De 20 meest bizarre moorden

by James Marrison, Klaas Levelt (Translator)

Historicus/journalist James Marrison verzamelde voor dit boek de meest bizarre en vreemde moorden ter wereld. Zijn verhalen variëren van bekende moordzaken tot bijna vergeten misdaden die hij opdiepte uit honderden politiedossiers. Hij reis hiervoor reisde de hele wereld over om met deskundigen te praten. Zo pikte de Spaanse Enriqueta Marti in Barcelona kinderen van straat op, doodde hen en kookte van hun overblijfselen ¿een anti-verouderingsdrank¿. Tot haar klantenkring behoorden bejaarde miljonairs. Enriqueta Marti liep tegen de lamp toen bij haar thuis twee vermiste kinderen werden gevonden. Een ander hoofdstuk betreft de Californiër Randy Kraft, beter bekend als ¿de Scorekaart Killer. Deze briljante computerprogrammeur werd tijdens een routine wegcontrole aangehouden. Op de passagiersstoel vervoerde hij een lijk. Na zijn arrestatie bleek dat Kraft in 10 jaar zo¿n 150 slachtoffers maakte. Hij begroef hun, in stukken gesneden, lichamen langs de snelweg. James Maddison beschrijft deze gevallen per hoofdstuk en geeft een duidelijke analyse. De moorden hebben allemaal een ding met elkaar gemeen ¿ een unieke, bizarre draai. De verzamelde dossiers tonen keer op keer aan dat onze alledaagse werkelijkheid gruwelijker is dan de vreemdste fantasie.

Genres: True Crime, Nonfiction, Crime, History

220 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2008

Reviews

[Mariana · Rating 3 out of 5]

2,5 stars

I don't usually read true crime books. Hell, I never read true crime books. But this was a gift. And I do like gory stuff. Why haven't I read this kind of book sooner? No idea. But I have now.

I'm a bit desensitized when it comes to gritty, stomach-churning and bloody descriptions. I watch American Horror Story while eating lunch. I read very detailed cannibalistic chapters during breakfast. And why am I saying this, exactly? To explain why I haven't been very shocked by this supposedly nightmarish succession of horrible murders and their perpetrators.

Some of these accounts were truly amazing, yes. And by amazing I mean that they managed to give me the heebie-jeebies. But others weren't at all special, in my opinion. Also, towards the end of the book, the chapters adopted a different organization (they were divided into sections), and I found that to be damaging to my reading. It made it much more tortuous.

[Lisa · Rating 3 out of 5]

A series of overviews of some bizarre and strange murders, although I found many didn't really fit the 'bizarre' or 'shocking' for me, though that may be because I'm something of a hardened true crime reader. In some of the cases, it was the after-effects or other aspects of the cases which were shocking or bizarre - see the case of Issei Sagawa, the Japanese cannibal who, on his release from prison, became a cult celebrity and was in demand for chat shows, cookery shows (!) and porno's, amongst many other things.

Sections on scientists who believed you could spot a murderer by certain physical traits and on the women who love serial killers, were particularly interesting, but are not dealt with in enough depth to truly provide anything illuminating but do provide plenty of pointers for further reading material.

[Jennifer Daniel · Rating 3 out of 5]

I think there is definately something wrong with me when I saw over half the cases profiled in this book as not being what I would consider "bizarrre". Straight up serial murders, common cannibals: I need something a little more shocking. A life time of reading about Jack the Ripper,Ted Bundy and pretty much every other serial killer throughout history has left me a little jaded apparently. The story about the washed up 50's B actress that was murdered by her dwarf son who claimed it was Latino ninjas - now that is bizarre.

[Katie · Rating 2 out of 5]

I was not impressed with this book at all! Maybe it is just not my forte, which I am actually sure is all it is. But hey, its fun to read something different every once in a while. The book basically just told short stories of the lives of killer around the world.

[Jo · Rating 4 out of 5]

A selection of true crime stories from around the world. Some of these killers I've read about before whilst others were a little more obscure. It made for a quick read amongst the Christmas festivities.

[Karen · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is subtitled True Stories That Will Shock and Amaze You , maybe it says more about me than about the crimes but I wasn't shocked or amazed.

[Heni · Rating 4 out of 5]

Five stars for the telling. It's not boring at all. If I have the grace this book is awesome, I would say so. Suffice to say that it is informative with an easy way to get everything through.

