2 comments about Natural Born Killer: In Love and on the Road with a Serial Killer.

1. This book is touted as a chilling account of life on the road with a serial killer, I did not find any of this book to be chilling, nor well written. Sandy Fawkes is listed as a writer, technically speaking she is, although she is/was a fashion writer, specifically I didn't think she related her experiences all that well, the only thing she kept ranting about was how boring she thought Knowles was and how much smarter she was then him. I found that she was more pre-disposed to talking about his clothes and lack of sexual prowess. Do not waste your money buying this, there were no insights into the mind of Knowles, and as a "investigative journalist" Fawkes failed at securing an interview with Knowles before his death. For anyone thinking this book would have anything of value in profiling or the thought process of of a socio-path look somewhere else.



2. I must say, that Sandy Fawkes's book titled "Killing Time" was one of the first books I read out of the true-crime book piles back in the late 80's, that it left such an impression on me, it was the starting point of my long life hobby as a book collector of the gender.
   
   Questions such as, "what made someone commit these horrendous acts, and why?" "What was the motivation behind these crimes, and why spare the life of one but not another?"
   Afterall, this book was written way before the term `serial killer' was even coined.
   
   Natural Born Killer is the re-release of that book, minus all the great black and white photographs that accompanied the text of the 1977 book, Killing Time, and with only one very small addition, an "afterword" with the header (February 2004, London) to the length of only 6 pages long.
   
   What is interesting is that in this latest addition, Fawkes retracts her statement from her 1977 publication regarding her feelings towards Knowles, "Knowles was as much a victim as any of the 18 people he killed ...may his poor, demented soul rest in peace", and states, "now I am not sure that I am as keen to find some streak in him deserving of sympathy ...or making others share the blame."
   
   Another interesting fact that I find is that this current publication is titled "In Love And On The Road With A Serial Killer", which is really misleading due to the fact that Fawkes never at any stage claimed to have fallen in love with Knowles.
   Quite frankly by the end of the 10th of November of 1974, and only after spending 3 days with him, she couldn't wait to get rid of him.
   
   One wonders whether this is just not one of those quick try to cash-in jobs on the serial killer groupie phenomenon of the millennium era.
   
   She claimed, Knowles was a lousy lover and a wannabe, living a lie and pretence of someone he wished he was, but never would be, the so-called normality this habitual criminal craved for life.
   
   That was also one of the reasons behind Fawkes's narrow escape with death, which she became an unknowingly assistant in living that pretence he craved for so bad, including also the fact that as a journalist she may have given him the publicity and fame he craved for.
   
   Tapes related to the Knowles case (audio confessions by Knowles himself), that in the 1975 hearing, Judge Owens ruled be sealed for 20 years, are briefly mentioned here as Fawkes loosing interest in ever hearing them, though time was closing in on their release.
   
   Makes one wonder whether that not ever knowing got the better of Fawkes, and another re-release of this book later on this year, titled "In Love With A Serial Killer", will include transcripts of those tapes, that may or may not shed light into Knowles's psychopathology behind his serial killing spree that he personally claimed left 35 people dead in his path.
   It would be interesting, in the least to say, that after all, these tapes were what haunted Mrs Fawkes and all her readers since 1974.
   
   Nevertheless, it's a great easy going text, that keeps you interested from beginning til end, in line with books the likes of Elizabeth Kendall's "The Phantom Prince: My Life with Ted Bundy."
   
   As a better and cheaper alternative to this title, I recommend Fawkes's original publication on the Knowles case titled "Killing Time."

No comments about Who Named the Knife: A True Story of Murder and Memory.

No comments about Sexual Predators: Serial Killers in the Age of Neuroscience.

5 comments about Unabomber: On the Trail of America's Most-Wanted Serial Killer.

1. The book was intersting, but a bit to brief for my liking. The actual story of the Unabomber life took less than 150 pages. The book details each of his bombings and suggests the reasoning behind the target and M.O. Douglas also takes you through his thoughts in the investigation. Many readers feel Douglas is a bit arrogant in his writing. I do not agree with that opinion, nor do I feel this book is written that way.

   The rest of the book was not very interesting outside of the inclusion of the full manifesto of the Unabomber. The manifesto contains nothing shocking, but contains what you might expect an outsider hermit radical to say. I'm sure there are better books about the Unabomber than this, so I suggest you try a more detailed account.




