True Crime Serial Murders

After Jack the Ripper and before Son of Sam there was only one name their equal in terror: the deadly, elusive, and mysterious Zodiac. Beginning in 1968 the hooded mass murderer terrified the city of San Francisco and the Bay Area with a string of brutal killings. A sexual sadist, his pleasure was torture and murder.

When New York Times reporter Michael Finkel meets accused killer Christian Longo - who has taken on Finkel's identity - his investigation morphs into an unforgettable game of cat and mouse. True Story weaves a spellbinding tale of murder, love, deceit, and redemption, following Finkel's relentless pursuit of the shocking truth.

After his December 2003 arrest, registered nurse Charlie Cullen was quickly dubbed "The Angel of Death" by the media. But Cullen was no mercy killer, nor was he a simple monster. He was a favorite son, husband, beloved father, best friend, and celebrated caregiver. Implicated in the deaths of as many as 300 patients, he was also perhaps the most prolific serial killer in American history.

Twenty-two years in the FBI, 16 of them as a member of the Bureau's Behavioral Science Unit. Roy Hazelwood, like many investigators, has seen it all. But unlike most, he's gone further into the dark and twisted psyches of serial killers and sadistic sexual offenders and has emerged as one of the world's foremost experts on the sexual criminal. Acclaimed true-crime writer Stephen G. Michaud takes you into the heart of Hazelwood's work through dozens of startling cases, including those of the Lonely Heart Killer, the "Ken and Barbie" killings, and the Atlanta Child Murders.

It’s a chilling reality that homicide investigators know all too well: The last face most murder victims see is not that of a stranger, but of someone familiar. Whether only an acquaintance or a trusted intimate, such killers share a common trait that triggers the downward spiral toward death for someone close to them: They are masters at hiding who they really are. Their clever masks let them appear safe, kind, and truthful. They are anything but - and almost no one can detect the murderous impulses buried deep in their psyches.

I order another bourbon, neat. This is the drink that will flip the switch. I don’t even know how I got here, to this place, to this point. Something is happening to me lately. I’m drinking too much. My sheets are soaking wet when I wake up from nightmares of decaying corpses. I order another drink and swig it, trying to forget about the latest case I can’t shake. Crime solving for me is more complex than the challenge of the hunt, or the process of piecing together a scientific puzzle. The thought of good people suffering drives me to the point of obsession.

A chilling genre-busting memoir by a major American essayist. Late in 2004, Maggie Nelson was looking forward to the publication of her book, Jane: A Murder, a narrative in verse about the life and death of her aunt, who had been murdered 35 years before. The case remained unsolved, but Jane was assumed to have been the victim of an infamous serial killer in Michigan in 1969.

Whether you’re addicted to true crime like us, are curious about the evils people visit on one another, or simply want to listen to twisted tales, this book will tick all your boxes. From a horrific campus crime to manipulation and murder, these stories will send a shiver down your spine.

With extreme hatred of feminism in his heart, a heavily armed Marc Lépine entered the University École Polytechnique de Montreal. After allowing the male students to leave, he systematically murdered 14 female students, an act that feminists would label "gynocide".

The horrific and disturbing nature of these stories often makes you question everything you thought or believed about humanity. Yet they are engaging and fascinating at the same time. We all had evil thoughts throughout our lives. What is it that makes us different from those who actually act upon it? Is it the act alone? These are questions that many ask themselves, and these stories will help dig into the elements and psychology behind some of the most terrifying killers in history.

Charles Manson is instantly recognizable as the deranged cult leader who was responsible for the deaths of nine people in the late 1960s. Manson was a career criminal who got his education in the US prison system and learned at an early age that only those who have power over others will survive. In less than three years, Manson transformed his followers from a group of freedom-loving, LSD-dropping hippies into a pack of blood-thirsty murderers who carried out acts of astounding brutality at his request.

The Parable of the Knocker is a nonfiction book about the investigation, prosecution, and trial of a notorious serial killer, Charles Severance. Severance committed his crimes in the City of Alexandria, Virginia, an affluent, historic community just miles south of Washington, DC. Over the course of a decade, Severance ambushed three outstanding Alexandria residents in their middle-class neighborhood by knocking on their front doors in broad daylight and shooting them unexpectedly when they answered the knock.

Eighty thousand words, 100 serial killers, 100 short stories - but thousands of victims. I've selected at random 100 from A to Z. For many beginner true-crime fans, this will give you just enough taste to each story that, if you want to find out more about a particular serial killer, you can search for related books.

In 1850, following a divorce and a number of encounters with the law, Boone Helm headed "Out West" to chase the Californian Gold Rush with his cousin. When his cousin pulled out at the last minute, Helm was incensed, and brutally stabbed him to death. Helm was detained in an asylum for the mentally disturbed but managed to escape. Helm continued his journey west with renewed vigour, where he opportunistically killed and consumed the flesh of adversaries and travelling companions, earning him the nickname "The Kentucky Cannibal"....

A vivid, frightening novel collection of nine strange, dark, and mysterious stories, based on true events, from the mind behind the YouTube channel and hit MrBallen Podcast.

Growing up on Cape Cod in the 1960s, Liza Rodman was a lonely little girl. During the summers, while her mother worked days in a local motel and danced most nights in the Provincetown bars, her babysitter - the kind, handsome handyman at the motel where her mother worked - took her and her sister on adventures in his truck. He bought them popsicles and together, they visited his “secret garden” in the Truro woods. To Liza, he was one of the few kind, understanding, and safe adults in her life.

Peter Woodcock was Canada's youngest serial killer when, at the age of 17, he brutally raped and murdered two boys and a girl between the ages of four and nine. He was never put on trial by "reason of insanity", and instead was confined for 34 years in a criminal psychiatric facility and offered treatment. On July 13, 1991, he finally had earned his first day pass ever and was allowed to briefly go off the facility grounds into town to visit a DQ for an ice cream. What Woodcock did within the first hour of his first day pass stunned many people and made national headlines.

In the most extraordinary journey Ann Rule has ever undertaken, America's master of true crime has spent more than two decades researching the story of the Green River Killer, who murdered more than 49 young women. Green River, Running Red is a harrowing account of a modern monster, a killer who walked among us undetected. It is also the story of his quarry -- of who these young women were and who they might have become.

From 1910 to 1919, New Orleans suffered at the hands of its very own Jack the Ripper-style killer while two innocent men nearly paid for one of his crimes with their lives. The story has been the subject of websites, short stories, collections of true crime, novels, a graphic novel, and the FX television series American Horror Story. But the real story of the Axeman of New Orleans has never been written - until now.

Randy Kraft was highly intelligent, politically active, loyal to his friends, committed to his work - and the killer of 67 people - more than any other serial killer known. This book offers a glimpse into the dark mind of a living monster.