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Mass Killers: Inside the Minds of Men Who Murder
Librarian note: An alternative cover for this ISBN can be found here.
Can you predict killing sprees?
What do mass killers have in common?
Why do so many of them write manifestos online and what do these tell us?
These are some of the questions David J. Krajicek seeks to answer in Mass Killings, on a topic that is becoming increasing urgent and desperate. In recent decades, mass shootings worldwide have increased in their savagery and frequency. Nearly all mass killers are male - and many of them are bound together by misogyny, misanthropy, and racism. They do not just "snap." They plan their assaults for months or years, drawing up detailed battle plans, and accumulating weaponry. They document the process in journals or videos online, understanding that they are leaving evidence which will help the marquee lights of their futile crimes burn brighter and longer. Krajicek shows the commonalities between mass shooters, and describes the psychopathic process that leads these troubled men to commit atrocities. Mass killers feed off each other's words and deeds, and it's crucial to be able to read the signals they give out to prevent future tragedies.
Can you predict killing sprees?
What do mass killers have in common?
Why do so many of them write manifestos online and what do these tell us?
These are some of the questions David J. Krajicek seeks to answer in Mass Killings, on a topic that is becoming increasing urgent and desperate. In recent decades, mass shootings worldwide have increased in their savagery and frequency. Nearly all mass killers are male - and many of them are bound together by misogyny, misanthropy, and racism. They do not just "snap." They plan their assaults for months or years, drawing up detailed battle plans, and accumulating weaponry. They document the process in journals or videos online, understanding that they are leaving evidence which will help the marquee lights of their futile crimes burn brighter and longer. Krajicek shows the commonalities between mass shooters, and describes the psychopathic process that leads these troubled men to commit atrocities. Mass killers feed off each other's words and deeds, and it's crucial to be able to read the signals they give out to prevent future tragedies.
304 pages, Paperback
Published May 1, 2019
29 people are currently reading
239 people want to read
About the author
David J. Krajicek
17 books31 followersFirst things first: The name is pronounced CRY-check.
I'm a writer, mostly about crime and murder, although most recently I have published two family-related historical memoirs, "Dear Mama" and "Coming Home to South Omaha." Before retiring recently from the music business, I spent 30 years singing and playing trombone in a band based in the mountains of upstate New York--old-school R&B, like Motown and Stax. Nowadays, most of my spare time is consumed by tennis.
I come from South Omaha, Nebraska, although I now split time between New York and the Gulf Coast.
I studied at the University of Nebraska at Omaha and Columbia University. I spent much of my early professional life as a newspaper crime reporter in the Midwest and New York City. I taught journalism at Columbia during most of the 1990s before being compelled to return full-time to my primary muse: writing. I'm back to writing about crime, though in longer form.
For 20 years, from 1999 until 2019, I wrote The Justice Story for the Sunday New York Daily News. It's the longest-running true crime feature in American journalism, published in the News since 1923. Before retiring, each of my 500 columns looked back at an interesting historical crime case--the sorts of stories you will know hear recounted on the countless true crime podcasts.
I have written stories about crime and criminal justice for many media venues, including The Crime Report, Alternet, The New York Times, Columbia and Boston magazines, Slate, The Village Voice, The Manchester (U.K.) Guardian and Mother Jones.
I've had a long side career as a crime expert on TV, appearing more than 25 times on episodes of true crime shows. I've also talked about crime cases on "The Today Show" and was proud to be a part of "The Poisoner's Handbook" on PBS's American Experience.
My books include the family memoirs "Dear Mama" and "Coming Home to South Omaha," both published by News Ink Books; "Charles Manson" and "Mass Killers," by Arcturus/Sirius Books of London, England; "Massachusetts Disasters: True Stories of Tragedy and Survival (Second Edition)"; "Death by Rock 'n' Roll," a Kindle ebook from Crimescape/Rosetta Books; "True Crime: Missouri," a longtime regional bestseller published by Stackpole Books; "Murder, American Style" by News Ink Books, and "Scooped!", published by Columbia University Press.
I've dabbled in fiction, as well. My first published fiction, a short story called "Sutphin Blvd.," was included in an anthology by Midnight Mind Press in New York. Another of my short stories, "Bluefish," was performed at Literally Speaking, an Albany, N.Y., program similar to NPR's "Selected Shorts."