2. Douglas may present a clear chronology of events relating to the investigation of Unabomber. However, that is the sole limit of the books's worth. The remainder of the book is a staging ground for Douglas' brand of psycholinguistics, the analysis of a person's patterns of expression and thought in order to provide a psychological profile of the person. Instead of accomplishing that, though, in any meaningful way, Douglas perpetrates a sort of freehand poetic literary criticism on the so-called Manifesto. He completely fails to gain any insight into Unabomber's own statement of policy in "Industrial Society and Its Future". On page fifty-three, Douglas boils down his view by claiming simply that the Unabomber's fixation on wood and nature "...probably served as his rationale for setting the bombs off, his substitute for whatever deeper psychological problems had actually caused him to commit the crimes. A lot of violent terrorist activity is the result of political beliefs, but at the same time, I've never seen a violent terrorist yet who I didn't feel had deep psychological problems and a serious character disorder." Oh, yeh. Lest we forget, Douglas goes on: Unabomber "diabolical" too.

   Douglas essentially claims that the Unabomber's activity is irrational and eludes sensible thought. That is Douglas' most egregious fundamental flaw. If he's serious in that claim, then he is less insightful than he himself seems to think he is. On the other hand, Douglas' apparent perspicasity in his craft leads me to think that he has another goal in mind: distributing disinformation to the segment of the citizenry who haven't yet bothered to read, consider, and ponder Unabomber's veritable position. That can be accomplished only by directly encountering "Industrial Society and Its Future", not the perverted and oblique interpretation of it which Douglas works so stridently to champion under a charade of sophisticated psychoanalysis.

   Basically, and to his credit, Unabomber provides an analysis of the sociology of technology. His central point is that being human and organization-dependent technology are inherently antagonistic and mutually exclusive entities. This basic tension provides the battleground for a choice: remaining human or allowing everyone to be psychologically, physiologically, and anatomically re-engineered in increments to fit the needs of the aloof and impersonal organizations that determine the course of industrial society; instead of allowing humans to put an upward limit on the intrusion into the psychological sphere that is demanded by the ever-increasing velocity and volume of conveniences that ultimately, and ever more quickly, become indispensable for the functioning of society and any given individual's participation therein. (E.g., ATM, FAX, refridgeration, pharmaceuticals, genetic recombination, etc.)

   A careful reading of Unabomber's own words is very much worthwhile. He's talking about us, you and me, not some creature on another world.

   And let us not forget what Douglas carelessly sweeps under the rug: Theodore Kaczysnki was arrested in the course of the execution of a speciously expedited search warrant that originated by his brother, David, ratting him out. The government's role in the story should be considered under the optic of a triple treachery: the government policing agencies, fraternal back-stabbing, and Douglas' attempt to obfuscate the truth about Unabomber's quite rational motivations as articulated in "Industrial Society and Its Future". Read Unabomber before you read anything about him.




3. I had never heard of John Douglas until one day my sister told me about this great book she was reading. She gave me a copy of 'Obession'. Now I am hooked ! What great reading all of his books are, from start to finish. I am now a fan. Looking forward to more books from this author.



4. I felt like I was reading the notes for a book about the Unabomber, not a real book with a beginning, middle, and end. Usually true crime books make a sequential pass through the crimes (in this case 16 bombings) and end with the arrest, and sometimes the trial of the perp. Not so "Unabomber" where the author seems more interested in proving that his profile of the bomber was correct, rather than describing the hunt for the criminal. The 16 bombings are described in Appendix 1, "An Overview and Chronological Summary," rather than in the text of the book.
   
   A manifesto on criminal profiling certainly wasn't what I expected from "Unabomber," but that's what I got.
   
   Potential purchasers should also note that the book itself is only 150 pages long. Appendices and an advertisement for "Mindhunters" by John Douglas take up the latter 150 pages.
   
   The book proper is padded out with stories that have little to do with the 'alleged' Unabomber, ('alleged' because "Unabomber" was published before Theodore Kaczynski was tried and convicted). These stories are interesting, especially the case of George Metesky, the 'Mad Bomber' of the '40s and '50s, who had a grudge against New York City's Consolidated Edison (Con Ed).
   
