Psychopaths are all around us, craving both power and authority – but most find ways to sate their desires through high-flying careers or adrenaline-fuelled experiences. A handful, however, get their thrills hidden in the shadows of society, manipulating, terrifying and terrorising the powerless around them. In this brand-new book from the makers of Real Crime magazine, we explore the stories of some of history’s sickest psychopaths, from perverts like Bob Berdella who basked in the torturous pain he inflicted on his captives, to the sickly sweet façade of Dorothea Puente, whose doting grandma persona hid a terrifying lust for blood and money. Elsewhere, find out how modern forensic techniques nailed the killers of decades-old unsolved cases, and explore the horrors of HH Holmes’s ‘Murder Castle’.
WELCOME TO DEADLIEST PSYCHOPATHS
MURDER HOTEL • SELDOM HAS ANY SERIAL KILLER IN HISTORY GONE TO THE EXTREMES THAT HH HOLMES WENT TO. HIS ‘CASTLE’ WAS A MONUMENT TO MASS MURDER ON AN INDUSTRIAL SCALE, AS WELL AS A LUCRATIVE BUSINESS TO BOOT
THE ‘MURDER CASTLE’ • HOLMES’S HOTEL WAS A PURPOSE-BUILT DEATH FACTORY LURING VICTIMS TO THEIR SADISTIC DEATH AND BUSINESS-LIKE DISPOSAL
A LUCRATIVE TRADE • HOLMES HAD A CONSTANT SUPPLY OF CORPSES TO DISPOSE OF; HE OFTEN DID SO AT A PROFIT
HOLMES’S ARCHITECTURAL NIGHTMARE • WELCOME TO THE MURDER CASTLE: YOU CAN CHECK OUT ANY TIME YOU LIKE, BUT YOU CAN NEVER LEAVE
THE WEREWOLF OF WISTERIA • ALBERT FISH WAS NOT THE MEEK MAN HE APPEARED, BUT A VILE CHILD MOLESTER AND SADISTIC CANNIBAL MURDERER WHO KNEW NO BOUNDS
PIQUERISM • AFTER HIS ARREST, FISH WAS EXAMINED. X-RAYS REVEALED ALMOST 30 NEEDLES EMBEDDED IN HIS GROIN
IMPLEMENTS OF HELL • THE CAT-O’-NINE-TAILS, MEAT CLEAVER, KNIFE, HANDSAW AND A NAIL-STUDDED PADDLE WERE FISH’S TOOLS FOR CARRYING OUT HIS SADISTIC IMPULSES
THE BUTCHER OF PLAINFIELD • WHAT WAS THE WATERSHED MOMENT THAT MADE WEIRD ED GEIN GO FROM A 50S WISCONSIN FARMER WHO KEPT HIS OWN BUSINESS, TO A GRAVE-DIGGING MURDERER WHO TURNED HUMAN CARCASSES INTO HOUSEHOLD OBJECTS?
WHAT IS INSANITY? • WHO SAYS WHO’S MAD AND WHO’S NOT? REAL CRIME SPEAKS TO AN EXPERT ON ‘SPECIAL VERDICTS’
GEIN’S GHOULISH COLLECTION • STRANGE MATERIAL ON THE LAMPSHADES, A WEIRD OBSESSION WITH MASKS AND, OF COURSE, THAT CORSET…
INSIDE ED GEIN’S ABBATOIRE • HIS BUTCHERY SKILLS WORKED JUST AS WELL ON HUMAN ANIMALS
YOUR WORST NIGHTMARE THE CO-ED BUTCHER • TOO BIG, TOO SMART, TOO STRONG: THEY HAD NO CHANCE AGAINST SERIAL KILLER EDMUND KEMPER
NO APPARENT MOTIVE • SHOT, STRANGLED AND DISMEMBERED: HE LEFT A TRAIL OF BODIES BEFORE HE KILLED HIS MUM
KEMPER’S KILLER CAR • ON THE OUTSIDE IT SEEMED A HARMLESS RIDE TO THE NEXT DESTINATION. BUT INSIDE WAS A MURDEROUS TRAP
MURDER ON HIS MIND • IS KEMPER’S WILLINGNESS TALK ABOUT HIS MURDERS A SIGN OF REMORSE, OR SOMETHING COMPLETELY DIFFERENT? REAL CRIME SPEAKS TO AN EXPERT WHO HAS TALKED DIRECTLY WITH THE SERIAL KILLER
TED BUNDY ON TRIAL DEFENDING THE DEVIL • THE USA’S MOST FEARED SERIAL KILLER FOUGHT THE SYSTEM HARD TO MAINTAIN HIS INNOCENCE, BUT ON TRIAL, HIS CHARM WAS TRANSPARENT. HIS LAWYER TOLD REAL CRIME WHAT IT WAS LIKE TO DEFEND THE ‘DEVIL’, AND TO SEE HIS TRUE COLOURS LAID BARE
“TUESDAY IS FRY DAY” • GLEEFUL FLORIDIANS GATHERED OUTSIDE THE PRISON WHILE INSIDE, A DISTINCTLY LESS CONFIDENT BUNDY PREPARED TO MEET HIS MAKER
THE BIRTH OF EVIL RICHARD RAMIREZ • SATANISM, FAMILY, RAPE, MURDER AND JESUS: WHAT FORCES DROVE RICHARD RAMIREZ? WHERE DID THE TROUBLED CHILD END AND THE SERIAL-KILLING NIGHT STALKER BEGIN?
UNHOLY UNION • IN 1996, A FREELANCE JOURNALIST MARRIED RICHARD RAMIREZ. WHAT WOULD PROMPT SOMEONE TO MARRY A KILLER?
SATANISM OR SENSATIONALISM? •...