Bestial [Paperback]

Harold Schechter (Author)

Product Details

• Paperback
• Publisher: POCKET BOOKS (SIMO) (March 1, 2004)
• ASIN: B000K2IEPQ
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (25 customer reviews)

More About the Author

Harold Schechter is a professor of American literature and culture. Renowned for his true-crime writing, he is the author of the nonfiction books Fatal, Fiend, Bestial, Deviant, Deranged, Depraved, and, with David Everitt, The A to Z Encyclopedia of Serial Killers. He is also the author of Nevermore and The Hum Bug, the acclaimed historical novels featuring Edgar Allan Poe. He lives in New York State.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

37 of 38 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars "Bestial" is a gripping story; sad, unsettling, entertaining, October 19, 1998

By 

M. Mueller ([e-mail]) (St. Louis, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Bestial: The Savage Trail of a True American Monster (Paperback)

Harold Schechter's "Bestial" is first and foremost an entertaining journey. Through the lives of the victims, the killer, and the authorities who investigate the crimes, Schechter unfolds a drama as facinating as a Poe tale. The book not only informs the reader about a forgotten serial killer, but relates the difficulty police had in connecting crimes and coordinating forces two catch a nomadic criminal. Highly recomended for anyone who enjoys a trip to the unsettling outskirts of human existence.

46 of 49 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Relentlessly terrifying, March 8, 2000

By 

Rory Coker (Austin, TX USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Bestial: The Savage Trail of a True American Monster (Paperback)

In his early days, the subject of this true-crime history was so weird and insane-acting that no one in their right mind would allow him near them. But when he was sent to an insane asylum, over the years he learned a skill that made him one of the most dangerous predators in serial killer history: he learned to be perfectly, completely charming! Landladies had no hesitation showing this handsome, polite and obviously highly religious man their upstairs room to let... and they never left that room alive, as Ferral induced them to look up--- "what caused that stain?"--- broke their necks, and then raped their cooling corpses! As harrowing a true-crime account as I have ever read.

28 of 31 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars More than muder and rape... in that order, October 23, 2000

By 

Khraaven (Zelienople, PA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Bestial: The Savage Trail of a True American Monster (Paperback)

Schechter's book is a great read. It is a well written account of an American serial killer from a time before the term serial killer had been invented. The pleasant surprize of "Beastial" is the excellent treatment he gives the Social environment of America during the 1920s. The result is a greater understanding of the mind set of a country that was terrified by the sick twisted, corpse raping, body concealing "Gorilla" of a man known as Earle Leonard Nelson. I absolutely could not put this one down!