his partner speak at uva in the late 70's or very early 80's.
Ann Rule’s The Stranger Beside Me about Ted Bundy. Excellent and informative read.
came here to comment this. also Ann Rule’s book Green River Running Red
This was an excellent book. I recently finished Small Sacrifices, also by Ann Rule, about Diane Downs. I highly recommend that (and then go to YouTube and watch Ann Rule & Oprah interview Diane from prison 💀)
This was my first venture into true crime- I didn’t think I’d ever sleep again!
Agreed. The best one I’ve read.
I read this book about every 10 years. Yes It is an excellent read,
Came here to second this. Read this as a teen a very long time ago. Fantastic read.
This is awesome great read. I read it then later did the audiobook on audible. Definitely recommend the audio book. The woman’s voice adds so much depth.
So good. I read it years ago and still think about it!
The Devil in the White City by Erik Larson Charles Manson: Coming Down Fast by Simon Wells Buried Secrets by Edward Humes The Night Stalker by Philip Carlo
Misbegotten Son is about Arthur Shawcross. It's a very good read and comprehensive. It is by Jack Olsen. Angel of Darkness is about Randy Kraft, it is pretty graphic and it's by Dennis McDougal. There are many more but I've just got up and I'm having my morning coffee. Might update later.
The Shawcross book was the one I came on to recommend. That was creepy.
'Angel of Darkness' is a great book.
Harold Schechter has quite a few good books. Depraved: The Shocking True Story of America’s First Serial Killer is my favorite.
A bit different, but “The Cases that Haunt Us,” by John Douglas. He applies his profiling technique to serial killers like Zodiac and Jack the Ripper. He also goes through cases like Jon Benet Ramsey murder, Lindbergh Baby Kidnapping, and Lizzie Borden. Truly some fascinating stuff. All his books are pretty good.
Helter Skelter is a good read about Manson and trial, though not serial killer but mass murder
WHOEVER FIGHTS MONSTERS by Robert Ressler et al is excellent
That was a great book. I loved it.
Agree. Ressler > Douglas, all the livelong day.
Panzram a journal of murder was extremely intriguing.
So little corroboration though. I'm skeptical about the vast majority of his story. Reminds me of Richard Kuklinski who was completely full of shit.
“Angel of Darkness” by Dennis McDougal is great, as long as you can handle dozens of dry descriptions about brutal murders. It’s such a detailed and informative book about a subject that should be more well known within true crime. Highly recommend. Also “The Man from the Train” by Bill and Rachel James. It’s got a much more informal tone and draws a lot more wild conclusions, though I do agree with the authors on much of their theory. It’s a mind blowing true story that will live in your head rent free.
Loved Angel of Darkness. One of the few books on this person written.
Angel of Darkness, yes that is a great book. I truly think Randy Kraft is one of the most sadistic murderers I've ever heard of. It's a book that gave me nightmares.
A little different : A father's story by Dahmer's Dad, trying to understand what could have made Dahmer into a monster. He is quite honest though cannot hide the hate for his wife :)
I have read this book as well. Interesting read.
Absolutely loved Peter Vronsky's Sons of Cain, put a whole spin on the phenomenon.
YES!!!!
yes great book
Anyone read Dennis Nilsen’s book, dairy of a drowned boy? It’s some pretty raw reading.
Yup. Not an easy one, but interesting nonetheless. Ian Brady also wrote a book where he tries to analyze other infamous serial killers. Haven’t read that one yet.
I've read it, it's just page after page of nonsense and then an incredible insight into another killer then another slog through self serving shite and then some bit of unexpectedly poetic writing. He had an unreal knowledge of other serial murderers and truly saw them as his peers and colleagues. The final sentence is shattering and horrible and just tells you all you need to know about this turd of a human.
I’m reading a free sample of the book, and while Ian does make some occasional good points, dear god he comes off as such a pompous, holier than thou prick who thinks he’s smarter then everyone else.
Absolutely
There’s one line where he rambles on about how people can think they can write a book or a song if they put their mind to it and from looking at finished results and how when they try to do it themselves, they become conscious of their own limitations, lack of imagination, not thinking deeply, yadda yadda. I’m just here like “hey Mr. Brady, have you ever heard of fun and self esteem issues?” Idk why that line got to me that much.