Thanks for your interest in my work. Without readers, there would be no writers.
I'm a writer, mostly about crime and murder, although most recently I have published two family-related historical memoirs, "Dear Mama" and "Coming Home to South Omaha." Before retiring recently from the music business, I spent 30 years singing and playing trombone in a band based in the mountains of upstate New York--old-school R&B, like Motown and Stax. Nowadays, most of my spare time is consumed by tennis.
I come from South Omaha, Nebraska, although I now split time between New York and the Gulf Coast.
I studied at the University of Nebraska at Omaha and Columbia University. I spent much of my early professional life as a newspaper crime reporter in the Midwest and New York City. I taught journalism at Columbia during most of the 1990s before being compelled to return full-time to my primary muse: writing. I'm back to writing about crime, though in longer form.
For 20 years, from 1999 until 2019, I wrote The Justice Story for the Sunday New York Daily News. It's the longest-running true crime feature in American journalism, published in the News since 1923. Before retiring, each of my 500 columns looked back at an interesting historical crime case--the sorts of stories you will know hear recounted on the countless true crime podcasts.
I have written stories about crime and criminal justice for many media venues, including The Crime Report, Alternet, The New York Times, Columbia and Boston magazines, Slate, The Village Voice, The Manchester (U.K.) Guardian and Mother Jones.
I've had a long side career as a crime expert on TV, appearing more than 25 times on episodes of true crime shows. I've also talked about crime cases on "The Today Show" and was proud to be a part of "The Poisoner's Handbook" on PBS's American Experience.
My books include the family memoirs "Dear Mama" and "Coming Home to South Omaha," both published by News Ink Books; "Charles Manson" and "Mass Killers," by Arcturus/Sirius Books of London, England; "Massachusetts Disasters: True Stories of Tragedy and Survival (Second Edition)"; "Death by Rock 'n' Roll," a Kindle ebook from Crimescape/Rosetta Books; "True Crime: Missouri," a longtime regional bestseller published by Stackpole Books; "Murder, American Style" by News Ink Books, and "Scooped!", published by Columbia University Press.
I've dabbled in fiction, as well. My first published fiction, a short story called "Sutphin Blvd.," was included in an anthology by Midnight Mind Press in New York. Another of my short stories, "Bluefish," was performed at Literally Speaking, an Albany, N.Y., program similar to NPR's "Selected Shorts."
Thanks for your interest in my work. Without readers, there would be no writers.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 34 reviews
July 6, 2020
"So how should journalists report mass shootings when they risk playing into a young man's orgasmic anticipation of public glorification?"
Heavy read but very insightful. Couldn't stop reading when I started!
Heavy read but very insightful. Couldn't stop reading when I started!
July 7, 2022
I have a lot of gripes with the execution of this book. I guess the first issue is that I went in comparing it to Columbine by Dave Cullen. In contrast to that, I found this one to be really surface level and it did not offer the depth or complexity that I was hoping for in understanding how people become mass murderers and what we can learn.
Instead what I found was an exhausting laundry list of surface level descriptions of horrific events, no more than a paragraph or a few pages devoted to each. In some places it was basically just a rattling off of who the killer was, what was their "body count," the location, and a brief description of their atrocities. Almost like it's just all there for shock value but no real digging.
Then there's excerpts from various manifestos and linkages between them. Here's a bunch of racist stuff that various killers said. Here's a bunch of sexist stuff that various killers said. Here's a bunch of political stuff. Here's a bunch of sexual frustrations. Here's a bunch of god-like delusions. But it's just all strung together and I found it unsatisfying in a way I can't put my finger on. It was linking fragments of each killer. But not undertaking the (albeit monumental) task of linking their whole stories.
In some places it was like the author was mocking the killers, calling them names like "man child," describing their manifesto leave behinds as "whining" and "belly aches." I get that in some sense the author was trying to demasculate their killings but it just kind of reinforces that this is, in fact, a battle of masculinity.
I also detected a sense of mocking the killers for not "living up to their fantasy," i.e. killing fewer people than they intended, or not being "successful." If I were them -- and the author repeatedly acknowledges that many of them tend to read up on books exactly like this, so he should be expecting them to be part of his audience-- I would see some of it as almost a challenge. Like the author's calling my bluff.
