H.H. Holmes was a doctor, real estate speculator, pharmacist, bigamist, swindler, and America's first media superstar serial killer. As he awaited trial, he put out a series of autobiographical documents, press releases, and interviews that revealed his sociopathic tendencies--and lied about his crimes. The infamous killer of the Chicago World's Fair published a memoir and a confession, both of which conceal more than they reveal of the truth. Then he gave a speech at his hanging that recanted everything. This series of documents is edited into a seamless narrative with newspaper clippings that shows the dark but charming side of a man who had nine confirmed kills and who claimed to have killed 27. This edition ends with a description by Matt Lake, author of Weird Pennsylvania, of the strange secret burial of the hanged Holmes, and recent exhumation that calls into question everything we thought we knew about Holmes's last days.

The 16-year-old was lucky. She at least survived her encounter with Dayton Leroy Rogers to detail its horrors. But a long list of other women were not as fortunate. Their stories had to be painstakingly pieced together by police from the corpses on the most shocking trail of terror ever left by a serial killer. The Man Who Loved to Kill Women--Dayton Leroy Rogers was known in Portland, Oregon as a respected businessman and devoted husband and father. But at night he abducted women, forced them into sadistic bondage games, and thrilled in their pain, terror and mutilation. His murderous spree was stopped only after, in plain view, he slashed to death his final victim...and when a hunter accidentally stumbled onto the burial grounds of seven other women Rogers had killed one-by-one in the depths of the Molalla Forest did police realize they were dealing with a killer whose bloodlust knew no bounds. This is the shocking true story of the horrifying crimes, capture, and conviction of Dayton Leroy Rogers, Oregon's mild-mannered businessman by day--vicious serial killer by night.

In this provocative cultural study, the serial killer emerges as a central figure in what Mark Seltzer calls 'America's wound culture'. From the traumas displayed by talk show guests and political candidates, to the violent entertainment of Crash or The Alienist, to the latest terrible report of mass murder, we are surrounded by the accident from which we cannot avert our eyes. Bringing depth and shadow to our collective portrait of what a serial killer must be, Mark Seltzer draws upon popular sources, scholarly analyses, and the language of psychoanalysis to explore the genesis of this uniquely modern phenomenon. Revealed is a fascination with machines and technological reproduction, with the singular and the mass, with definitions of self, other, and intimacy. What emerges is a disturbing picture of how contemporary culture is haunted by technology and the instability of identity.

John Wayne Cheever keeps his obsession with serial killers in check by a set of rigid rules that he lives by, hoping to the prevent himself from committing murder, but when a body turns up at a laundromat, must confront a danger outside himself.

Theodore Robert Bundy is America's most infamous serial killer, the horribly depraved sex slayer of at least 39 young women and adolescent girls. Yet, this was no wild-eyed madman, no hunched gargoyle, foaming at the mouth to warn us of his bad intentions. This was a handsome, talented and articulate young man, an honors graduate for whom a bright future was predicted. This was a rising star in the Republican Party who might well have achieved his ambition of high political office. What then turned Bundy into the monster he became, a demon in the guise of an ordinary man? In this chilling new work, bestselling true crime author Robert Keller tackles the enigma, delving deep into the killer's motivations, psychology and deadly methodology, much of it taken from the words of Bundy himself. Warning!: Bundy: Portrait of a Serial Killer will keep you awake at night. It is not recommended for the squeamish or faint of heart. Scroll up to grab your copy of Bundy: Portrait of a Serial Killer

In a series of death row interviews done shortly before his execution, infamous serial killer Ted Bundy gave a third-person "confession" of his many murders. This definitive book on Bundy was recently made into a Netflix documentary. What goes on in the mind of a serial killer? Drawn from more than 150 hours of exclusive tape-recorded interviews with the handsome, charismastic Bundy, whose grisly killing spree left at least 30 young women dead across seven states between 1974 and 1978, this chilling exposé provides a shocking self-portrait of one of the most savage sex murderers in history. Speaking eerily in the third person, Bundy reveals appalling details about his crimes, discloses how he attracted his victims, explains how he methodically disguised his acts, and recounts his two daring jailbreaks. Bundy also offers his thoughts on other infamous serial killers, including John Wayne Gacy and Son of Sam.

"In 1953, a man was found dead from cyanide poisoning near the Philadelphia airport with a picture of a Nazi aircraft in his wallet. Taped to his abdomen was an enciphered message. In 1912, a book dealer named Wilfrid Voynich came into possession of an illuminated cipher manuscript once belonging to Emperor Rudolf II, who was obsessed with alchemy and the occult. Wartime codebreakers tried--and failed--to unlock the book's secrets, and it remains an enigma to this day. In this lively and entertaining book, Craig Bauer examines these and other vexing ciphers yet to be cracked. Some may reveal the identity of a spy or serial killer, provide the location of buried treasure, or expose a secret society--while others may be elaborate hoaxes. Unsolved! begins by explaining the basics of cryptology, and then explores the history behind an array of unsolved ciphers. It looks at ancient ciphers, ciphers created by artists and composers, ciphers left by killers and victims, Cold War ciphers, and many others. Some are infamous, like the ciphers in the Zodiac letters, while others were created purely as intellectual challenges by figures such as Nobel Prize-winning physicist Richard P. Feynman. Bauer lays out the evidence surrounding each cipher, describes the efforts of geniuses and eccentrics--in some cases both--to decipher it, and invites readers to try their hand at puzzles that have stymied so many others. Unsolved! takes readers from the ancient world to the digital age, providing an amazing tour of many of history's greatest unsolved ciphers"--