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| craziest murders in us history: Life: The Most Notorious Crimes in American History Editors of Life, 2007-11-06 |
| craziest murders in us history: Encyclopaedia Britannica Hugh Chisholm, 1910 This eleventh edition was developed during the encyclopaedia's transition from a British to an American publication. Some of its articles were written by the best-known scholars of the time and it is considered to be a landmark encyclopaedia for scholarship and literary style. |
| craziest murders in us history: American Serial Killers Peter Vronsky, 2021-02-09 Fans of Mindhunter and true crime podcasts will devour these chilling stories of serial killers from the American Golden Age (1950-2000). With books like Serial Killers, Female Serial Killers and Sons of Cain, Peter Vronsky has established himself as the foremost expert on the history of serial killers. In this first definitive history of the Golden Age of American serial murder, when the number and body count of serial killers exploded, Vronsky tells the stories of the most unusual and prominent serial killings from the 1950s to the early twenty-first century. From Ted Bundy to the Golden State Killer, our fascination with these classic serial killers seems to grow by the day. American Serial Killers gives true crime junkies what they crave, with both perennial favorites (Ed Kemper, Jeffrey Dahmer) and lesser-known cases (Melvin Rees, Harvey Glatman). |
| craziest murders in us history: Notorious San Francisco Rj Parker, Paul Drexler, 2019-05-03 San Francisco, a city founded in part by criminals, was once one of the most dangerous cities in America. Its Barbary coast was called a unique criminal district that was the scene of more viciousness and depravity, but it possessed more glamour, than any other area on the American continent. San Francisco Notorious brings back the glamorous depravity and noir atmosphere that made it the premier location for murder thrillers like The Maltese Falcon, Vertigo, and Zodiac. This book contains more than 20 compelling tales of serial killers, deadly women, con-men, masters of escape, and unsolved mysteries. San Franciscan criminals were as colorful as the city they inhabited. Take William Thoreson, a murderous millionaire who hid the nation's largest private armory in his Pacific Heights mansion. Then there's Isabella Martin, the murderous Queen of Grudges who tried to poison an entire town, or Ethan McNabb and Lloyd Sampsell, the Yacht Bandits, who used a luxurious sloop as a getaway vehicle for their dozens of bank robberies. Most of these unusual cases are largely unknown and have never appeared in book form. Included are cases that are still mysteries today, including the mysterious tale of the Zodiac Killer, complete with a new analysis and a startling new theory on the murder. |
| craziest murders in us history: Female Serial Killers Peter Vronsky, 2007-08-07 In this fascinating book, Peter Vronsky exposes and investigates the phenomenon of women who kill—and the political, economic, social and sexual implications buried with each victim. How many of us are even remotely prepared to imagine our mothers, daughters, sisters or grandmothers as fiendish killers? For centuries we have been conditioned to think of serial murderers and psychopathic predators as men—with women registering low on our paranoia radar. Perhaps that’s why so many trusting husbands, lovers, family friends, and children have fallen prey to “the female monster.” From history’s earliest recorded cases of homicidal females to Irma Grese, the Nazi Beast of Belsen, from Britain’s notorious child-slayer Myra Hindley to ‘Honeymoon Killer’ Martha Beck to the sensational cult of Aileen Wournos—the first female serial killer-as-celebrity—to cult killers, homicidal missionaries, and our pop-culture fascination with the sexy femme fatale, Vronsky not only challenges our ordinary standards of good and evil but also defies our basic accepted perceptions of gender role and identity. INCLUDES PHOTOGRAPHS |
| craziest murders in us history: Monster Aileen Wuornos & Christopher Berry-Dee, 2016-06-30 Aileen Wuornos was executed in Florida, on the 9th of October, 2002 at the age of 46. She was the 10th woman to be sentenced to death in the USA since the death penalty resumed in 1976. Convicted for the murder of six men, in a two month period, Aileen claimed she acted in self defence however the investigation into these claims was poor and she later retracted her statement announcing to the Supreme Court, I'm one who seriously hates human life and would kill again. All-too-often female prostitutes have been the victims of male serial killers - the killings of Aileen 'Lee' Wuornos were the inverse of this. She was a child prostitute, fleeing an abusive childhood at the hands of her grandparents, which led straight into a disastrous adulthood of difficult affairs with both men and women. Her metamorphosis from victim to attacker had brutal consequences: a stream of dead men. Following a renewed interest in this woman after the film Monster, this is her story in her own words. |
