Today we will be diving into the world of murderers, cult leaders, serial killers, and more. There are numerous books I could recommend on this topic; I’ve picked a few for us to start with. I may create more lists later (I have a list of psychopaths and sociopaths that I am excited about). As always, there are additional resources at the end.
As you can very much clearly see, today is Monday and not Friday. Also, my past few weeks of book reviews have been posted late due to a hectic life schedule. To bring back consistency, I will be moving book reviews to Mondays. Plus, who doesn’t want to start the week off with great book recommendations!
Read some past book reviews on pop culture related psychology and comprehensive psychology knowledge.
Content List
Post Contents
The Cases That Haunt Us: From Jack the Ripper to JonBenet Ramsey
Lizzie Borden, JonBenet Ramsey, Jack the Ripper.
Dive into these tantalizing stories and so much more in this work of detection by America’s foremost expert on criminal profiling and twenty-five-year FBI veteran John Douglas, along with author and filmmaker Mark Olshaker.
The authors reexamine and reinterpret the accepted facts, evidence, and victimology of the most notorious murder cases in the history of crime. The Cases That Haunt Us not only offers convincing and controversial conclusions, but it also deconstructs the evidence and widely held beliefs surrounding each case and rebuilds them — with fascinating, surprising, and haunting results.
Review: There are many key details are highlighted in these summaries of notorious cases. Definitely intriguing and will keep the reader engaged. It’s similar to watching a show on the cases, due to the amount of detail explained. I do believe the first few chapters on Jack the Ripper will have a contradictory flair compared to other accounts. The other chapters, however, are very fascinating with many twists and turns about possible suspects. Douglas also suggests how the investigation of the case might have been better conducted, especially in its early phases. These suggestions are usually just common sense and probably won’t add much that the reader didn’t already know. But overall, this is a fascinating book by someone who has keen insights to offer into the criminal mind.
Profilers: Leading Investigators Take You Inside The Criminal Mind
Profilers is a compilation of expert articles written by internationally recognized homicide investigators. Experts share their insights gained from years of experience tracking the perpetrators of some of the most notorious crimes.
Among the subjects discussed are: dealing with hostage situations, child abduction and murder in the David Meirhofer case, interviewing Jeffrey Dahmer, autoerotic murder, the challenges of creating psychological profiles, the use of forensic linguistics to track the Unabomber, assaultive eye injury (“enucleation”), and geographic profiling.
Review: If you are into true crime and investigations, this book is definitely one you should get. It’s basically a beginner’s guide to profiling, but anyone with even expert knowledge will find this book entertaining. There are two sections to the book, the first made up of older contributions to the field. Knowing how it all started, how the first profilers worked, and who the players will add to a foundation of knowledge. The second section contains the newer material and does not disappoint. Since the articles are by many different people on many different topics you keep getting fresh perspectives.
You also don’t have to read the book in order. Since each chapter has a different theme, you can skip around to what interests you most. All this is written in an easy, relaxed style that I think anyone who has an interest in forensics will enjoy. A must for readers of true crime, forensic investigations, and murder mysteries. This unique collection of revealing articles offers a chilling and unparalleled glimpse into the workings of the criminal mind.
The Only Living Witness: The True Story of Serial Sex Killer Ted Bundy
The world according to Ted Bundy: People disappear every day. It happens all the time. .. I mean, there are so many people. It shouldn’t be a problem. What’s one less person on the face of the earth, anyway?
Ted Bundy was America’s first celebrity serial killer, and one of the most chilling enigmas in criminal history. Handsome, boyish, and well-spoken, a law student with bright political prospects, Bundy was also a predator and sexual deviant who murdered and mutilated at least thirty young women and girls, many of them college coeds but at least two as young as twelve.
Review: Ted is suddenly the Bad Person of the Month. With Zac Ephron in the new movie Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile and the documentary Conversations with a Killer. The latter is based on the book of the same name.
Overall, this was a very interesting account with lots of input given by Ted himself. Whether he lied or not is up to interpretation. If you want to hear his words in addition to seeing his crimes from a somewhat different perspective, this would be a great choice. I’ve read several books on Bundy and each of them presents his case from a new angle.
Mindhunter: Inside the FBI’s Elite Serial Crime Unit
Discover the classic, behind-the-scenes chronicle of John E. Douglas’ twenty-five-year career in the FBI Investigative Support Unit, where he used psychological profiling to delve into the minds of the country’s most notorious serial killers and criminals.
