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Seeking: True Crime Book Recommendations

1984

ex-PiousWoo
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Oct 14, 2005
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Anyone able to recommend a non-fiction book that would fall under the category of true crime?

I'm chasing up a documentary and book series, Great Crimes and Trials of the 20th Century. The series fascinates me in the way that it presents its material. It intrigues me that someone could, say, kill another person - on a whim - in the heat of the moment - then go to his lover - ask her to help him dispose of the body - and whatsmore - SHE AGREES. Then in court, the murderer and his accomplice turn on each other and present conflicting stories.

Couldn't find anything else in the bookstores, so any recommendations most welcome.
 
There's always In Cold Blood by Truman Capote.

Last year I read The Devil in the White City, a fascinating account of the creation of the 1892 Chicago World's Fair intertwined with the utterly creepy story of Dr. H. H. Holmes, a serial killer who was preying on women drawn to the modern metropolis. I spent much of the book saying to myself, "Gosh, how come I've never heard about any of this before?"
 
Almost anything by the hugely prolific Ann Rule. She started off with The Stranger Beside Me, about Ted Bundy, who had been one of her coworker's at a telephone helpline, even sort of a friend of hers before he was revealed as a killer. She tends to write about psychopaths, and goes into great detail about the psychological background of both them and their victims. I'd also recommend Without Conscience: The Disturbing World of the Psychopaths Among Us, by the psychologist Dr. Robert D. Hare, who generated the Psychopathic Checklist in common use.
 
The best Manson book is The Family by Ed Sanders. If you can find it. If not go with Helter Skelter

Lords of Chaos: The Bloody Rise of the Satanic Metal Underground Reads like a true crime book.
 
This is also a very fascinating story of a serial killer in Russia and the long hunt for him.
 
You could also try the venerable Warped in the Making by H. Ashton-Wolfe. Though, it has to be admitted that his criteria for "non-fiction" and "true crime" might not necessarily match yours.

(I read the 1930s Finnish translation of it some time ago. The very best part of the book were the numerous footnotes where the translator continued to insist that Ashton-Wolfe was giving completely honest and accurate accounts.)
 
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