Serial Killers

by Al Cimino

Charles Manson was the illegitimate child of a teenage prostitute; in 1969, on his orders, eight people were hacked to death in an orgy of violence.

Ted Bundy had the power to charm women. With his arm in a fake sling, he used to ask them to help him get his sailboat down off his car, but first they had to go to his house...

Joanna Dennehy stabbed her lover Kevin Lee in the heart, dressed him in a black sequin dress, and dumped him in a ditch. To celebrate, she played Britney Spears' 'Oops!... I Did It Again' down her phone and then helped torch Lee's Ford Mondeo.

Serial killers are the ultimate outlaws. They step outside not just the law but all human norms. They are fascinating because they are almost impossible to understand. It's comforting to know that all the serial killers featured here are now either dead or behind bars. Nevertheless, this book is not for people of a nervous disposition.

Genres: True Crime, Nonfiction, Crime

298 pages, Kindle Edition

Published September 10, 2018

Reviews

[Tyler · Rating 2 out of 5]

liked to read about the facts of different cases, but the writing fell flat and had simple spelling mistakes and grammatical errors that beg for a proof read before publishing.

[James · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was so interesting! I love learning about true crime, especially serial killers. Although there was a few spelling and grammar errors, I still loved it. There were many serial killers I’ve never heard of before, which was interesting!

[Jo Besser · Rating 2 out of 5]

It was an interesting read for me, since there were serial killers from all over the world. So I liked the fact that I learned something new.

I think Cimino is a British author, there were a lot of different spellings of words (which I was fine with.) Though I think this was self edited. There seemed to be a few errors spread through the book. Not a huge deal, but slightly annoying.

The other thing that bothered me, out of the entire book there were only a handful of female Serial Killers listed. I was hoping to learn more about some of the female serial killers. Though the ones that were listed were interesting.

The book in and of itself was not bad, I just felt that I was left wanting more.

[Deirdre · Rating 3 out of 5]

Yikes, there are some very sick people out there. Kind of scary when you read how easy it was for many of these serial killers to get away with it, for long periods of time. And all the inocent people lost due to others' mental illness. Society needs to do better!

[C.C. · Rating 3 out of 5]

TL:DR
Syntax/ sentence structure errors, lack of clarity, and also not as analytical as I had hoped. It gives the basics of each case without going in depth. Better to use this as a foundation and research online or through other informative books. Some grammatical errors and rushed to be written and done. More like an Index.

In specifics:

I expected to read an deeper analysis of each case but, instead, got an encyclopedia on each killer. There were some instances (I apologize for not having an example), where sentences were poorly structured, leaving the reader with a lack of clarity. In other words, it was hard to figure out who did what when there were several names mentioned at once, not clarifying which "he" did what.

There also are instances where the author mentions another serial killer at the last paragraph of an article. It confused me several times and made me double-back to see if I confused the name of the killer. Most of the time, it seemed random and placed only for the sake of taking up more pages. The author would connect two killers with one similarity and throw in a brief description of the other. Afterwards, I'd expect to see the mentioned name as the next case, thinking it was done as a lead in to the next killer--- but no.

Besides syntax, there were repeats of words and phrases every now and then. For this, I do have examples; there are two sentences that begin with "In fact" while only being paragraphs apart (Cimino 225, 227). The other instance can be found in the Allitt case where the phrase, "Turn for the worse," is said twice with being only paragraphs apart, as well (Cimino 251, 253). This may seem like nit-picking (and it basically is), but, as a reader, it causes disruption while trying to absorb the information when hearing a smidge of an echo.

Besides minor repeats, there was also lack of care given to the description of the cases. Like others have already mentioned, if you wanted to know more of the cases, might want to do your own research. This book can only serve as a surface level introduction of giving the basic per case (which isn't necessarily a bad thing). It gives the gist without going into exact details and interviews.

Lastly, since the beginning of the book had an introduction, I assumed there would be one at the end, too; there wasn't. It ended abruptly and without giving any insight or closure (though, I do understand why the author might want to hurry up this book. I wouldn't want to keep writing about these horrendous, real-life murderers, either).

[Karen Bullock · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another great compilation of the worlds deadliest criminals.
Names that graced the nations headlines and still strike fear in most people’s hearts: Charles Manson, Ted Bundy, John Wayne Gacy, are just the first few covered in this compelling history of crime.
Majority of these killings are about men, with just a few added in towards the end about women. Their urges to kill, again and again know no bounds. Acts of depravity and violence fueled by either their horrific upbringing or their own chemical/genetic makeup still seem to invoke fear, even today.
After reading this well organized grouping it is easy to see the historical pattern of these serial killers having run amok in the early to late 1970’s through the 80’s and the question would be, what was so different back then, than now? Why is it that we rarely hear about similar crimes? What have law enforcement and psychologists learned from these heinous crimes?
Other countries listed in this catalog of criminals: China, Mexico, Poland, Russia and the United Kingdom; though most covered here ran across the Untied States.
A great read and perfect for law students, law enforcement, psychologists.

[Hannah Dennis · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ive really enjoyed this book, because of how it goes through the different serial killers and tells you all the information of what they did when killing. Anyone who is interested in famous serial killers and their stories this book is for you. However, this book is not for anyone of nervous disposition or not into gruesome. A quote I found said “they are fascinating because they are the most impossible to understand.” This shows why us people have such a fascination for these serial killers. Serial killers and I quote “step outside not just the law but all human norms.” They not only do awful things to people but also have un-humanly strange addictions. My overall preference is I highly suggest this book especially if you live for true crime.

[Josh · Rating 2 out of 5]

I liked reading about stories I have never heard of & some of the facts were interesting & gruesome but too many stories with too little detail left me wanting more from a lot of the stories or wanting less because I was so bored with them. I feel like a lot of the time the chapter would just end abruptly when there was alot more detail that could have been reached. I love stories like this where every chapter is a different type of story but most of these fell flat for me while the writing style was wonky & not detailed enough most of the time.

[Elizabeth Lanaghan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Book Review: Serial Killers by Al Cimino

Rating: 🔪🔪🔪🔪🔪
Genre: Non-Fiction
Published: 11/15/18

Review: Well this was a disturbing book. I don’t know why I read this stuff except for the fact that I find them interesting. Some of the things I read in this book were so disturbing that I had to put it down. The nurse who killed children I think was the hardest one to read about. The author did a great job at writing the stories of these 32 serial killers. I liked that he included the full names of the victims as he felt they don’t get enough recognition during the trials. These types of books definitely make me more hyper aware when I’m out and about and even when I’m at home. Would recommend if you like learning about these things.

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[The Thursday Skunk · Rating 2 out of 5]

Who knew a book about serial killers could be so repetitive and mundane? Each chapter brought a sense of monotony. Plus, the glaring issue of comma misuse by the author further detracts from the overall reading experience, contributing to a sense of dissatisfaction. The lack of substantial variation in chapter themes compounds the perceived dullness, eliciting a less-than-enthusiastic response from the reader.

I would rather be killed by a serial killer than have to read this again.

[cerri · Rating 3 out of 5]

i love a true crime book, but this one has sooo much going on. my brain got very easily confused and overwhelmed as there wasn’t a lot on each case. maybe a good read for someone who’s just getting into this genre. it seemed to be more about the shock factor than the actual victims and attacker. it was a quick read but i just wish there was a bit more to it, almost felt like it was rushing through things and missing detail.

[a r i a n a · Rating 3 out of 5]

3☆
Average read. I agree with the other reviewers posts that this text seems very rushed and there are also many grammatical errors. However, it is a very interesting subject matter and full of monstrous people whom I'd never heard of before. It really opens your eyes to true evil that exists in this world.

[Crow · Rating 3 out of 5]

This seems like a good book if you’re just getting into true crime and don’t know a lot about well known serial killers, or if you want to refresh your memory on these cases, but it leaves out a lot of info so I would recommend doing some research on cases you’re interested in outside of this book.

[Sofface · Rating 3 out of 5]

This should have been called "Serial Killers: A field guide" because it reads very much like the feild guides I have. Its very condenced verisons of events. I'm not saying I didn't like it, but it was not what I was expecting.
I also thought it was going to be a quick easy read because of the way it was written, but unfortunately I got bored rather quickly on this one.

[Chad Brady · Rating 2 out of 5]

An interesting book. Not horrible, just felt rushed and incomplete. Anyone looking to find out loads of detail will be disappointed. Lots of obscure serial killers, few of the well known ones.

[Felicia · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was very informative and interesting if you're in to this kind of stuff. My main issue was the grammar and spelling. On page 58 "fourteen" had a "p" at the end. There was also a ton of missing punctuation.

[Sara · Rating 2 out of 5]

I found that this book had the potential to be really interesting, if the author decided not to cram the book with too many true crime stories. I say that, because the stories at most were 20 pages long and didn't cover half the crime and felt very rushed.

[Heather · Rating 3 out of 5]

Written on a 4th/5th grade level, but interesting.

[Stephanie Oliveira · Rating 3 out of 5]

Literally just a book about serial killers. Each chapter is simply the facts about different murders and cases.

[Ava McIntire · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved the history behind each of the killers. There was so much information and I was amazed at the things these people could do.

[Ciara McCluskey · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.8

[Suengmxnn · Rating 4 out of 5]

Has all details with pictures...
Really a book I needed to know about serial killers

[Michelle · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fascinating descriptive stories of serial killers + their targets. A look at their thinking, reasoning + addiction to keep doing their hideous crimes!

[Kimberly Kerr · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read this for the December playbookers prompt sparks joy. this was a very interesting collection of true crime stories

[Haley-Beth Smith · Rating 3 out of 5]

And I looked up quite a bit about the serial killers and me the book just doesn’t give you enough details if someone’s trying to pick this out to be like oh I wanna read some stuff and like get to know these serial killers and what they did. I mean read it to get some information but there’s a lot more that if you don’t already like true crime you’re not gonna know a bunch of stuff that the author leaves out I mean yeah you can’t use like all the gruesome details but I feel like he can I cut short and could’ve added a little bit more detail and you know some of them did have surviving victims he could’ve drug up something that they said a little bit more. That’s my really only big complaint that I have about the book I mean read it was a good read.

[Sam C · Rating 3 out of 5]

It’s a book on serial killers both well known & some not so well known. My only issue is the book needed more editing. Both in terms of spelling (spells a victims name differently in the same paragraph?) and grammatically. The guy is British/English so he’s using his terminology which is fine but “drink driving” isn’t correct. The format of the story telling was also odd to me, but that could just be me.

[Grace dickey · Rating 3 out of 5]

MT
The format is weird and is told like a weird story? Just give me the facts mannn