The Mammoth Book of True Crime: A New Edition (Mammoth Books) [Paperback]

Colin Wilson (Author)

Book Description

Series: Mammoth Books | Publication Date: July 30, 1998

With new chapters on serial killers, computer crime, cannibals, and conspiracy theories, this completely revised edition of the popular Mammoth Book of True Crime presents hours of enthralling reading for the true crime fan. Whether on A for "Alibis" or W for "War Crimes", distinguished author Colin Wilson unearths fascinating facts and offers stimulating theories about the dark side of mankind.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

The prolific Wilson (A Criminal History of Mankind, et al.) offers this compilation of true crime narratives, abbreviated accounts of both famous and lesser-known cases. "Murder interests me," Wilson writes, "because it is the most extreme form of the denial of this human potentiality. Life devaluation has become a commonplace of our century." Wilson analyzes numerous crimes and their perpetrators, ranging from lady-killers to manic messiahs, contemporary and past: " . . . to kill by poison is perhaps the most childish of all criminal acts . . . . Nearly all the famous poisoners have been rather childish personalitiesoften delightful and charming, but fundamentally children determined to get their own way by stealth." In the "Motiveless Murder" chapter, he once again expounds on the importance of science-fiction author A. E. Van Vogt's "right man" theoryviolent men who treat women as slavesas "one of the most important breakthroughs since Sigmund Freud 'discovered' the unconscious." Wilson's now-familiar practice of intertwining throughout a rich array of literary references (Ray Bradbury, James Thurber, James Jones, etc.) only adds to the informed tone of this massive survey, so extensive and worthy a reference that some repetition is not an annoyance. An introduction defines the links between Wilson's fiction and nonfiction.
Copyright 1988 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Library Journal

This collection consists of 74 alphabetically arranged chapters with headings such as "Hired Killers," "Mass Murderers," " Perverts," and "Stranglers." Despite its length, the book is not comprehensive; each chapter briefly outlines a few cases with comments by Wilson, a British popularizer of crime. (See his Encyclopedia of Modern Murder , co-authored with Donald Seaman, LJ 5/15/85.) No explanation is given for Wilson's choices, most of which will be unfamiliar. Unevenly written and without a bibliography, this book is unsuitable as a reference. Even true crime buffs, who otherwise might be interested, will be upset to discover that the
Copyright 1988 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 608 pages
• Publisher: Carroll & Graf; Updated edition (July 30, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0786705361
• ISBN-13: 978-0786705368
• Product Dimensions: 7.8 x 5.1 x 1.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #250,474 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

15 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars CHECK THE DOORS AND WINDOWS BUT WHICH CENTURY ARE WE IN?, June 12, 1997

By 

Charles Slovenski (Geneva Switzerland) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Mammoth Book of True Crime (Paperback)

As usual, Wilson's obsessive accounts of the criminal mind at work are unnerving and in this book he delivers a fantastic range of disgusting tales and trials. I expected something at the end , along the lines of "if you actually finished this book, get psychiatric help because you need it." In other words, a thoroughly entertaining read, if just a tad too wild for bedtime (don't read it to your children; read parts of it to people who bore you, just to get back at them). However, where is the editing? There's a countless number of mistakes regarding dates, and centuries are jumped within the same story so I didn't know when to picture FBI forensics or Holmes and Watson. There are several typos too: for example, homosexual brothel became homosexual brother, not the same thing at all. The result is a feeling of a book hastily assembled and this takes away from its credibility (which, considering the subject, might not be a bad thing). Nevertheless, I've had a second lock put on the door which gave me little comfort as I read these true stories of murder, mutilation, cannibalism, torture..

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars please READ the publication dates, June 4, 2004

By 

Jennifer M Mohart (Silver Creek, NY) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Mammoth Book of True Crime: A New Edition (Mammoth Books) (Paperback)

did anyone who complained about this book, and felt that it was lacking more recent crimes, turn to the copywrite page in the beginning?
"Originally Published in Crime and Society 1973/4/5/6"
the parts written in 1998 are the introduction and pages 95-104 and 506-22. Meaning the chapters on Computer Crime and Servants Who Kill are the only chapters written in 1998.
I felt this book was a good collection of crimes. Sometimes the more recent crimes shown on tv and in newer books can be a bit redundent, it was nice to read about crimes that took place before DNA could solve everything.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A Feast for True Crime Gluttons!, January 2, 2002

By A Customer

This review is from: The Mammoth Book of True Crime: A New Edition (Mammoth Books) (Paperback)

I would definitely recommend this book to anyone who enjoys the true crime genre. There's loads of material in this lengthy book, and the best part is that the author avoids the well-trodden paths of the more famous crimes. I read a lot of true crime, and most of the cases in the book were new to me. It's very readable and engrossing.

Now my complaints: first, the author sometimes over-reaches his own abilities on psychological analysis of criminals and their crimes. He should leave the psychoanalysis to the professionals.

Second, when he does introduce the work of legitimate psychiatrists, he goes back to work done in the first half of the twentieth century and doesn't use anything more recent. Several times I checked the publication date to be sure I read 1998 and not 1968--If this book is so recent, why would he look to Freud to explain the psychology of crime instead of the more recent (and probably the more accurate work) of Robert Ressler, et al?

On a related note is the terminology he uses, which also makes the book seem dated. On the chapter headed "Mass Murders", not one of the accounts is about a criminal who kills multiple people at one time. It seems pretty basic that anyone writing true crime should know the distinction between mass murder and serial murder. He also sometimes describes the perpetrators/victims with a somewhat Victorian sensationalism, referring to them as "sex maniacs" or a 15-year old girl in the 1950's as the "mistress" of a boy her own age (who says "mistress" when referring to an adolescent boyfriend-girlfriend relationship in the 20th century???)

But the author's sometime Victorian mentality (and word choice) is only slightly annoying, and the plethora of true crime tales more than makes up for it.