In chilling detail, the legendary Mindhunter takes us behind the scenes of some of his most gruesome, fascinating, and challenging cases—and into the darkest recesses of our worst nightmares.
During his twenty-five year career with the Investigative Support Unit, Special Agent John Douglas became a legendary figure in law enforcement, pursuing some of the most notorious and sadistic serial killers of our time: the man who hunted prostitutes for sport in the woods of Alaska, the Atlanta child murderer, and Seattle’s Green River killer, the case that nearly cost Douglas his life.
Review: For those of you who haven’t heard, Mindhunter is also a Netflix show that is very interesting. Of course, I’m always a fan of the book version of things and this is no different. This is an amazing book. John creates a basic manual for everyone as he described the painful beginnings of the BAU.
The book will capture your attention and be one that you have a hard time putting away. This book is incredibly well written and a total page-turner. You’ll find yourself watching the Netflix series and waiting for season two to come out. If you want to know how profiling became an integral part of criminal investigation this is the book to read. If you want to understand the mindset of serial killers (like the author was) then this book is for you.
Serial Murderers and Their Victims
This book provides an in-depth, scholarly examination of serial murderers and their victims. Supported by extensive data and research, the book profiles some of the most prominent murderers of our time, addressing the highest-profile serial killer type–the sexual predator–as well as a wide variety of other types (male, female, team, healthcare, and serial killers from outside the U.S.).
Author Eric Hickey examines the lives of over 400 serial murderers, analyzing the cultural, historical, and religious factors that influence our myths and stereotypes of these individuals. He describes the biological, psychological, and sociological reasons for serial murder and discusses profiling and other law enforcement issues related to the apprehension and disposition of serial killers.
Review: This is a different approach on serial murders and the factors that may influence the patterns of behavior. The author examines a vast amount of information regarding historical cases. He not only profiles the killers, but also the victims. The author examines public knowledge, media, and other influences in these cases. It is definitely an interesting read. I believe it is a unique approach to the topic and extremely well researched.
Jack the Ripper and the Zodiac Killer: The History of the Most Famous Serial Killers Who Were Never Caught
In 1888 and 1889, a killer stalked the dark backstreets of the city through the notoriously overcrowded and crime-ridden Whitechapel district, murdering young women and then cutting their bodies up like a butcher.
There have been a countless number of serial killers throughout history, and certainly more prolific ones, but the timing, circumstances, and unsolved nature of the case continue to make Jack the Ripper the most famous serial killer in history.
Despite the fact the police interviewed thousands and considered hundreds of suspects, they were never able to arrest anyone for the murders. The intense media coverage also likely played a role in both the actual murderer and would-be copycats and pranksters sending hundreds of letters to police claiming to be Jack the Ripper.
Toward the end of 1968, a new and more sinister headline began to pop up. At first, it was just in California and seemed to be simply a random crime, with a couple being murdered a few days before Christmas. It was a tragic tale, but in California, it was often dismissed as a byproduct of the youth culture of sex, drugs, and rock and roll that often led young people to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. Then, some months later, another couple was shot, and this time the man survived. The story he told was not of someone targeting either him or his friend, but of a type of madman shooting them again and again.
Review: Regardless of the popularity of these serial killers, this book is still a necessary read. Dive into the history of the terror that the world felt when these two vastly different killers took the streets. The authors go into detail regarding the murders themselves. As well as different explanations and theories as to why these cases were so difficult to try. Includes a bibliography of further readings if any of the individual topics piqued your interest.
Listening to Killers: Lessons Learned from My Twenty Years as a Psychological Expert Witness in Murder Cases
Listening to Killers offers an inside look at twenty years’ worth of murder files from Dr. James Garbarino, a leading expert psychological witness who listens to killers so that he can testify in court.
The author offers detailed accounts of how killers travel a path that leads from childhood innocence to lethal violence in adolescence or adulthood. He places the emotional and moral damage of each individual killer within a larger scientific framework of social, psychological, anthropological, and biological research on human development.
By linking individual cases to broad social and cultural issues and illustrating the social toxicity and unresolved trauma that drive some people to kill, Dr. Garbarino highlights the humanity we share with killers and the role of understanding and empathy in breaking the cycle of violence.
