Stewart Evans is a policeman whose hobby is collecting true crime ephemera. When a second hand bookseller rang to ask him if he would be interested in a collection of letters from the Special Branch, he had no idea of the sensational revelation they would contain. One of these letters supplied an astonishing piece of infomation not contained in the decimated Scotland Yard files. The police had actually arrested and charged an American with the Ripper murders, but he escaped and disappeared in America. The Ripper murders ceased. The book reveals for the first time the identity of Jack the Ripper.

American Ripper is the true story of Gerard John Schaefer, a Florida Law Enforcement Officer who was a prolific serial killer in the late 1960's early 1970's. The decade that was thought to be filled with "Love, Peace and Happiness," became a new dark age, breeding more serial killers than any other time in U.S. history, including Charles Manson, the Zodiac Killer, the Son of Sam, John Wayne Gacy and Ted Bundy, who was held in the same prison as Schaefer and whom he both idolized and resented for the recognition his crimes brought him; a recognition Schaefer never received. This book chronicles Schaefer's life, education, his career as a cop, and his path to become a sadistic murderer. Based on empirical, extensive research that includes reviews of the case's investigation and subsequent trial, interviews with families of victims, numerous police and attorneys involved with the case, forensic doctors, and the killer himself, the author attempts to discern how Schaefer became the antithesis of what a lawman should be. Schaefer's metamorphosis can never be rationally explained, but reviews of the case's transcripts, the killer's psychiatric evaluations, and the author's own experience with Schaefer help paint a picture of an unfettered mind that fed on its own darkness. The case also reveals an incredible and inborn weakness of then-law enforcement, a lack of shared information, and an inherent and global disbelief that monsters, such as serial killers were so abundant. Much has changed since the so-called "hippie generation," but a time that should have been filled with hope became an era that was infested with enigmas such as Gerard Schaefer. Patrick Kendrick is the best-selling author of Extended Family and the award-winning Papa's Problem.

H. H. Holmes H. H. Holmes' story has become one of legend. Holmes committed his crimes at a time in history where the idea of murdering on a mass scale was just being introduced to the world through the actions of Jack the Ripper. Unlike Jack the Ripper though, Holmes' motives were clear; he killed out of greed, convenience, and curiosity. Inside you will read about... - Herman Webster Mudgett, the Medical Student - Settling in Chicago - Murders in the Mansion - The World's Deadliest Fair - Suicide or Murder - America's First Serial Killer And much more! Fueled by an intense desire for money, Holmes sought the fastest way to make money with the least amount of effort possible. Throughout his life he would commit devastating murders for money, properly earning him the title of America's first serial killer.

The story of Jack the Ripper has had continual interest since he stalked the streets of Whitechapel during the Autumn of Terror in 1888. During this time, the murders of the Canonical Five made headlines all over the world while in the modern day, the Ripper story continues to permeate all forms of media on the page, screen, in podcasts, and in fiction. We continue to search for something we will likely never, and perhaps do not even wish to discover: Jack's true name. This book looks at the lasting intrigue of Jack the Ripper and how his story, and the stories of the Canonical Five victims, are brought back to life through modern lenses. As psychological approaches and scientific techniques advance, the Ripper's narrative evolves, opening a more diverse means of storytelling and storytellers. How these storytellers attempt to construct a full tale around the facts, including the burning questions of motive and identity, says more about us than the Ripper.

America's first and most notorious serial killer and his diabolical killing spree during the 1893 World's Fair in Chicago, now updated with a new afterword discussing Holmes' exhumation on American Ripper. H. H. Holmes: The True History of the White City Devil is the first truly comprehensive book examining the life and career of a murderer who has become one of America’s great supervillains. It reveals not only the true story but how the legend evolved, taking advantage of hundreds of primary sources that have never been examined before, including legal documents, letters, articles, and records that have been buried in archives for more than a century. Though Holmes has become just as famous now as he was in 1895, a deep analysis of contemporary materials makes very clear how much of the story as we know came from reporters who were nowhere near the action, a dangerously unqualified new police chief, and, not least, lies invented by Holmes himself. Selzer has unearthed tons of stunning new data about Holmes, weaving together turn-of-the-century America, the killer’s background, and the wild cast of characters who circulated in and about the famous “castle” building. This book will be the first truly accurate account of what really happened in Holmes’s castle of horror, and now includes an afterword detailing the author's participation in Holmes' exhumation on the TV series, American Ripper. Exhaustively researched and painstakingly brought to life, H. H. Holmes will be an invaluable companion to the upcoming Martin Scorsese and Leonardo DiCaprio movie about Holmes’s murder spree based on Erik Larson’s The Devil in the White City.

Did America really learn to "stop worrying and love the bomb," as the title of Stanley Kubrick's 1964 film, Dr. Strangelove, would have us believe? Does that darkly satirical comedy have anything in common with Martin Luther King Jr.'s impassioned "I Have a Dream" speech or with Elvis Presley's throbbing "I'm All Shook Up"? In Margot Henriksen's vivid depiction of the decades after World War II, all three are expressions of a cultural revolution directly related to the atomic bomb. Although many scientists and other Americans protested the pursuit of nuclear superiority after World War II ended, they were drowned out by Cold War rhetoric that encouraged a "culture of consensus." Nonetheless, Henriksen says, a "culture of dissent" arose, and she traces this rebellion through all forms of popular culture. At first, artists expressed their anger, anxiety, and despair in familiar terms that addressed nuclear reality only indirectly. But Henriksen focuses primarily on new modes of expression that emerged, discussing the disturbing themes of film noir (with extended attention to Alfred Hitchcock) and science fiction films, Beat poetry, rock 'n' roll, and Pop Art. Black humor became a primary weapon in the cultural revolution while literature, movies, and music gave free rein to every possible expression of the generation gap. Cultural upheavals from "flower power" to the civil rights movement accentuated the failure of old values. Filled with fascinating examples of cultural responses to the Atomic Age, Henriksen's book is a must-read for anyone interested in the United States at mid-twentieth century.

From the author of Serial Killers: The Method and Madness of Monsters comes an in-depth examination of sexual serial killers throughout human history, how they evolved, and why we are drawn to their horrifying crimes. Before the term was coined in 1981, there were no "serial killers." There were only "monsters"--killers society first understood as werewolves, vampires, ghouls and witches or, later, Hitchcockian psychos. In Sons of Cain--a book that fills the gap between dry academic studies and sensationalized true crime--investigative historian Peter Vronsky examines our understanding of serial killing from its prehistoric anthropological evolutionary dimensions in the pre-civilization era (c. 15,000 BC) to today. Delving further back into human history and deeper into the human psyche than Serial Killers--Vronsky's 2004 book, which has been called the definitive history of serial murder--he focuses strictly on sexual serial killers: thrill killers who engage in murder, rape, torture, cannibalism and necrophilia, as opposed to for-profit serial killers, including hit men, or "political" serial killers, like terrorists or genocidal murderers. These sexual serial killers differ from all other serial killers in their motives and their foundations. They are uniquely human and--as popular culture has demonstrated--uniquely fascinating.