That serial killer show thread from earlier convinced me to buy a true crime book...

[Wetzelbill]

So I just bought "Stranger Beside Me" by Ann Rule, which is about Ted Bundy.

I don't know why I do it, but sometimes I like to freak myself out. Like scary movies etc. I read the book by the lawyer for the Green River Killer, Gary Ridgeway, a few years ago, it creeped me out so bad.

I just know this one is going to have me jumpy. It always creeps me out that people like Ted Bundy exist in this world. A classic charismatic sociopath. A guy like that just has something missing, something that almost makes him not human. There isn't a way to fix it either. It's morbidly fascinating to think about what makes them tick though. I haven't decided if I'll start it tonight or not.

I do think it's even more compelling that she knew and worked with him. How horrifying in retrospect!

[SoxFan]

1. My mother devours these books

She calls them her "how-to manuals". Mom is a bit peculiar at times.

[Wetzelbill]

2. oh lord

You know what I find weird is that any time I've ever read about a killer or anything I automatically start comparing myself to them. I'm like: "hmmmm his mom beat him.. Oh no, my mom spanked me once!" As if it's like being a werewolf on a full moon and all of a sudden I might psycho out. At least I haven't thought of them as a "how-to manual", yikes. :) Yeah plus besides that "compassion" thing, I'd probably be too lazy to kill anybody anyway.

[NanceGreggs]

24. I was reading "Small Sacrifices" ...

... when my daughter was six or seven. I couldn't put it down. She finally asked me what it was about. I told her it was about a woman who tried to murder her own children.

My daughter was horrified. She said, "Where did you get a book like that?" I told her I got it at the bookstore, in the self-help section.

She was very well-behaved after that ...

[SoxFan]

50. OMG, that sounds familiar!

:rofl:

[Lil Missy]

3. I read that one when it came out, as well as other books on Bundy.

I don't recall anything that would make you jumpy. He was interesting in that he was so intelligent and was able to fool so many people.

[Wetzelbill]

4. oh it's just the general thought of it

I'll make myself get jumpy. :)

[bettyellen]

5. ask Swag what he knows about Rule....

there's another insane book about Ted's last interviews. writtn by that profiler guy. very creepy stuff, but i cannt remember the name.

[Left Is Write]

8. John Douglas?

[bettyellen]

16. yes! thank you,

[applegrove]

6. Sociopaths are terrifying. Nuff said.

[Left Is Write]

7. I have read every Ann Rule book except Small Sacrifices.

I found The Stranger Beside Me especially compelling.

[WinkyDink]

14. SS is maybe the most disturbing, as for content.

[Left Is Write]

19. I just can't bring myself to read it. At one point I owned a copy, but I gave it away.

[WinkyDink]

46. The movie with Farah Fawcett, Ryan O'Neill, and John Shea is very well-done, and accurate.

[MedleyMisty]

9. Maybe there's something wrong with me

because I generally feel pity for serial killers. They're obviously messed up mentally and many of them were abused.

Now, sane normal people in large groups who are out for blood - they terrify the shit out of me and they're the ones that I can't see as human. Serial killers are messed up in the head, do their violence up close and personal one person at a time, and can be caught and stopped. Normal people are generally sane and will wipe out whole cities from a distance and can't be stopped except through extraordinary means and/or the passage of time.

I read all the Holocaust books in the local library when I was nine, and I think it made a rather deep impression on me.

[XemaSab]

10. Seriously?

"Death in Yosemite" scared the LIVING SHIT out of me.

Not only because I read in IN Yosemite, but because a girl had been beheaded and thrown into the creek right by where I had had lunch that day. :o

[Jamastiene]

12. Is that about the Cary Staynor murders?

Cary Staynor's little brother is the protagonist in the movie, "I Know My First Name Is Steven." His little brother had been kidnapped as a kid and returned to the family when he was around 14 years old. That entire story was so sad and creepy at the same time.

[Lil Missy]

13. Isn't that the one who's brother, Steven, was kidnapped as a child?

[WinkyDink]

43. Yes.

[WinkyDink]

15. I read a bit, found it extraordinarily vulgar for the genre, and all on the killer's descriptions,

which may have been lies (as to what he forced the victims to do). IOW, the victims are slimed in death on the word of a maniac.