With the known future killer audience in mind, I also found some of the parts to be downright irresponsible, like describing exactly how a bomb went wrong and what it should have been made of instead.
Similarly there is repeated language of competition, reward, accomplishment. Like killers that "beat" body counts and set "records." Killers that "win" a spot on whatever front page. A lot of talk about which killers admire and inspire who.
When it came down to characterizing the killers, adjectives like demented, deranged, delusional, insane, and crazy just don't help me understand anything. They come off as dismissive, the easy way out. For example, how do you reconcile calling one of the killers incapable of empathy while a few pages earlier you quoted one of his writings where he expressed that he was glad his bomb was a "humane" killing that probably left his victim dead immediately without suffering? There's no attempt to reconcile it. There's very scratch-the- surface psychological analysis of anyone throughout.
I also found it interesting but frustrating that so many "rants" of the killers sound exactly like something that we would see from former President Trump's Twitter account, yet there's no attempt to grapple with the fact that these are not just "insane rants," but ideas that a great chunk of the population would agree with (and retweet.) Some of the musings aren't just one off rants of an incomprehensible madman, and I thought it was a real missed opportunity to explore how pervasive they really are across our culture.
For example, I was surprised at how many times the disdain for political correctness showed up in the manifestos and journals of these killers, even back into the 1980s and 1990s.
I got this book at a Goodwill and read it because I needed a break from my fiction streak and it has been sitting on my shelf for many months. But I found it mostly exhausting and not as enlightening as I had hoped. The last chapter was good, and extraordinarily jarring regarding American acceptance and inaction, and the apparent consensus that we are too far gone and there is no way forward.
Part of me wants to dive deeper into learning more about shootings and how to prevent them. Part of me wants to run, not walk, back to the world of fiction.
Instead what I found was an exhausting laundry list of surface level descriptions of horrific events, no more than a paragraph or a few pages devoted to each. In some places it was basically just a rattling off of who the killer was, what was their "body count," the location, and a brief description of their atrocities. Almost like it's just all there for shock value but no real digging.
Then there's excerpts from various manifestos and linkages between them. Here's a bunch of racist stuff that various killers said. Here's a bunch of sexist stuff that various killers said. Here's a bunch of political stuff. Here's a bunch of sexual frustrations. Here's a bunch of god-like delusions. But it's just all strung together and I found it unsatisfying in a way I can't put my finger on. It was linking fragments of each killer. But not undertaking the (albeit monumental) task of linking their whole stories.
In some places it was like the author was mocking the killers, calling them names like "man child," describing their manifesto leave behinds as "whining" and "belly aches." I get that in some sense the author was trying to demasculate their killings but it just kind of reinforces that this is, in fact, a battle of masculinity.
I also detected a sense of mocking the killers for not "living up to their fantasy," i.e. killing fewer people than they intended, or not being "successful." If I were them -- and the author repeatedly acknowledges that many of them tend to read up on books exactly like this, so he should be expecting them to be part of his audience-- I would see some of it as almost a challenge. Like the author's calling my bluff.
With the known future killer audience in mind, I also found some of the parts to be downright irresponsible, like describing exactly how a bomb went wrong and what it should have been made of instead.
Similarly there is repeated language of competition, reward, accomplishment. Like killers that "beat" body counts and set "records." Killers that "win" a spot on whatever front page. A lot of talk about which killers admire and inspire who.
When it came down to characterizing the killers, adjectives like demented, deranged, delusional, insane, and crazy just don't help me understand anything. They come off as dismissive, the easy way out. For example, how do you reconcile calling one of the killers incapable of empathy while a few pages earlier you quoted one of his writings where he expressed that he was glad his bomb was a "humane" killing that probably left his victim dead immediately without suffering? There's no attempt to reconcile it. There's very scratch-the- surface psychological analysis of anyone throughout.
I also found it interesting but frustrating that so many "rants" of the killers sound exactly like something that we would see from former President Trump's Twitter account, yet there's no attempt to grapple with the fact that these are not just "insane rants," but ideas that a great chunk of the population would agree with (and retweet.) Some of the musings aren't just one off rants of an incomprehensible madman, and I thought it was a real missed opportunity to explore how pervasive they really are across our culture.
For example, I was surprised at how many times the disdain for political correctness showed up in the manifestos and journals of these killers, even back into the 1980s and 1990s.
