Cult Killers

by Frank Moorhouse

The six-six-Sixties were the Devil's decade. With their heady cocktail of glamour and gore, dissatisfied youth have been drawn back to those years time and time again in search of inspiration - mostly artistic, some diabolical. The dark side of that swinging decade saw the rise of Satanism in popular culture, and even as the Sixties ended in flames, the attendant black smoke formed new shapes for Satan to inhabit and still more powerful envoys to spread his word...Following the rise of Satanism through from the Sixties to today, Frank Moorhouse examines the key cases and delves into the lives of the perpetrators, searching for the events that could have driven them to commit such horrific acts. Rather than simply criticise and condemn, Moorhouse remains open-minded as he trawls through the carnage left by some of the world's most terrifying killers.

Genres: True Crime, Nonfiction

288 pages, Paperback

First published March 1, 2008

About the author

Frank Thomas Moorhouse AM (21 December 1938 – 26 June 2022) was an Australian writer. He won major Australian national prizes for the short story, the novel, the essay, and for script writing. His work has been published in the United Kingdom, France, and the United States and also translated into German, Spanish, Chinese, Japanese, Serbian, and Swedish.

Moorhouse was perhaps best known for winning the 2001 Miles Franklin Literary Award for his novel, Dark Palace; which together with Grand Days and Cold Light, the "Edith Trilogy" is a fictional account of the League of Nations, which trace the strange, convoluted life of a young woman who enters the world of diplomacy in the 1920s through to her involvement in the newly formed International Atomic Energy Agency after World War II.

The author of 18 books, Moorhouse became a full-time fiction writer during the 1970s, also writing essays, short stories, journalism and film, radio and TV scripts.

In his early career he developed a narrative structure which he has described as the 'discontinuous narrative'. He lived for many years in Balmain, where together with Clive James, Germaine Greer and Robert Hughes, he became part of the "Sydney Push" - an anti-censorship movement that protested against rightwing politics and championed freedom of speech and sexual liberation. In 1975 he played a fundamental role in the evolution of copyright law in Australia in the case University of New South Wales v Moorhouse. - Wikipedia

Reviews

[Stephen McQuiggan · Rating 4 out of 5]

A look at the touted connection between youth culture and criminality, focusing on the so called Satanic panic crimes to reveal the more sordid, mundane truth beneath - how good and evil are used to explain away a more complicated and disturbing malaise in society. Satan wept...
Starts with the familiar - Manson, Son of Sam et al - before moving on to the world of Black metal and the far Right, exposing the media feeding frenzy in depressing clarity and highlighting why people like Marilyn Manson are held up as such bogeymen.
Really interesting stuff - but it got the dates of the Tate murders wrong, ditto the titles of a few AC/DC albums - my sympathy for the devil only stretches so far.

[Evander · Rating 4 out of 5]

I found the cases interesting but thought that aspects of the author's interpretation were quite unimpressive.

[Rachel · Rating 4 out of 5]

Frank Moorhouse did a good job here. Each chapter was based on a different killer, or group of killers, most who claimed to be satanists and such. He really did his research, I read the book in a day and found it very interesting and factual.

[Haitch · Rating 4 out of 5]

I found this book extremely interesting and well thought out. I also learnt about killers I had not heard of previously which made a nice change as you so often hear of the same people - Bundy, Gacey, Mason etc.

The only thing I would criticise would be that there was a lot of talk about being satanists and I don't feel this was necessary as there seemed to be at least a paragraph a chapter about this. I understand that some of these people may have claimed to be as such but I am personally more interested in their background and their psychology.

All in all though a really good read

[Cheyenne · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was an interesting read that informed me on many cases around the world that I have never heard about. Satanic, Marilyn Manson heavy themes are present but these crimes stem from so much more that that. This books shows the danger that children can be to themselves and others, it's shows killers who act in the name of satan or other vampire based drives and also talks about more famous cases like Son of Sam and Richard Ramirez. Although interesting, the author attempted to draw profound conclusions based on these crimes, but to little success. I'd still recommend this book because the crimes were outlined with good detail.

[Deanne · Rating 2 out of 5]

Some of the cases were interesting but I found the author's interpretation of why the killer or group could be referred to as cult killers. Some seemed to come across as having psychological problems or were serial killers. There were groups classed as Satanists, which does seem like an excuse for doing something that most with a conscience wouldn't do.
The final case seemed to be one of the worst especially as the killer was 14 at the time. Did seem as though the author didn't think he should have been found guilty, but maybe it was what I was reading into his writing.

[Marina.Downing · Rating 5 out of 5]

Its a good read but it did give me a few sleepless nights

[Leslynn · Rating 1 out of 5]

Poor writing style and story-telling ability made an interesting subject bleh!