Obsessed with True Crime discussion

Instead of an author of the month I am issuing a challenge.

Since October is the 10th month I am using TEN as the basis for books read.

Pick as many of the following you want to do.

1) Read 1 or more books by a True Crime author that has written at least 10 TC books.

2) Read 1 or more books about a killer that has 10 or more suspected victims (does not need to be convicted of 10, just reasonable suspicion).

3) Read a book about 10 separate criminals, a crime couple will be considered 1, for the sake of this challenge.

Everyone who reads at least one of the books with the previous qualifications will get their name entered in a drawing and win a prize at the end of the month.

Wow. I like the creativity!

Fishface wrote: "Wow. I like the creativity!"

Thanks!

Interesting! I'll have to see what I can do.

Do we get our name entered in the drawing for EACH book read or just one time total.

Koren wrote: "Do we get our name entered in the drawing for EACH book read or just one time total."

Just one time total.

Hmmm. This could be doable.

I think I found something. It was surprisingly difficult.

Fishface wrote: "I think I found something. It was surprisingly difficult."

Really? I have one for each category. I may try to do all 3. I'm half way with the first one: The Sex Slave Murders: The Horrifying True Story of America's First Husband-and-Wife Serial Killers.

Should we post here when we are done?

Yes post here.

The Sex Slave Murders: The Horrifying True Story of America's First Husband-and-Wife Serial Killers by R. Barri Flowers
4 stars
Challenge # 2
This is the story of a husband and wife that were convicted of killing 11 people, including 1 that was a fetus as they killed a woman that was pregnant. This book raises the question of nature versus nuture, although no conclusions were made. This was a very interesting story. I started yesterday and finished today so it is a quick read at 207 pages. At times I was a little put off by how the author goes back and forth in time, but after a while I thought it was nice to break up the investigation and trial a bit.

Koren wrote: "Fishface wrote: "I think I found something. It was surprisingly difficult."

Really? I have one for each category. I may try to do all 3. I'm half way with the first one: [book:The Sex Slave Murder..."

If I were re-reading stuff it would be easy, but that feels like cheating, so...

For challenge #1 I read a book by Fred Rosen: The Evil Mother.
3 stars

A mother who appears to be someone who campaigns against gang violence turns out to be an enabler. There is a lot of word for word testimony here but it is a quick read. I started it one day and finished the next.

I finished Confession of a Serial Killer: The Untold Story of Dennis Rader, the BTK Killer by Katherine Ramsland.

I started this book well before October but I used the challenge to encourage me to finish it. Radar killed 10 people that we know of. I gave the book 4 stars. A lot of the book is in Radar's words and he is sickening. I kept putting the book down. I wish Ramsland had offered more insight/analysis but it's unique and I am glad I read it.

The last month has to be the slowest reading month I have had in decades. Just doing other things, I guess, but it's unusual.

Yesterday I went home sick and took advantage of the downtime to read Koren's copy of The Sex Slave Murders: The Horrifying True Story of America's First Husband-and-Wife Serial Killers. I finished it in a few hours. It was grisly and hard to take with my guts already in an uproar; I wish Flowers had paid more attention to the victims instead of spending most of the text making excuses for Charlene Gallego, who may or may not be one of the victims here but who clearly had other places to go than home with Gerry, or out in his van with him to go catch some more unsuspecting victims. She also had the choice to refuse the booze and cocaine she exposed her unborn son to while this story was going on. All I'm saying is she's hard to feel that sorry for. They appear to have killed exactly 10 people.

Fishface wrote: "Yesterday I went home sick and took advantage of the downtime to read Koren's copy of [book:The Sex Slave Murders: The Horrifying True Story of America's First Husband-and-Wife Serial Killers|81363..."

He was accused of 11 murders if you count the unborn fetus of one of the victims, which raises the question...if he can be charged with the murder of a fetus, why aren't women that have abortions and/or their doctors accused of murder?