| craziest murders in us history: Met Her on the Mountain Mark I. Pinsky, 2022-04-05 In June of 1970, the body of 24-year-old Nancy Morgan was found inside a government-owned car in Madison County, North Carolina. It had been four days since anyone had heard from the bubbly, hard-working brunette who had moved to the Appalachian community less than a year prior as an organizer for Volunteers in Service to America. At the time of her death, her tenure in the Tar Heel State was just weeks from ending, her intentions set on New York and nursing school and a new life that she would never see. The initial investigation was thwarted by inept police work, jurisdictional confusion, and the influence of local corruption. Fourteen years would pass before an arrest in the case would be made, but even then, a pall would be cast over the veracity of the evidence. Met Her on the Mountain is the culmination of former Los Angeles Times staff writer Mark Pinsky's efforts to solve the 40-year-old mystery once and for all. An exhaustive piece of investigative journalism, Pinsky's work, now with a new postscript, dissects this modern Southern Gothic tale and takes readers on a journey to convince them that the truth of Morgan's murder is within reach. |
| craziest murders in us history: I: The Creation of a Serial Killer Jack Olsen, 2003-08-18 Contains several autobiographical writing of serial killer Keith Hunter Jesperson. |
| craziest murders in us history: Serial Killers: The World's Most Evil Nigel Blundell, 2010-11-10 One hundred years of the most depraved criminal minds—from H. H. Holmes and Ted Bundy to John Wayne Gacy, Ian Brady, and Myra Hindley. Their monikers have become part of the true crime lexicon: among them, the Moors Murders; the Hillside Strangler; Killer Clown; Son of Sam; the Love Slave Killers; the Scorecard Killer; and the BTK Strangler. On a scale of evil, they are the world’s worst serial murderers with a propensity for sadism and torture that is beyond the pale. What turned seemingly ordinary members of society into sick slayers? How did they justify their heinous deeds? And how did they get away with murder? For answers, true crime journalist Nigel Blundell looks behind the headlines to delve into the minds of monsters: David Parker Ray an “average working guy” with a torture chamber in his backyard; Fred and Rose West, married serial killers who counted their own children among their victims; Ivan Milat, a ritual killer who hunted backpackers in Australia; Gerald and Charlene Gallego, a sadistic couple who cruised Sacramento with kidnapping and murder in mind; and former Marines Leonard Lake and Charles Ng, who videotaped the darkest depths of their depravity in their secluded cabin in the Sierra Nevada foothills. Discover the truth behind the unspeakable crimes in this “anthology of evil . . . you can’t put down” (Dr. Michael Stone, forensic psychiatrist). |
| craziest murders in us history: Mad City Michael Arntfield, 2017 A chilling, unflinching exploration of American crimes of the twentieth century and how one serial killer managed to slip through the cracks--until now.-- |
| craziest murders in us history: The Murders in the Rue Morgue Edgar Allan Poe, 2024-01-24 The Rue Morgue Murders is a pioneering tale in the mystery genre, in which detective Auguste Dupin uses his acute observation and logic to solve a brutal double murder in Paris, revealing a surprising and unusual outcome. |
| craziest murders in us history: And the Dead Shall Rise Steve Oney, 2023-04-12 The definitive account of one of American history’s most repellent and most fascinating moments, combining investigative journalism and sweeping social history Years later, the tale of murder and revenge in Georgia still has the power to fascinate...Intense, suspenseful.” —The Washington Post Book World In 1913, 13-year-old Mary Phagan was found brutally murdered in the basement of the Atlanta pencil factory where she worked. The factory manager, a college-educated Jew named Leo Frank, was arrested, tried, and convicted in a trial that seized national headlines. When the governor commuted his death sentence, Frank was kidnapped and lynched by a group of prominent local citizens. Steve Oney’s acclaimed account re-creates the entire story for the first time, from the police investigations to the gripping trial to the brutal lynching and its aftermath. Oney vividly renders Atlanta, a city enjoying newfound prosperity a half-century after the Civil War, but still rife with barely hidden prejudices and resentments. He introduces a Dickensian pageant of characters, including zealous policemen, intrepid reporters, Frank’s martyred wife, and a fiery populist who manipulated local anger at Northern newspapers that pushed for Frank’s exoneration. |
| craziest murders in us history: In Cold Blood Truman Capote, 2013-02-19 Selected by the Modern Library as one of the 100 best nonfiction books of all time From the Modern Library’s new set of beautifully repackaged hardcover classics by Truman Capote—also available are Breakfast at Tiffany’s and Other Voices, Other Rooms (in one volume), Portraits and Observations, and The Complete Stories Truman Capote’s masterpiece, In Cold Blood, created a sensation when it was first published, serially, in The New Yorker in 1965. The intensively researched, atmospheric narrative of the lives of the Clutter family of Holcomb, Kansas, and of the two men, Richard Eugene Hickock and Perry Edward Smith, who brutally killed them on the night of November 15, 1959, is the seminal work of the “new journalism.” Perry Smith is one of the great dark characters of American literature, full of contradictory emotions. “I thought he was a very nice gentleman,” he says of Herb Clutter. “Soft-spoken. I thought so right up to the moment I cut his throat.” Told in chapters that alternate between the Clutter household and the approach of Smith and Hickock in their black Chevrolet, then between the investigation of the case and the killers’ flight, Capote’s account is so detailed that the reader comes to feel almost like a participant in the events. |
