Evil Serial Killers: In the Minds of Monsters

by Charlotte Greig

Murder is one of the greatest crimes against humanity — to kill repeatedly, often in combination with sexually motivated acts that are also taboo, is beyond human comprehension. Why do these people do it? What motivates them? Wildly deviant behavior can sometimes be 'understood' when it is displayed by a lone madman, but what about the killers who are judged normal, or those who act despicably in tandem with others? Charlotte Greig addresses such difficult questions in this compelling examination of the crimes of fifty of the world's most notorious serial killers.Charlotte Greig graduated with an MA in Intellectual History from Sussex University, and started freelancing as a writer and editor for a variety of magazines and newspapers, including New Musical Express and the Guardian . In 1989 she wrote her first book, and since then has written four more and contributed to several others, including Horrible Histories and Twentieth-Century Crime Fiction . In addition to teaching media studies for several years she has built a reputation as a specialist in popular music, writing the best-selling Icons of Black Music and both creating and presenting 'Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow' , a series on girl groups which was nominated for a Sony award.

Genres: True Crime, Nonfiction, Crime, History, Biography, Mystery, Psychology

Paperback

First published January 1, 2005

Reviews

[Tom]

An underwhelming book that offers brief descriptions of the lives and crimes of serial killers, divided into categories ranging from "Angels of Death" to "Vampire Killers." Some of the categorisations are tenuous, such as Belle Gunness falling into the aforementioned "Angels of Death" chapter and David Berkowitz being filed into the "Psycho Snipers" category. Indeed, the author has a few strange takes on her subject killers, with Dennis Nilsen being described as a "closet homosexual" (which would probably come as a surprise to the man he cohabited with for two years) and Leonard Lake bafflingly being called a "hippie." Then there's the "apparently regular" Jeffrey Dahmer, of teenage alcoholism and backyard experiments with animal carcasses. Throw in some grammatical errors and typos that any good editor ought to have spotted and you have a slapdash true crime book that offers little more than a skin-deep look at some of the world's notorious killers. There's none of the humour of The Last Book on the Left: Stories of Murder and Mayhem from History’s Most Notorious Serial Killers or the detail you can get in an evening of skimming Murderpedia, so what's the point? I'd like to give a special shout out to this error in the Joachim Kroll story:

This time it was an older woman, whom he raped and strangled in her home on 12 July 1969. Two years later, on 21 May 1970, he raped and strangled a thirteen-year-old as she walked home from school.

Joachim Kroll, time-bending serial killer.

[Mika]

So far, I've come across quite a few grammar & spelling mistakes that I wouldn't expect in a published book.

[A.C. Efverman]

I read this book as part of the research I do on real-life murderers; for the crime fiction novels that I write. All facts that relate to people who have committed murder are of interest to me - and this book provided some facts I had not come across earlier.

[Amy]

Wow this book provides heap of serial killers mostly in America but some all over the world and from across time. Some details of the kills that are quite graphic and brutal. Awesome book.

[Μαρία]

Μαζεμένοι όλοι οι συνήθεις ύποπτοι, και μερικοί λιγότερο γνωστοί, σε τούτο εδώ το βιβλίο, το οποίο χωρίζεται σε κατηγορίες, με μικρά κεφάλαια για τον κάθε εγκληματία...

[Sara]

This book had all the appeal of being a great true crime novel but I found that the author was trying to fit a lot of serial killers in one book. The stories were not very long, and missed out on some pivital points and focused on the boring parts. I couldn't finish this book and if I could I would be giving it zero stars :(

[Bea]

Kind of interesting, but some of the short stories, or should I say introductions, had some errors in them, which made it hard for me to take the writer seriously. It seemed like the author were mainly interested in the disgusting details of the commited crimes and murders.

[Jamie Wyatt Glover]

I kept reading this book right before I went to bed (which is when I have the most time to read) and it was a huge mistake. I kept having insane dreams about serial killers. However, putting my night terrors aside, it was a very informative book that kept me interested all the way through. The author did a great job of touching on well known serial killers, as well as the lesser known ones of other countries.Creepy, but interesting.

[Carolina]

En väldigt intressant bok tycker jag. Jag älskar att titta på serier och dokumentärer om olika kända och okända mördare så denna boken passade mig bra. Visst blev det lite tjatigt mot slutet att läsa om "samma saker" även fast det var olika kategorier på mördarna. Men visst var det intressant läsning om man tycker om att läsa om mördare och hur det kan komma sig att vissa människor vill döda andra människor.

