Why would anyone hunt down, buy, and read a book about serial killers? I dunno. Why do people slow down and gawk at highway accidents? Of course, I never do that. But read about serial killers? That's a horse of a different color. (Go ahead. Hum a few bars.) But seriously …
Serial Killers and Other Sadistic Murderers by Jack Levin was pretty good—except for the last chapter. We'll get to that later. Stuff:
1) "Mass and serial killings usually do not occur over arguments. They are premeditated—methodical and planned. And they are disproportionately likely in states such as California, Florida, Texas, Alaska, New York, and Illinois, where there are large numbers of strangers." (page 26) Just in case you wanted to know. And let's add a warning for EmmaG, Ag and it started to be careful. Oh, yeah. And Sarah Palin, too.
2) The book does cover the usual suspects: the Boston Strangler, Ted Bundy, Green River Killer, etc. About Kaczynski, Levin writes, "He would later gloat about his role in ending the career of someone he felt deserved it—namely, an air force captain." (page 150) Throughout the book, I found the killers' justifications for their acts to be interesting. Here, Kaczynski seems to pride himself on doing a service for society. Wow. Amazing what we can convince ourselves to believe.
Overall, Serial Killers didn't add much to what I already knew, but it did give me a couple character ideas.
Finally, about that last chapter: I disliked everything in it, enough so that I spent some time trying to figure out why. I think I did. The book presents itself as being informative and, until the last chapter, it is. The last chapter though turns into a diatribe as the author tries to convince the reader of steps that need to be taken to lessen serial murders. I felt like the author tricked me. He said he was going to inform me, and that he did. He should have stopped once he did so. IMNSHO, of course.
