By using true tales of thieves, swindlers, and fraudsters at work, Financial Serial Killers illustrates how these perpetrators get their hooks into investors' wallets, savings accounts, and portfolios—and never let go. The worst financial crisis since the great depression revealed that thousands of mom and pop investors had lost millions to so-called Mini-Madoffs. They are the thieves and conmen who had used phony financial acumen to steal investors' money, wipe out savings, and damage lives. Financial Serial Killers reveals the cons—from the grand to picayune—advisers cultivate with their victims—relationships that are essential to the fraud. Take the story of Lillian, the little old lady who invested with Warren Buffett, one of the richest men in the world. After her husband died, she thought her family's treasure of $24 million in stock controlled by Buffett was safe. It was—until a family relative introduced the eighty-nine-year-old grandmother to a pair of unscrupulous insurance agents who convinced her to reinvest her savings in life insurance—decimating her nest egg while padding the agents' pockets. Lillian's story, as well as other accounts of deceit and fraud are the core of Financial Serial Killers. Readers will learn how to better protect their family's wealth and savings after reading this book.
By using true tales of thieves, swindlers, and fraudsters at work, Financial Serial Killers illustrates how these perpetrators get their hooks into investors' wallets, savings accounts, and portfolios—and never let go. The worst financial crisis since the great depression revealed that thousands of mom and pop investors had lost millions to so-called Mini-Madoffs. They are the thieves and conmen who had used phony financial acumen to steal investors' money, wipe out savings, and damage lives. Financial Serial Killers reveals the cons—from the grand to picayune—advisers cultivate with their victims—relationships that are essential to the fraud. Take the story of Lillian, the little old lady who invested with Warren Buffett, one of the richest men in the world. After her husband died, she thought her family's treasure of $24 million in stock controlled by Buffett was safe. It was—until a family relative introduced the eighty-nine-year-old grandmother to a pair of unscrupulous insurance agents who convinced her to reinvest her savings in life insurance—decimating her nest egg while padding the agents' pockets. Lillian's story, as well as other accounts of deceit and fraud, is the core of Financial Serial Killers. Readers will learn how to better protect their family's wealth and savings after reading this book.
The Killer Book of Serial Killers is the ultimate resource (and gift) for any true crime fan and student of the bizarre world of serial killers. Filled with stories, trivia, quizzes, quotes, photos, and odd facts about the world's most notorious murderers, this is the perfect bathroom reader for anyone fascinated with serial killers. The stories and trivia cover such killers as: John Wayne Gacy Ted Bundy The BTK Killer Jack the Ripper The Green River Killer Serial killers around the world And many more Bathroom readers have enjoyed considerable success as a format, selling millions of copies. The Killer Book series brings this format to the rabid true crime audience. Including more than 40 black & white photos, this is a must for true crime fans.
This the first book to focus specifically on serial killers motivated by monetary gain. Serial Killing for Profit: Multiple Murder for Money addresses a gap in the existing literature by documenting one dozen of the most notorious perpetrators of commercial serial murder—murderers who kill to secure inheritances and pensions, to sell possessions or even the body itself, or as murderers-for-hire. In these pages, readers will encounter some of the nation's most infamous and disturbing criminals, including "America's first serial killer," Herman Mudgett; Raymond Fernandez and Martha Beck, the "Honeymoon Killers;" Los Angeles's "Night Stalker," Richard Ramirez; the "black widow" Blanche Taylor Moore; and Dana Sue Gray, who killed three women for shopping money. Author Dirk Gibson gets to the twisted heart of each case, meticulously detailing the crimes, the victims, the hunt for the killers, the distinctive variations on the motive of "killing for money," and the lessons learned by investigators in each instance. Everyone from professional investigators to true crime aficionados will be riveted by these stunning accounts.
American Evil deals with the ‘sordid’ world of serial killers, their calculating methods and distorted thinking, based around the author’s ground-breaking work as a prison psychologist, government advisor and consultant to three TV series including Voice of a Serial Killer. Based on clinical experience of killers. Includes a selection of USA/UK serial killer studies. Exposes police and other failings and shortcomings and the perversity of ‘defences’, ‘excuses’, etc. Strongly critical of USA gun laws and attitudes or perspectives making for an unhealthy environment, moral vacuum and lack of official/individual awareness and responsibility. The book describes how the author was ‘so profoundly moved’ by his inescapable conclusions about how serial killers are ‘made’ that he was compelled to set out his findings. Bemoaning the serial killer ‘growth industry’, ‘unhealthy interest’ and ill-informed comment he sets the record straight. Serial killers are made not born. But his central polemic is that serial killers are one of several malign human by-products of a dysfunctional modern permissive society, overwhelmingly American, brought about by modern-day culture in the USA, lax moral standards as also reflected in other countries to the extent that they pursue a comparable way of life.
Please note: This is a companion version & not the original book. Sample Book Insights: #1 The seduction techniques used by Bernie Madoff to attract investors are the same well-worn tricks used by financial schemers across the country. The financial con man always paints a picture of himself as someone who has a great deal of financial knowledge and a proven track record of having made a lot of money for others. #2 The ability to make investors hand over their money is a key to fueling such frauds. In 2009, the FBI saw a 105 percent increase in new high-yield investment fraud investigations when compared to 2008. #3 Financial serial killers are charming and exude confidence. They speak with self-assurance and seem to know their stuff. They are believable. Their credibility is often enhanced by their references. #4 The danger to investors from financial serial killers won’t disappear anytime soon. Human gullibility is a burgeoning area of psychological research.
