Illustrated True Crime: A Photographic Record

by Colin Wilson (editor)

Packed with more than 400 photographs arranged in chronological order, this book covers everything from arson to connibalism, con men, mass murderers, sabotage, victims and vital clues.

Genres: True Crime, Photography, Crime, Nonfiction

504 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2002

About the author

Librarian Note: There is more than one author by this name in the Goodreads database.

Colin Henry Wilson was born and raised in Leicester, England, U.K. He left school at 16, worked in factories and various occupations, and read in his spare time. When Wilson was 24, Gollancz published The Outsider (1956) which examines the role of the social 'outsider' in seminal works of various key literary and cultural figures. These include Albert Camus, Jean-Paul Sartre, Ernest Hemingway, Hermann Hesse, Fyodor Dostoyevsky, William James, T. E. Lawrence, Vaslav Nijinsky and Vincent Van Gogh and Wilson discusses his perception of Social alienation in their work. The book was a best seller and helped popularize existentialism in Britain. Critical praise though, was short-lived and Wilson was soon widely criticized.

Wilson's works after The Outsider focused on positive aspects of human psychology, such as peak experiences and the narrowness of consciousness. He admired the humanistic psychologist Abraham Maslow and corresponded with him. Wilson wrote The War Against Sleep: The Philosophy of Gurdjieff on the life, work and philosophy of G. I. Gurdjieff and an accessible introduction to the Greek-Armenian mystic in 1980. He argues throughout his work that the existentialist focus on defeat or nausea is only a partial representation of reality and that there is no particular reason for accepting it. Wilson views normal, everyday consciousness buffeted by the moment, as "blinkered" and argues that it should not be accepted as showing us the truth about reality. This blinkering has some evolutionary advantages in that it stops us from being completely immersed in wonder, or in the huge stream of events, and hence unable to act. However, to live properly we need to access more than this everyday consciousness. Wilson believes that our peak experiences of joy and meaningfulness are as real as our experiences of angst and, since we are more fully alive at these moments, they are more real. These experiences can be cultivated through concentration, paying attention, relaxation and certain types of work.

Reviews

[Eric · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another compilation of old crime photographs.

[Lucii Dixon · Rating 5 out of 5]

Considering how big and how many pages this book has, it didn’t take me too long to read. It is illustrated and the stories told are in short paragraphs and were given just the basic minimum outline of the story, so it doesn’t take long to read at all. I love how this book isn’t very detailed and in-depth, especially as many I’ve heard before. But the small paragraphs describing each piece is well detailed in a basic sort of way. It tells the read what they need to know and no more than that which is great. And some stories are, obviously, accompanied by images taken of either the person, crime scene or groups. Some pictures are truly uncomfortable and gruesome (they’re ones I didn’t look at particularly) but others really tell a story of the person or people involved and really does compliment the paragraph is goes with.

Great true crime read and fantastic for true crime buffs and fanatics!

[sequoia spirit · Rating 5 out of 5]

this was my bathroom book for a couple months.. c'mon, i know i'm not the only one that reads in the loo.. we jokingly call the bathroom = the library..
anyway.. this was perfect for that application.. every page a new mini story.. and with photos.. if you have a morbid or dark curiosity thread in you, this is a good book to have..

[Polly · Rating 2 out of 5]

Good photograph archive but I did not much care for the author's added input in most instances. Anything that stuck to the facts of the photo was fine but it's when he occasionally strayed into his own philosophy or opinion about something I couldn't help but feel a generally smug overtone that annoyed me.

[Layla Larbey · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book considering how big it might be it's actually very easy to read and get lost in , it informs people about tragedies and how shocking the world can be , its a book that if your fascinated in things that will tell you a harsh reality (in some circumstances)

[Nurture Waratah · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a very interesting way to present a True Crime compendium. The information wasn't very thorough, as can be expected in a volume of this size. However, it was good to be able to put faces to a few well-known names. This book would be a good jumping off point for those interested in true crime.

[Fishface · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fabulous compilation of photos and mini-histories, some of which are less clearly related to crime than others -- I mean, c'mon, what's Tokyo Rose doing in there? All kinds of information on cases common and rare, obscure and famous. Hard to put down.

[Eric · Rating 3 out of 5]

Pictures

[Mary Bernard · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lacked some of the infamous!

[Lisa · Rating 3 out of 5]

I will forgive this book the factual innacuracies due to the fantastic pictures.