| craziest murders in us history: The Last Book on the Left Ben Kissel, Marcus Parks, Henry Zebrowski, 2020 A NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER An equal parts haunting and hilarious deep-dive review of history's most notorious and cold-blooded serial killers, from the creators of the award-winning Last Podcast on the Left Since its first show in 2010, The Last Podcast on the Left has barreled headlong into all things horror, as hosts Henry Zebrowski, Ben Kissel, and Marcus Parks cover subjects spanning Jeffrey Dahmer, werewolves, Jonestown, and supernatural phenomena. Deeply researched but with a morbidly humorous bent, the podcast has earned a dedicated and aptly cultlike following for its unique take on all things macabre. In their first book, the guys take a deep dive into history's most infamous serial killers, from Ted Bundy to John Wayne Gacy, exploring their origin stories, haunting habits, and perverse predilections. Featuring newly developed content alongside updated fan favorites, each profile is an exhaustive examination of the darker side of human existence. With appropriately creepy four-color illustrations throughout and a gift-worthy paper over board format, The Last Book on the Left will satisfy the bloodlust of readers everywhere. |
| craziest murders in us history: The Deadly Dozen Anirban Bhattacharyya, 2019-06-20 A schoolteacher who killed multiple paramours with cyanide; a mother who trained her daughters to kill children; a thug from the 1800s who slaughtered more than 900 people, a manservant who killed girls and devoured their body parts. If you thought serial killers was a Western phenomenon, think again! These bone-chilling stories in The Deadly Dozen will take you into the hearts and heads of India's most devious murderers and schemers, exploring what made them kill and why? |
| craziest murders in us history: Who Killed These Girls? Beverly Lowry, 2016 On December 6, 1991, the naked, bound-and-gagged bodies of ... four girls--each one shot in the head--were found in an I Can't Believe It's Yogurt! shop in Austin, Texas. Grief, shock, and horror spread out from their families and friends to overtake the city itself. Though all branches of law enforcement were brought to bear, the investigation was often misdirected and after eight years only two men (then teenagers) were tried; moreover, their subsequent convictions were eventually overturned, and Austin PD detectives are still working on what is now a very cold case--]cProvided by publisher. |
| craziest murders in us history: The Atlanta Ripper Jeffery Wells, 2010-09-24 An examination of the unsolved mystery of the Jack the Ripper-style serial killer who terrified early 20th century Atlanta, Georgia. As Atlanta finished rebuilding after the Civil War, a new horror arose from the ashes to roam the night streets. Beginning in 1911, a killer whose methods mimicked the famed Jack the Ripper murdered at least twenty black women, from prostitutes to working-class women and mothers. Each murder attributed to the killer occurred on a Saturday night, and for one terrifying spring in 1911, a fresh body turned up every Sunday morning. Amid a stifling investigation, slayings continued until 1915. As many as six men were arrested for the crimes, but investigators never discovered the identity of the killer, or killers, despite having several suspects in custody. Join local historian Jeffery Wells as he reveals the case of the Atlanta Ripper, unsolved to this day. |
| craziest murders in us history: Dear John Susan L. Carruthers, 2022-01-06 A sweeping history of emotional life that explores how 'Dear John' letters became a rite of passage for American servicemen. |
| craziest murders in us history: Young Killers Kathleen M. Heide, 1999 These factors often interact with certain personality characteristics and biological influences, causing many youths to conclude that they have little or nothing to lose by engaging in reckless and destructive acts. Although this book focuses mainly on boys who kill, Dr. Heide also discusses the increasing number of girls arrested for murder and examines gender issues in juvenile homicide. |
| craziest murders in us history: The Pied Piper of Tucson Don Moser, Jerry Cohen, 1967 It was Life and Time magazines that turned a local story from Tucson, Arizona, into a national abomination. Reporters came from all over, to be sure, but on March 4, 1966, Life printed an ominous photo of the desert landscape where three girls had disappeared and the story of Charles Howard Schmid, Jr., or Smitty, became international news. He had been arrested four months earlier on November 11, just after marrying a fifteen-year-old girl whom he'd met on a blind date. The article was published even before the juries in two separate trials had decided his fate. Dubbed The Pied Piper of Tucson, for his ability to get girls to fall for him, he stood five feet, four inches tall, but added three more inches by padding his stack-heeled cowboy boots with rags and tin cans. He also dyed his reddish-brown hair black, used pancake make-up, whitened his lips, and applied a fake mole to his left cheek-a beauty mark. Arrogant and narcissistic, he came from a wealthy family, so he used the niceties he could buy to impress young high school girls. He adopted the droopy-eyed look associated with Elvis, his idol, and acquired a rock musician's mystique. His tiny house on his parents' property was the scene of many parties. Tucson society was not merely shaken by the murders of three of their young women but by what the details of those murders revealed about its adolescent population-sex clubs, drinking parties, blackmail, cover-ups for murder, and even connections with the crime underworld. Parents suddenly became more strict, more aware now that their kids weren't safe and maybe weren't even behaving properly. When kids looked to someone like Charles Schmid for answers, there was something terribly wrong. |
