Serial Killers True Crime

True crime stories are everywhere - from our screens to podcasts, capturing our imaginations and haunting our dreams. It's raw, it's real, and it's a deep dive into humanity's dark side. Whether you think you've heard it all or are just getting started, "The Ultimate True Crime Trivia Book" is your next must-listen.

One night in July 1991, two policemen saw a man running handcuffed from the apartment of Jeffrey Dahmer. Investigating, they made a gruesome discovery: three human skulls in Dahmer’s refrigerator and the body parts of at least 11 more people scattered throughout the apartment. Shortly thereafter, Milwaukee Journal reporter Anne E. Schwartz received a tip that would change her life. Schwartz, who broke the story and had exclusive access to the principals involved, details the complete, inside story of Dahmer’s dark life, the case, and its aftermath.

Four children were abducted and murdered outside of Detroit during the winters of 1976 and 1977; their bodies eventually dumped in snow banks around the city. J. Reuben Appelman was six years old at the time the murders began and had evaded an abduction attempt during that same period, fueling a lifelong obsession with what became known as the Oakland County Child Killings. There were few credible leads and equally few credible suspects. That's what the cops had passed down to the press, and that's what the city of Detroit and J. Reuben Appelman had come to believe.

Jerry Marcus fooled them all. He was “a nice guy,” always helped at home, did well in school, an athlete, and always employed. When things went wrong, he was the first to help clean up the mess. He was the last person anyone suspected of being a serial killer. After Marcus was caught and sentenced to life in prison in the late 1970s, author Linda Lou Long spent years corresponding with him. The Tuskegee Strangler gives an inside look into the workings of a man who is not your typical serial killer.

Listen to the story of Gary Ridgway from childhood to chase to capture. You might not be able to sleep after listening to this one!

Meet Harold Shipman, a serial killer with a disturbing proclivity to murder a specific kind of patient. With an estimated 250 victims, there’s no doubt his kill count might be much, much higher. But what drove him to murder?You’ll have to buy this book to find out. But we’ll warn you now: This story might haunt your nightmares and leave you scared to go for your next checkup. When you learn the truth of Harold’s crimes, and what happened to him in the end, you’ll be stunned, dismayed, and no doubt left with the kinds of questions that have no easy answers.

A dying husband needs a devoted wife. But when love runs out, marriage becomes a burden. On October 8, 2000, Wendi Andriano snapped. She had played the part of devoted wife to her terminally ill husband, Joe Andriano, for years, but when the love left their marriage, so did Wendi's patience for her husband's eventual demise. Wendi had a plan to help nudge nature along, and when her Plan B expired, she took matters directly into her own hands...

In 1888, five gruesome murders shocked the civilized public. A bloodthirsty killer was on the loose in the slums of London. The world was on the lookout for Jack the Ripper. Scotland Yard never found their man - or so they said publicly. The police knew the killer's identity but concealed it to save the ruling class from embarrassment. The Escape of Jack the Ripper reveals how British elites manipulated the public to protect one of their own. Through meticulous research, Jonathan Hainsworth and Christine Ward-Agius have uncovered the killer's identity.

The year 1969: The hippie scene is vibrant in Provincetown, Massachusetts. Long-haired teenagers roam the streets, strumming guitars and preaching about peace and love...and Tony Costa is at the center of it all. To a certain group of smitten young women, he is known as Sire—the leader of their counterculture movement, the charming man who speaks eloquently and hands out hallucinogenic drugs like candy. But beneath his benign persona lies a twisted and uncontrollable rage that threatens to break loose at any moment. Tony Costa is the most dangerous man on Cape Cod.

The summer of 1983 was like no other in Joliet, Ill., a hard-working, rough-and-tough blue-collar industrial city an hour’s drive southwest of Chicago. During one of the hottest summers on record, the citizens of Joliet, were terrorized by an elusive serial-killing madman.

When it comes to things that grip us with fear, the mind usually looks to the supernatural experiences that know no explanation. The truth is, yet again, stranger and more sinister than fiction. For the true monsters do not reside in the recesses of our minds, but in the shadows of dimly lit sidewalks, blind corners, and even - most menacingly - in the eyes of the seemingly innocent.

In the early 1980s, serial killer Clifford Olson rampaged through the lower mainland of British Columbia, raping and murdering 11 victims. His heinous cash-for-bodies deal foreshortened his trial, and resulted in the law currently on Canadian books that forbids criminals from benefiting financially from their crimes. Olson was just the pimple on the hide of a misogynist culture, as this long poem sequence attests.

July 22, 2011, was the darkest day in Norway's history since Nazi Germany's invasion. It was 189 minutes of terror - from the moment the bomb exploded outside a government building until Anders Behring Breivik was apprehended by the police at Utoya Island. Breivik murdered 77 people, most of them teenagers and young adults, and wounded hundreds more. Breivik is a "lone wolf killer", often overlooked until they commit their crime. Breivik is also unique as he is the only lone wolf killer in recent history to still be alive and in captivity.

Dangerous and disregarding people don't simply drop out of the sky. Nor are they born bloodthirsty and cruel. When looking at the developmental years of adult criminals and juvenile delinquents or the selfish patterns of anyone that we must rub shoulders with, the question is asked "How does one get this way?" Typically we can see the answers within their genetic mental health history which may hint of possible concern and their first 5 years after birth which is their most impressionable social training ground.

Having worked for 16 years in a high security women’s prison dealing with the likes of Rosemary West and Myra Hindley, Vanessa Frake thought she’d seen just about everything. That was until she was transferred to the notorious Wormwood Scrubs as head of security and operations. Thrust into a ‘man’s world’, her no nonsense approach and fearless attitude saw her rise through the ranks, as she engaged in daily battles of the wits with both inmates and staff.

Eleven murders over a period of four years sent shockwaves through the Krugersdorp community and made headlines nationwide. Eventually these murders were connected to Cecilia Steyn and her cult, Electus per Deus (chosen by God). Members of the cult were willing to do anything for Cecilia - even if it meant committing murder.

In Volume 3 of my Serial Killers series, The Serial Killers: Butchers and Lunatics, you will be introduced to some of the most vicious and disturbed Serial Killers. In Butchers in Lunatics we are going to explore the crimes and lives of men such as Ted Bundy, killer of at least 36 woman and perhaps more than 60.

Perhaps the most notorious American murderer of the 20th century, Charles Manson's legacy extends far beyond his horrific crimes. As the wild-eyed, swastika-tattooed, nightmarishly charismatic leader of the Manson Family, he was convicted of the brutal killings of nine people in 1971, including the Tate-LaBianca murders of seven in Los Angeles over two hot August nights in 1969.

Jack the Ripper was probably the first serial killer to appear in a large metropolis at a time when the general populace was literate and the press was a force for social change. The press was also partly responsible for creating many myths surrounding the Ripper. Robin Odell's Ripperology is the first study to present a sequential history of literary investigations of Jack the Ripper's crimes and to address the seven principal phases of Ripper speculations....

Ray and Faye Copeland are often known as the oldest couple ever to be sentenced to death in the United States. At the ages of 76 and 69, the couple was sentenced to death in separate trials for the murders of five vagrant men that they had taken in, hired, forced to commit fraud, and then finally killed to keep quiet. While Ray's guilt in the crime was indisputable, Faye's role in the crimes is muddled as she was the victim of severe physical abuse at the hands of Ray.