[DAISY READS HORROR]

A chilling up close look at some of the world's most horrific serial killer crimes! A greta read with great pictures!

[Matilda Persson]

Jag ska vara helt ärlig, Evil Serial Killers är inte en särskilt bra bok och här är varför.
1. Varje seriemördare beskrivs väldigt kort och det blir lite väl kort när någon som mördat, låt oss säga 27 personer, ska sammanfattas på 2 sidor. Det blir snarare en kort genomgång av mördarens uppväxt följt av en uppradning av offrens namn och året de dog för att avslutas med hur mördaren åkte fast. Vad är då meningen med att läsa om dem? Det blir rätt underväldigande och alldeles för förenklat.
2. Bokens urval av seriemördare delas upp i olika kategorier, dessa kategorier matchar inte nödvändigtvis mördarna som placeras i dem. Till exempel: Dennis Nilsen var kannibal men placerades under kategorin ’Ruthless Rippers’ istället för ’Crazed Cannibals’. Sen finns det ju rubriksättningar som ’Demon Lovers’ som inte handlar om satanister som man kan tro, utan om par som mördar.
3. Boken innehåller en hel del stavfel och grammatiska fel och det känns inte riktigt som att någon korrekturläst den innan den publicerades.
Sen är jag väl inte särskilt förtjust i formatet heller vilket kan vara värt att nämna. Dock fanns där några seriemördare som jag aldrig hade hört talas om tidigare så jag fick ändå ut något av att läsa boken.

[Vicky Hinton]

where the lady got her information from for this book I don't know I only read the introduction and the jack the ripper info is wrong "her breasts had been cut off and laid beside her severed heart" no one actually knows what happened to her heart the post mortem only ever revealed the heart was absent there is speculation that the ripper took the heart with him but it was certainly never stated to be found in the room either.... also she says a post mortem revealed Mary Kelly was 3 months pregnant I have never found a single shred of evidence to support this again it is all speculation. I never even read the rest of the book waste of money when the facts aren't even correct

[kath Topley]

Grammar and spelling mistakes ? I can forgive, but writing about the serial killers with more respect than the victims I can’t. Some were referred to as “just bums” I went over the descriptions of victims several times to check that they were not written from the point of view of society at the time. Sadly this was actually how the author described them. Also a lot of the female killers , more was written about their weight and appearance rather than how awful a person they were because of the crimes they committed.. basically the books 15 years old , hasn’t aged well and read like everything had been copy and pasted from Wikipedia with less respect. Rant over 🙈

[Peter]

Most of those evil killers here will never die. You'll meet them on Netflix and many other channels again and again. There is no redemption for them. And this has a reason. People are truly afraid of what they did. Inside you'll find some of the most notorious killers ever: Angels of Death, crazed cannibals, demonic lovers, gold diggers, highway hunters, maniacal murders, paedophile killers, psycho snipers, rape slayers, ruthless rippers, sadistic stranglers, skid-row slashers and vampire killers. The layout is done in quite an eerie documentary style. There are excellent photos too. This is your trip into hell, directly into the killers' minds. Highly recommended!

[Sharlene Almond]

‘Evil Serial Killers’ by Charlotte Greig investigates the minds of some of the most sadistic serial killers. Charlotte has chosen fifty of the worst, most depraved killers.

From the infamous Elizabeth Bathory in the 1600s who supposedly tortured and killed over six hundred girls, to Jack the Ripper, Ted Bundy, The Zodiac killer and many more.

It is at times a gruesome read into the mind of a killer. A great reference book for crime authors.

[Kylie Quigley]

This book isn’t really what I thought it was. I thought it would be more into the psychology of the killers, and although it did touch upon it briefly, it was much more of a brief biography of each killer.

Although I did learn a good bit of things, mainly it was a lot of generic information about these killers. It always shocks me how people can be so depraved, and how two people that go through the same circumstances can wind up so different.

[Amanda]

This could have been interesting but the stories were just so short and so lacked a lot of information that I would have liked included. There are also a lot of grammatical errors throughout the book. It reads like a clickbait article on social media. Some parts were interesting, I just wish there were more details included.

[Elizabeth Suggs]

I loved the book, but the title really throws me. Are there any “Good” serial killers? Other than that, I have few criticisms for the book. This book does exactly what it intends: it details serial killers throughout history, men and women of the most gruesome variety. It was definitely a great book to have on a Covid Halloween!

