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Slaughter: Profiles of the Deadliest Massacres in America and the World
How does the transactionality of the school setting - the scoring of relative performances - translate into the psychology of the school shooter? Taking on his toughest assignment yet, true crimes’ most prolific star pushes the gilded edge of the genre’s glittering Golden Age even further.
In Slaughter, Nick van der Leek applies sophisticated investigative techniques honed through his analysis of the world’s highest profile cases, to mass shooters.
“The patterns and psychologies between shooters and murderers are startlingly similar, but ultimately, they’re not the same. In the end, the psychopathology of school shooters can be distilled into just two distinguishing factors.”
In Slaughter, eight massacres are analysed and the perpetrators profiled.
Special focus is given to the back stories of Adam Lanza, Stephen Paddock, Nikolas Cruz, Seung-Hui Cho, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev and James Holmes. Some elements of their personalities are threaded together to synthesize patterns and develop a functional psychological framework.
What common psychology do shooters share? How and why do they fixate on mass murder? Who are these people?
2018: Nikolas Cruz – Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, Parkland [17 deaths, 14 injuries]
2017: Stephen Paddock – Life is Beautiful concert, Las Vegas [58 deaths*, 422 injuries]
2013: Dzhokhar Tsarnaev – Boston Marathon, Boston [3 deaths, 4 murders*, 264 injuries]
2012: Adam Lanza – Sandy Hook Elementary School, Newtown [27 deaths*, 2 injuries]
2012: James E. Holmes – Aurora, Century 16 cinema [12 deaths, 70 injuries]
2008: Matti Juhani Saari - Seinäjoki University of Applied Sciences, Kauhajoki [Finland] [10 deaths*, 11 injuries]
2007: Seung-Hui Cho – Virginia Tech, Blacksburg [32 deaths*, 25 injuries]
2004: Beslan School Siege – Beslan, Russia [334 deaths*, 783 injuries]
*Excludes perpetrator/s.
In Slaughter, Nick van der Leek applies sophisticated investigative techniques honed through his analysis of the world’s highest profile cases, to mass shooters.
“The patterns and psychologies between shooters and murderers are startlingly similar, but ultimately, they’re not the same. In the end, the psychopathology of school shooters can be distilled into just two distinguishing factors.”
In Slaughter, eight massacres are analysed and the perpetrators profiled.
Special focus is given to the back stories of Adam Lanza, Stephen Paddock, Nikolas Cruz, Seung-Hui Cho, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev and James Holmes. Some elements of their personalities are threaded together to synthesize patterns and develop a functional psychological framework.
What common psychology do shooters share? How and why do they fixate on mass murder? Who are these people?
2018: Nikolas Cruz – Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, Parkland [17 deaths, 14 injuries]
2017: Stephen Paddock – Life is Beautiful concert, Las Vegas [58 deaths*, 422 injuries]
2013: Dzhokhar Tsarnaev – Boston Marathon, Boston [3 deaths, 4 murders*, 264 injuries]
2012: Adam Lanza – Sandy Hook Elementary School, Newtown [27 deaths*, 2 injuries]
2012: James E. Holmes – Aurora, Century 16 cinema [12 deaths, 70 injuries]
2008: Matti Juhani Saari - Seinäjoki University of Applied Sciences, Kauhajoki [Finland] [10 deaths*, 11 injuries]
2007: Seung-Hui Cho – Virginia Tech, Blacksburg [32 deaths*, 25 injuries]
2004: Beslan School Siege – Beslan, Russia [334 deaths*, 783 injuries]
*Excludes perpetrator/s.
551 pages, Kindle Edition
Published March 21, 2018
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