Mind of a Serial Killer

Mind of a Serial Killer, DVD by NOVA. The Boston Strangler. The Son of Sam. Jeffrey Dahmer. Every time a serial killer hits, it touches a deep collective nerve of fear—in part because his grisly acts so defy comprehension. Or do they? Step behind the scenes at the FBI's Investigative Support Unit, where psychological detectives race against time to penetrate the minds and emotions of the most elusive of murderers. Using state-of-the-art science, elite investigators tease apart crime scene evidence and scrutinize victim profiles to construct an astonishingly accurate personality print of the perpetrator—and a good guess as to how and when he'll make his next move.

This time the scene is Rochester, New York, where multiple slayings of prostitutes have left local authorities baffled. Find out how FBI sleuths figure out what makes this dark mind tick—and how remarkable prediction lets them stop the killer in his tracks before he can strike again.

America's Serial Killers: Portraits in Evil

America's Serial Killers: Portraits in Evil, This DVD will strip the covers from a world of profiling, forensic science and painful investigation as history's most brutal serial killers are exposed. Wars have terrorized entire populations for thousands of years. The American West was home to ruthless killers who were idolized in fiction and folklore. Evil evolved to a hideous new form with the genocidal dictators of the 20th century such as Hitler, Stalin and MaoTseTung who ordered the death of tens of millions. But in the middle of the 20th century a new and chilling phenomenon emerged in post-war Western society: The Serial Killer. As if fashioned from our nightmares, they terrify and fascinate us. Lurking behind masks of bland normality they often evade capture for years, decades or eternity. They are America's serial killers.

Rampage: Killing Without Reason

Rampage: Killing Without Reason, Dare to take a look deep inside the dark, twisted minds of America's most disturbed mass murderers. This 10-part documentary series explores the motives and events leading up to the most horrifying rage-murder cases in recent history. This original documentary production features rare and never-before-seen footage and information. See leading experts discuss the psychological reasoning that leads to hate crimes, arsonists, deadly cults, workplace killings and school massacres.

Hunt for Jack the Ripper

Hunt for Jack the Ripper, DVD (The History Channel) Many serial killers were more brutal. Others slaughtered more often. But Jack the Ripper remains the world's most infamous murderer. In 1888, he slashed his way across London and into the annals of crime when he murdered and mutilated seven women. His ghastly rampage remains one of history's great mysteries. Who was this butcher that baffled Scotland Yard's best minds? Today's foremost Ripper experts offer insights into the madman's mind and theories of who he really was.

Portrait of a Killer: Jack the Ripper - Case Closed

Portrait of a Killer: Jack the Ripper - Case Closed, by Patricia Cornwell. "I knew the identity of a murderer and couldn't possibly avert my gaze," declares bestselling author and Virginia Institute of Forensic Science and Medicine chairman of the board Cornwell (The Last Precinct). Claiming to have cracked the unsolved case of Jack the Ripper, the author, combining superb investigative skills and meticulous research with modern technology, presents strong, albeit largely circumstantial, evidence as to the true culprit in this uncharacteristic work of nonfiction. Cornwell's man is the handsome, educated actor-cum-artist Walter Richard Sickert, and she delves into his life, probing the psychological pain and sexual deformity which led to his "impotent fury." Screen, stage and TV actress Burton's splendid, professional narration deserves much of the credit for the book's smooth translation to abridged audio format. Transporting listeners to 19th century England, Burton easily transitions between American and English accents, bringing an authentic, resonating flavor to the era and to the desperate lives of London's "unfortunates" who became the killer's prey. Despite some tedious and over-detailed readings of medical records, laws and police reports, as well as descriptive accounts of Cornwell's experiences re-opening the case, this audiobook turns potentially dry material into an enthralling exploration.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Starkweather : Inside the Mind of a Teenage Killer

Starkweather: Inside the Mind of a Teenage Killer, by William Allen. In January 1958, a nineteen-year-old Nebraskan, Charles Raymond Starkweather, accompanied and assisted by his fourteen-year-old girlfriend, Caril Ann Fugate, murdered ten people in eight days. William Allen has produced a meticulously researched documentary… Aesthetes of mayhem will appreciate Allen’s nose for nuance. Allen’s book undoubtedly is the most thoroughly researched and best-written account of Starkweather and his short-lived reign of terror. William Allen’s literary career spans close to four decades. A contemporary of Starkweather and Fugate, he is the leading expert on the Starkweather spree and the only person with first-hand knowledge of most of the characters central to the 1958 carnage. Allen currently is a Professor Emeritus at Ohio State University, where he introduced literary nonfiction to that school’s distinguished creative writing program. He is the author of six books, including the Pulitzer Prize-nominated Fire in the Birdbath and Other Disturbances, as well as numerous essays for Esquire, the New York Times, and the Atlantic Monthly.

