The Bloody Doll

The Bloody Doll
Author: Gaston Leroux
Publisher: SCB Distributors
Total Pages: 372
Release: 2016-08-02
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 1909923702

THE BLOODY DOLL: “La Poupee Sanglante”, the classic novel of vampirism and serial murder by Gaston Leroux, author of The Phantom Of The Opera, is finally published in a new and completely unexpurgated translation. One night, the voyeur Benedict Masson spies on Christine, the watchmaker’s beautiful daughter; after witnessing the watchmaker murder Gabriel, her handsome lover, he is propelled into a fantastic carnival of encounters with a series of grotesque characters, including a voracious, ancient vampire known as the brucolac, and his servants, the sinister members of an oriental death cult. Masson must now attempt to find the answers to several vexing questions. Who was the mysterious Gabriel – in what way might he be connected to the watchmaker’s experiments in mechanics and his claim to have achieved perpetual motion? What has this got to do with the sinister Marquis de Coulteray, the watchmaker’s landlord? Why have a series of young women disappeared in the vicinity of Benedict’s villa in the countryside? But nothing is ever as it seems in the world of Gaston Leroux. THE BLOODY DOLL was written in the aftermath of the trial and execution of Henri Désiré Landru, also known as “the French Bluebeard”, one of the most notorious serial killers in French criminal history. A mixture of detective fiction, horror and romance that will be familiar immediately to readers of Leroux’s more famous works, the book will also appeal to fans of Poe, Conan Doyle and Stoker, refracted through a lens of early 20th Century proto-steampunk pulp fiction. It can be read as either a satire on the famous case of Landru, or simply enjoyed as an incredibly entertaining, blood-splattered adventure from the archives of a master storyteller.

Landru's Secret

Landru's Secret
Author: Richard Tomlinson
Publisher: Casemate Publishers
Total Pages: 405
Release: 2018-10-30
Genre: True Crime
ISBN: 1526715317

On 12 April 1919, the Paris police arrested a bald, short, 50-year-old swindler at his apartment near the Gare du Nord, acting on a lead from a humble housemaid. A century later, Henri Désiré Landru remains the most notorious and enigmatic serial killer in French criminal history, a riddle at the heart of an unsolved murder puzzle. The official version of Landrus lethal rampage was so shocking that it almost defied belief. According to the authorities, Landru had made “romantic contact” with 283 women during the First World War, luring ten of them to his country houses outside Paris where he killed them for their money. Yet no bodies were ever found, while Landru obdurately protested his innocence. “It is for you to prove the deeds of which I am accused,” he sneered at the investigating magistrate. The true story of laffaire Landru, buried in the Paris police archives for the past century, was altogether more disturbing. In Landrus Secret, Richard Tomlinson draws on more than 5,000 pages of original case documents, including witness statements, police reports and private correspondence, to reveal for the first time that: Landru killed more women than the 10 victims on the charge sheet. The police failed to trace at least 72 of the women he contacted. The authorities ignored the key victim who explained why the killings began. Landru did not kill for money, but to revel in his power over what he called the “feeble sex”. Lavishly illustrated with previous unpublished photographs, Landrus Secret is a story for our times: a female revengers tragedy starring the mothers and sisters of the missing fiancées, a lethal misogynist and Frances greatest defense lawyer, intent on saving his repulsive client from the guillotine.

Reading Feminist Intertextuality Through Bluebeard Stories

Reading Feminist Intertextuality Through Bluebeard Stories
Author: Casie Hermansson
Publisher: Edwin Mellen Press
Total Pages: 364
Release: 2001
Genre: Literary Criticism
ISBN:

This study offers a theory for feminist intertextuality based on strategies at work in rewritings of the Bluebeard fairy tale. The book asserts that feminist intertextuality revises one coercive intertext in particular: that of intertextuality theory itself. Rewritings of the fairy tale accordingly can be seen to privilege either the embedded narrative or the escape from it, subscribing either to monologic or dialogic intertextuality. The work examines the original Bluebeard tale group (Perrault, Grimm, variants); historical and modern Bluebeards; and other writers, including Jane Austen, William Godwin, Margaret Atwood, John Fowles, Peter Ackroyd, Kurt Vonnegut, Angela Carter, Gloria Naylor, Emma Cave, Max Frisch, Stephen King, Meira Cook and Donald Barthelme.

Murder by Numbers

Murder by Numbers
Author: James Moore
Publisher: The History Press
Total Pages: 243
Release: 2018-01-31
Genre: True Crime
ISBN: 0750987073

What is the connection between the number 13 and Jack the Ripper? Why was the number 18 crucial in catching Acid Bath murderer John George Haigh? And what is so puzzling about the number 340 in the chilling case of the Zodiac killer? The answers to all these questions and many more are revealed in a unique, number-crunching history of the ultimate crime. James Moore's Murder by Numbers tells the story of murder through the centuries in an entirely new way ... through the key digits involved. Each entry starts with a number and leads into a different aspect of murder, be it a fascinating angle to a case or revealing insights into murder methods, punishments and, of course, the chilling figures behind the most notorious killers from our past. From the grizzly death toll of the world's worst serial killer to your own odds of being murdered, this guide will appeal to the connoisseur of true crime and the casual reader alike.

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.

Murderabilia

Murderabilia
Author: Harold Schechter
Publisher: Workman Publishing Company
Total Pages: 419
Release: 2023-09-26
Genre: True Crime
ISBN: 1523525754

From veteran true crime master Harold Schechter comes a unique look into the history of crime told through the dark objects left behind. The false teeth of a female serial killer from 1908, the cut-and-paste confession of the Black Dahlia killer, the newly cracked cipher of the Zodiac killer, the shotgun used in the Clutter family murders, which were made famous by Truman Capote's true crime classic In Cold Blood—these are more than simple artifacts that once belonged to notorious murderers. They are objets of fascination to the legion of true crime obsessives around the world. And not merely for fleeting dark thrills, but because they represent a way to better understand those who we typically label monsters in lieu of learning how they actually became one. In Murderabilia, veteran true crime writer Harold Schechter presents 100 murder-related artifacts spanning two centuries (1808–2014), with accompanying stories of various lengths. A visual and literary journey, it presents a history unlike any previously told in the true crime genre, one that speaks to the dark fascination of true crime fans while also presenting a larger historical timeline of how and why we continue to be captivated by the most sensational crimes and killers among us.

True Crime Narratives

True Crime Narratives
Author: Ben Harrison
Publisher: Magill Bibliographies
Total Pages: 800
Release: 1997
Genre: Literary Criticism
ISBN:

Takes the reader on an exploration of this genre, from the mid-nineteenth century through 1993.

The Music of Charlie Chaplin

The Music of Charlie Chaplin
Author: Jim Lochner
Publisher: McFarland
Total Pages: 451
Release: 2018-10-16
Genre: Music
ISBN: 0786496118

Charlie Chaplin the actor is universally synonymous with his beloved Tramp character. Chaplin the director is considered one of the great auteurs and innovators of cinema history. Less well known is Chaplin the composer, whose instrumental theme for Modern Times (1936) later became the popular standard "Smile," a Billboard hit for Nat "King" Cole in 1954. Chaplin was prolific yet could not read or write music. It took a rotating cast of talented musicians to translate his unorthodox humming, off-key singing, and amateur piano and violin playing into the singular orchestral vision he heard in his head. Drawing on numerous transcriptions from 60 years of original scores, this comprehensive study reveals the untold story of Chaplin the composer and the string of famous (and not-so-famous) musicians he employed, giving fresh insight into his films and shedding new light on the man behind the icon.