I got this book at a Goodwill and read it because I needed a break from my fiction streak and it has been sitting on my shelf for many months. But I found it mostly exhausting and not as enlightening as I had hoped. The last chapter was good, and extraordinarily jarring regarding American acceptance and inaction, and the apparent consensus that we are too far gone and there is no way forward.
Part of me wants to dive deeper into learning more about shootings and how to prevent them. Part of me wants to run, not walk, back to the world of fiction.
May 27, 2019
I received this book through netgalley in exchange for review.
Krajicek Does a phenomenal job dissecting histories most notorious mass killers through pieces of their own earie words. He touches on subjects like media attention, motive, psyche, and the cult like following that surrounds these mass murderers. I found myself continuously shaking my head and disturbed to the point of intense interest as I read directly into their minds. Krajicek explores mass murder outside of the U.S. as well, and brings the book to an end by discussing gun control from the point of view from survivors of some of these heinous acts. Though sometimes emotionally hard to read, I thoroughly enjoyed this book and the opportunity it gave me to dive into the disturbed minds of the individuals discussed in this book.
Krajicek Does a phenomenal job dissecting histories most notorious mass killers through pieces of their own earie words. He touches on subjects like media attention, motive, psyche, and the cult like following that surrounds these mass murderers. I found myself continuously shaking my head and disturbed to the point of intense interest as I read directly into their minds. Krajicek explores mass murder outside of the U.S. as well, and brings the book to an end by discussing gun control from the point of view from survivors of some of these heinous acts. Though sometimes emotionally hard to read, I thoroughly enjoyed this book and the opportunity it gave me to dive into the disturbed minds of the individuals discussed in this book.
March 9, 2022
I ended up DNF this book at roughly 70%
The author seemed to like to use alliteration, adjectives and repetition, overall he came across as rude
I don't have much more to say about this book other than the layout of it was awful, it wasn't sectioned into clear cases and the cases mentioned weren't looked at in detail. The author decided the overarching issue was that these people were evil instead of looking into the psychological aspects and what commonalities they share or even if there are only warning signs. No, that didn't happen, all you get is that they're evil and not everyone with a bad past ends up killing - which is a fact most, if not all people know
I don't reccomend this book at all
The author seemed to like to use alliteration, adjectives and repetition, overall he came across as rude
I don't have much more to say about this book other than the layout of it was awful, it wasn't sectioned into clear cases and the cases mentioned weren't looked at in detail. The author decided the overarching issue was that these people were evil instead of looking into the psychological aspects and what commonalities they share or even if there are only warning signs. No, that didn't happen, all you get is that they're evil and not everyone with a bad past ends up killing - which is a fact most, if not all people know
I don't reccomend this book at all
December 10, 2019
A very interesting take on the mass shooters in the US with brief passages about some of the European mass shootings. Most of this centered around the phenomenon of school shootings. They’re oh so sad and the killers are oh so deranged. It was interesting to read the things a lot of these teenagers had in common. And scary to read the hero worship they had for those who came before them. I specifically liked that this was not a dry read and did not contain large amounts of statistics which we all know can be portrayed to say just about anything.
July 3, 2019
WOW!
I’m not sure what I was expecting once I started this but it’s not what I read and that’s good. I thought maybe we’d have a few snippets of random killers here and there, but this was very informative and really researched.
We are told about the history of these killers, the obsession of media attention, movies, their mental state, how they feel that they are a cult, and so much more. It’s really crazy to learn how they want to out do each other and how they feel like they are God’s and will get into heaven because they have killed so many people. This was a hard read but a good read. Very informative and gave us more things to look at and try to understand. He discusses gun control and how if the government won’t do anything about it since these shootings started, Will they ever do anything about it since little kids have been affected now too?
Thank you NetGalley for this arc.
I’m not sure what I was expecting once I started this but it’s not what I read and that’s good. I thought maybe we’d have a few snippets of random killers here and there, but this was very informative and really researched.
We are told about the history of these killers, the obsession of media attention, movies, their mental state, how they feel that they are a cult, and so much more. It’s really crazy to learn how they want to out do each other and how they feel like they are God’s and will get into heaven because they have killed so many people. This was a hard read but a good read. Very informative and gave us more things to look at and try to understand. He discusses gun control and how if the government won’t do anything about it since these shootings started, Will they ever do anything about it since little kids have been affected now too?
