Homicide: 100 Years of Murder in America

by Gini Graham Scott

Traces the state of crime and crime investigation in the twentieth century through an examination of over fifty decade-defining homicide cases

Genres: Nonfiction, Crime

352 pages, Paperback

First published June 1, 1998

About the author

Gini has published over 50 books with major publishers, including books on work relationships, professional and personal development, creativity, law, criminal justice, popular culture, and social trends. She has published over 200 books through her company Changemakers Publishing, and has recently written a series of books on self-publishing.
She has been a guest on 100s of radio and TV talk shows including Oprah, Good Morning America, and CNN.

She helps clients write, publish, market, and promote any type of book through her company Changemakers Publishing and Writing at www.changemakerspublishingandwriting.com She also helps clients find publishers and agents.

In addition, she writes scripts and produces films through her company Changemakers Productions. She has written and produced 14 feature films, TV pilots, and documentaries, with 8 of them in distribution, the others in post production. Details are on her website for films at www.changemakersproductionsfilms.com. She helps clients turn their books into scripts and she reviews books for their film potential.

She also has written and produced over 60 short films. Examples are featured on her YouTube channel at www.youtube.com/changemakersprod.

She speaks and does workshops and seminars on the topics of her books and on self-publishing, writing and promoting books.

She has written over 200 songs featured at Changemakers Music (www.changemakersmusic.com). Her latest songs are on her Changemakers Music YouTube Channel.

She is a game designer who has published over two dozen games, featured at Changemakers Games (www.changemakersgames.com) .

Reviews

[Traci Nigon · Rating 3 out of 5]

Really fascinating, and the chronological presentation made it easy to follow. Based on other reviews, my own previous knowledge, the book itself, and random Wikipedia checks on particularly fascinating cases, though, it seems like some facts were misconstrued or that there were some errors. Most were small, but it calls the rest of the research into question. Overall, though, I thoroughly enjoyed it, and it's a great intro to all the biggest or most representative cases of homicide in the twentieth century.

[Marla · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book covers crime starting in the early 1900's and ending in the 1990's. The author reviews some of the most vicious murder cases America has ever known and is a quick read. The author writes about such notables people as: Lizzie Borden, Nathan Leopold, Charles Whitman, Black Dahlia, Charles Starkweather and the Hillside Strangler. This is just a sample of who is written about. Unfortunately, some crucial facts are wrong even in cases where the original source gets it right. This book should be read with caution by anyone not already familiar with the cases. There are no illustrations or pictures of the crimes or criminals. It was somewhat disappointing.

[Jen Jaketic · Rating 1 out of 5]

Ugh. So many errors in this book, both factually and editorially. And the author doesn't hide her prejudice against people of other races and loves describing people - a lot of times the victims - as unattractive or overweight, as if that matters at all! She gives her opinions on people a lot, rather than reporting facts. I looked up the author and most of her other books are about sex. Clearly, she is not an historian or a homicide expert.

[Samantha · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book provides an interesting look at major murder cases of the past century (up through the 1990's, anyway). There isn't much of a narrative here - it's basically just a list with synopses of each case, sometimes going a bit more into detail. But its interesting nonetheless - particularly the early murder cases, which may be less familiar to people than some of the later crimes related. Worth a read for those with an interest in true crime.

[Meaghan · Rating 2 out of 5]

Although this was a quick read for its length, and covered several cases I didn’t know about, I saw a LOT of errors here. The author should have been more careful in her research. There are many better, more accurate books than this.

[Bethany · Rating 5 out of 5]

It seems morbid to enjoy a book on something so tragic, but Scott's book was well written and captures so much about the facets of homicide throughout the century that the book was hard to put down. Highly recommended, particularly if one enjoys crime shows.

[Warhammer Grantham · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a super enjoyable book to read about a horrible subject. It touches on all of the big name homicide incidents that occurred in the US for the past century. Good overview, very clearly written.