Great Lakes Serial Killlers: True Accounts of the Great Lakes Most Gruesome Murders

by Wayne Louis Kadar

good book

Genres: True Crime, Nonfiction

203 pages, Paperback

Published January 1, 2010

Reviews

[Evan Deutsch · Rating 1 out of 5]

Aside from the horrible syntax, typos and missing and improperly used punctuation, this was a great book.

[Melanie · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book, at a bare minimum, needed an editor. it was so badly written, it is hard to decide where to start, but here goes: perhaps most alarming is the fact that the author does not seem to understand the definition of a serial killer. If the book is entitled Great Lakes Serial Killers, one should be able to expect that it solely covers the stories of serial killers, and for the most part it did, yet some of the murderers were actually mass murderers, not serial murderers, and one was actually a murderer of one single person (wife was the sole victim). Next, there were times when he simply stated patently incorrect things--for example, John Norman Collins will never be eligible for parole (author stated that he has to serve a minimum of 26 years before he could be considered for parole). In reality, he was sentenced to life with NO possibility of parole.
Next, I need to point out that at times the author uses a word that makes no sense in the context of what he was writing about. There are too many of these to list, but one example was when he wrote that Jeffrey Dahmer "experimented with various spices and meat tenderizers in an effort to make the meat more palpable." I can only assume he was trying for the word "palatable."
Most sadly, the author offers no semblance of suspense or character development; it was as though he was more or less simply copying various facts from newspapers in an attempt to put full stories together, but the result was a series of clunky, redundant, stilted retellings. An example of this is a redundancy on page 91, where he says that Leopold and Loeb were "egotistical, and conceited, but the most descriptive term would be arrogant." Tell me what was conveyed through "arrogant," that the reader didn't already glean from "egotistical" or "conceited."
I could go on about the flaws in this book, but I think this much should be enough to warn potential readers, so caveat emptor, you have been warned.

[Danielle Rodriguez · Rating 3 out of 5]

So, I did learn some things while reading this including some murder accounts that I hadn’t heard of before. Of the cases that I knew about, there was nothing new I learned of. I did like that the book was told in easy to read scenarios for each case. It was like a Cliffnotes for Great Lakes murderers.

I do think the title of the book should’ve just stuck with the “True Accounts of the Great Lakes Most Gruesome Murders” and not had the large heading of “Great Lakes Serial Killers” as many of the cases weren’t serial killers, but rather mass murderers or even single killers. It was a little misleading. I also felt the writing was rather disjointed and it was not well written.

[Carrie Frank · Rating 4 out of 5]

Writing was a little tough at time but the collection of stories was good and it contained details I hadn’t known before being a person who enjoys true crime and has always lived around the great lakes

[Mandy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good stories. Poorly written.

[Amanda · Rating 2 out of 5]

Interesting facts and history.....poorly written.

[Megan · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not the finest writing but interesting collection of stories.

[Wendy · Rating 3 out of 5]

The stories are interesting, but the book could have used a good editor. First, there were a number of spelling and punctuation errors throughout the book, and sentences that just needed to be reworded. Second, information was often not very clear: I had to search for dates, calculate (or estimate) ages based on info given on a prior page, or Google for more information. In one story it was stated that a killer's child was given a prison sentence, but I had no age or date of birth to even determine if the child was a minor or not. Third, the title is a bit misleading. Not all cases included are serial killers. Also, "GreatLakes" is also a stretch . . . some locations are at the far edge of a state that touches one of the Great Lakes, but wouldn't remotely be considered near a lake otherwise. Finally, the writing was very basic, didn't flow, and included unnecessary info and/or insights. Oh - and a vagina is located inside of a woman's body and cannot be "cut off." It drives me nuts when people can't be bothered to get basic human anatomy correct!

Overall, there are definite problems with the execution of this book, but if you can look past them, the content is good for a basic introduction to a number of interesting cases about murderers in the greater Great Lakes area.

[Carly · Rating 3 out of 5]

The writing needed help in a lot of areas. For the most part, it had a lot of interesting facts and stories. Being a fan of true crime and a lover of the Great Lakes it is a good read.

[Rebecca · Rating 4 out of 5]

The grammatical errors drove me nuts, but I enjoyed the read and honestly couldn’t put it down.

[Jodi · Rating 2 out of 5]

Terribly written but fun to proofread!

[Anica Fairchild · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very interesting, gives detail while being vague. Learned a lot of how killers and cult leaders worked and how they did it. Also learned of some criminals that no one talks about

[Tiffany · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is completely filled with the gruesome details of serial killers and their victims. I have read many true crime books but this one is truly one of the best, while other books tend to be a bit dry in their delivery, Kadar words his crime files like short stories.

It is a book that is compulsively readable and shockingly truthful. I am completely positive that this book would have given me nightmares if I had been able to put it down in order to sleep.

I give this book 5 stars from the perspective of a person who has desensitized herself to criminal accounts in preparation for a forensic sciences career path. To anyone who is interested in the topic and able to take the brutal truth I offer a strong reccomendation. However, for the faint of heart, I reccomend starting with a less intense true crime book and working up to this book. Either way it's worth a read, the people examined here are truly some of the sickest minds in Great Lakes history.

[Chriss · Rating 4 out of 5]

As much as one can enjoy tales of be-headings, strangulation's and the putrid tales of Midwestern depravity, this was a fine evening read. I was entertained and pleasantly reminded in the historical sense of the many crimes that have occurred so close to home. I did pick up a few errors most notably in the St. Valentine's Day Massacre section. The SMC Cartiledge Company is too blatant of an error to pass up for me and taking the Hollywood standard version is a little dull and outdated. But for the general effort of interesting tales, I still like the selection and will pass the book on to another like-minded creature!

[Fishface · Rating 3 out of 5]

This one was good and bad. The author lumps all kinds of crimes, like familicides and mob hits, under the term "serial murder," so the book is fundamentally not as advertised. Why waste space in a book on serial killers talking about the Purple Gang when you could be talking about a real serial killer like Coral Watts, Tony Atkins or 'Bigfoot'? The book also needed some serious proofreading before going to press. I do mean serious. But all the stories were interesting to read and there was a whole serial killer in there I never heard of before. So, overall, reading this one was well worth it to me.

[Patricia Lynne · Rating 5 out of 5]

I didn't think there would be enough killers to fill a book but I was wrong. Not only does the book recount some gruesome serial killers, but spree killers as well. An interesting read for true crime fans.

[Brenda Wharton]

not sure how to rate this one. it's well written, but i had to stop reading it because it was so disturbing and completely freaked me out. some of it was very graphic on what the serial killers did and it just made me sick

[Nathan · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved the description of the killers in this book and I read the second book to called " Rampage Serial Killers" it isn't on Goodreads because it is fairly new, but I'm not impressed with the second book but I did learn a few things.

[Dani · Rating 5 out of 5]

I.Love.True.Crime. i find them so fascinating to read. and when i saw this book about serial killers around the great lakes drew me in like a moth to a light. each case got more interesting than the last

[Karen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very gruesome details of the murders committed by serial killers. Many of the killers I had never heard of. Interesting how these crimes were investigated in the late 1800's and early 1900's.

[Bonnie Walker · Rating 4 out of 5]

interesting

[Miss Kim · Rating 3 out of 5]

You can't really love this kind of book. I did find it interesting. Dahmer and Gein were especially atrocious. There were a few details I hadn't known prior to reading.