Killer Among Us: Public Reactions to Serial Murder

by Joseph C. Fisher

In 1973, teenage girls began disappearing from Folly Beach, a small town on a barrier island in South Carolina. Initially thought by police to be runaways, the real story emerged when a police officer on patrol heard a cry for help and discovered three girls bound and gagged in an abandoned beach cottage. Further investigation turned up bodies buried in the dunes nearby. The police reacted quickly and closed off the only bridge to the mainland, thereby trapping the townspeople with the certain knowledge that one among them was a serial killer. Everyone became a suspect, as neighbor turned against neighbor in an atmosphere of rapidly growing hysteria. What do Jack the Ripper, The Son of Sam, Wayne Williams, Jeffrey Dahmer, The Boston Strangler, and The Coed Killer John Norman Collins have in common with this obscure case? What connects the people of London, New York, Atlanta, Milwaukee, Boston and Ann Arbor, Michigan to those in the tiny town of Folly Beach? Drawing upon 20th-century media coverage and on 19th-century tabloid accounts of Jack the Ripper, the author constructs vivid and provocative portrayals of the ways in which some of the most notorious serial killers affected the communities they terrorized.

Genres: True Crime, Nonfiction, History

236 pages, Hardcover

First published April 30, 1997

About the author

Joe Fisher is a 24 year resident of Sanibel and is passionate about the importance of loved ones reading to young children on a frequent basis. Rusty the Forgotten Fire Engine is his first children’s book and is the written version of a story her created and told his children when they were young.

Reviews

[Amber · Rating 5 out of 5]

A really well thought out exploration into how serial murder affects the community. Exploring psychological reactions, interpersonal reactions, the role of the media and a communities unique social and cultural context, the author analyses seven cases. He touches on how these public reactions impact not only the public’s perceptions of the cases, but also the progress of the investigations themselves, and the eventual court proceedings.

I enjoyed this book because it is different to a typical true crime book. It offers a new perspective and does not just focus on the typical facts of a case. Although written in the 1980’s, it is still relevant.

[Deborah]

Mesmeric

Went into a lot of detail on numerous individual killers to illustrate the point that the public in each instance went through similar stages of psychological, emotional, and physiological steps . It is very illuminating on the public psyche and reactions to living in the "danger" zone of a serial murderer. Hope I never encounter such a circumstance.

[Fishface · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good read on a very interesting subject -- the repeating patterns of behavior of a public terrorized by a Jack the Ripper, a Son of Sam or an Atlanta Child Murderer. Full of interesting facts not found in other books; especially revealing when it comes to John Norman Collins. The author wrote the whole book in the passive voice and there are a few factual errors in here, but overall a very good read.