Murder on File

This gruesome guide details over 100 of the world's most infamous murderers and their associated crimes. In easy to understand format, each subject is comprehensively detailed under the headings: name (and alias if any), victims, locus, dates of crimes, means, motive and lastly crime watch which graphically records the modus operandum and sets the scene for each and every crime. The Whittington-Egans' witty and comprehensible style enlivens an otherwise depressing account of these 'silencer's of the lambs'. Prime research sources are also listed. A unique guide to the world's most notorious serial killers. Throughout it all, the Whittington-Egan's gawky sense of humour runs. Take Ed Gein, the original inspiration for Hitchcock's Psycho: "It was Mother who screwed up young Eddie. Augusta Gein reared him to have nothing to do with women. But he was very, very interested in them. And when Augusta died, and he was 39, he nailed up her room and went out to the graveyards to dig himself up some women to play with. About nine of them. He did not like their smell, and the murders were a natural extension of his activities. The decapitated body of Mrs Worden, his last victim, was found hanging by the heels from a crossbar hoisted by a block and tackle in a shed at the neglected Gein farm. She had been gutted like a deer and was slit open from her crotch to where her head should have been." Wisely avoiding the deranged world of the rampant gun-toting killers of recent years, the Whittington-Egans explore only the classic killers who are now household names.