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

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

This true crime biography reveals the disturbing story of a serial killer who terrorized central Michigan—and now has a chance to go free. As a former youth pastor who attended the Michigan State University School of Criminal Justice, Don Miller seemed like a decent young man. But in 1978, he was arrested for the attempted murder of two teenagers. Police soon connected Miller to the disappearances of four women. In exchange for a controversial plea bargain, he led police to the missing women’s bodies. Now, thanks to the deal he was offered and changes to Michigan law, Miller is allowed to seek parole once a year. In Killing Women, author Rodney Sadler examines the crimes, the “justice” meted out, and the possibility that Miller could be unleashed on the world once again.

Philosophers maintain that the goal of life is to gain wisdom, and the unexamined life is not worth living. And with aging comes the ability to accept ourselves as who we are. This book tests the truth of these precepts by posing the challenge of a life lived at the edge. William Marten gives us the rare opportunity to experience a side of life few of us know. His sexual development from his earliest years to the present has been as a sadomasochist, which has been the source of soul-searing shame. The only cure he could envision was suicide. A Killer of Serial Women, alternately painful and hilarious, traces Williams path through life, from the child who became fixated on a drawing of Prometheus tortured by an eagle, through the young adult tortured by desires for sexual release based on physical suffering, to an almost mythical ordeal through which he learns compassion and acceptance. With extraordinary honesty, intelligence, clarity, and humor, his life shows us that even people we think of as other, as alien, share our common humanity.

Why does a young woman lure teenagers into her car then participate in their horrific rape and torture? What makes a nurse lethally inject the healthy babies in her care? Women, statistically, aren`t a violent breed ... but the female of the species can be just as deadly as the male. From the mass poisoner to the sexual sadist, from profit killings to crimes committed just for twisted thrills, Carol Anne Davis sets out to explore the dark and disturbing world of the female serial killer. In depth analysis of individual cases, including new information from the minister who heard Myra Hindley`s confession, provides an invaluable insight into the psychology behind these atrocities.

This is the first book ever written on the basis of face-to-face interviews with women serial killers. The author, a professional criminal profiler, analyzes the common features and the distinctions between women and men who kill, and their crimes and cri.

This is Capote’s In Cold Blood for serial killer enthusiasts: meticulously researched, superbly written, and incredibly vivid. Don’t miss it.” —Gabino Iglesias, author of Coyote Songs America’s First Female Serial Killer novelizes the true story of first-generation Irish-American nurse Jane Toppan, born as Honora Kelley. Although all the facts are intact, books about her life and her crimes are all facts and no story. Jane Toppan was absolutely a monster, but she did not start out that way. When Jane was a young child, her father abandoned her and her sister to the Boston Female Asylum. From there, Jane was indentured to a wealthy family who changed her name, never adopted her, wrote her out of the will, and essentially taught her how to hate herself. Jilted at the altar, Jane became a nurse and took control of her life—and the lives of her victims. “A thoughtful and inspired take on one of the greatest poisoners in history. America’s First Female Serial Killer: Jane Toppan and the Making of a Monster seethes with rage, compulsion, and a righteous condemnation of the servitude of the underclass. A chilling and sobering read.” —Robert Levy, author of The Glittering World “McBrayer offers us a complex—and terrifying—portrait of a killer who seemed almost doomed from birth.” —Kate Winkler Dawson, author of American Sherlock: Murder, Forensics, and the Birth of American CSI “Brings the horrifying true story of Jane Toppan to lurid, novelistic life, and forces the reader face-to-face with the thoughtlessness and cruelty that helped turn a gifted, damaged child into one of America’s most legendary killers.” —Shaun Hamill, author of A Cosmology of Monsters