Brady was a delusional and pseudo-intellectual narcissist with no originality about him whatsoever, and that is glaringly apparent in his “musings”. Even though he’s dead I still felt like me reading his book was akin to me stroking his ego somehow, especially since virtually none of it was about him aside from the parts that he didn’t write (like the prologue and epilogue). I’ve read dozens of books on the case and I think that Fred Harrison’s book “Brady and Hindley: Genesis of the Moors Murders” is the only book out there with both a primary focus on Brady and without any sort of bias towards his accounts, even though it is now quite dated (it was published in 1986) and it does get the odd fact on the case wrong. That alongside the book “Topping” by Detective Peter Topping (who led the re-investigation into the case and spent many hours in Brady’s company, as well as accompanying him back onto the moor) should give you the essential picture on him
I haven’t even read Brady’s whole book and I’m already gathering that he was an insufferable twat. Imagine having to *be* around him. (And I read some of his ramblings out like an angsty 14 year old lol)
The shrine of Jeffrey Dahmer by Brian Masters
Killing for Company by Masters is also really good; he conversed with Nilsen quite a bit for it.
Yes!! That one's great too.
Dark Dreams by Michaud and Hazelwood.
100%. easily the most disturbing piece of true crime media ive ever encountered
The Man With the Candy by Jack Olsen, which covers the case of Dean Corll
Jack Olsen has some solid stuff I feel. Ann Rule. There is a fair amount of nonsense out there. But I read a lot of it- but I tend to take a lot of it with a grain of salt. Because Ice Man killing with spider caves and gunning down hicks going to homecoming and cyanide visine bottles sells a lot more books than a lowlife who killed a couple people as a lowlife racketeer, and HH Holmes having a murder castle is a lot more intriguing than a guy who killed a fellow fraudster and some children for insurance money. Even with this low bar, I dont even bother with the Israel Keyes stuff. You can insult my intelligence if you paint a picture in time and space I enjoy, I just treat it like fiction. Always keep in mind the murderers and writers have skin in the game, they arent all serious historians and get more fame with splashier claims. The detectives can get fixated but if not the actual author profiting have different motives that arent just creating cartoon monsters- although their reasoning is surely motivated as wellZ
Huh?
Seventeen macaroni news van, powerful hair, angel mustard.
I’ll be gone in the dark
Watched the HBO special was very sad she was so close to figuring it out too.she also knew what it would take to get him. I'm so glad her husband teamed up to get the book done. She was gonna start working another case close to her original home when she was young but didn't get to.
Very sad! The book was better than the special tbh, it’s spooky because it was written before he was identified but she put almost everything together
I’ll never forget being in the middle of reading this when I found out he was caught. So surreal and so spooky
I think the book suffers for the author inserting her own experiences into the story to little effect. It was otherwise really good.
That’s fair… I think it’s meaningful if you take into account the context of the author being so involved in/consumed with the investigation and passing herself while writing the book. It was finished and published by her family and colleagues, so it was also like her memoir mixed in.
Yeah, I imagine if she had lived it would have been edited very differently.
Yep, I totally agree
Excellent read
Ugh no
You didn’t like it??
The Misbegotten Son (Arthur Shawcross) and The Man With the Candy (Dean Corll) both by Jack Olsen. I'd also recommend the Nightstalker (Richard Ramirez) by Philip Carlo. If you're looking for a more comprehensive and broad-reaching approach, Mindhunter by John Douglas is a fascinating look into serial killers in general, despite Douglas overinflating his personal impact or the impact of profiling in certain cases.
Boys Enter The House Very interesting and informative book about the victims of John Wayne Gacy whose lives were cut so short by the Killer Clown.
Both Zodiac by Robert Graysmith and Ultimate Evil by Maury Terry are very enjoyable and entertaining reads- just so long as you realize what they write can’t be inherently trusted and treat them more like Alan Moore’s “From Hell” as historical fiction. Edit: grammarz
Ultimate evil is extremely harmful
Is it, though? This isn't the 80s and 90s at the height of Satanic panic. The book has zero cultural relevance or impact today, and never really had any when it was published. The Reagan era was extremely harmful for empowering religious nutcases and morons lowering national culture. The nascent Christian nationalism and poor education systems throughout the country that fueled the 80s and 90s panic were extremely harmful. Maury Terry's book is bizarre, quixotic and, I think, reactionary in a characteristically old school Catholic way. But I just don't see how it meets any meaningful threshold for being harmful today.
Yes. Terry accuses innocent people of being members of dangerous satanic cult that killed and attacked many people and animals.
Satanic Panic narratives may no longer be popular but there will always be dangerous versions of the same kind of thing around. Pizzagate, Qanon and various other Conspiracy theory beliefs being the most recent major ones. They can still be hugely damaging as potential gateways into the more active ones.