[Vik]

Good for bite sized snippets about many well known and some less infamous serial killers - the field is pretty broad. Not sure what people were expecting, saying that the write ups are too short or that the details are too grisly, that's the point. A few editorial mistakes but a lot less than the many other true crime/serial killer compilations that I've read.

[Daire Hogan]

Not a book for the faint of hearth or the young and impressionable. This book is all facts and some of those facts will leave you feeling sullied for knowing them.
Evil is an apt description for the people contained within it's pages.

[Ciara Eichhorst]

I liked that there were a lot of serial killers covered in this book, but there were a lot of grammatical errors and the writing was overall sloppy and juvenile.

[adél]

3.5

[Mikkel]

This is a good book to read if you want some research. I loved it.

[Shed]

First nonfiction book for 2022

[Sarah]

The grammar is awful-no idea how it passed any kind of competent editor-BUT it's a quick read and the synopsis of each killer is interesting.

[EmilyP]

A brief book discussing killers, some well known and others less known. It's an alright book but there are too many spelling and grammar mistakes in it.

[gemsbooknook Geramie Kate Barker]

‘Murder is one of the greatest crimes against humanity — to kill repeatedly, often in combination with sexually motivated acts that are also taboo, is beyond human comprehension. Why do these people do it? What motivates them? Wildly deviant behavior can sometimes be ‘understood’ when it is displayed by a lone madman, but what about the killers who are judged normal, or those who act despicably in tandem with others? Charlotte Greig addresses such difficult questions in this compelling examination of the crimes of fifty of the world’s most notorious serial killers.’
I have mixed feelings about this book.
I am someone who loves reading and learning about Serial Killers, I think the fact that we don’t have a lot of Serial Killers in Australia has made the whole idea of Serial Killers really interesting for me. Because of my interest in the topic, I have read a lot about Serial Killers so I was excited to see what this book had to offer.
My mixed feelings come from the fact that this book had no new information in it; at least for someone like me who had a lot of prior knowledge on the subject before reading this book. Now if you are someone who is only just starting to learn about Serial Killers then this book would be great for you.
Charlotte Greig’s writing was clear and easy to understand and she managed to keep the emotion and suffering front and center rather than solely focusing on what the killers actually did. I also thought the Serial Killers she opted to feature were great; their crimes, genders, locations, and eras were varied which makes it more interesting for a reader.
Even though the information was on the basic or introductory level, the writing was perfect for this kind of book. I also loved the number of images used; crime scene photographs, mug shots, images of the victims, and charts and graphs, all added to the atmosphere of this book.
Evil Serial Killers by Charlotte Greig is a great book for people who are interested in dipping their toes into the world of Serial Killers.

Geramie Kate Barker
gemsbooknook.wordpress.com

[Carol Waters]

WHAT A GREAT TITLE. I did look at Barnes and Noble for its accompanying volume, "Socially Acceptable Serial Killers" or perhaps "Really Nice and Well-Meaning But Accidental Serial Killers." The photos of Ted Bundy didn't do him justice.

OK, so this sat on the shelf a long time before I finished it. Utter crap. Most of the two-page articles were lifted verbatim from Wickipedia. One lengthy section on an African-American killer had only the term "African American" replaced with "black". Photos were really terrible. The author does suggest that head injury is common among serial killers, and that one South African man killed because he lived under apartheid. I think a lot of men did that but for some reason that was a reason she gave for this particular man to become a killer of old women. And Ed Guin only killed two people so he doesn't even qualify as a serial killer.

[Nurture Waratah]

This is a fascinating look at some of the most notorious serial murderers known to man. However, one of the aspects I liked most about this book is the fact that it doesn't only list famous serial killers. There are several murderers mentioned who I had never heard of. The book gives details of the crimes without getting too gruesome and the early lives of killers are covered quite well. The nature of this book precludes it from becoming overly detailed. However, it is an excellent starting base for those interested in digging deeper into the serial killer phenomenon.

[Amanda]

I find the workings of the human mind fascinating, so this book that looks at how and why people go wrong (abnormal psychology) is really interesting to me so far. Apparently, the fictional characters and/or events in Thomas Harris' Hannibal Lecter and Buffalo Bill, Hitchcock's Psycho, and the Texas Chainsaw Massacre all have connections to real-life killers! Maybe not too much of a surprise, but still interesting.