Authors: Peter Vronsky
ISBN-13: 9780425196403, ISBN-10: 0425196402
Format: Paperback
Publisher: Penguin Group (USA)
Date Published: October 2004
Edition: (Non-applicable)
Peter Vronsky is an investigative journalist and a producer of documentary films for television. His work has appeared on PBS, Discovery Channel, MTV, CNN, and various international channels.
The comprehensive examination into the frightening history of serial homicide.
In this unique book, Peter Vronsky documents the psychological, investigative, and cultural aspects of serial murder, beginning with its first recorded instance in Ancient Rome, through fifteenth-century France, up to such notorious contemporary cases as cannibal/necrophile Ed Kemper, Henry Lee Lucas, Ted Bundy, and the emergence of what he classifies as the "serial rampage killer" such as Andrew Cunanan.
Vronsky not only offers sound theories on what makes a serial killer, but also provides 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 the apprehension and conviction of the Green River Killer and the Beltway Snipers, Vronsky's one-of-a-kind book covers every conceivable aspect of an endlessly riveting true-crime phenomenon.
Preface | ix | |
Part 1 | A History of Monsters | |
1. | The Postmodern Age of Serial Homicide, 1970-2000 | 3 |
2. | A Brief History of Serial Homicide | 42 |
Part 2 | The Method and Madness | |
3. | Classifying Serial Killers | 99 |
4. | The Evolution of Monstrosity | 147 |
5. | The Question of Madness | 241 |
6. | Serial Killers As Children | 269 |
7. | The Serial Murderer's First Kill | 286 |
8. | The Killing Times | 303 |
Part 3 | Fighting Monsters | |
9. | The Art and Science of Criminal Profiling | 321 |
10. | Surviving a Serial Killer | 364 |
Acknowledgments | 385 | |
Endnotes | 386 | |
Selected Sources | 395 | |
Index | 400 |