Thank you NetGalley for this arc.
April 10, 2022
My first non-fiction book of the year and I have to say I was quite disappointed given the subject is one I find absolutely fascinating.
The real killer for this book was its structure. The chapters are meant to be set out by theme, but they instead tend to bleed into one another to the extent it makes the authors point unclear.
This also happens with the cases discussed; many are mentioned in brief with the author with him then focusing on broad themes and patterns. While the excepts from individual cases were interesting, they weren’t really analysed by the author making it seem like they were only being used as fillers.
In addition to this, it becomes increasingly clear that the author begins to push their own agenda throughout the book. While I agree that there are serious issues with gun control in the US, the author’s bias had no place in this book.
The real killer for this book was its structure. The chapters are meant to be set out by theme, but they instead tend to bleed into one another to the extent it makes the authors point unclear.
This also happens with the cases discussed; many are mentioned in brief with the author with him then focusing on broad themes and patterns. While the excepts from individual cases were interesting, they weren’t really analysed by the author making it seem like they were only being used as fillers.
In addition to this, it becomes increasingly clear that the author begins to push their own agenda throughout the book. While I agree that there are serious issues with gun control in the US, the author’s bias had no place in this book.
January 31, 2022
It felt a bit as though the author was trying to use every adjective they could as opposed to using the same ones over and over again. This means that some of the words they used may have been synonyms for the word they meant, but it came across differently. And by differently I mean rudely.
June 9, 2022
Yikes. Yikes. Yikes. I fully understand that this title being written by a journalist was the first red flag, and so I decided to come at this book from the academic perspective that I have with so many other pieces of literature revovling around the horrific occurence of school/mass shootings that are unfortunately so commonplace nowadays. Starting off strong, I don't understand the choice of putting Elliot Eodger's cringeworthy selfie on the cover; the author literally made fun of him and other shooters feeling the need to portray themselves in the perfect way for when the media dissemenates every little bit of information that they can dredge up about them.
There are instances of unnecessary and inappropriate light heartedness and joking revolving around the crimes mentioned in this book, along with a off-handed remark about one of the shooter's mother who also happened to be one of their victims. Not to mention the obvious idea being pushed by the author, who is a journalist himself, about the fact that journalists are the ones to put in the "hard work" of determining the what, why, when and how of these crimes, while diminishing the actual efforst of professionals within the fields of psychology, sociology, criminology, etc.
In so many instances the author contradicts himself when delivering analysis on the effects of the media on potential/prospective shooters. The research will show that a wide margin of shooters are seeking infamy with their acts, and look forward to the attention afforded them by the media, even listing likes and dislikes in their journals so that they will be looked at from an unprofessional lense and assumptions created about their motivation. It has been shown that listening to heavy metal and playing violent video games do NOT make someone more likely to commit mass murder...and then the author spends quite a bit of time focusing on the fact that one of the shooters mentioned in this book played World of Warcraft?
There are also page after page of excerpts from the journals and last letters of various shooters included in this book, that the author called useless and gleening no actual insight into the cause of their actions...and yet you wasted the readers time and made us read about the racist, incel, super narcissistic thoughts of these indivduals, just as they were hoping you would, all while not actually providing a single unique thought on the issue.
This is probably the most heavily annotated book on my shelves currently, and being that I got it heavily discounted from Books a Million I don't need to wonder why anymore. I fully believe that we should leave the names and faces of shooters out of the media to help prevent that infamy seeking copycat mentality that was described in so many instances in this book, and yet this one seemed to be chock full of exploiting every little detail for the information alone rather than any helpful reason.
There are instances of unnecessary and inappropriate light heartedness and joking revolving around the crimes mentioned in this book, along with a off-handed remark about one of the shooter's mother who also happened to be one of their victims. Not to mention the obvious idea being pushed by the author, who is a journalist himself, about the fact that journalists are the ones to put in the "hard work" of determining the what, why, when and how of these crimes, while diminishing the actual efforst of professionals within the fields of psychology, sociology, criminology, etc.
In so many instances the author contradicts himself when delivering analysis on the effects of the media on potential/prospective shooters. The research will show that a wide margin of shooters are seeking infamy with their acts, and look forward to the attention afforded them by the media, even listing likes and dislikes in their journals so that they will be looked at from an unprofessional lense and assumptions created about their motivation. It has been shown that listening to heavy metal and playing violent video games do NOT make someone more likely to commit mass murder...and then the author spends quite a bit of time focusing on the fact that one of the shooters mentioned in this book played World of Warcraft?