Review: If you are a true-crime fan, you probably have thought about what it would be like to interview murderers. This book basically gives you that experience. The author shows compassion towards these killers and gives new insight into people who commit crimes, more specifically violent ones.
Garbarino is one of the nation’s leading experts on emotional abuse and how it affects our nation’s children. Garbarino uses the metaphor of a killer as basically a scared, traumatized child living inside a scary-looking man. Using an ecological perspective on human development, Garbarino offers the reader insight into how context plays an important role in human behavior – something too often overlooked in a state system that is essentially reactive to crisis instead of proactive.
As a child psychologist, I find the childhood aspects observed through this book to be an amazing insight. This is a must-read book out of all of these reviewed today.
Serial Killers: The Method and Madness of Monsters
Ted Bundy, Ed Kemper, Henry Lee Lucas, Monte Ralph Rissell, Jerry Brudos, Richard Ramirez, Ted Kaczynski
This book will go in detail examining the lives and investigations into the above names (and so many more!). The author 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.
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 recent serial murder trends and cases.
Review: This three-part book will take you on a journey of serial killers from the history, psychopathology, and investigations. The author reviews several sources of statistical data on serial homicide, its patterns, and trends, particularly in the United States, and explores the myth of the recent “serial killer epidemic”. Further, he takes specific cases into consideration as he reviews a killer’s evolution from child to adult, and the various emerging and evolving categories of serial offenders. Overall, the book is an easy and interesting read on the subject and takes a diverse look at the profile of a killer.
Murderous Minds
How many times have you seen a murder on the news or on a TV show like CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, and said to yourself, “How could someone do something like that?”
Today, neuroscientists are imaging, mapping, testing and dissecting the source of the worst behavior imaginable in the brains of the people who lack a conscience: psychopaths.
Neuroscientist Dean Haycock examines the behavior of real life psychopaths and discusses how their actions can be explained in scientific terms, from research that literally looks inside their brains to understanding how psychopaths, without empathy but very goal-oriented, think and act the way they do.
Review: This book examines what neuroscience can tell us about the psychopathic mind, and how that compares to what other disciplines – such as psychology and genetics – have been telling us. This is no simple task because there remains a great deal of disagreement about what psychopathy is and how it relates to other behavioral conditions, like sociopathy.
The book has several color and black-and-white graphics including photos, diagrams, brain scans, and brain cross-section pictures. There’s a recommended reading section in addition to the bibliographic notes. I’d recommend this book for anyone interested in the question of the degree to which brains determine who engages in criminally aberrant behavior.
Overall, this book is a must-read for understanding the brain of murderers, especially serial killers. Further, this book is a look into psychopathy in the most general sense. Some don’t commit crimes at all, but rather make use of their skills in the boardroom. But what does this mean for lawyers, judges, psychiatrists, victims, and readers–for anyone who has ever wondered how some people can be so bad. We will go into this topic in another post, but this is a great introductory book to that avenue.
Killers Among Us: Public Reactions to Serial Murder
What effects does the presence of a serial killer have on the collective health of a community? What strategies do people adopt to manage the fear and anxiety that accompany news of a serial killer’s predations? And why do citizens and the media respond as they do to serial killers, who usually account for only a small portion of the homicides in the communities in which they are active?
Killer Among Us examines serial murder from this fresh perspective: an exploration of the ways people react when a killer is at large in their community.
In 1973, teenage girls began disappearing from Folly Beach, a small town on a barrier island in South Carolina. Initially thought by police to be a spate of runaways, the real story emerged when a police officer on patrol heard a cry for help and found three girls bound and gagged in an abandoned beach cottage. Further investigation turned up bodies buried in the dunes nearby. The police reacted quickly and closed off the only bridge to the mainland, thereby trapping the townspeople with the certain knowledge that one among them was a serial killer. Everyone became a suspect, as neighbor turned against neighbor in an atmosphere of rapidly growing hysteria.
Review: Analyzing and understanding the public reactions to serial murder is a subject that is not often discussed. The information usually surrounds the killer and sometimes the victims, but the way the public responds has a lot to do with the case itself. Take, for instance, the Night Stalker in California where the community came together to catch the killer themselves.
Drawing on 19th-century tabloid accounts of the predations of Jack the Ripper and on 20th-century media coverage of such villains as The Son of Sam and Jeffrey Dahmer, the author constructs vivid and provocative retellings of many of the most infamous cases of serial murder. It is a fine academic study of the subject, and I’m betting it will be around for many decades, as its message is timeless.