| craziest murders in us history: True Crime: Rampage Killers Robert Keller, 2016-07-14 12 Crazed Spree Killers Whose Horrific Crimes Sent Shockwaves Around The World. True crime cases included in this volume; James Huberty: Perpetually angry at the world, James Huberty eventually snapped one day in July 1984. His attack on a McDonalds restaurant left 21 dead. Martin Bryant: Australian psycho who launched a horrific attack on tourists visiting a popular Tasmanian attraction. Thomas Watt Hamilton: Suspected pedophile who committed an unspeakable murder spree against a school class of 5-and-6 year olds in Dunblane, Scotland. Charles Whitman: An ex-marine, Whitman climbed the bell tower on the campus of the University of Texas, Austin, and opened fire on the people below. Eric Harris & Dylan Klebold: Teenaged killers Harris and Klebold carried out the horrific massacre at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colorado. Michael Ryan: British gun-nut who turned his murderous attentions on the residents of Hungerford, one summer's day in August 1987. Marc Lepine: Enraged at what he regarded as persecution by feminists, Lepine rampaged through the University of Montreal on December 6, 1989, killing 14 female students. Anders Breivik: A politically motivated killer, Breivik holds the dubious honor of committing the deadliest one-man killing spree in history. Woo Bum-Kon: A minor altercation sent this South Korean police officer into a killing frenzy that left 57 people dead. Andrew Kehoe: Angry at taxes levied to finance a new school, Andrew Kehoe took matters into his own hands - with bombs and a rifle. Howard Unruh: Unruh's numerous altercations with his neighbors eventually came to a head in September 1949. The city of Camden, New Jersey would never be the same again. Patrick Sherrill: Postal worker who carried out a deadly workplace shooting in Edmond, Oklahoma on August 20, 1986, causing 14 deaths. Scroll up to grab your copy of Rampage Killers now. |
| craziest murders in us history: We Keep the Dead Close Becky Cooper, 2020-11-10 FINALIST FOR THE J. ANTHONY LUKAS BOOK PRIZE NATIONAL BESTSELLER Named One of The Best Books of 2020 by NPR's Fresh Air * Publishers Weekly * Marie Claire * Redbook * Vogue * Kirkus Reviews * Book Riot * Bustle A Recommended Book by The New York Times * The Washington Post * Publisher's Weekly * Kirkus Reviews* Booklist * The Boston Globe * Goodreads * Buzzfeed * Town & Country * Refinery29 * BookRiot * CrimeReads * Glamour * Popsugar * PureWow * Shondaland Dive into a tour de force of investigative reporting (Ron Chernow): a searching, atmospheric and ultimately entrancing (Patrick Radden Keefe) true crime narrative of an unsolved 1969 murder at Harvard and an exhilarating and seductive (Ariel Levy) narrative of obsession and love for a girl who dreamt of rising among men. You have to remember, he reminded me, that Harvard is older than the U.S. government. You have to remember because Harvard doesn't let you forget. 1969: the height of counterculture and the year universities would seek to curb the unruly spectacle of student protest; the winter that Harvard University would begin the tumultuous process of merging with Radcliffe, its all-female sister school; and the year that Jane Britton, an ambitious twenty-three-year-old graduate student in Harvard's Anthropology Department and daughter of Radcliffe Vice President J. Boyd Britton, would be found bludgeoned to death in her Cambridge, Massachusetts apartment. Forty years later, Becky Cooper a curious undergrad, will hear the first whispers of the story. In the first telling the body was nameless. The story was this: a Harvard student had had an affair with her professor, and the professor had murdered her in the Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology because she'd threatened to talk about the affair. Though the rumor proves false, the story that unfolds, one that Cooper will follow for ten years, is even more complex: a tale of gender inequality in academia, a 'cowboy culture' among empowered male elites, the silencing effect of institutions, and our compulsion to rewrite the stories of female victims. We Keep the Dead Close is a memoir of mirrors, misogyny, and murder. It is at once a rumination on the violence and oppression that rules our revered institutions, a ghost story reflecting one young woman's past onto another's present, and a love story for a girl who was lost to history. |