There are also page after page of excerpts from the journals and last letters of various shooters included in this book, that the author called useless and gleening no actual insight into the cause of their actions...and yet you wasted the readers time and made us read about the racist, incel, super narcissistic thoughts of these indivduals, just as they were hoping you would, all while not actually providing a single unique thought on the issue.
This is probably the most heavily annotated book on my shelves currently, and being that I got it heavily discounted from Books a Million I don't need to wonder why anymore. I fully believe that we should leave the names and faces of shooters out of the media to help prevent that infamy seeking copycat mentality that was described in so many instances in this book, and yet this one seemed to be chock full of exploiting every little detail for the information alone rather than any helpful reason.
April 1, 2021
I have loved to read true crime books for a lot of years...I have done extensive reading and research on serial killers but while i have read about many mass killers, I have not done much research on them...
I got this book thinking that it was a book of the mass killers and their deeds...and found it to be much more...
The book talks about the individual crimes but much more...it goes into the mind and actions of the individuals...it discusses the mental issues...thoughts...all through the items left behind ...it analyzes the issues and the the reasons...no matter who crazy....
pretty much every single murderer in this case is driven by their thoughts that they are the wronged ones...the persecuted...that they are fine...and all they did was totally justifiable due to the wrongs that they have suffered at the hands of others...and while normally i think all would agree that the killers would want to make the ones who made them suffer ..die...but not true...many killed those they loved...and apologized in advance for their killing...that the others killed were surrogates for those who ...in their minds...were the perpetrators of the wrongs ...including many times...children younger than ten years old...
I found this book to be amazing...with our world right now ...and the continuation and increase in mass killing...as a guide to the thoughts...
unfortunately ...there are only a few answers which will...more than likely...never be able to be resolved...and we are destined for more...until base changes are made...
if true crime interests you...read this book...i found it fantastic...sad...and at times hopeless...but as always...hope for the future ...if we can get those in positions to help...to make the proper choices...
I got this book thinking that it was a book of the mass killers and their deeds...and found it to be much more...
The book talks about the individual crimes but much more...it goes into the mind and actions of the individuals...it discusses the mental issues...thoughts...all through the items left behind ...it analyzes the issues and the the reasons...no matter who crazy....
pretty much every single murderer in this case is driven by their thoughts that they are the wronged ones...the persecuted...that they are fine...and all they did was totally justifiable due to the wrongs that they have suffered at the hands of others...and while normally i think all would agree that the killers would want to make the ones who made them suffer ..die...but not true...many killed those they loved...and apologized in advance for their killing...that the others killed were surrogates for those who ...in their minds...were the perpetrators of the wrongs ...including many times...children younger than ten years old...
I found this book to be amazing...with our world right now ...and the continuation and increase in mass killing...as a guide to the thoughts...
unfortunately ...there are only a few answers which will...more than likely...never be able to be resolved...and we are destined for more...until base changes are made...
if true crime interests you...read this book...i found it fantastic...sad...and at times hopeless...but as always...hope for the future ...if we can get those in positions to help...to make the proper choices...
June 10, 2020
This book was very interesting and informative for not only those who are interested in reading about mass murder cases and their motives, but even for those who are interested in general modern politics: gender relations, racism, economic disparities, education, etc. It covers a variety of mass murder cases, however it focuses primarily on mass school shootings. I really appreciate how although the book focuses on the US, where the issue has metastasized the most today, it manages to cover an impressive international scope of the phenomenon as well, which is not always common for this kind of read.
I blew threw the book in less than 2 days, which is pretty unusual for me. The writing was fairly engaging and there are so many thought provoking details and ‘manifesto’ pieces that keep you from wanting to put the book down. There were a lot of details from famous cases that I had never heard before, as well as ideological or motivational connections between several others that I’d yet to consider before reading.
Since this book has been published, my country has been through the worst mass shooting in its entire history. 22 people were murdered throughout Nova Scotia, Canada by an enraged misogynistic, resentful disgrace of a man. This book will not give its reader all of the answers and ideas behind how someone gets to that breaking point and why someone ultimately chooses to take lives. However, it will show you that there are far more commonalities between these people’s mindsets than most would think—and certainly more than the media lets on.