Finished Comrade Chikatilo: The Psychopathology of Russia's Notorious Serial Killer by Mikhail Krivich
4 Stars

Chikatilo was convicted of 53 murders of women and children both boys and girls. It was really interesting to read about the Russian justice system starting with the denials that Russia could even have a serial killer to the mistakes made by law enforcement. The trial was very different from what we are used to with victim families calling out, Chikatilo constantly disrupting the court and even the prosecutor protesting that the judge was not conducting a proper and fair trail. It was a circus. Chikatilo was seen by many different doctors and all concluded he was perfectly sane. I found it a quick read. Fascinating.

Koren wrote: "
He was accused of 11 murders if you count the unborn fetus of one of the victims, which raises the question...if he can be charged with the murder of a fetus, why aren't women that have abortions and/or their doctors accused of murder?"

Was he charged with the murder of the fetus!? Because that wasn't even legally possible until President Bush signed Conner's Law, named after Conner Peterson, many years later. It's made it possible to treat the murder of a pregnant woman as 2 killings, but as far as I know none of the states have really done anything about it yet. That and the partial-birth abortion law are the only two corners of Roe vs. Wade that anyone has managed to peel back, and both of them were signed into law by that clown.



Oh, and I started Signature Killers. There's no table of contents and no index, but I strongly suspect there will be more than 10 killers covered.

EDIT: I just opened my mail and lo and behold, there's a copy of Murder Under the Rising Sun: 15 Japanese Serial Killers That Terrified a Nation!

Fishface wrote: "Koren wrote: "
He was accused of 11 murders if you count the unborn fetus of one of the victims, which raises the question...if he can be charged with the murder of a fetus, why aren't women that h..."

Eileen, you have the book so I cant look it up. I know the fetus counted as one of his murders but whether he was formally charged I don't remember.

I don't think the prosecution team counted it in the book as a separate murder. I wonder if they were able to use it as an aggravating circumstance? Flowers tends to leave out that kind of fine detail...

Finished The Darkest Night: Two Sisters, a Brutal Murder, and the Loss of Innocence in a Small Town by Ron Franscell


Franscell has written at least 10 true crime books. That means I have done #1 and #2 of the challenge. #3 might be tougher to find/get but I will try. :)

The book I am reading now qualifies for #3. The Mad, the Bad, and the Innocent: The Criminal Mind on Trial--Tales of a Forensic Psychologist by Barbara R. Kirwin She covers at least 10 different criminals. To make sure I went through the book to find them. :) Here's some:

Joel Rifkin
Lilly Schmidt
Susan Smith
Laura Plezia
John Hinckley
Abigail Cortez
Colin Ferguson
Chandran Nathan
Jonathan Schmitz
Stephanie Wernick
Richard Winkler

Signature Killers covers 15 murderers:

Richard Cottingham
Steven Pennell
Harvey Glatman
Ted Bundy
Art Shawcross
Morris Frampton
George Russell
Cleophus Prince
Jeff Dahmer
Saucy Jack
Bill Heirens
Tim Spencer
John WAYNE Gacy
Robert Parker

A State of Blood: The Inside Story of Idi Amin is about a man who caused the deaths of somewhere between 150,000 and 300,000 of his constituents, plus any other random people who crossed his path. The author listed 100 names of people he personally knew who were offed by Idi Amin Dada. One of them was the author's brother. Another was the uncle of a guy I grew up with. Small world!

The Mammoth Book of Bizarre Crimes by Robin Odell 2 stars

This book gives short ( one to two pages) synopses of crimes. There are at least 200 cases cited in this book. I didn't find many of them bizarre to tell the truth. There were some cannibalism stories, which are always bizarre, but that's about it. Some of these are familiar. I didn't find the shortness of the stories enabled me to really get into the stories. I would have liked less stories and more depth. No pictures.


So now I have finished all 3 challenges for this month. Yayyy me!!

I'm glad you warned us, Koren! I have been hoping to read that but will now give it a miss.

Fishface wrote: "I'm glad you warned us, Koren! I have been hoping to read that but will now give it a miss."

Eileen, I'll bet you have probably heard of quite a few of these cases.

Fishface wrote: "I'm glad you warned us, Koren! I have been hoping to read that but will now give it a miss."

I wish someone had warned me. I have two more of these 'mammoth' books, but they are by different authors and looks like the chapters are longer. One even has pictures. It will probably be a while before I start them.