| craziest murders in us history: The Michigan Murders Edward Keyes, 2016-04-19 Edgar Award Finalist: The true story of a serial killer who terrorized a midwestern town in the era of free love—by the coauthor of The French Connection. In 1967, during the time of peace, free love, and hitchhiking, nineteen-year-old Mary Terese Fleszar was last seen alive walking home to her apartment in Ypsilanti, Michigan. One month later, her naked body—stabbed over thirty times and missing both feet and a forearm—was discovered, partially buried, on an abandoned farm. A year later, the body of twenty-year-old Joan Schell was found, similarly violated. Southeastern Michigan was terrorized by something it had never experienced before: a serial killer. Over the next two years, five more bodies were uncovered around Ann Arbor and Ypsilanti, Michigan. All the victims were tortured and mutilated. All were female students. After multiple failed investigations, a chance sighting finally led to a suspect. On the surface, John Norman Collins was an all-American boy—a fraternity member studying elementary education at Eastern Michigan University. But Collins wasn’t all that he seemed. His female friends described him as aggressive and short tempered. And in August 1970, Collins, the “Ypsilanti Ripper,” was arrested, found guilty, and sentenced to life in prison without chance of parole. Written by the coauthor of The French Connection, The Michigan Murders delivers a harrowing depiction of the savage murders that tormented a small midwestern town. |
| craziest murders in us history: The Grim Sleeper Christine Pelisek, 2018-04-17 “One of the best true crime books of all time.” —Time As seen on Investigation Discovery’s The Grim Sleeper: Mind of a Monster The inside story of one of the notorious and elusive serial killer who stalked the vulnerable, the young, and the ignored in 1980s Los Angeles—and then returned decades later to kill again The Grim Sleeper was one of the most brutal serial killers in California history, preying on the women of South Central for decades. No one knows this story better than Christine Pelisek, the reporter who followed it for more than ten years. Based on extensive interviews, reportage, and information never released to the public, The Grim Sleeper captures the long, bumpy road to justice in one of the most startling true crime stories of our generation from his violent first crime while serving in the US Army to his inevitable death in prison. |
| craziest murders in us history: The Murdered Family Vernon Keel, 2010 A wave of fear sweeps across the barren prairies of central North Dakota in April of 1920 with the tragic news that seven members of a farm family and their hired boy have been brutally murdered at their home just north of Turtle Lake in McLean County. A massive search for the killers begins immediately in the midst of an intense statewide election campaign. Three weeks later, eager investigators encouraged by nervous politicians get a signed confession from one of the prime suspects in the case. He is sentenced that same day to life in the the state penitentiary in what the New York Times referred to then as “the most rapid administration of justice in the country.” . From the beginning, the man denies his guilt and says his confession was obtained under duress, intimidation and fear. In November, his lawyers file a motion in district court asking that his plea of guilty be withdrawn and for a trial upon the merits. Their motion is strengthened when some new evidence is discovered on the Wolf family farm only days before the motion is filed.Some ninety years later, people in the area still recall the words the convicted man was supposed to have said: “My eyes have seen but my hands are clean!” |
| craziest murders in us history: The Westside Park Murders Keith Roysdon, Douglas Walker, 2021-02-08 On a warm night in September 1985, teenagers Kimberly Dowell and Ethan Dixon were brutally murdered in Westside Park in Muncie, Indiana. Their killer has never been charged. Early on, police focused on a family member of one of the teens as a primary suspect. The investigation even ruled out fantastic scenarios, including a theory that the perpetrator was a Dungeons & Dragons devotee. The case grew cold. Only decades later did a dogged police investigator narrow the scope to a suspect whose name has never been publicly revealed until now. Keith Roysdon and Douglas Walker, authors of Wicked Muncie and Muncie Murder & Mayhem, have followed the investigation into the Westside Park murders for decades and, for the first time, report the complete and untold story. |
| craziest murders in us history: History of a Drowning Boy Dennis Nilsen, 2021-01-21 Dennis Nilsen was one of Britain's most notorious serial killers, jailed for life in 1983 after the murders of 12 men and the attempted murders of many more.Seven years after his conviction, Nilsen began to write his autobiography, and over a period of 18 years he typed 6,000 pages of introspection, reflection, comment and explanation.History of a Drowning Boy - taken exclusively from these astonishing writings - uncovers, for the first time, the motives behind the murders, and delivers a clear understanding of how such horrific events could have happened, tracing the origins back to early childhood.In another first, it provides an insight into his 35 years inside the maximum-security prison system, including his everyday life on the wings; his interactions with the authorities and other notorious prisoners; and his artistic endeavours of music, writing and drama. It also reveals the truth behind many of the myths surrounding Dennis Nilsen, as reported in the media.Nilsen was determined to have his memoir published but to his frustration, the Home Office blocked publication during his lifetime. He died in 2018 entrusting the manuscript to his closest friend and it is now being published with the latter's permission.Any autobiography presents the writer's story from just one perspective: his own, and as such this record should be treated with some caution. An excellent foreword by criminologist Dr Mark Pettigrew offers some context to Nilsen's words, and this important work provides an extraordinary journey through