Green River, Running Red: The Real Story of the Green River Killer--America's Deadliest Serial Murderer

Green River, Running Red: The Real Story of the Green River Killer--America's Deadliest Serial Murderer, by Ann Rule. Veteran crime writer Ann Rule is uniquely qualified to chronicle the grisly career of Gary Ridgeway, the man convicted of being the "Green River Killer," the most prolific serial killer in American history. Not only is she one of the more successful true-crime authors, but for nearly 20 years, Rule was exceptionally close to the case, reporting on it for a Seattle newspaper, preparing a long-delayed book on the subject, and living within a few blocks of the strip of highway where most of Ridgeway's victims were abducted. In Green River, Running Red, Rule lends unique humanity to the string of murders that haunted the Seattle area throughout the '80s and '90s by exploring the lives of the dozens of young women who fell into prostitution and were ultimately murdered. Similarly, she catalogues Ridgeway's troubled and bizarre life in such a way that the reader becomes uncomfortably familiar with Ridgeway, although it's never truly clear what drove him to commit such heinous crimes. Along the way, she traces the decades-long struggle of the law enforcement officials assigned to the case as they tracked down countless leads, questioned innumerable suspects, and explored multiple theories that came up empty before finally cracking the case through a series of technological advancements and a little luck. But the most disturbing aspect of the Green River killings (named for where the first victims were found) is how they occurred in relatively plain sight, with Ridgeway, seemingly living an unremarkable life, dwelling and working within a few miles of where his lengthy killing spree took place and evading capture for years. Rule skillfully weaves herself into her account, relating the psychic and cultural impact of the case as it evolved, but she never takes the spotlight off Ridgeway, his eventual captors, and the women who died at his hands.

H.H. Holmes - America's First Serial Killer

H.H. Holmes - America's First Serial Killer, Erik Larson’s bestselling book The Devil in the White City introduced America to one of the most horrific but little-known episodes in our nation’s criminal history. When the shocking exploits of the mysterious Dr. H. H. Holmes became known, U.S. tabloids dubbed him the American Jack the Ripper. H.H. HOLMES: AMERICA’S FIRST SERIAL KILLER is the first film to tell the entire true story of this grisly episode. H.H. HOLMES: AMERICA’S FIRST SERIAL KILLER focuses on Holmes’ entire life of crime and villainy, from childhood to his death sentence and ultimate execution. Original photographs and newspaper reports of the period create a chilling authenticity, while actor Tony Jay (Time Bandits, Disney’s Beauty and the Beast) provides spooky, insightful narration to enliven the proceedings.

Natural Born Celebrities: Serial Killers in American Culture

Natural Born Celebrities: Serial Killers in American Culture, by David Schmid. Jeffrey Dahmer. Ted Bundy. John Wayne Gacy. Over the past thirty years, serial killers have become iconic figures in America, the subject of made-for-TV movies and mass-market paperbacks alike. But why do we find such luridly transgressive and horrific individuals so fascinating? What compels us to look more closely at these figures when we really want to look away? Natural Born Celebrities considers how serial killers have become lionized in American culture and explores the consequences of their fame.

David Schmid provides a historical account of how serial killers became famous and how that fame has been used in popular media and the corridors of the FBI alike. Ranging from H. H. Holmes, whose killing spree during the 1893 Chicago World's Fair inspired The Devil in the White City, right up to Aileen Wuornos, the lesbian prostitute whose vicious murder of seven men would serve as the basis for the hit film Monster, Schmid unveils a new understanding of serial killers by emphasizing both the social dimensions of their crimes and their susceptibility to multiple interpretations and uses. He also explores why serial killers have become endemic in popular culture, from their depiction in The Silence of the Lambs and The X-Files to their becoming the stuff of trading cards and even Web sites where you can buy their hair and nail clippings. Bringing his fascinating history right up to the present, Schmid ultimately argues that America needs the perversely familiar figure of the serial killer now more than ever to manage the fear posed by Osama bin Laden since September 11.

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Couples Who Kill

Couples Who Kill, by Carol Anne Davis. What drives attractive male cousins to rape and kill ten young women? Why do an altar girl and her boyfriend lure innocent victims into their customised torture van? Couples who kill comprise only twenty per cent of killers, but they often murder serially and are responsible for particularly inhumane deaths. Sadistic friends, psychotic sisters and an increasingly pathological mother-son team are amongst those profiled in this exploration of the world’s most deviant duos. There are infamous British cases, such as the Moors Murderers and the Wests, as well as many equally disturbing but less well-known ones. In the third of this series, which focuses on the psychology of murderers, Carol Anne Davis explores the formative influences of these killers and their deadly dynamics. Comprising of thirteen in-depth case studies and exclusive interviews with experts and one of the Wests’ surviving victims, Couples Who Kill provides an unequalled study of this disturbing subject.