The Hillside Stranglers

The Hillside Stranglers
Author: Darcy O'Brien
Publisher: Open Road Media
Total Pages: 333
Release: 2014-07-01
Genre: True Crime
ISBN: 1497658594

The riveting true crime account of the Hillside Stranglers and the horrific serial killings they unleashed on 1970s Los Angeles. For weeks that fall, the body count of sexually violated, brutally murdered young women escalated. With increasing alarm, Los Angeles newspapers headlined the deeds of a serial killer they named the Hillside Strangler. The city was held hostage by fear. But not until January 1979, more than a year later, would the mysterious disappearance of two university students near Seattle lead police to the arrest of a security guard—the handsome, charming, fast-talking Kenny Bianchi—and the discovery that the strangler was not one man but two. Compellingly, O’Brien explores the symbiotic relationship between Bianchi and his cousin Angelo Buono, their lust for women as insatiable as their hate, before examining the crimes they remorselessly perpetrated and the lives of the unsuspecting victims they claimed. Equally riveting is O’Brien’s account of the trial—one of the longest and most controversial criminal court cases in American history—with the defense team parading, one after another, expert witnesses who had been effectively duped by Bianchi’s impersonation of a man suffering multiple personality disorder. It’s one way a man might contrive to get away with murder. Like Truman Capote in In Cold Blood and Norman Mailer in The Executioner’s Song, Darcy O’Brien weds the narrative skill of an award-winning novelist with the detailed observations of an experienced investigator to unravel this chilling true-crime story.

The Hillside Stranglers

The Hillside Stranglers
Author: Naomi Roberts
Publisher: Createspace Independent Publishing Platform
Total Pages: 68
Release: 2016-03-16
Genre:
ISBN: 9781530585984

Cousins Kenneth Bianchi and Angelo Buono, Jr. are collectively known by their media epithet "The Hillside Strangler". These two men were responsible for the murders of at least nine females, ages 12 to 28, during the late 1970s in Los Angeles, California, and Bianchi killed two more in Washington. After their first three victims did not gain much attention because they were prostitutes, Bianchi and Buono decided to abduct and murder middle-class "nice" girls. Five victims were found on hillsides in the Glendale-Highland Park area during Thanksgiving weekend in 1977 and the resulting panic led to the coining of the moniker "Hillside Strangler".

The Boston Strangler

The Boston Strangler
Author: Gerold Frank
Publisher: Open Road Media
Total Pages: 336
Release: 2016-07-05
Genre: True Crime
ISBN: 1504038983

The New York Times–bestselling account of the serial killer’s rampage and the ensuing manhunt. Now a Hulu true crime thriller starring Keira Knightley. On June 14, 1962, twenty-five-year-old Juris Slesers arrived at his mother’s apartment to drive her to church. But there was no answer at the door. When he pushed his way inside, Juris found Anna Slesers dead on the kitchen floor, the cord of her housecoat knotted tightly around her neck. Over the next two years, twelve more bodies were discovered in and around Boston: all women, all sexually assaulted, and all strangled. None of the victims exhibited any signs of struggle, nothing was stolen from their homes, and there were no signs of forcible entry. The police could find no discernable motive or clues. Who was this madman? How was he entering women’s homes? And what insanity was driving him? Drawn from hundreds of hours of personal interviews, as well as police, medical, and court documentation, this is a grisly, horrifying, and meticulously researched account of Albert DeSalvo—an American serial killer on par with Jack the Ripper.

Serial Killer Timelines

Serial Killer Timelines
Author: Chris McNab
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
Total Pages: 402
Release: 2010-09-01
Genre: True Crime
ISBN: 1569758883

A Simon & Schuster eBook. Simon & Schuster has a great book for every reader.

Nightmare in Wichita

Nightmare in Wichita
Author: Robert Beattie
Publisher: Penguin
Total Pages: 335
Release: 2005-03-21
Genre: True Crime
ISBN: 1101219920

Lawyer Robert Beattie assisted the police during the thirty-year search for the BTK Strangler—and was instrumental in the long-awaited arrest of a suspect. Here he shares his inside knowledge of the case, from its terrifying beginnings to its most up-to-date developments. In 1974 a killer embarked on a murder spree in Wichita, Kansas, counting among his victims, men, women, and children. Longing to join the ranks of the Hillside Stranglers and Black Dahlia killer, the elusive sex murderer taunted authorities and the media with clues, puzzles, and obscene letters. Then in 1979, he vanished. The killings appeared to have stopped, and one of the longest and most baffling manhunts in the annals of crime came to a dead end. But in 2004, a letter—and a grisly clue—arrived at a Wichita paper. And with it, a terrifying implication: BTK was back. The biggest shock of all came when they made their arrest. Now, from his unique vantage point, Robert Beattie tells the complete story of one of the most intriguing and horrifying serial murder cases in American history.

