Best books on other serial killers?

[Frank]

I think we all agree that Sugden's Complete History and Begg's The Facts are the best books on Jack the Ripper.
But what are the best books on other serial killers, e.g. Zodiac, The Yorkshire Ripper, Green River Killer, Ted Bundy, ...

I would be glad to hear your recommendations.

Best regards,
Frank

[JTRSickert]

hey Frank,

In my opinion, the best book(s) on the Zodiac killer are "Zodiac" and "Zodiac Unmasked" by Robert Graysmith. Also, check out the movie with Jake Gyllenhaal and Mark Ruffalo. Very good adaptation.

[Frank]

Yeah, I like that movie.
But I heard that Graysmith's books are very biased towards A.L.Allen. Isn't there a more objective book. Or am I misinformed about Graysmith?

[JTRSickert]

Well, the first book, "Zodiac" is a more objective book on the case that presents all of the evidence and puts forth all major suspects, including Allen although he is given a pseudonym in that book. "Zodiac Unmasked" is really Graysmith's book that presents the case as Allen being the Zodiac.

Although there are problems with Allen as being Z, I have not read anywhere of a more likely suspect, in my opinion, though.

[sdreid]

In a lot cases, there isn't much competition. For that matter, there are several big cases for which not one book has been written.

[jgaspard]

The Cases That Haunt Us

"The Cases That Haunt Us," by John Douglas, covers a lot of ground, from Zodiac to The Boston Strangler.

His profiling methods may have been put into serious doubt (see Malcolm Gladwell's article about profiling in The New Yorker, which I believe is included in his new book, "What the Dog Saw."), but it's still a good read and a solid introduction to a lot of the cases.

[Doug Irvine]

Harold Schechter is one of the finest authors of historical true crime writing today. A few of his books are, Deviant, about Ed Gein the role model for the book and movie Psycho, as well as The Texas Chain Saw Massacre and the Silence of the Lambs, Albert Fish, perhaps the most prolific serial killer ever and H.H. Homes, the creator of the murder castle. For a complete list of all Harold Schechter's books see below.

http://www.haroldschechter.com/books/bookmain.html

[Esther Wilson]

I totally agree

hey Frank,

In my opinion, the best book(s) on the Zodiac killer are "Zodiac" and "Zodiac Unmasked" by Robert Graysmith. Also, check out the movie with Jake Gyllenhaal and Mark Ruffalo. Very good adaptation.

[sdreid]

I'll vote for Steven Nickel's Torso about the Cleveland case.

[Lord Lucan]

On the Tate/LaBianca murders, Helter Skelter by Vincent Bugliosi is worth a read as is Coming Down Fast by Simon Wells. I second the choices on the Zodiac as well...excellent reads.

[ChainzCooper]

The Milwaukee Murders about Jeffrey Dahmer is pretty nuts. They had this guy caught but instead made fun of the victim after driving away from Dahmer's apartment. Pretty crazy. As far as true crime goes Under and Alone by William Queen is really cool. About an ATF agent who infiltrated a Motorcycle Club in California, its a really cool read.
Jordan

[needler]

books on other serial killers???

For starters, try Jim Badal's book "In the Wake of the Butcher" for the Cleveland Torso killings, Emlyn Williams' "Beyond Belief" for Brady and Hindley, Ludovic Kennedy's "Ten Rillington Place" for Christie, Brian Masters' "Killing for Company" on Nilsen, and Sullivan & Maiken's "Killer Clown" for Gacy. Those ought to get you started ............

Cheers to everyone!

Judy

[Frank]

Uh, well, I never expected this old thread to pop up again, but okay. In the meantime I read several books on other serial killers. There were good ones and not so good ones.

A really fine read was "Green River, Running Red" by Ann Rule on the Green River Killer Gary Ridgway. It is (in my opinion) far better than "The Riverman" which is actually more about Ted Bundy than about the Green River Killings. It was very hard to read because of Bundy's drivel, which was always quite the same stuff. Quiet disappointing in my opinion. At the moment I read "Chasing the Devil" by Dave Reichert. Up to now )page 100) it is a good read. It is from police's point of view while Ann Rule has a more journalistic one and dedicates more space for the victims.

About the Yorkshire Ripper I read the book by Roger Cross which is a short but very informative book. I can also recommend "Wicked beyond Believe" by Michael Bilton.

Graysmith's "Zodiac" is quite informative on the one hand, but on the other hand it is too biased towards Arthur Lee Allen, you know like "Witnesses saw a white car. A.L.Allen had a white car." That is quite annoying.

I am still angry that I spent money for John Douglas's book on BTK. It is a typical Douglas-"I knew it all before"-book. You have to read careful to see that the personality of Dennis Rader he describes in later chapter is completely different than the personality described by his profile in the beginning chapters. But he mentions only points in which he was almost correct. The more books I read the more egomaniacal John Douglas appears to me. But maybe that's only my opinion.

If you are interested in the monster of Florence, I can recommend the book by Douglas Preston and Mario Spezi, which is far better than Michele Giuttari's conspiracy theory.

In summary I can say that books about not yet caught serial killers have a tendency to be biased, but I think we all know that from JtR-books. But sometimes this is annoying like in Graysmith's case or even more worse in Michele Giuttari's case, sometimes it is tolerable like in tthe case of Preston and Spezi; but I think that depends on personal opinion.
A second point is that books written by so-called profilers have the tendency to be very self-gratulatory. I had this impression reading John Douglas as well as Paul Britton; Thomas Müller and Stephan Harbort appear a little bit better, so maybe it is just a cultural thing.