Legends, Monsters, or Serial Murderers? : The Real Story Behind an Ancient Crime

by Gibson, Dirk C.

• ISBN13: 9780313397585
• ISBN10: 0313397589
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2012-02-14
• Publisher: Greenwood Pub Group

Summary

The majority of serial murder studies support the consensus that serial murder is essentially an American crimea flawed assumption, as the United States has existed for less than 250 years. What is far more likely is that the perverse urge to repeatedly and intentionally kill has existed throughout human history, and that a substantial percentage of serial murders throughout ancient times, the middle ages, and the pre-modern era were attributed to imaginative surrogate explanations: dragons, demons, vampires, werewolves, and witches. Legends, Monsters, or Serial Murderers? The Real Story Behind an Ancient Crime dispels the interrelated misconceptions that serial murder is an American crime and a relatively recent phenomenon, making the novel argument that serial murder is a historic realityan unrecognized fact in ancient times. Noted serial murderers such as the Roman Locuta (The Poisoner); Gilles De Rais of France, a prolific serial killer of children; Andres Bichel of Bavaria; and Chinese aristocratic serial killer T'zu-Hsi are spotlighted. This book provides a unique perspective that integrates supernatural interpretations of serial killing with the history of true crime, reanimating mythic entities of horror stories and presenting them as real criminals.

Table of Contents

Introduction	p. ix
Invisible Serial Murder	p. 1
Vampire Serial Killers	p. 11
Countess Erzsebet Bathory	p. 13
Vincenzo Verzini	p. 25
Werewolf Serial Killers	p. 33
Joseph Vacher	p. 35
Gilles Gamier	p. 45
Peter Stubbe	p. 53
Werewolf of Chalons	p. 63
Witch Serial Killers	p. 69
Catherine Deshayes Monvoison	p. 71
Gilles de Rais	p. 71
Aristocratic Serial Killers	p. 91
Vlad the Impaler	p. 93
Queen Nzinga	p. 103
Dowager Empress Cixi	p. 111
Commercial Serial Killers	p. 119
Locusta the Poisoner	p. 121
La Tofania	p. 129
Andreas Bichel	p. 137
Conclusion	p. 145
Notes	p. 155
Bibliography	p. 195
Index	p. 199
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