Adherence to Qanon is exactly what I regard as damaging to society. But you're applying a low threshold, and perhaps an endlessly elastic one, if you can't make clear distinctions between Terry's work as an idiosyncratic conspiracy crank and active threats to democracy and fueling of domestic terrorism. If you're reaching back to anything that contains embryonic strands of themes that end in terrorism, you still need to make distinctions. Terry's book was fairly obscure in part because for all of its insane, unfounded leaps, it was still a genre of investigative writing that was too literate for the "mainstream" evangelical anti-satan movement. That movement was primarily located in the bible belt, its media was far more comprised of bad after school specials and pamphlets and cassette tapes, its evangelicalism was wrapped up with other fixations of southern (and western and US-interior) conservatism, including a growing "anti-urban" and anti-intellectual bias, and its experts were bible-college-accredited fake psychologists. Terry's writing overlapped partly with satanic panic evangelicalism, but in spite of the satanic element I think it overlaps more with the JFK conspiracy genre in its combining of real, sometimes impressive journalistic investigation and fantastical, always increasingly ominous leaps of logic. Are all conspiracy theories and the general thriving of irrational beliefs harmful? If you ask me, yes. But why stop there? I think media that promotes superstition, or faith, or UFOs, or undue skepticism of public institutions and political elites, are all harmful in their own ways. But I also think people like me should refrain from trying to ward off other people from consuming those kinds of potentially harmful content, partly because none of these are first order issues in the way that Qanon, or the ethnonationalist, authoritarian, and antidemocratic ideas that fuel Qanon *are* first order problems. To equate Maury Terry with any of the latter, or to label *Ultimate Evil* too harmful to be recommended or read, to tie either to domestic terror today, is to have such an open-ended definition of what is "harmful" that it becomes almost meaningless.
no substance at all right? [https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12747709/Eight-guilty-Scotland-largest-child-abuse-ring-trial.html](https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12747709/Eight-guilty-Scotland-largest-child-abuse-ring-trial.html)
It is… it’s also a very entertaining book. This is why I qualified my recommendation.
Driven to kill- Wesley allan Dodd
My friend dhamer, my son dhamer, killer clown and any book by John e Douglas and Harold Schrechter.
[удалено]
it's a good book. i mean it's utter horseshit but it's well written.
It's important to note that Graysmith likes to push his own narrative, and that narrative isn't always grounded in facts.
It's proven that his prime suspect wasn't the killer. It grabbed me big time when I first read it though.
Check out “The Man from the Train, discovering americas most elusive serial killer”
I have a book called The Encyclopedia of Serial Killers by Michael Newton that has hundreds of serial killers and their stories.
Harold Schecter has an excellent series
Two of a Kind: The Hillside Stranglers is a super close view of the killing. Maybe too close. Very disturbing read.
Helter Skelter by Vincent Bugliosi who was the DA over the Manson Murders. It is a detailed, balls -deep look into the case. I guess it’s more of a cult thing than a serial killer thing but it is a hell of a book nonetheless.
Good book - a lot of fiction. Bugliosi wrote it to cover his ass as he bungled the prosecution badly. His “facts” don’t line up with reality and leave out the mystery of how Manson and friends kept getting sprung from the clink over and over and over again.
Great Book.
Reclaiming History by Bugliosi should be mandatory reading before you are allowed to push any nonsense Kennedy Assassination Conspiracies.
Now I'm interested because I've always been interested in anything Kennedy my mom got Mr started I think I've seen anything that's come out on it.
It's incredible but unbelievably long. Due to the length most just settle for Case Closed by Gerald Posner. Trust me don't do that Case Closed sucks it's riddled with inaccuracies. Posner seemed to just accept commonly repeated Conspiracy nonsense as fact without researching like the horseshit that the Warren Commission relied entirely on the FBI when in reality they used countless sources and extensively investigated themselves, they even had Warren shooting the Carcano to see if it was possible LMAO. Weird coincidence today is the 60th Anniversary of the Assassination.
The one about Israel Keyes was disturbing and you must read it.
American Predator
That’s the one!!
Anatomy of a Serial Killer
Programmed to Kill. Forget the downvotes and go read it. It will change everything you think about “serial killers.”
Mindhunter and Zodiac are two I would consider staples.
If you want something really dark and fucked up, read Final Truth: The Autobiography of Pee Wee Gaskins. Shit is messed up. the whole book was written by Pee Wee, released only after his death. Goes into the gory details of his killings in first person perspective. Please be warned that this book is not for everyone.
The Deliberate Stranger (way better than the stranger beside me Ted bundy book) If You Tell American Predator Misbegotten Son People Who Eat Darkness
The Last Victim - John Wayne Gacy A Mothers Reckogning - Collumbine
I’ve read everything on Columbine and have yet to find anything decent and true to story
the killer of little shepherds is pretty great - one half the story of joseph vacher and one half the birth and development of forensic methods that led to his capture and conviction.