Die For Me

Die For Me
Author: Don Lasseter
Publisher: Pinnacle Books
Total Pages: 452
Release: 2014-09-10
Genre: True Crime
ISBN: 0786037938

In 1985, Charles Ng and Leonard Lake were spotted shoplifting. Ng escaped, but Lake's capture led police to a concrete bunker in the Sierra Nevada foothills, where they discovered the grisly evidence of an orgy of sex crimes, torture and murder that claimed at least sixteen victims. Lake committed suicide: Ng fled to Canada, where he was tracked down and extradited to California. This 14-year, $10 million legal case was the costliest and longest criminal prosecution in California history.

Alphabet Killer

Alphabet Killer
Author: Cheri Farnsworth
Publisher: Stackpole Books
Total Pages: 154
Release: 2010
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 081170632X

In the early 1970s, three young girls were slain near Rochester, NY, in the so-called Alphabet murders. The first book fully devoted to the case explores the crime and its investigation.

Serial Killers and Sadistic Murderers

Serial Killers and Sadistic Murderers
Author: Jack Levin
Publisher: Prometheus Books
Total Pages: 235
Release: 2009-09-18
Genre: True Crime
ISBN: 1615920757

After twenty-five years of investigating, analyzing, and interviewing serial killers, their family members, neighbors, and even surviving victims, Jack Levin has become one of the world''s most respected experts on the motivations and modus operandi of dangerous criminals. In this gripping book, he taps his wealth of experience with the criminal mind to offer lessons for law enforcement and the general public about how serial killers think, as well as the conditions under which hideous murders typically occur. These lessons, he hopes, will lead to more effective ways to thwart such crimes in the future. Levin''s face-to-face meetings and correspondence with such notorious murderers as the Hillside strangler (Kenneth Bianchi) and Orville Lynn Majors (the male nurse who was convicted of killing numerous patients in his charge) reveal that these types of killers are not motivated by money, revenge, or rage. In fact, the only motivation seems to be a sadistic craving for power and a need to feel in control. Levin also, for the first time, lets down his guard and reveals what it feels like to be seated so close to such cold-blooded killers.Many killers, as Levin points out, are meticulous planners. Levin has found that even in situations that appear spontaneous, for instance a workplace shooting by a disgruntled employee, the deed is carefully thought out and prepared for in advance. Another factor that consistently emerges in conversations with killers who have committed the most heinous of acts is the total absence of remorse or any notion of moral responsibility. Murder appears to be easy for these criminals and they kill with a feeling of complete impunity. Levin also notes the skillfully deceptive facades that such murderers are able to affect. They are extremely adept liars (he admits to having been fooled!), who enjoy playing mind games, even though outwardly they seem above suspicion. This is one reason they are so dangerous and difficult for investigators to track down and prosecute. This chilling glimpse into the minds of some of the worst criminals makes a valuable contribution to criminology and is a must-read for both true-crime buffs and law enforcement professionals.

The Serial Killer Files

The Serial Killer Files
Author: Harold Schechter
Publisher: Ballantine Books
Total Pages: 434
Release: 2003-12-30
Genre: True Crime
ISBN: 0345472004

THE DEFINITIVE DOSSIER ON HISTORY’S MOST HEINOUS! Hollywood’s make-believe maniacs like Jason, Freddy, and Hannibal Lecter can’t hold a candle to real life monsters like John Wayne Gacy, Ted Bundy, Jeffrey Dahmer, and scores of others who have terrorized, tortured, and terminated their way across civilization throughout the ages. Now, from the much-acclaimed author of Deviant, Deranged, and Depraved, comes the ultimate resource on the serial killer phenomenon. Rigorously researched and packed with the most terrifying, up-to-date information, this innovative and highly compelling compendium covers every aspect of multiple murderers–from psychology to cinema, fetishism to fan clubs, “trophies” to trading cards. Discover: WHO THEY ARE: Those featured include Ed Gein, the homicidal mama’s boy who inspired fiction’s most famous Psycho, Norman Bates; Angelo Buono and Kenneth Bianchi, sex-crazed killer cousins better known as the Hillside Stranglers; and the Beanes, a fifteenth-century cave-dwelling clan with an insatiable appetite for human flesh HOW THEY KILL: They shoot, stab, and strangle. Butcher, bludgeon, and burn. Drown, dismember, and devour . . . and other methods of massacre too many and monstrous to mention here. WHY THEY DO IT: For pleasure and for profit. For celebrity and for “companionship.” For the devil and for dinner. For the thrill of it, for the hell of it, and because “such men are monsters, who live . . . beyond the frontiers of madness.” PLUS: in-depth case studies, classic killers’ nicknames, definitions of every kind of deviance and derangement, and much, much more. For more than one hundred profiles of lethal loners and killer couples, Bluebeards and black widows, cannibals and copycats– this is an indispensable, spine-tingling, eye-popping investigation into the dark hearts and mad minds of that twisted breed of human whose crimes are the most frightening . . . and fascinating.