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Wow... I feel the same way. You look at people differently after reading those accounts.
I started to believe a great deal of the problems in the world are due to children who have been abused/abandoned/neglected by their parents. They probably have the lowest self esteem because "If my parents don't care about me I must be really bad"
I think these kids might think pain and fighting are normal at everyone's home. It is only when they are old enough and have friends and visit their homes and observe the interactions of a proper family that they start thinking how their parents short changed them, how the parents are selfish and should not have had kids, etc. They must look inside and wonder how all that dysfunction has made them different than normal kids.
I think mental health in this country is so ignored. At a certain age a kid should be able to appeal to someone in the school for therapy, maybe. Even with screwed up parents some kids manage to live good lives. You'd think if they just had an adult to talk to on a regular basis that they could stay on track and do the right thing regardless of a crappy family.
All serial killers blame someone else for the fact that they kill over and over and over. Ted Bundy's personal humiliation is the lot of millions of people, and most of them never kill anyone. The fact is, he wanted to have sex with dead women and to do that, you almost have to go around killing people. Where the necrophilia comes from is an open question. And "I don't know who my father is" does not explain anything at all in that department.
Aren't sex based crimes the hardest to 'cure'? Some therapist said there is a sort of sexual imprinting that happens early in life. It's kind of a biological window. After that phase some behavior is just a part of who you are. I don't know how true that is, and you wonder where these ideas come from.
Aren't sex based crimes the hardest to 'cure'? Some therapist said there is a sort of sexual imprinting that happens early in life. It's kind of a biological window. After that phase some behavior is just a part of who you are. I don't know how true that is, and you wonder where these ideas come from.
To think that these idiots are walking among us - and this guy was in a position of authority.
It's true -- nobody has found any reliable way of changing a person's sexual desires. One obvious obstacle is that nobody WANTS that changed in themselves.
What about the cop who was planning with a buddy to kidnap, kill and eat a few women?
Anyone recall Mother's Day by Dennis McDougal? If prolonged physical abuse of children disturbs you, stay clear of this book! I'll never forget this book!
In June of 1985, while her teenage sons held their half-sister down, Theresa Cross beat her 19YO daughter Sheila unconscious and then stuffed her inside a 2' X 2' storage locker. After 3 days of the knocking, kicking and cries stopped, Theresa, and her sons, drove the delirious girl to the mountains, doused her with gasoline, and set her on fire.
Also: A Sniper In The Tower by Gary Lavergne. The True Story Of The Texas Tower Massacre/Charles Whitman, which happened in 1966 at the University of Texas in Austin.
Absolutely incredible book! With enough firepower to hold off an army, he ascended to the top of the tower and methodically gunned down, in 96 minutes, 45 strangers, killing 14, and the murders of his wife and mother the night before. He was an All-American Eagle Scout and U.S. Marine!
For me it was House of Secrets by Lowell Cauffiel.
I've been reading true crime for twenty plus years and this one just stands out. At first I was almost embarrassed to be a true crime fan. What drew me to it was the investigation and all the things the bad guys did to avoid getting caught, and all the things law enforcement did to catch them. Being true made it that much more interesting. THis book was different because it was so well written AND was not about law enforcement... the crimes were depraved and haunting.
I'd be interested if anyone else had that one book that stayed with them.
Hmm.. From what you said and the reviews on Amazon that book sounds good. I just checked and my library can get it. Think I might request it. I used to be into true crime too. I think the last true crime I read had to do with Ed Gein. Lately I've changed to mass murderers like Hitler, Stalin, Mao, and Pol Pot. I've read of the atrocities they did intentionally and unintentionally. Worse than anything any individual killer could do. Some of the great books I read but were given little shrife by the critics was Former People by Douglas Smith about the Russian Aristocracy before, during, and after the revolution; Forsaken: An American Tragedy in Stalin's Russia by Tim Tzouliadis about the untold migration of Americans to the Soviet Union during the Great Depression. This book was hard to read because it was tragic on so many levels; and The Black Book of Communism by multiple authors - a truely hair-raising read.
I think I've read all of John Douglas's books. It is terrifying knowing how depraved some people are but it is also good to know that they have the FBI studying them and making inroads into understanding what makes these people tick.
I find these types of books fascinating. I think it is better to be aware that there are these type of people out there who are predators. The Gift of Fear by Gavin De Becker is well worth reading.
What you said reminded me of an article I read years ago about the extinction of wolves in Europe. I can't remember the title of the article but I think it was in the Atlantic. Anyway, the article talked about why wolves were hunted to extinction. Europeans killed the wolves because they believed, either rightfully in some respects, or wrongly, that the wolves were preying on people because of the savage nature of the attacks. But criminologists now believe that the majority of those found dead were actually killed by murderers or even serial murderers and that the dead bodies might have been meals of opportunity for animals after the fact. My point is, there have always been and always will be twisted individuals out there.
Last edited by Anamandy; 10-23-2013 at 11:16 PM..
Reason: sp
The true crime books that are the hardest to digest are the books involving excessive physical abuse of children. I've gotten half-way thru some of these and? "Oh Lord, is it going to get any worse in the next chapter? Can it get any more heart-wrenching?" And? You read on and it gets even worse! And you kick yourself for being curious enough to continue reading it hoping for a light at the end of the tunnel.
One of these books that comes to mind is Zero At The Bone by Bryce Marshall & Paul Williams. Imagine! Lining up your kids in the backyards, with a BB gun, and using their bodies for target practice!
Another one that I've never thrown out: When A Child Kills by Paul Mones. (Abused Children Who Kill Their Parents). This is where the abuse got so out of hand, the children killed their mother or father, and Paul Mones is an attorney who defends these children in courtrooms!
Murder, involving poison, are can also be hard to digest. Ann Rule has one on a poisoning case and then there's Preacher's Girl by Jim Schutze, the Life and Times of Blanche Taylor Moore. Killed 3 of her husbands with arsenic and was almost to kill a 4th until she was apprehended.
And who will ever forget Perfect Victim by Christine McGuire and Carla Norton, concerning the "Girl in the Box".
If you want to read something truely horrifying, read Soul Murder: Persecution in the Family by Martin Shatzman. It's about a famous German doctor who was the Dr. Spock of his age. He was the idiot that came up with the 'spare the rod, spoil the child' nonsense. It was thanks to him that corporal punishment and psychological abuse became standard practice for child rearing. BTW - that famous doctor's children all committed suicide as adults. That's how horrific his treatment was. Good luck finding this book though, since it's been out of print for years. Still, though I read it over 30 years ago it still stays with me.
The book about Dennis Rader, BTK killer, is very detailed, and really makes you wonder why his wife had no clue her husband was a serial killer. If she ever wrote a book, it would be amazing to read.
What was even more amazing is that she never once went to the shed in the back of their property. It was like this area was off limits to her. Had she done so she might have realized something was seriously wrong with her husband.
ANN RULE PRESENTS– FINAL EXAMS: TRUE CRIME CASES FROM CYRIL WECHT
Ann Rule Presents– Final Exams: True Crime Cases from Cyril Wecht
by
Cyril H. Wecht, M.D., J.D. and Dawna Kaufmann
An excellent book was Dead Men Do Tell Tales: The Strange and Fascinating Cases of Forensic Anthropologists by William Maples. Interesting read on how numerous cases were solved through forensics.
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