Average Reviews:
(More customer reviews)A quick caveat for starters: after reading this book in one quick sitting, I feel a little disturbed. If the parade of violence and deviant sexual behavior that this book presents fails to have a similar effect upon you, then you are either jaded or deviant yourself. By themselves, the descriptions of the childhood home lives of most of the killers described within these pages are horrifying beyond belief.
That said, the authors touch on every aspect of serial murder with which I was previously familiar, as well as a great deal more. The only problem is that you will have to read the book cover to cover to find most of it. Juan Corona, for example, is to be found only under the entry "Orchards" (? ), apparently because many of his victims were buried in them. The only other apparent reason for this entry is a murder case, also involving corpse disposal in an orchard, that has nothing whatsoever to do with serial killers. One must look in similarly obscure entries to find the Green River killer (still the most prolific American serial killer in terms of confirmed victims), the notorious 16th-century French nobleman Gilles de Rais, whose behavior parallels that of some modern serial killers quite closely (with the exception of his high position in society), or South America's Pedro Lopez, the "Monster of the Andes."
In short, this is not an encyclopedia that is meant as a real reference work of any sort; the "encyclopedia" aspect is merely a convenient format that the authors use to relate capsule-sized anecdotes and factoids. A distinct bias in the entries is also obvious--the reader is treated to mention of Ed Gein, Albert Fish and H.H. Holmes over and over again, most likely because Harold Schechter has previously written books about them. [Notably, Albert Fish, who also is given his own entry, is the only reason for another entry entitled "X-Rays," so that we can for the second time read about the needles he inserted into his pelvis.] Notwithstanding the frustrations the reader will encounter with the organization of this book, Schechter and Everitt provide a breezy read--that is, if you can take the subject matter breezily--and their book is morbidly entertaining.
Click Here to see more reviews about: The A to Z Encyclopedia of Serial Killers (Pocket Books True Crime)
Serial killers have never enjoyed a firmer grip on the nation's imagination. A steady stream of horrific crimes have made serial murder a subject of both tabloid attention and serious study. With hundreds of entries spanning the entire spectrum of serial murder, this comprehensive resource examines these shocking crimes, and their infamous practicioners, from every angle.
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