Natural Born Killer: In Love and on the Road with a Serial Killer [Hardcover]

Sandy Fawkes (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 1, 2004

When Sandy Fawkes met a tall, handsome American in a hotel bar in Atlanta, she could never have dreamed what lay in store. The man told her he was completing a 20,000-mile journey across America. As he was going her way, Sandy accepted his invitation of a lift and they quickly became lovers. What Paul John Knowles failed to tell her was that he had left a trail of bloody murder along his route, a trail which had yet to end. Natural Born Killers is the astonishing true story of one woman and an 18-time killer, how he charmed her, and how she nearly became his 19th victim. This is the intimate account of one of the most gruesome and terrible serial killers in history, told by the woman who survived his fearsome attentions.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 288 pages
• Publisher: John Blake (April 1, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1844540243
• ISBN-13: 978-1844540242
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.1 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.5 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 2.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,057,708 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Is this love, that I'm feeling?, January 26, 2008

By 

George Trapezanidis "Kill City Inc." (Australia) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Natural Born Killer: In Love and on the Road with a Serial Killer (Hardcover)

I must say, that Sandy Fawkes's book titled "Killing Time" was one of the first books I read out of the true-crime book piles back in the late 80's, that it left such an impression on me, it was the starting point of my long life hobby as a book collector of the gender.

Questions such as, "what made someone commit these horrendous acts, and why?" "What was the motivation behind these crimes, and why spare the life of one but not another?"
Afterall, this book was written way before the term `serial killer' was even coined.

Natural Born Killer is the re-release of that book, minus all the great black and white photographs that accompanied the text of the 1977 book, Killing Time, and with only one very small addition, an "afterword" with the header (February 2004, London) to the length of only 6 pages long.

What is interesting is that in this latest addition, Fawkes retracts her statement from her 1977 publication regarding her feelings towards Knowles, "Knowles was as much a victim as any of the 18 people he killed ...may his poor, demented soul rest in peace", and states, "now I am not sure that I am as keen to find some streak in him deserving of sympathy ...or making others share the blame."

Another interesting fact that I find is that this current publication is titled "In Love And On The Road With A Serial Killer", which is really misleading due to the fact that Fawkes never at any stage claimed to have fallen in love with Knowles.
Quite frankly by the end of the 10th of November of 1974, and only after spending 3 days with him, she couldn't wait to get rid of him.

One wonders whether this is just not one of those quick try to cash-in jobs on the serial killer groupie phenomenon of the millennium era.

She claimed, Knowles was a lousy lover and a wannabe, living a lie and pretence of someone he wished he was, but never would be, the so-called normality this habitual criminal craved for life.

That was also one of the reasons behind Fawkes's narrow escape with death, which she became an unknowingly assistant in living that pretence he craved for so bad, including also the fact that as a journalist she may have given him the publicity and fame he craved for.

Tapes related to the Knowles case (audio confessions by Knowles himself), that in the 1975 hearing, Judge Owens ruled be sealed for 20 years, are briefly mentioned here as Fawkes loosing interest in ever hearing them, though time was closing in on their release.

Makes one wonder whether that not ever knowing got the better of Fawkes, and another re-release of this book later on this year, titled "In Love With A Serial Killer", will include transcripts of those tapes, that may or may not shed light into Knowles's psychopathology behind his serial killing spree that he personally claimed left 35 people dead in his path.
It would be interesting, in the least to say, that after all, these tapes were what haunted Mrs Fawkes and all her readers since 1974.

Nevertheless, it's a great easy going text, that keeps you interested from beginning til end, in line with books the likes of Elizabeth Kendall's "The Phantom Prince: My Life with Ted Bundy."

As a better and cheaper alternative to this title, I recommend Fawkes's original publication on the Knowles case titled "Killing Time."

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars poorly written, September 5, 2007

By 

pedro Cash (middle east) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Natural Born Killer: In Love and on the Road with a Serial Killer (Hardcover)

This book is touted as a chilling account of life on the road with a serial killer, I did not find any of this book to be chilling, nor well written. Sandy Fawkes is listed as a writer, technically speaking she is, although she is/was a fashion writer, specifically I didn't think she related her experiences all that well, the only thing she kept ranting about was how boring she thought Knowles was and how much smarter she was then him. I found that she was more pre-disposed to talking about his clothes and lack of sexual prowess. Do not waste your money buying this, there were no insights into the mind of Knowles, and as a "investigative journalist" Fawkes failed at securing an interview with Knowles before his death. For anyone thinking this book would have anything of value in profiling or the thought process of of a socio-path look somewhere else.