[Are_grits_groceries]

11. This scared the shit out of me.

I read a lot of true crime, but Zodiac petrified me. I worked in a bookstore and people were always asking what the best horror novel was. I told them to read true crime if they really wanted nightmares.
"Criminal Minds" is fascinating, but also scary because they probably got the basis for their scripts from real crimes.

[Wetzelbill]

17. that one scared me too!

I read it in high school and had nightmares for a few days. I have an overactive imagination in the first place, as I said, I like to scare myself, lol.

[DemBones DemBones]

18. Read "Monster of Florence" by Douglas Preston

and Mario Salvi. It's very well-written and there are two threads on it in the True Crime Group for more info. The Monster of Florence was Italy's Jack the Ripper and is said to have been Thomas Harris's inspiration for Hannibal Lector. :scared:

[Haole Girl]

20. I tried to read a true crime book about an FBI Profiler...

carried that book around with me, on trips, for two years. I kept having to read the first chapter over... finally just gave up. It was too disturbing. Hope you have better luck with the book you bought!

[AwakeAtLast]

21. Have you read "Devil in the White City"?

If not, I recommend that one. Awesome (and creepy) book!

[fizzgig]

22. i love stuff like that

i just have to remind myself that it's not good bedtime reading :rofl:

[graywarrior]

23. Read Child 44

It's based on a serial killer in Germany in 1939. I read it a few months ago and it's STILL in my head.

[NanceGreggs]

25. Welcome to the dark side, my friend ...

I'm a true crime fanatic. I particularly like the ones where a husband or wife kills a spouse, and tries to get away with it.

I always tell JeffR that if he died in the house by way of some accident, the cops would take one look at my book collection and arrest me on the spot. I wouldn't have a prayer.

[Are_grits_groceries]

27. People will do ANYTHING to other people.

and usually to the ones they "love."

[Left Is Write]

28. Did you ever read the story of Kosta Fotopoulos?

[Are_grits_groceries]

30. He was evil.

Can you imagine finding out you were married to someone like that??

[Left Is Write]

31. That's what I kept thinking the whole time I was reading about it -

evil personified. No remorse. No guilt.

[Are_grits_groceries]

34. Stranger danger is somehow scarier.

However, your near and dear are the ones most likely to do you in.

[Left Is Write]

37. I'm glad Lisa survived the murder attempt (more than one attempt, at that).

But the idea of that kid who was tied to a tree and executed is horrifying.

[NanceGreggs]

47. Yes, I have!

Fascinating stuff ...

[BeachBaby]

26. A TV movie was made, based on that book.

Even has the same title. Mark Harmon played Ted Bundy.

He played the part well. Too well. :scared:

[Left Is Write]

32. Actually, that movie is called The Deliberate Stranger.

There is another TV movie called The Stranger Beside Me, about a woman whose husband is a serial rapist.

[Wetzelbill]

36. I know!

I watched it a few times when I was a kid. It always made me view Mark Harmon as a little creepy, and what's more I have an uncle who looks alot like Harmon too, lol. It was called "The Deliberate Stranger" I think.

[stuntcat]

29. I like serial killer encyclopedias!

:headbang: It's been a long time since I looked through mine though, I need to get them out again.

[Are_grits_groceries]

33. I knew a serial killer.

http://crime.about.com/od/serial/p/gaskins.htm

Pee Wee Gaskins. He worked some on a farm my uncle owned as day laborer. I met him there a couple of times. I was warned to be careful around him. He was just somebody to use as a hand in the fields for the day.
My brother lives in an old cabin that PeeWee used to use as a getaway. My relatives thinks PeeWee killed a couple of people there.

[Left Is Write]

35. Creepy!

The first true crime book I ever read was Deviant, about Ed Gein. Some time after that, I took a job that required me to move to Stevens Point, WI. I remember Stevens Point being mentioned in the book, along with several surrounding communities (Gein lived in Plainfield, WI), and the Portage County authorities being involved in the investigation into Gein's criminal activity. I reread the book keeping in mind I'd be moving to the area (although this was long after Gein himself had died). His story fascinated me and was responsible for introducing me to the true crime genre. Since then, I've read dozens of true crime books.