   (George Metesky is the only bomber I've felt the faintest amount of sympathy for, maybe because I spent so many years working at an electric utility!)
   
   The author also spends quite a bit of print defending the legitimacy of profiling as a forensic 'art.' His team's profile of Theodore Kaczynski (disgruntled genius with ties to academia) was accurate, although the Unabomber task force neglected it in favor of another profile (blue collar aviation worker). Neither profile was essential to the capture of Kaczynski. His own relatives recognized his style of writing in the Unabomber manifesto that was published by the "New York Times" and "Washington Post," and they turned him in to the FBI.
   
   If you'd like to read the unabomber's manifesto yourself, the full text is included in Appendix 3. It's 96 pages long and very dull.



5. Despite a delay with the postal service I received this book in a reasonable amount of time and it is in great condition.

No comments about Bad Blood: The Marin County Murders.

5 comments about Lethal Shadow: The Chilling True-Crime Story of a Sadistic Sex Slayer.

1. I am an avid true crime reader and this book wasn't worth the typing effort to order. The author focused on every pointless event of the case and crime. I honestly couldn't finish it. I made it 2/3 the way through and tossed it on the bookshelf...and believe me, it has to be bad for me not to finish it! Its to bad too, because the REAL story that he was attempting to tell was an outrageous crime that was commited and worthy story to be written about, he just couldn't get it across.



2. Story of a counterfeiting, spousal abuse, kidnapping, rape and murder. The author focuses mainly on the counterfeiting aspect and the U.S. Secret Service agents who pursued Mike DeBardeleben. You never get the feeling of really knowing the subject as you do with Jack Olsen, Ann Rule, et al. This is a problem with half the true crime books out there; probably because they are written from court transcripts and do not scratch the surface of a great story.



3. I found this book to be mildly interesting, but certainly not the best book I've read. I found it to be a bit dry at times, with too much focus on the police, FBI & Secret Service personnel and too little on the criminal and his crimes.



4. THIS BOOK WAS GREAT - the author didn't make it a hollywood show like ann rule, etc. He wrote the facts of the case. Explained the horrific things that this man did. As a TRUE crime book goes this is one of the best.... Ann Rule and others like her GLAM it up to tell a story for the new york times best seller list. This book states how it is - no beefing up the evidence to try to impress you. No lying and storytelling.. simply put - the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.



5. I found this book to drag on so much that I never finished it. It was just simply too full of facts and was a complete bore to read. I get enough required dry reading material in my college courses.

No comments about Love and Death in Kathmandu: A Strange Tale of Royal Murder.

5 comments about Crime of Magnitude: The Murder of Little Annie (Wisconsin).

1. All true crime buffs will be riveted to the twists and turns!



2. A good read and good detective story. Mr. Lemberger not only spun the yarn but solved the crime.Darn good work.



3. Eighty years later, Mark Lemberger is out to vindicate his paternal grandfather, thought by some to have assaulted and killed his 7 year old daughter, Annie Lemberger, who would have been the author's aunt. The book is thoroughly researched and the reproduction of contemporaneous newspaper coverage throughout the text is interesting. Possibly to avoid allegations of familial bias, Mark goes on and on and on. I got bogged down and put it down.



4. Though the crime being investigated here is nearly a century old, this book shows how little has changed. Rumors, speculation and personal prejudice still sway the press, the public and the law when it come to "unthinkable" and high-profile crimes. Annie was the Jon-Benet of the early 1900s, with her unsolved murder disinterred in the press on every anniversary. Especially interesting is the early role the polygraph played in this crime - 20 years after the fact, Lemberger and the other suspects basically became guinea pigs for the untested (and still controversial) lie detector. Though one reader here thought the wealth of detail bordered on overkill, it's easy to understand (and enjoy) the author's obsession.



5. I have lost 10 pounds reading this book! I have it on my exercise bike and the prospect of a good 45-minute read gets me up every morning. It may be a "crime of magnitude" for me to write this review while I still have a few pages to go, but I'm online to buy multiple copies for friends and I can't keep silent because I am so excited about this book.
   
