Human Monsters: An Illustrated Encyclopedia of the World's Most Vicious Murderers

by David Everitt

Presents 100 gripping case studies of the worst killers of all time.

Genres: True Crime, Nonfiction, History, Crime, Reference

288 pages, Paperback

First published April 1, 1993

Reviews

[Peter · Rating 4 out of 5]

What an incredible roller coaster ride through the most famous murders over the last 10 centuries. You'll find 100 portraits of the most notorious male and female murders. Among them are as famous names as Gilles de Rais (the original Bluebeard), Dracula, Bathory, Burke/Hare, Jack the Ripper, Lizzie Borden, the Axeman of New Orleans, Fritz Haarmann (the vampire of Hanover), Ed Gein, Charles Manson, Zodiac Killer, Son of Sam, Bundy, Gacy, Dahmer and many more. You'll get many black and white portrait photos with the descriptions of the killers. Exciting must read for every true crime fan. Highly recommended!

[Reilly Tebrugge · Rating 4 out of 5]

The reason the author wrote this book was to entertain the readers. He states in the preface that most of us find murders horrible and grotesque but we all love hearing about them because they fascinate us. No matter how much we dislike them and hate that they happen, we are curious and can’t get enough of them. That’s why horror movies and shows like CSI are still thriving. They deal with the one subject that fascinates everyone, the subject of a human being killing another human being. The author wrote to teach us, and fascinate us.
The theme of the book is murder. It’s an encyclopedia of all of the world’s serial murders from the first one recorded until 1993. The book is telling us about the details of the routine of the killers and their victims. Killers and murder is what this book is all about, although the book is focused on just serial killers not all the killers in the history of time. It could be about crime or manipulation because those go hand in hand with murders and murderers but murder would be the main theme.
This book is written like and Encyclopedia. It is in chronological order and goes from the first documented serial killer to the most recent up until 1993, when the book was published. It says the name of the killer, the years he killed from and to, shows a picture, and then tells their story. I like the way it’s written; it makes it easy to read because it’s like a bunch of short crime stories in one place.
I was really intrigued by this book. I am a crime buff because I want to go into criminal justice or criminal psychology so I found all of the information entertaining and knowledgeable. I would give it 4/5 stars because it was just a collection of stories, it couldn’t have been that hard to write and the author didn’t have to use any creativity to write it. The book was great. I loved it and I didn’t turn into a killer by reading it. So there, people can read weird books about murder and not be transformed into a murderer.

[Brad H · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have read many book like this over the years. No Im not studing to make a play for the headlines.

I find these people to be very interesting even though they do horrific things. This book give you a nice "blurb" and insight into various "monsters" around the world in various centuries / decades.

A book like this must be read with the knowledge that you are going to read terrible things. Horrific acts. But, if you read books lke these with the open mind of wanting to learn and wanting to try and understand. Then this is a great book. I enjoyed it and will probably read it again.
Its not to "heavy" some book try to psycoanalyz (sic) why they did what they did...who they are. This book gives you slight suggestions...but does not get to heavy and boring into trying to figure out what "broke" in their brain.
Cool Read

[Fishface · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was very OK, worth reading for me especially because there are quite a few characters in here I never heard of before, and because for the first time I got to see photos of many of the ones I have read about many times. (Who knew Heinrich Pommerencke was so cute?) I was disappoointed that the authors seemed not to have read up very comprehensively on some of the people profiled; he accepted without question the story that Countess Bathory bathed in the blood of her victims -- a legend which only sprang up about 400 years AFTER her death -- and that Albert DeSalvo was the Boston Strangler, a story almost nobody believes today. It would have been VERY helpful if he had connected his profiles with his source material on them.

[L. · Rating 4 out of 5]

Always good to "see behind the curtain". We live amongst animals like this on a daily basis....better to know what's out there than to live naively. Be prepared, don't be a victim.

[Amy]

A book my dad got me... Very interesting!

[☠mommy The · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very disturbing look into the history of some of the worlds most infamous killers.