Serial Killer & Psychopath Reading List
Disclaimer: I don't condone serial, ritual or any other form of purposeful, merciless killing. I am simply fascinated with the monsters among us.
Like my horror, science fiction and cyborg reading list, this list represents a small selection of materials that have informed my academic and creative processes. I am particularly interested in the differences between male and female killers and issues of gender in the formation of the killer's mind and soul. Anything with an asterisk is particularly hardcore (or fascinating, as the case may be).
Nonfiction
The New Predator: Women Who Kill, Profiles of Female Serial Killers
Dr. Deborah Schurman-Kauflin
*Lustmord: The Writings and Artifacts of Murderers
Edited by Brian King, Preface by Herbert Wm. Mullin
*Killer Fiction
G. J. Schaefer
*Crime Album Stories: Paris 1886-1902
Eugenia Parry
Whoever Fights Monsters
Robert K. Ressler
Mind Hunter: Inside the FBI's Elite Serial Crime Unit
John Douglas, Mark Olshaker
The Anatomy of Motive
John Douglas, Mark Olshaker
Helter Skelter
Bugliosi and Gentry
"I" The Creation of a Serial Killer
Jack Olsen
The Serial Killer Files
Harold Schechter
My Dark Places
James Ellroy
Ted Bundy: Conversations with a Killer
The Death Row Interviews
Stephen G. Michaud & Hugh Aynesworth
The Body in Question: Exploring the Cutting Edge in Forensic Science
Brian Innes
Fiction (by no means an exhaustive list, just some of my all time favorites)
The first and second books below made up the subject matter of my Honors thesis at the U of MN.
The Monk (originally published 1796)
Matthew G. Lewis
Red Dragon
Thomas Harris
The Silence of the Lambs
Thomas Harris
The Alienist
Caleb Carr
The Collector
John Fowles
Perfume (Das Perfume)
Patrick Süskind
What are some of your favorite serial killer/psycho fiction or nonfiction and why? Tell us below in the comments!