   The Greenbush neighborhood, still known locally as just "The Bush," was Madison, Wisconsin's immigrant community in the early 20th century. The story of little Annie's disappearance is also the story of this fascinating neighborhood of Italian bootleggers and Norwegian, German, African-American and other new arrivals. Second, it is also a fascinating legal history of early Madison, with one of its two local judges playing the leading role in a tragic story of his own and a key prosecutor who became the state governor. Third, it is a fascinating true crime tale in the tradition of Ann Rule et. al. Fourth,as many true crime stories of high-profile cases must be, it is a fascinating panorama of the journalistic coverage of the crime and its courtroom aftermath, and the reporters and editors who perpetrated this coverage.
   
   Mark Lemberger crammed all of this into about 300 pages, and found a truth-telling style that belies his status as an intersted party. It will be an omission of magnitude if this book is not made into a movie.

4 comments about Cop Shot.

1. my step brother was down with this hateful crew.



2. I read this book back in 1989, before I left for college. Back then it reminded of how crazy my neighborhood (Baisley Park, Queens) really was. Nowadays 50 Cent songs make me reminisce on how many lives Southside has affected. We lose alot of family and friends on every side of The Park. Looks like we haven't lost enough. KEEP FOCUS, BE READY, STAY RIGHTEOUS!

   ONe SIM

   P.S. Hold it DOWN to my SHAN (WISE)....Sorry I haven't written.




3. A frustrating story, written like the veteran newspaper writer he was. I worked those streets and knew some of the people. Very true to life in many ways.
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   



4. When it came to writing tales of the New York City Police Department, no one did it quite as good as the late Mike McAlary. He truly had a feel for the streets and the world cops lived (and died) in, and it came through in his newspaper articles and books. In "Cop Shot," the author graphically recounts the assassination of Police Officer Edward Byrne, barely twenty-two years old, cold-bloodedly shot to death by Queens crack dealers while he was guarding the home of a witness preparing to testify against them. McAlary vividly describes the violent world of the local drug dealers, for whom the crack epidemic was a cash cow which furnished them with riches beyond their wildest dreams. The reader is introduced, also, to the hardcore group of detectives who dedicated every waking moment to bringing the murderers to justice, working above and beyond the call of duty for a cause they believed in. I know that the phrase "non-stop page turner" is often bandied about by book reviewers, but in my opinion this truly applies to "Cop Shot." If you enjoy cop stories, especially case histories of the NYPD, you can't go wrong with this book.

4 comments about Bad Girls Do It! an Encyclopedia of Female Murderers.

1. This collection of macabre women is certainly a welcome addition to the vast sea of books on [primarily male] serial killers. Still, it's rather encyclopedic in nature, and if you read it straight through (as I did) you're likely to be overwhelmed, nauseated, and left wanting more. Newton covers a lot of ground, but I wish he would've been more in-depth on some cases. All in all, though, it's a striking book and well worth the cost. Plus the cover is snazzy and will upset your mother.



2. As one of only a few females i know who are interested in the serial killer, i found this book hard to quit reading, i was enthralled in many cases, only to find myself wanting to read a book several hundred pages long on the murderess. Some cases left me feeling like he was fluffing up his book. However, some other entries left me cringing and in awe. I have wondered where all the female murderers were kept.... Michael Newton unlocked that door for me can't wait to read Hunting Humans



3. Learn about Elizabeth Bathory, Carpathian countess who bathed in blood to stay young! Or about Mary Bell, 11 year old murderess! Read the unbelievable exploits of Martha Beck, who went from washing corpses to making them! If you're at all interested in this kind of stuff (my cotton candy) then this is surely the book for you. Very thorough and entertaining.



4. The cover art on this book is deceiving: a brightly colored cartoon panel of a 1950s-looking heavily made-up woman smoking. There is nothing cartoonish, sleazy, or sordid about this book. This is a serious, thorough reference work devoted to female mulitple murderers [mass and serial]. It deserves to be called encyclopedic; it contains case descriptions of all the major female serial killers [and more than a few minor ones] and a wide spectrum of female mass killers, known and unknown.
   
   Each woman's case is described decently--these aren't capsule descriptions [though some of them are quite short]. The writing is matter-of-fact and there are no illustrations in the text. Recently, I came across a reference to Martha Woods, one of the first women prosecuted for Munchausen Syndrome by Proxy in the US. Her case is obscure but I found an entry for her in this book. It is that kind of reference work.