[Rachel · Rating 4 out of 5]

This took a while to read as some parts were quite disturbing but also quite fascinating. I went in many a tangent reading this book on my kindle, using Wikipedia and Google to get more up to date info on the cases in this book.
Some of the murders mentioned are the very famous ones, but there are a few obscure cases from around the world. Some are truly bizarre (the case with the dwarf son of a B-movie actress claiming his mother was killed by a Hispanic ninja for one!) But some are just horrific. It's not a book for the faint of heart or squeamish. It is very descriptive in style.

[GD · Rating 5 out of 5]

Haha, this book ruled! I agree with some other reviewers, that a lot of the murders weren't that unusual, but about halfway through the book I think they started piling on the weirdness. I wish I had the book with me right now to quote about this dude who thought he was a 300 year old werewolf or all the witches and shit. I'm trying to read all the unread paper books in my house to make more space, but decided to keep this one for reference. Crazy book.

[Zsofia · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ik vond dit echt geweldig !!! See what I did there?
Ik ben redelijk wat gewoon wat true crime betreft maar soms moest ik het toch tweemaal herlezen. Mensen zijn soms echt wel absurd. Brrrr.
Ze zouden beter de saaie horrorfilms van tegenwoordig baseren op de eigenaardige moorden uit dit boek.
Ik vond het een leuk boekje en een aanrader voor iedereen die geïnteresseerd is in true crime.

[Wesley Brants · Rating 3 out of 5]

De beschreven moorden zijn op zijn zachtst inderdaad bizar en zeer gedetailleerd beschreven. Echter zijn het niet 20, maar zijn de laatste 5 hoofdstukken meet verzamelhoofdstukken. Ook is de vertelling heel erg Amerikaans; elk hoofdstuk begint met "Misschien wel de meest -insert overtreffende trap van bijvoegelijk naamwoord in- moord"....

Leuk om te lezen

[Kerri Simpson · Rating 4 out of 5]

It was at least interesting. I really love it when the provide in depth over view of crime files but i know thats not always in the cards. Still i enjoyed this collection of weird murders and stories. There are some interesting ones for sure.

[Beau :) · Rating 3 out of 5]

I liked this true crime book because you get lots of different types of crimes. On the other side you do long for a bit more information in some cases. Sometimes 1 case gets explained in 1 paragraph which for me personally is a bit too short.

[Joshua Ong · Rating 3 out of 5]

Horrifying.

[Suzanne · Rating 5 out of 5]

I bought this book because the subtitle seems like such a challenge. Shock and amaze me? Impossible! However I owe an apology to this book. Mission accomplished. I was both shocked and amazed.

[Terri]

While caring for the elderly, their shows of choice included the series Hogan's Heroes and an old movie with Susan Cabot. This book answered my questions about Bob Crane and Susan Cabot.

[Nanne Nieuwenhuijse · Rating 5 out of 5]

Dit boek heeft mij aan het lezen van fysieke boeken gekregen. De verhalen zijn soms gruwelijk, maar fantastisch om te lezen.

[Julie Van Duppen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great list for true crime fans. Reads like a train. Read it in four days.

[Laura · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was okay, pretty good I guess but a lot of the telling felt a bit sensationalised. 80% of these were not 'bizarre' in my opinion but that's probably just because I've read about most of these tales many times over. The 'new' to me ones were interesting though (e.g. the Canadian girl who killed her parents with her 'werewolf' boyfriend for grounding her).

On a side note, the layout kind of bugged me. I liked it to begin with and then in the last third it kind of went to pot. It felt rushed and disjointed toward the end.

Despite all that, I do recommend this book.

[A.L. Butcher · Rating 3 out of 5]

True crime is always hard to review and this one even more so. Obviously the stories are dark and disturbing but in places it seemed a bit sensationalised. Not the best collection, although not a bad read.

[Jen · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book was just ok. It read like a bunch of newspaper articles. I can't say I was really 'shocked' or 'amazed' by any of the stories, but some of them were very interesting.

[Dave · Rating 3 out of 5]

Theres some funny folk about!

[SimplyAtomic · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great read

[Carly Higgins · Rating 3 out of 5]

Was a good book until it got to the final couple of chapters when it seemed they ran out of things to talk about and started to drag on.

[Rose · Rating 2 out of 5]

Accidentally reread this without even realising, shows how forgettable this book is...

[Melanie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Link to the review on my blog:

http://vampireplacebo.wordpress.com/2...

[Astrea · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fairly average.

[Bee · Rating 3 out of 5]

Bizarre murders, bizarre book! Enjoyably gruesome. Some really weird stuff though.