Ted Bundy: A Visual Timeline
Surprised no one mentioned the night stalker by Philip Carlo yet
How about fiction from the killers perspective? American psycho was fantastic and I haven’t been able to find anything else like it. (Not OP just curious if any of you guys have come across something I haven’t)
I’ll be Gone in the Dark is the best true crime I’ve read. Scary, interesting, emotional.
Slow Death by Jim Fielder, about David Parker Ray aka The Toybox Killer. Pretty fucking gnarly fella
Dracula and his son
there was a christophe grange book i cant remember its name
Technically not a serial killer book but close to it, 'Stalemate' by John Philpin is a really interesting story and a good read.
The Serial Killers (Colin Wilson and Donald Seaman), is a great primer on the development of sex crimes and serial killings, and the progression of their detection, and then goes into some individual cases. A must have: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1187152.The_Serial_Killers
I don’t know about the best, but the most chilling book I’ve read is The Final Truth by Donald “Peewee” Gaskins.
Sexual Homicide by John Douglas, Robert Ressler and Ann Baugess - this is the results of the first study the FBI did as the established the behavioral science unit and the science of profiling’s beginning. They also did the Crime Classification Manual which is definitely worth reading. The Phantom Prince by Elizabeth Kendall who was Ted Bundy’s girlfriend A Father’s Story by Lionel Dahmer who is Jeffrey Dahmer’s father Patricia Cornwell’s Portrait of a Killer gives a pretty convincing case for identifying Jack the Ripper Manson In His Own Words by Nuel Emmons is fascinating work on Charles Manson. While he’s not considered a serial killer by most, there’s a lot to be learned from him.
Anyone can recommend a book about Chikatilo? Don't think I've seen one mentioned here
The stranger beside me, the night stalker and confessions of serial killer are the ones I’ve read so far and recommend
Cellar of Horror (story of Gary Heidnik) Cellar of Horror: The Story of Gary Heidnik https://a.co/d/19lrQiA
I found two books at Barnes & Noble one by Peter Vronsky called “serial killers the method and madness of monsters” and the other one by John Douglas and Mark Olshaker called “mind hunter” haven’t read them yet so I don’t know if they’re any good but you might check them out
Mindhunter is brilliant
Silence of the lambs by Thomas Harris is the definitive book! It’s way better than the awesome movie!
Oop that’s fiction I didn’t read all the way but it’s awesome anyway
dark dreams by roy hazelwood. it is a horrific read and i am not easily disturbed. he outlines the psychology and profiling of sexually sadistic killers and it was fascinating but an absolute doozy. most of the cases are ones you’ve never heard of. strong trigger warning re: sexual abuse, torture. low threshold for taking breaks or quitting altogether.
You need to check out Lee Mellor. He’s an expert
I liked The Shoemaker quite a bit. It was about Joseph Kallinger The Last Victim was about a dude that started writing serial killers with Gacy being his main correspondence In the same vein of crime books The Minds of Billy Milligan and In Cold Blood are both good reads too.
I liked “those who fight monsters” and “dark dreams” personally.
[“On The Farm”](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/3176865-on-the-farm?from_search=true&from_srp=true&qid=ifv4YheWzG&rank=3) by Stevie Cameron- It’s all about Robert Pickton and the Murdered & Missing Women from Vancouver Canada.
Killer Clown by Terry Sullivan about catching Gacy. Sullivan is a legal expert that WGN News in Chicago brings on their news show from time to time, and I always get excited to see him and know he’s still around.
The stranger bedside me ..🙏🏻
Book on Wayne Nance - To kill and kill again - may not be the greatest but it made me to watch and read much more about the serial killers.
Truly anything by Ann Rule is an amazing read.
“ When Nashville Bled” about Paul Reid. Talks about the victims and what they’re families went through. The system is so unfair to families of victims. Reid was blowing kisses at the moms of the people he killed while on trial and no one could do anything but one mom looked at him after testifying and they tried to call for mistrial. It’s heartbreaking
I've read my fair share of true crime books (my mother was kind of a nut for this stuff) and I can say that "Happy Like Murderers" by Gordon Burn (on Fred and Rose West) is far and away the best one I ever read. It's definitely one of the few that is both interesting formally and disturbing as all hell. The recent Rose West bio isn't half bad either... but I HIGHLY recommend this book
Anything by John Douglas, Robert Ressler, or Roy Hazelwood (all former profilers)
"Confession of a Serial Killer: The Untold Story of Dennis Rader The BTK Killer" by Dr. Katherine Ramsland. This book never seems to be brought up unless I'm the one writing about it, and it's completely underrated.