In this fascinating book, Peter Vronsky exposes and investigates the phenomenon of women who kill—and the political, economic, social and sexual implications buried with each victim.
How many of us are even remotely prepared to imagine our mothers, daughters, sisters or grandmothers as fiendish killers? For centuries we have been conditioned to think of serial murderers and psychopathic predators as men—with women registering low on our paranoia radar. Perhaps that’s why so many trusting husbands, lovers, family friends, and children have fallen prey to “the female monster.”
From history’s earliest recorded cases of homicidal females to Irma Grese, the Nazi Beast of Belsen, from Britain’s notorious child-slayer Myra Hindley to ‘Honeymoon Killer’ Martha Beck to the sensational cult of Aileen Wournos—the first female serial killer-as-celebrity—to cult killers, homicidal missionaries, and our pop-culture fascination with the sexy femme fatale, Vronsky not only challenges our ordinary standards of good and evil but also defies our basic accepted perceptions of gender role and identity.
INCLUDES PHOTOGRAPHS
Praise for Serial Killers: The Method and Madness of Monsters
“This formidably comprehensive, brilliantly researched book must be the most wide-ranging work on serial killers that has been written so far. The fact that it sprang from the author’s brief encounters with two serial killers lends it a sense of personal urgency.”—Colin Wilson, author of Killers Among Us and Written in Blood.
“Serial Killers: The Method and Madness of Monsters is one of the most complete books I have read on serial killers. If you are fascinated by the human mind and by those who are abnormal, this is the book for you.”—Roundtable Reviews
Peter Vronsky is the author of two bestselling true-crime histories: Serial Killers: The Method and Madness of Monsters and Female Serial Killers: How and Why Women Become Monsters. He is an investigative historian, author, filmmaker and new media designer. He holds a Ph.D. from the University of Toronto in criminal justice history and espionage in international relations.
View titles by Peter Vronsky
In this fascinating book, Peter Vronsky exposes and investigates the phenomenon of women who kill—and the political, economic, social and sexual implications buried with each victim.
How many of us are even remotely prepared to imagine our mothers, daughters, sisters or grandmothers as fiendish killers? For centuries we have been conditioned to think of serial murderers and psychopathic predators as men—with women registering low on our paranoia radar. Perhaps that’s why so many trusting husbands, lovers, family friends, and children have fallen prey to “the female monster.”
From history’s earliest recorded cases of homicidal females to Irma Grese, the Nazi Beast of Belsen, from Britain’s notorious child-slayer Myra Hindley to ‘Honeymoon Killer’ Martha Beck to the sensational cult of Aileen Wournos—the first female serial killer-as-celebrity—to cult killers, homicidal missionaries, and our pop-culture fascination with the sexy femme fatale, Vronsky not only challenges our ordinary standards of good and evil but also defies our basic accepted perceptions of gender role and identity.
INCLUDES PHOTOGRAPHS
Praise
Praise for Serial Killers: The Method and Madness of Monsters
“This formidably comprehensive, brilliantly researched book must be the most wide-ranging work on serial killers that has been written so far. The fact that it sprang from the author’s brief encounters with two serial killers lends it a sense of personal urgency.”—Colin Wilson, author of Killers Among Us and Written in Blood.
“Serial Killers: The Method and Madness of Monsters is one of the most complete books I have read on serial killers. If you are fascinated by the human mind and by those who are abnormal, this is the book for you.”—Roundtable Reviews
Author
Peter Vronsky is the author of two bestselling true-crime histories: Serial Killers: The Method and Madness of Monsters and Female Serial Killers: How and Why Women Become Monsters. He is an investigative historian, author, filmmaker and new media designer. He holds a Ph.D. from the University of Toronto in criminal justice history and espionage in international relations.
View titles by Peter Vronsky