the life of a remarkable and inadequate man.Extract from the Foreword by Dr Mark Pettigrew, criminologistIn the UK, there are thought to be at least two serial killers active at any one time; in the USA the figure is estimated to be as high as fifty. Although a relatively rare phenomenon, there is a great deal of public interest in the life and crimes of serial killers. Yet, despite the inordinate amount of interest, the serial killer remains one of the least understood types of criminal - even in the academic world the simple definition of a serial killer has still not been settled.In a saturated market of true crime novels, there are very few that include the voice of the actual killer. As such, amongst a literary sea of accounts devoted to the serial killer and his crimes, this book stands out as unique. Of course any subjective retelling by the killer must be approached with caution; the prevalence of personality disorders, psychopathy, paranoid schizophrenia and other psychiatric and mental disorders, can distort the personal account just as an attempt at self-aggrandising can misrepresent the true narrative of the crimes. Yet, the simple facts of a case can be gleamed from police records, trial testimony and crime scene evidence, whereas personal introspection offers much more of an insight into the motivation of the killer.As the reader will learn from these memoirs, a confluence of factors met to form Dennis Nilsen. In all the academic and clinical research on the topic, there is no definitive answer as to why or how a person becomes a serial killer. Realistically, we can only identify risk factors. What this book offers, though, is an insight into how those killings are comprehended and understood by the killer in retrospect. In my own conversations with Dennis Nilsen, over several years, he did not try to excuse what he did, nor trivialise the devastating effect his actions had upon the families and loved ones of his victims. Instead, he sought to understand his actions in light of his particular circumstances. I cannot honestly say that he ever found a definitive answer as to why he became one of Britain's most infamous serial killers, but if the answer is ever to be found, it will be found within these pages. |
| craziest murders in us history: Stay Sexy & Don't Get Murdered Karen Kilgariff, Georgia Hardstark, 2019-05-28 The instant #1 New York Times and USA Today best seller by Karen Kilgariff and Georgia Hardstark, the voices behind the hit podcast My Favorite Murder! Sharing never-before-heard stories ranging from their struggles with depression, eating disorders, and addiction, Karen and Georgia irreverently recount their biggest mistakes and deepest fears, reflecting on the formative life events that shaped them into two of the most followed voices in the nation. In Stay Sexy & Don’t Get Murdered, Karen and Georgia focus on the importance of self-advocating and valuing personal safety over being ‘nice’ or ‘helpful.’ They delve into their own pasts, true crime stories, and beyond to discuss meaningful cultural and societal issues with fierce empathy and unapologetic frankness. “In many respects, Stay Sexy & Don’t Get Murdered distills the My Favorite Murder podcast into its most essential elements: Georgia and Karen. They lay themselves bare on the page, in all of their neuroses, triumphs, failures, and struggles. From eating disorders to substance abuse and kleptomania to the wonders of therapy, Kilgariff and Hardstark recount their lives with honesty, humor, and compassion, offering their best unqualified life-advice along the way.” —Entertainment Weekly “Like the podcast, the book offers funny, feminist advice for survival—both in the sense of not getting killed and just, like, getting a job and working through your personal shit so you can pay your bills and have friends.” —Rolling Stone At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied. |
| craziest murders in us history: Manson Family Murders Tom Streissguth, 2019-12-15 The Manson Family Murders explores all sides of these famous killings. It discusses police investigations, conspiracy theories, societal impacts, and more related to Charles Manson and his Family's crimes. Features include a glossary, references, websites, source notes, and an index. Aligned to Common Core Standards and correlated to state standards. Essential Library is an imprint of Abdo Publishing, a division of ABDO. |
| craziest murders in us history: Jesus Freaks Don Lattin, 2009-10-13 In the tradition of Jon Krakauer's Under the Banner of Heaven, Don Lattin's Jesus Freaks is the story of a shocking pilgrimage of revenge that left two people dead and shed new light on The Family International, one of the most controversial religious movements to emerge from the spiritual turmoil of the sixties and seventies. Some say The Family International—previously known as the Children of God—began with the best intentions. But their sexual and spiritual excesses soon forced them to go underground and follow a dark and dangerous path. Their charismatic leader, David Moses Berg, preached a radical critique of the piety and hypocrisy of mainstream Christianity. But Berg's message quickly devolved into its own web of lies. He lusted for power and unlimited access to female members of his flock—including young girls and teenagers—and became a drunken tyrant, setting up re-indoctrination camps around the world for rebellious teenagers under his control. Thousands of children raised in The Family would defect and try to live normal lives, but the prophet's heir apparent, Ricky Davidito Rodriguez, was unable to either bear the excesses of the cult or fit into normal society. Sexually and emotionally abused as a child, Ricky left the fold and began a crusade to destroy the only family he ever knew, including a plot to kill his own mother. Veteran journalist Don Lattin has written a powerful, engrossing book about this uniquely American tragedy. Jesus Freaks is a cautionary tale for those who fail to question the prophesies and proclamations of anyone who claims to speak for God. |