When I got to Stevens Point and was discussing the book with my boss (I worked for a radio station), he cautioned me never to mention Gein on the air. He said that there were still people alive in the area who knew and/or were connected to Gein or his victims and were very sensitive about it.

[Wetzelbill]

38. I had a babysitter that ended up being one

This guy, Martin Kipp:
http://www.crimezzz.net/serialkillers/K/KIPP_martin_james.php

To be fair, he only watched my brother and I once, for just a short period while we were at a friend or relatives house. It was too long ago for me to even remember. One of my uncles served as a character witness in his trial. And as a useless side note, while my uncle was flying to the trial he ended up sitting next to Cheech Marin on the plane. :)

[Are_grits_groceries]

39. The killer I knew, PeeWee Gaskins, was sentenced

to 7 life terms because the Supreme Court had ruled the death penalty unconstitutional.
My Mama called me at college and in the course of the conversation told me he had been made a trusty. I asked her who the hell made that bright move. We both agreed that it wouldn't end well. Sure enough, someone hired him to kill another prisoner. He rigged up an alarm clock to explode. That's what sent him to the chair because the DP was back.

[Wetzelbill]

42. yeah you just knew that wasn't going to end well

So when you met him did people know he was probably a killer? It seems pretty wild to hire somebody like that as a laborer even for a day.

[Are_grits_groceries]

48. Nobody knew he was a murderer for sure.

Everybody knew he was bad.

[Wetzelbill]

41. I found that link to be really disturbing

especially the double murder of the woman and her young child and what he said about the kid. that's awful.

Gosh if I was your brother I probably couldn't even sleep in that place.

[Are_grits_groceries]

49. Once everything came out, people realized how evil he was.

I don't think they will ever know how many people he killed or find the bodies. PeeWee knew the swamps like the back of his hand. If he really wanted to get rid of someone, taking them way down in a swamp would take care of that body.

I spent the night at his house, and I never got the willies. My brother says he is a druid, and he has performed some kind of ceremony. The doors and the windowsills are painted blue to keep out evil spirits. That is an offshoot of a type of voodoo in the area.

People can laugh at that, but I never will. One of the reasons is because of how my relatives reacted. When they would tell us something about that voodoo, they NEVER made fun of it. These were churchgoing people, but they weren't about to mess with it. I took my cue from that.

[Wetzelbill]

51. I'm a Blackfeet Indian

And a Christian, but there is some harmony between Indian spirituality and a person's other religious beliefs. I know that there are things like evil spirits etc, and what your brother did by painting them blue is not all that different than say a medicine man performing a smudging ceremony to ward away evil. Much of it has to do with the relationship to a person and the earth and how we live and take care of what provides us life. Some people just think it's all goofy, but there is truth that stuff too.

[Lochloosa]

40. I lived about a mile from Ted Bundy in Tallahassee, FL. 1978

Let's just say it was a little wierd around town till he was caught.


Lisa Levy and Margaret BowmanOne week after Bundy's arrival in Tallahassee, in the early hours of Super Bowl Sunday on January 15, 1978, two and a half years of repressed homicidal violence erupted. Bundy entered the Florida State University Chi Omega sorority house at approximately 3 a.m. and killed two sleeping women, Lisa Levy and Margaret Bowman. Bundy bludgeoned and strangled Levy and Bowman; he also sexually assaulted Levy. He also bludgeoned two other Chi Omegas, Karen Chandler and Kathy Kleiner. The entire episode took no more than half an hour. After leaving the Chi Omega house, Bundy broke into another home a few blocks away, clubbing and severely injuring Florida State University student Cheryl Thomas.<65>

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ted_Bundy

[WinkyDink]

44. Bundy wanted to get caught, and die, IMO. He knew that Fla had the DP, yet he went there, And he was

in a break-down frenzy.

[WinkyDink]

45. True-crime aficionada here. I think "Ted Bundy: Deliberate Stranger" is the best, for him.