I blew threw the book in less than 2 days, which is pretty unusual for me. The writing was fairly engaging and there are so many thought provoking details and ‘manifesto’ pieces that keep you from wanting to put the book down. There were a lot of details from famous cases that I had never heard before, as well as ideological or motivational connections between several others that I’d yet to consider before reading.
Since this book has been published, my country has been through the worst mass shooting in its entire history. 22 people were murdered throughout Nova Scotia, Canada by an enraged misogynistic, resentful disgrace of a man. This book will not give its reader all of the answers and ideas behind how someone gets to that breaking point and why someone ultimately chooses to take lives. However, it will show you that there are far more commonalities between these people’s mindsets than most would think—and certainly more than the media lets on.
November 28, 2020
I read a lot of books in the mass killer/active shooter genre as a function of my role as a high school teacher and school safety officer/trainer. I picked up this book because I was waiting for a book to arrive from Amazon and wanted to fill the time. Krajicek's book does a sufficient job of detailing the psychosis and motivations that drive young men to commit mass casualty atrocities. Where the book fails is in its leftist propagandizing of mass casualty events. The last few chapters are filled with diatribes against whites, the Second Amendment, the NRA, and gun culture in general. Krajicek fails to mention that the number of mass shootings by race are consistent with US population demographics (Whites committed 64% of the mass shootings in the US as 76.3% of the population, Blacks 18%/13.4%, and Hispanic/Latino 8%/18.5%). Further, the United States has an abundance of firearms, (about 1/3 of Americans claim to own at least one firearm [more than 100 million gun owners]), yet they experience a statistically low incidence of gun violence in general and a marginal number of deaths in mass killer incidents. Fewer than 1% of firearms in the US are used to commit crimes. Krajicek also fails to mention an estimated 400,000 lives are saved in the US by firearms annually.
Krajicek's personal bias is dripping from this manuscript. As long as you don't mind the propaganda, the book is otherwise sufficient for the task of describing and exploring the minds of men who murder.
Krajicek's personal bias is dripping from this manuscript. As long as you don't mind the propaganda, the book is otherwise sufficient for the task of describing and exploring the minds of men who murder.
January 10, 2025
A sweeping overview on a number of mass killers both within the US and outside it.
There are points that seem a little disjointed; where some killers are spoken of in great depth, there are places where you think the author is going to give you at least a general picture of what the murderer was doing but instead you only get a sentence or two. Sometimes we return to the men in these blurbs and sometimes we don't.
The general tone towards the killers is derogatory, which doesn't really bother me. There is an implied arrogance that comes with some of that derogatory language that does grate on me occasionally. Excerpts from the writings of these murderers seems to focus on making them look like deranged, delusional lunatics. And for the most part they are. But there is no room given by this author for the nuance in their derangement. He is perfectly happy to lump them all together, and while I agree that there is no way to truly understand the mind of these kinds of people, it comes up just a little shallow for my taste.
Overall it was an interesting study, but I think the broadness of the project and the inclusion of so many details from so many stories is a weak point that books with a narrower focus typically avoid.
There are points that seem a little disjointed; where some killers are spoken of in great depth, there are places where you think the author is going to give you at least a general picture of what the murderer was doing but instead you only get a sentence or two. Sometimes we return to the men in these blurbs and sometimes we don't.
The general tone towards the killers is derogatory, which doesn't really bother me. There is an implied arrogance that comes with some of that derogatory language that does grate on me occasionally. Excerpts from the writings of these murderers seems to focus on making them look like deranged, delusional lunatics. And for the most part they are. But there is no room given by this author for the nuance in their derangement. He is perfectly happy to lump them all together, and while I agree that there is no way to truly understand the mind of these kinds of people, it comes up just a little shallow for my taste.
Overall it was an interesting study, but I think the broadness of the project and the inclusion of so many details from so many stories is a weak point that books with a narrower focus typically avoid.
September 4, 2025
This book is very quick and informative. It included a lot of facts about these different tragic events, while also pursuing a lot of victims initiatives expressing the newer sentiment of giving less fame and glory to the criminals and more to the victims. This book was not very long and due to its compilation nature felt like reading a podcast more than a regular non fiction book.
