The Serial Killer Files

A myth-busting, thought-provoking examination of 33 of the most intriguing serial killers the world has known There are many myths about serial killers: that they are all dysfunctional loners; all white males; only motivated by sex; that they all travel and operate across a wide area; cannot stop killing; are all insane, or evil geniuses; and that they all want to get caught. This may be true for some, but by no means all. The married Green River Killer was not a dysfunctional loner; Dr Harold Shipman was not motivated by sex; and the ‘BTK Killer‘, Dennis Rader, stopped killing in 1991, but was not caught until fourteen years later. Each of the thirty cases covered here - from Australia, Colombia, Great Britain, Indonesia, Iran, South Africa, the United States and elsewhere - is unusual in some respect: the way the killer carried out their crimes, the choice of victims or how the killer was apprehended. Drawing on primary sources wherever possible, Paul Simpson provides an alternative to the increasingly dubious accounts to be found in many other places.