| craziest murders in us history: ShadowMan Ron Franscell, 2022-03-01 Mindhunter crossed with American Gothic. This chilling story has the ghostly unease of a nightmare.—Michael Cannell, author of Incendiary: The Psychiatrist, the Mad Bomber and the Invention of Criminal Profiling The pulse-pounding account of the first time in history that the FBI’s Behavioral Science Unit created a psychological profile to catch a serial killer On June 25, 1973, a seven-year-old girl went missing from the Montana campground where her family was vacationing. Somebody had slit open the back of their tent and snatched her from under their noses. None of them saw or heard anything. Susie Jaeger had vanished into thin air, plucked by a shadow. The largest manhunt in Montana’s history ensued, led by the FBI. As days stretched into weeks, and weeks into months, Special Agent Pete Dunbar attended a workshop at FBI Headquarters in Quantico, Virgina, led by two agents who had hatched a radical new idea: What if criminals left a psychological trail that would lead us to them? Patrick Mullany, a trained psychologist, and Howard Teten, a veteran criminologist, had created the Behavioral Science Unit to explore this new voodoo they called “criminal profiling.” At Dunbar’s request, Mullany and Teten built the FBI’s first profile of an unknown subject: the UnSub who had snatched Susie Jaeger and, a few months later, a nineteen-year-old waitress. When a suspect was finally arrested, the profile fit him to a T... |
| craziest murders in us history: A Special Kind of Evil Blaine Lee Pardoe, Victoria Hester, 2017-07-12 In the late 1980s, a predator stalked the Tidewater region of Virginia, savagely murdering his carefully selected his prey. He, or they, demonstrated a special kind of evil, and to this day have evaded justice. This is the first comprehensive look at the Colonial Parkway Murders and sheds new light on the victims, the crimes, and the investigation. |
| craziest murders in us history: The Only Living Witness Stephen G. Michaud, Hugh Aynesworth, 1999 A true account of homicidal insanity--Jacket subtitle. |
| craziest murders in us history: The Invention of Murder Judith Flanders, 2013-07-23 Superb... Flanders's convincing and smart synthesis of the evolution of an official police force, fictional detectives, and real-life cause célèbres will appeal to devotees of true crime and detective fiction alike. -Publishers Weekly, starred review In this fascinating exploration of murder in nineteenth century England, Judith Flanders examines some of the most gripping cases that captivated the Victorians and gave rise to the first detective fiction Murder in the nineteenth century was rare. But murder as sensation and entertainment became ubiquitous, with cold-blooded killings transformed into novels, broadsides, ballads, opera, and melodrama-even into puppet shows and performing dog-acts. Detective fiction and the new police force developed in parallel, each imitating the other-the founders of Scotland Yard gave rise to Dickens's Inspector Bucket, the first fictional police detective, who in turn influenced Sherlock Holmes and, ultimately, even P.D. James and Patricia Cornwell. In this meticulously researched and engrossing book, Judith Flanders retells the gruesome stories of many different types of murder in Great Britain, both famous and obscure: from Greenacre, who transported his dismembered fiancée around town by omnibus, to Burke and Hare's bodysnatching business in Edinburgh; from the crimes (and myths) of Sweeney Todd and Jack the Ripper, to the tragedy of the murdered Marr family in London's East End. Through these stories of murder-from the brutal to the pathetic-Flanders builds a rich and multi-faceted portrait of Victorian society in Great Britain. With an irresistible cast of swindlers, forgers, and poisoners, the mad, the bad and the utterly dangerous, The Invention of Murder is both a mesmerizing tale of crime and punishment, and history at its most readable. |
| craziest murders in us history: Deadly Dose Amanda Lamb, 2008-06-03 The crime was unforgivable. The suspected murderer—unbelievable. One man’s pursuit of justice—unstoppable. The death of promising young pediatric AIDS researcher Eric Miller stunned the Raleigh, North Carolina, community, largely because of the horrific way he was killed. For months, Eric was slowly tortured as arsenic consumed his body. No one thought that Eric Miller’s wife, Ann—an attractive, demure, educated scientist—could be capable of such a horrible crime. No one except for veteran homicide investigator Chris Morgan, a man in the twilight of his career. But from the moment Morgan saw the thirty-year-old widow in the interview room at the police department, he knew he was seeing pure evil. Now, journalist Amanda Lamb details Morgan’s dogged investigation—a quest for the truth that would last four years and see another life taken before Ann Miller’s tangled web of death and deceit finally came to light. |
