Serial Killers

Tusky

Hey, I recently watched a documentary on Ed Gain (Psycho, Silence of the lambs & Texas chainsaw massacre are all based on him ), a famous American serial killer. I was really impressed by it and it got me thinking that maybe theres some good books out there on serial killers ? Im sure therse alot of bad ones too though so Id like to get one reccomended rather than buying a random one.

Any suggestions ?

Jay Tomio

Both are ficton, but Ian Bank's Wasp Factory is most excelent, as is Alan Moore's From Hell (Jack the Riper).

Tusky

Was thinking more non-fiction. Couldnt get into the wasp factory.

DapperGent

From Hell is utterly amazing. Though it's not exactly non-fiction.

www.crimelibrary.com is pretty cool and has an admirable tendency to stick closely to facts. Mostly more like case histories tbh.

I've only read a couple of books about serial killers and found them voyeuristic and sensational and finished neither. I've yet to see one that struck me as both honest and compelling. It's a dodgy literary area to my mind.

Tusky

DapperGent wrote:

From Hell is utterly amazing. Though it's not exactly non-fiction.

www.crimelibrary.com is pretty cool and has an admirable tendency to stick closely to facts. Mostly more like case histories tbh.

I've only read a couple of books about serial killers and found them voyeuristic and sensational and finished neither. I've yet to see one that struck me as both honest and compelling. It's a dodgy literary area to my mind.

Yeah...I dont know if I want to read them because I have a morbid voteuristic appeal or because Im actually interested...havent decided.

Doctor Benway

DapperGent wrote:

I've only read a couple of books about serial killers and found them voyeuristic and sensational and finished neither. I've yet to see one that struck me as both honest and compelling. It's a dodgy literary area to my mind.

I thought Happy Like Murderers by Gordon Burn, about Fred and Rose West, was pretty good - well written and without that kind of creepiness and sensationalism you can find in much of the contents of the True Crime shelves in Waterstones.

Although I haven't read it, the same author's book about the Yorkshire Ripper (Somebody's Husband, Somebody's Sun), is also supposed to be worth a look.

Was fascinated by this genre and must have dozens of true crime books about the place.

Unfortunately, almost as a rule they are absolute crap. Poorly written and sensationalist. The more you read the less interested you will become in the whole thing - there is one particular true crime book about some Irish Garda (Denis Courtney? John Courtney?) that will make you laugh out loud with its banalities about 'I was famous for taking fingerprints because I found out that fingerprints could sometimes be a useful way of apprehending the culprit so I always insisted on taking them' crap. And then there are all those 'True Crime' collections that would just wear you down.

But there are a few books that stand out. The most famous has gotta be Truman Capote's 'In Cold Blood', which is a literary masterpiece, an examination of American life, based around the slaughter of the Clutter family in a small town in Kansas in 1959.

Other famous ones include '10 Rillington Place' by Ludovic Kennedy, which deals with Christie's killings, 'Helter Skelter' about Charles Manson and the Tate-LaBianca murders, and 'Killing for Company' about Denis Nilson.

Valmont

There is way more interesting serial killers than Ed Gein. He was actually only convicted of one murder and suspected of a few others. You will want to read the real life accounts of Ted Bundy, Richard Ramirez, and Jeffrey (sp?) Dahmer. Andrei Chikatilo and Onatoly Onoprienko are surprisingly gruesome yet unknown although I'm not sure if there is any books on them. Google them and see what you get. There was a really good crime website that had great accounts of each man but I can't remember what it was.

Stompbox

There was a film on Ted Bundy

Valmont

woops sorry it was www.crimelibrary.com, I didn't see the link above.

Valmont

Valmont wrote:

Andrei Chikatilo and Onatoly Onoprienko are surprisingly gruesome yet unknown

Chikatilo made headline news around the world, even RTE made a fuss over it.

If I had to pick the oddest to research, it would have to be the Papin sisters in Le Mans. If you Google it, you will see what I mean, for brutality it's pretty sick.

Anyway, enough of all this, next we'll be slowing down to look at car accidents and googling pictures of Gein's last victim and the Black Dahlia...:eek: