The Dracula Syndrome

by Richard Monaco, Bill Burt

A look at the crimes of true-life fiends describes the gruesome doings of James Riva, Pete Kurten, Adolfo de Jesus Constanzo, Octavio Flores, Jeffrey Dahmer, and Ted Bundy. Original.

Genres: True Crime, Nonfiction, Crime

167 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1993

About the author

Born in NYC, Monaco studied musical composition at Columbia University, helped create a national student newspaper, The University Review and had many works performed in concert; wrote screenplays for Warner Brothers, other studios and independents; reviewed film and books; hosted a talk radio show for five years on WNYC/FM; taught and lectured at various colleges including Columbia, NYU, and Mercy College; had plays produced in various venues off-Broadway; published poetry in anthologies and periodicals. He has published ten novels and several works of non-fiction including a poetry textbook. Two of his novels, Parsival, or a Knight's Tale and The Final Quest, were finalists for the Pulitzer Prize in literature. He is planning to soon release Dead Blossoms, a ninja detective adventure set in 16th century Japan and re-release the previous Parsival books.

Reviews

[Fishface · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a pretty good one. Fun to read with many gory, shocking tales of murder and cannibalism. Several that jaded moi has never heard of, too, which is great. I'm not sure why they gave this book the title it has -- almost none of the cases included were about people who drank blood. And there are two photos of serial killers on the cover -- Jeff Dahmer and Ted Bundy -- not profiled in the book. Oops!

[Arty A · Rating 2 out of 5]

Finally finished this little book. The cover was so brittle it almost completely fell apart while I was reading it. I thought it was pretty lurid and in bad taste. Calling prostitutes whore and calling people stuff like scuzzy homosexuals. It covered so many killers that actually drank blood which is really gross to me. There was one CRAZY dude in Florida that did messed up stuff to women but was never convicted of murder! Unless you are obsessed with true crime/killers, no reason to read this filth.

[Stephanie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Sensational in it descriptions of events but an easy read. A short paperback which focuses on telling a story rather than providing detailed fact checked histories.

[Bill Williams · Rating 3 out of 5]

meh.