Who are they? What forces shape their twisted minds? From Jeffrey Dahmer to California's Zodiac killer, the deviant minds of America's serial killers are exposed like never before in this riveting work. Authors Fox and Levin offer a rare, close-up and shocking look into the killers' motivations, fantasies, and cold-blooded rage.
-- The six myths of serial murder: addressing the "black hole of misinformation" that surrounds the subject. -- Detailed case studies of John Wayne Gacy, Ted Bundy, and other serial killers. -- The state-of-the-art in law enforcement investigation of serial murder. This book brings together all of what we know, what we think we know, and what we don't know about the horrific violence of serial murder. Part I introduces the subject of serial murder and presents the "six myths" of serial murder that interfere with understanding and successful investigation. Part II presents detailed case studies of four infamous serial killers, John Wayne Gacy, Ted Bundy, Kenneth Bianchi and Henry Lee Lucas. Part Ill focuses on the investigation of serial murder, showing the problems law enforcement faces -- notably "linkage blindness", the inability of unwillingness of police agencies to share information on unsolved murders. This section includes an extensive discussion of fourteen different police responses to serial murder. Finally, the author -- a noted criminologist and former homicide investigator -- discusses the future of serial murder and its investigation. Students of criminology, psychology and sociology; true crime buffs; mystery writers and readers; journalists; skeptics; and criminal justice professionals.
Fans of Mindhunter and true crime podcasts will devour these chilling stories of serial killers from the American "Golden Age" (1950-2000). With books like Serial Killers, Female Serial Killers and Sons of Cain, Peter Vronsky has established himself as the foremost expert on the history of serial killers. In this first definitive history of the "Golden Age" of American serial murder, when the number and body count of serial killers exploded, Vronsky tells the stories of the most unusual and prominent serial killings from the 1950s to the early twenty-first century. From Ted Bundy to the Golden State Killer, our fascination with these classic serial killers seems to grow by the day. American Serial Killers gives true crime junkies what they crave, with both perennial favorites (Ed Kemper, Jeffrey Dahmer) and lesser-known cases (Melvin Rees, Harvey Glatman).
Dennis Nilsen was one of Britain's most notorious serial killers, jailed for life in 1983 after the murders of 12 men and the attempted murders of many more.Seven years after his conviction, Nilsen began to write his autobiography, and over a period of 18 years he typed 6,000 pages of introspection, reflection, comment and explanation.History of a Drowning Boy - taken exclusively from these astonishing writings - uncovers, for the first time, the motives behind the murders, and delivers a clear understanding of how such horrific events could have happened, tracing the origins back to early childhood.In another first, it provides an insight into his 35 years inside the maximum-security prison system, including his everyday life on the wings; his interactions with the authorities and other notorious prisoners; and his artistic endeavours of music, writing and drama. It also reveals the truth behind many of the myths surrounding Dennis Nilsen, as reported in the media.Nilsen was determined to have his memoir published but to his frustration, the Home Office blocked publication during his lifetime. He died in 2018 entrusting the manuscript to his closest friend and it is now being published with the latter's permission.Any autobiography presents the writer's story from just one perspective: his own, and as such this record should be treated with some caution. An excellent foreword by criminologist Dr Mark Pettigrew offers some context to Nilsen's words, and this important work provides an extraordinary journey through the life of a remarkable and inadequate man.Extract from the Foreword by Dr Mark Pettigrew, criminologistIn the UK, there are thought to be at least two serial killers active at any one time; in the USA the figure is estimated to be as high as fifty. Although a relatively rare phenomenon, there is a great deal of public interest in the life and crimes of serial killers. Yet, despite the inordinate amount of interest, the serial killer remains one of the least understood types of criminal - even in the academic world the simple definition of a serial killer has still not been settled.In a saturated market of true crime novels, there are very few that include the voice of the actual killer. As such, amongst a literary sea of accounts devoted to the serial killer and his crimes, this book stands out as unique. Of course any subjective retelling by the killer must be approached with caution; the prevalence of personality disorders, psychopathy, paranoid schizophrenia and other psychiatric and mental disorders, can distort the personal account just as an attempt at self-aggrandising can misrepresent the true narrative of the crimes. Yet, the simple facts of a case can be gleamed from police records, trial testimony and crime scene evidence, whereas personal introspection offers much more of an insight into the motivation of the killer.As the reader will learn from these memoirs, a confluence of factors met to form Dennis Nilsen. In all the academic and clinical research on the topic, there is no definitive answer as to why or how a person becomes a serial killer. Realistically, we can only identify risk factors. What this book offers, though, is an insight into how those killings are comprehended and understood by the killer in retrospect. In my own conversations with Dennis Nilsen, over several years, he did not try to excuse what he did, nor trivialise the devastating effect his actions had upon the families and loved ones of his victims. Instead, he sought to understand his actions in light of his particular circumstances. I cannot honestly say that he ever found a definitive answer as to why he became one of Britain's most infamous serial killers, but if the answer is ever to be found, it will be found within these pages.