John Wayne Gacy: Defending a Monster: The True Story of the Lawyer Who Defended One of the Most Evil Serial Killers in History
“Sam, could you do me a favor?” Thus begins a story that has now become part of America’s true crime hall of fame. It is a gory, grotesque tale befitting a Stephen King novel. It is also a David and Goliath saga—the story of a young lawyer fresh from the Public Defender’s Office whose first client in private practice turns out to be the worst serial killer in our nation’s history.
Sam Amirante had just opened his first law practice when he got a phone call from his friend John Wayne Gacy, a well-known and well-liked community figure. Gacy was upset about what he called “police harassment” and asked Amirante for help. With the police following his every move in connection with the disappearance of a local teenager, Gacy eventually gave a drunken, dramatic, early morning confession—to his new lawyer. Gacy was eventually charged with murder and Amirante suddenly became the defense attorney for one of American’s most disturbing serial killers. It was his first case.
This new edition of John Wayne Gacy, which contains updated material about the case that has come to light since the book’s original publication, recounts the gruesome killings and the famous trial that shocked a nation.
Review: This is an interesting book, on a different track than the others listed above. The authors are clear and concise about their motivations for defending Gacy. Their devotion to the law and preserving human rights as afforded by the law is admirable. Such actions allow us, readers, an insight into Gacy’s childhood, brain, and actions. The book travels through the turmoil of the discovery, preparation, and trial. Something that could have been very boring and procedural was written in a style that draws you in and makes you care what happens next. Would recommend for the view into multiple aspects of law, crime, and criminal minds.
RedHanded: An Exploration of Criminals, Cannibals, Cults, and What Makes Killers Tick
What is it about killers, cult leaders, cannibals, cults, and criminals that capture our imaginations even as they terrify and disturb us? How do we responsibly consume these kinds of stories as entertainment, and more importantly, what can we learn from them?
RedHanded rejects the narrative of killers as monsters and that a victim “was in the wrong place at the wrong time,” and instead tells the stories we want to hear in a way that challenges perceptions and asks the hard questions about society, gender, poverty, culture, and even our politics.
With candor, humor, interviews with experts, research on real-life cases, and an unflinching dissection of what makes a killer tick, Bala and Maguire take us through the societal, behavioral, and cultural phenomena that make victims — and their murderers — our collective responsibility and to find out once and for all: what makes a killer tick?
Review: This book is based on Hannah Maguire and Suruthi Bala’s popular podcast of the same name, RedHanded. I would also recommend the podcast if you are interested in murder podcasts. This book explores the most basic question in real-life true crime cases, is a killer born or made? The humor and voices of the two authors are clear throughout the book. They remain candid while also providing clear information on cases and research. A fun read that takes a less “serious” approach in viewing killers.
Forensic Psychology 101: A Quick Guide That Teaches You the Top Key Lessons About Forensic Psychology from A to Z
A quick guide that approaches the following topics:
• Overview of Civil, Criminal, Juvenile, Police, Correctional, and Investigative Psychology Sub-Fields.
• Roles and Responsibilities of the Forensic Psychology Professional.
• Consultation Roles
• Relevant Psychology Research in the Legal Setting.
• Case Studies and Case Examples.
• Ethical Dilemmas, Challenges, and Controversial Points.
• Venues to Address Issues based on Subspecialty Professional Guidelines.
Review: The author, Sharlaine Ortiz, specialized in forensic psychology for its application to the legal system in criminal and civil courts. As a combat veteran, Sharlaine provided analysis of information on internal and external threats and political, legal, and military aspects of events to mitigate hostile behavior. She is proficient in her knowledge and provides a great reference guide to the introduction of forensic psychology. The book is aimed towards persons interested in the application of psychology in the legal system. I have added it to this list because I believe that a basic understanding of forensic psychology helps take a different approach in learning about historical killers.
Resources
Psychology of Murder | Crime Traveller
The Psychology of Murder, Insanity, and Murder Degrees – True Crime Diaries
A Psychological Profile of Ted Bundy and what it Means | Actforlibraries.org
The Making of a Murderer | Psychology Today
The Psychological Profile of a Killer – Exploring your mind
Murder Article: Why Men Murder (all-about-forensic-psychology.com)