A PLAGUE OF MURDER The Rise and Rise of Serial Killing in the Modern Age.

Paperback, 1st edn. SIGNED PRESENTATION COPY. This fascinating study by one of the world's foremost popular criminologists lays bare the roots of a terrifying modern phenomenon. The term 'serial killer' is barely 30 years old, coined by the FBI to describe those who murder repeatedly and obsessively, usually with a sexual motive. Who are these new killers? What social and psychological pressures have conspired to produce them now? Can we understand and perhaps learn to predict their behaviour? The author examines the changing face of murder over more than a century. Here are studies of all the most infamous killers of our era, from Jack the Ripper to Jeffrey Dahmer, the monster of Milwaukee; Reginald Christie to Dennis Nilsen, who killed for company; the Boston Strangler to Donald Gaskins, who murdered more than 100 victims; as well as Richard Ramirez, the Night Stalker; Ian Brady and Myra Hindley, the Moors Murderers; the Yorkshire Ripper, and many more. Chapter headings include : Pornography and the Rise of Sex Crime; Mass Murder in the Nineteenth Century; Mass Murder in Europe; Mass Murder in America, 1890-1920; Mass Murder in America, 1920-1940; The 1940s; The 1950s; The 1960s; The 1970s; The 1980s and 1990s. With Afterword and Index. 510pp. Trade size softcover. V. lightly browned pp. o/w Nr. F. PRESENTATION COPY SIGNED BY COLIN WILSON.