| craziest murders in us history: Pure Evil Jaclyn Weldon White, 2020-08-03 Rebecca and Ronald Akins and their three daughters appeared to be a typical suburban family in 1970 Macon, Georgia, but the attractive facade hid a family in crisis. The girls suffered physical and emotional abuse at the hands of their mother. Although he sometimes worked three jobs, Ronnie was never able to provide Becky the lifestyle she wanted. After their 1974 divorce, Becky took the children to South Florida where she pursued a life of gambling and partying. Fueled by popular books and films, she wanted to live in what she believed was the exciting world of organized crime and changed her name to Machetti. In only a few months, she found two men who joined her in her murderous fantasy which culminated in two deaths. The resulting legal proceedings went on for more than a decade. This is the story of Rebecca Machetti, a cold-blooded woman whose prosecutor described as pure evil and her three daughters who lived through years of abuse before finally finding peace and normal lives. |
| craziest murders in us history: 'Til Death Do Us . . .' Patrick Gallagher, 2020-06-16 The riveting true story of serial wife and husband killer Gladys Lincoln, written by the grandson of her lead defense attorney. Includes love letters from the victim to the defendant hidden over seventy years! In August 1945, Gladys Lincoln of Sacramento contacted prosperous Dr. W. D. Broadhurst of Caldwell, Idaho, and rekindled a romance from twenty years earlier. After many passionate letter exchanges and several sexually-charged meetings, they were married in Reno, Nevada on May 20, 1946. After a passion-filled three-day weekend together, the doctor returned to his home in Idaho, and Gladys returned to Sacramento . . . and to her husband, Leslie Lincoln! But Gladys was much more than a bigamist. Gladys needed something even she didn’t understand. She married her first husband when she was twenty, and her second husband only fourteen months later. The second marriage lasted only two years, the third less than sixteen months. Leslie Lincoln was her fifth, and Dr. Broadhurst became her sixth. But what desperate need drove her to go from marriage to marriage? And what dark mindset moved her and her young cowboy chauffeur to commit murder? Find out in ’Til Death Do Us . . . the gripping true crime from WildBlue Press author Patrick Gallagher, whose grandfather was Gladys’ lead defense attorney during her sensational trial. |
| craziest murders in us history: Cruel Sacrifice Aphrodite Jones, 2005-05 On a freezing January in 1992, five teenage girls crowded into a car. By the end of the night, only four of them were alive. The fifth had been tortured and mutilated nearly beyond recognition. Her name was Shanda Sharer; her age-twelve. When the people of Madison, Indiana heard that a brutal murder had been committed in their midst, they were stunned. Then the story became even more bizarre. The four accused murderers were all girls under the age of eighteen: Melinda Loveless, Laurle Tackett, Hope Rippey, and Tonl Lawrence. Here, for the first time, veteran true crime journalist Aphrodite Jones reveals the shocking truth behind the most savage crime in Indiana history-a tragic story of twisted love and insane jealousy, lesbianism, brutal child abuse, and sadistic ritual killing in small-town America...and of the young innocent who paid the ultimate price. |
| craziest murders in us history: The Devil In The White City Erik Larson, 2010-09-30 'An irresistible page-turner that reads like the most compelling, sleep defying fiction' TIME OUT One was an architect. The other a serial killer. This is the incredible story of these two men and their realization of the Chicago World's Fair of 1893, and its amazing 'White City'; one of the wonders of the world. The architect was Daniel H. Burnham, the driving force behind the White City, the massive, visionary landscape of white buildings set in a wonderland of canals and gardens. The killer was H. H. Holmes, a handsome doctor with striking blue eyes. He used the attraction of the great fair - and his own devilish charms - to lure scores of young women to their deaths. While Burnham overcame politics, infighting, personality clashes and Chicago's infamous weather to transform the swamps of Jackson Park into the greatest show on Earth, Holmes built his own edifice just west of the fairground. He called it the World's Fair Hotel. In reality it was a torture palace, a gas chamber, a crematorium. These two disparate but driven men are brought to life in this mesmerizing, murderous tale of the legendary Fair that transformed America and set it on course for the twentieth century . . . |
| craziest murders in us history: The Most Dangerous Animal of All Gary L. Stewart, Susan D. Mustafa, 2014-05-22 An explosive and historic book of true crime and an emotionally powerful and revelatory memoir of a man whose ten-year search for his biological father leads to a chilling discovery: His father is one of the most notorious-and still at large-serial killers. |
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The meaning of CRAZY is not mentally sound : marked by thought or action that lacks reason : insane —not used technically.
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Craziest - definition of craziest by The Free Dictionary
Informal Departing from proportion or moderation, especially: a. Possessed by enthusiasm or excitement: The crowd at the game went crazy. b. Immoderately fond; infatuated: was crazy …
121 Synonyms & Antonyms for CRAZIEST - Thesaurus.com
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