Customer Reviews

Serial Killers and Sadistic Murderers - Up Close and Personal

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

It's my first book in this genre and I was hoping for a neat introduction to give me ideas for further reading. I'll have to try another because this wasn't up to much, with each serial killer blurring in to the other, uninspiring prose and self-repeating analysis. The author didn't miss opportunities to plug his own credentials, just a shame he couldn't translate this in to a more satisfying read.

It's got a foreword by Robert K. Ressler and six endorsements from academics on the back, but Serial Killers and Sadistic Murderers is a sloppily researched, casually written, book.

What really did it was pages 102-104, when Levin refers to Dennis Nilsen as "Henry Nilson". He talks about having lunch with Brian Masters, author of Killing for Company, but I guess Nilsen's name didn't come up.

You can't write a book without making mistakes, but for heaven's sake, the author has a PhD, he's done a half-dozen books on the subject, and is regularly trotted out as an expert on serial murder.

Levin's new book is a kind of summering his knowledge on serial killers for many years. The author explain the phenomena and its multiple faces to the academic reader as well as for the common readers as well
This book is not of a theoretical but a descriptive of the many kinds and reasons of serial killers. The personal touch from Levin knowledge and acquaintanceship with so many cases of serial killers give the reader a global picture of the phenomena, and make the reader feel as he himself knew this killers.

I'm a film enthusiast who watches a wide variety of movies and after my having viewed such pictures over the years as 10 Rillington Place (1971), Manhunter (1986), Henry: Portrait Of A Serial Killer (1990), and Citizen X (1995), I began to want to learn more about the psyche of these loathsome beings in order to try and make some sense as to what turns ordinary humans into murderous psychos (is it nature or nurture? for example).

You won't find too much psychological magnification of this kind here.

That said...

I first was introduced to criminologist Jack Levin after seeing him interviewed in the two-disc, ten-part documentary, America's Serial Killers: Portraits In Evil (2009), featured alongside true-crime writer Kirk Gill, and Steven A. Egger (criminologist). In this documentary Mr. Levin made an impression on me as one who is intelligent, insightful, and knowledgeable in his field. And so I went and picked up his latest book, Serial Killers And Sadistic Murderers: Up Close And Personal (2008; 233 pages).

I understood going in to the book that this wasn't going to be a comprehensive, in-depth look at serial killers themselves but a book written from a criminologist's perspective - a book mainly regarding *his* experiences as well as his thoughts. If you understand this then the book is by no means unrewarding. In fact, there's a lot of substance to it.

Here's a chapter-by-chapter rundown:

Chapter 1: Highlights the Hillside Stranglers: Ken Bianchi and his older cousin Angelo Buono. Together, these two despicable lowlifes teamed up to torture and kill ten girls and women. (I wonder why these two weren't featured instead in the more appropriate twelfth chapter?)

Chapter 2: The book changes pace here and instead of highlighting a high-profile murderer looks into the reasons why people kill. It's an informative chapter. Levin talks about why it is that sadistic entertainment sells, how nowadays masculinity in our culture equals callosity, and how television often glamorizes depictions of humans being dehumanized in one form or another.

Chapter 3: Details Canadian serial killer and B.C. native Clifford Olson, who raped and killed eleven children and teens, and who went on to serve his sentence in Ontario's Kingston Penitentiary.

Chapter 4: Provides an overview of the crimes of Orville Lynn Majors, John Wayne Gacy, Dennis Rader (a.k.a. the BTK Killer) and Richard Ramirez (a.k.a. the Night Stalker).

Chapter 5: Focuses on serial killer Cesar Barone.

Chapter 6: Within this chapter Levin becomes anecdotal and discusses an experience of his in which he appeared on a TV talk-show with three neo-Nazi skinheads.

Chapter 7: The author centers his attention on spousal homicides.

Chapter 8: Snitching is the theme of this chapter. Also, the case of Pamela Smart is briefly discussed.

Chapter 9: The entire chapter is devoted to the case of that sick sociopathic cannibal, Jeffrey Dahmer.

Chapter 10: Mass murderers are the theme here, such as R. Gene Simmons, and after reading this chapter you may wonder why "mass murderers" wasn't included in the book's title.

Chapter 11: Centers on Charles Manson.

Chapter 12: Includes overviews of Elizabeth Smart, the D.C. Snipers (John Allen Muhammad and Lee Malvo), Douglas Clark (a.k.a. the Sunset Strip Killer), and the infamous Canadian duo of Paul Bernardo and Karla Homolka.

Chapter 13: Here Jack Levin notes a few case examples in which intended victims were threatened prior to their being killed.

Chapter 14: Begins with a summary of Ted Kaczynski (a.k.a. the Unabomber) and later segues into a discussion on the effects serial killing has on the kin of some of these bloodthirsty incorrigibles, such as the mother of Ken Bianchi.

Chapter 15: Mentioned within this chapter is Scotland's biggest mass shooting as well as American James Ruppert, who committed the largest of this kind in the U.S.

Chapter 16: Highlights the Virginia Tech massacre.

Chapter 17: Levin devotes this chapter to discussing ways in which to prevent crime, as well as offering his opinion on capital punishment.

The book also contains 12 pages of b&w photos.

Some interesting comments that Jack Levin relates to the reader throughout these pages include such facts as: "Seventy-five percent of all serial killers are white," and how "More than 95 percent of all serial killers are men."

Jack Levin's Serial Killers And Sadistic Murderers: Up Close And Personal is a look more inside the mind of this criminologist than anything else. The author offers, besides numerous summations of much publicized accounts, the occasional analysis (as in chapter 2) as well as some thought-provoking viewpoints (as in chapter 17).

If you're looking instead for a thorough study on the subject as a whole then I recommend Harold Schecter's well-written and -compiled The Serial Killer Files.

An aside: As I read in chapter 2 of how some serial murderers kill primarily because they enjoy the fame I couldn't help but thinking of some of the words to Morrissey's song, The Last Of The Famous International Playboys.

A very readable and good book. Short and to the point. Read it quickly and passed it to a friend to read and enjoy.

After twenty-five years of probing serial murders, interviewing killers and their families, neighbors, and surviving victims, author Jack Levin has become an expert on the topic - and here translates his expertise to a series of lessons identifying the mind of these killers and how their murders occur. Any college-level collection strong in enforcement books will find this an invaluable tool to understanding the psychology and activities of these killers.

Too vague, too personal. I was expecting something more "professional", kind of a textbook where to learn some of the approaches used by behavioral analysts in dealing with the subject of serial killers. Lots of examples, but no in-depth analysis of them. A book just to learn some names.

Serial Killers and Sadistic Murderers - Up Close and Personal by Jack Levin

The title is misleading and the author stops covering the main topic (Serial Killers) halfway through. He moves from covering serial killers to mass shooters. ???? I purchased the book to enhance my insight into the mind of the serial and sadistic killer. Instead what I got was a book that was obviously put together for quick print and a payoff.

My Recommendation: There are better books out there that cover the topic. Go find them. If your just wanting a light read on the topic. This book might be for you.