Harold Schechter est un auteur de true crime spécialisé dans la psychologie sombre des tueurs en série. Ses œuvres plongent dans les profondeurs de la dépravation humaine, reconstruisant méticuleusement des affaires notoires avec une narration captivante. L'approche distinctive de Schechter mêle une recherche rigoureuse à un style narratif convaincant, entraînant les lecteurs dans des histoires criminelles complexes. Au-delà de ses récits de true crime acclamés, il crée également des fictions captivantes, réimaginant des figures historiques au sein de palpitantes séries de mystère.
Ce récit révèle la véritable histoire d'un malade mental sous l'emprise d'une mère bigote et abusive. Cette biographie factuelle d'Ed Gein se focalise sur son enfance et sa vie de famille malheureuses, et sur la façon dont elles ont façonné sa psyché. Il explore aussi le choc collectif qui entoura l'affaire et la prise de conscience que les tueurs peuvent être des citoyens ordinaires.
Praised by Caleb Carr for his "brilliantly detailed and above all riveting" true-crime writing, Harold Schechter brings his expertise to a marvelous work of fiction. Superbly rendering the 1830s Baltimore of Edgar Allan Poe, Schechter taps into the dark genius of that legendary author -- and follows a labyrinthine path into the heart of a most heinous crime. Nevermore A literary critic known for his scathing pen, Edgar Allan Poe is a young struggling writer, plagued by dreadful ruminations and horrific visions. Suddenly he is plunged into an adventure beyond his wildest fantasies -- a quest for a killer through Baltimore's highest and lowest streets and byways. A string of ghastly murders is linked by one chilling clue -- a cryptic word scrawled in blood. It is a terrifying lure that ensnares Poe in a deadly investigation. And along the way, his own macabre literary imagination is sparked as he unveils dark realities stranger than any fiction...
FROM SOCIAL OUTCAST TO NECROPHILE AND MURDERER -- HIS APPALLING CRIMES STUNNED AN ERA. San Francisco, the 1920s. In an age when nightmares were relegated to the fiction of Edgar Allan Poe and distant tales of the Whitechapel murders, a real-life monster terrorized America. His acts of butchery have proved him one of history's fiercest madmen. As an infant, Earle Leonard Nelson possessed the power to unsettle his elders. As a child he was unnaturally obsessed with the Bible; before he reached puberty, he had an insatiable, aberrant sex drive. By his teens, even Earle's own family had reason to fear him. But no one in the bone-chilling winter of 1926 could have predicted that his degeneracy would erupt in a sixteen-month frenzy of savage rape, barbaric murder, and unimaginable defilement -- deeds that would become the hallmarks of one of the most notorious fiends of the twentieth century, whose blood-lust would not be equaled until the likes of Henry Lee Lucas, John Wayne Gacy, and Jeffrey Dahmer. Drawing on the "gruesome, awesome, compelling reporting" (Ann Rule) that is his trademark, Harold Schechter takes a dark journey into the mind of an unrepentant sadist -- and brilliantly lays bare the myth of innocence that shrouded a bygone era.
A professor of American literature and culture, renowned for his true-crime writing, Harold Schechter's Outcry discovers that a killer's instincts never die. When reporter Paul Novak investigates a series of brutal murders, he didn't plan to pry into the legend of Ed Gein, the butcher of Plainfield, Wisconsin. But when local lore leads him to the ramshackle home of a bizarre young man and his mother, Paul realizes he's stumbled across Ed Gein's best kept secret
An encyclopedia of the serial killer phenomenon addresses the historical, psychological, social, and cultural aspects of such criminals and their crimes, providing more than one hundred individual profiles of serial killers.
In our high-tech, consumerist culture, traditional folklore has found itself revived in an eclectic mix of popular works from B-movies, TV shows, and superhero comics to pulp novels and supermarket tabloids. With a strong emphasis on narrative and very little reliance on aesthetics, these forms of popular entertainment have often defied analysis. The Bosom Serpent fills this gap by revealing the pervasive similarities between traditional folklore motifs and our contemporary forms of amusement. By examining a variety of works and genres from classic fairy tales to supermarket tabloids, The Bosom Serpent demonstrates that today’s popular art is no more (or less) than the sort of unpretentious narrative entertainment human beings have always craved – tall tales dressed up to fit the concerns of the time.
Offering a unique blend of bizarre and fascinating insights, this newly revised and updated guide serves as an ultimate resource on its subject. It promises to engage readers with its intriguing content, making it a captivating read for those seeking both knowledge and entertainment.
The heinous bloodlust of Dr. H.H. Holmes is notorious -- but only Harold Schechter's Depraved tells the complete story of the killer whose evil acts of torture and murder flourished within miles of the Chicago World's Fair. "Destined to be a true crime classic" (Flint Journal, MI), this authoritative account chronicles the methods and madness of a monster who slipped easily into a bright, affluent Midwestern suburb, where no one suspected the dapper, charming Holmes -- who alternately posed as doctor, druggist, and inventor to snare his prey -- was the architect of a labyrinthine "Castle of Horrors." Holmes admitted to twenty-seven murders by the time his madhouse of trapdoors, asphyxiation devices, body chutes, and acid vats was exposed. The seminal profile of a homegrown madman in the era of Jack the Ripper, Depraved is also a mesmerizing tale of true detection long before the age of technological wizardry.
The narrative delves into the chilling life of Albert Fish, a seemingly benign figure who transformed into one of America's most notorious child murderers during the 1930s. Author Harold Schechter meticulously uncovers the dark realities of Fish's heinous crimes, providing a gripping exploration of his twisted psyche and the societal impact of his actions. This true crime account reveals the stark contrast between Fish's outward appearance and his monstrous deeds, making it a compelling study of evil.
In an era that produced some of the most vicious female sociopaths in American history, Jane Toppan would become the most notorious of them all. AN ANGEL OF MERCY In 1891, Jane Toppan, a proper New England matron, embarked on a profession as a private-duty nurse. Selfless and good-natured, she beguiled Boston's most prominent families. They had no idea what they were welcoming into their homes.... A DEVIL IN DISGUISE No one knew of Jane's past: of her mother's tragic death, of her brutal upbringing in an adoptive home, of her father's insanity, or of her own suicide attempts. No one could have guessed that during her tenure at a Massachusetts hospital the amiable "Jolly Jane" was morbidly obsessed with autopsies, or that she conducted her own after-hours experiments on patients, deriving sexual satisfaction in their slow, agonizing deaths from poison. Self-schooled in the art of murder, Jane Toppan was just beginning her career -- and she would indulge in her true calling victim by victim to become the most prolific domestic fiend of the nineteenth century.