Overall, I would say it was a very holistic view of the subject. Another interesting thing I enjoyed was how they didn’t just focus on the American mass killers. Although the US does make up a majority of mass killings, it is still interesting to see how these atrocities translate abroad and the spread of ideology and differing policy reactions.
Overall, I would say it was a very holistic view of the subject. Another interesting thing I enjoyed was how they didn’t just focus on the American mass killers. Although the US does make up a majority of mass killings, it is still interesting to see how these atrocities translate abroad and the spread of ideology and differing policy reactions.
September 15, 2020
This book above all others that I have read so far this year started off as a very great and thought provoking one full of backstory and information into the mind of how these sort of people's minds work and what can lead them to kill from there. From mid-way through you start to see a change in the point of view of the writing and start to grow angry and be more in disbelief at the amount of gun violence and violence in general there is currently in America. Whilst I wish there was more said about other countries, I still found that some parts of the book did lag and therefore made me less likely to try and read it as quickly towards the end. Not one I'd read again I'm afraid!
August 26, 2022
Mass Killers is an informative book designed to make you think and look at how common place these crimes have now become. There was a time when we were all affected and shocked with each new mass killing but now it's become so common place we offer up our thoughts and prayers and move on. Krajicek's book is not glorifying these killings but trying to find reason and presents with often times rambling journal entries that give us a glimpse inside the mind of a killer. It's informative but not a book you read without being affected in some way.
November 9, 2020
Lots of facts and different information in regards to the different, high-profile mass shootings in the United States and other hot spots around the globe. It shows the timeline and goes back to the beginning of this phenomenon, which is years before the incident at Columbine high school, which a lot of people believe think kickstarted this unbelievable atrocity. Some parts seemed repetitive but the fact is a lot of these things are strikingly similar.
June 17, 2019
A rather depressing story of mass killings mostly focussed on the US, Krajicek looks at the Columbine killers as the modern day templates that many spree killers have based themselves on. There is a wide range of case history here going back to the start of the 20th Century and the central problem of lax gun laws and mentally ill men being able to easily get hold of them, a sobering read.
January 5, 2020
A very insightful read. I appreciated the mocking tone it used toward the killers and it's mention of the "No Recognition" policy; of which I am in great favor. I did feel as though the book repeated itself a bit too frequently, especially in it's harkening back to Eric Harris. Found for a bargain price at Books-a-Million and we'll worth the $6 spent.
May 27, 2020
A book looking at the troubled minds of mass killers
This was an interesting and at times tough read. It features extracts from the writings of many of the killers which are hard going. I would have liked a little more detail on the crimes. If you like learning about killers and their reasons, this is well worth the read.
This was an interesting and at times tough read. It features extracts from the writings of many of the killers which are hard going. I would have liked a little more detail on the crimes. If you like learning about killers and their reasons, this is well worth the read.
March 3, 2024
I found this book to be one of the most interesting narratives. It doesn't focus on a single subject to blame as many other writers tend to point a finger one way or the other. It gives the reader insight to the warped minds of murderers while simultaneously exploring how the collective public can push for change.
July 18, 2019
Mass shootings aren’t new. Public outcry for more gun control isn’t new. Mass shooters are mostly white men. Not new. I read it in a day which doesn’t usually happen with me and a non-fiction book. So that’s new! Men are terrible.
August 22, 2021
Really good book and possibly the most comprehensive I've read on the subject. Tiny flaw for me is sometimes its a bit jumpy from one shooter to another but overall a good read that really tried to understand the issues.
November 11, 2021
This is the first book I read from this author, and I am so glad I picked up a copy.
Mass Killers is a very detailed researched book that will actually surprise you. Never knew there were so many, sad but true.
Great job!!
Mass Killers is a very detailed researched book that will actually surprise you. Never knew there were so many, sad but true.
Great job!!
March 10, 2021
It was good, an informative book of predominantly school shooters and what maybe led them to shooting people.
May 23, 2021
Sadly a reality, completely terrifying.
November 9, 2022
Good book. Very insightful.
February 11, 2023
Highly recommend. This is a very well researched book. I love that it doesn't give a inch to the murders who kill out of malice. It goes through the types of mass murders, the media's part, and more.
July 26, 2025
I found this well written and was pleased with the variety and scope of cases it covers, though there are a few people I wish it focused more on. Sufficient afternoon read
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