Psycho USA: Famous American Killers You Never Heard Of (59 page)

“People are fascinated by representations of murder because, in the first place, they want to kill someone and, in the second, they won’t. Surely one function of narrative is to allow in the imagination what we forbid in the flesh.”

—G
EORGE
S
TADE
(1984)

“From at least the time of ancient Greeks, sex, disfigurement, and murder have sold … The 1890s are better remembered for Lizzie Borden whacking her parents than for, say, the Free Silver Movement.”

—
Newsweek
, January 2, 1995.

“We know how to make serial killers. You just take a Type A kid who’s fairly bright and just beat the crap out of him day after day.”

—C
ORMAC
McC
ARTHY
(2008)

In memory of David Everitt

Tracey Baker

Galin Colleen Brown

Sarah Burns

Stanley Burns

Damien Charles

Donna Eschenbrenner

Brian Fulton

Miyako Hannan

Anne Hays

Bruce Kirby

Lisa Rivera

Chris Stuart

Angela Troisi

Matthew Turi

Sarah Wilcox

Bob Wilkinson

Wayne Wright

N
ONFICTION

The A to Z Encyclopedia of Serial Killers (with David Everitt)
Bestial: The Savage Trail of a True American Monster
Depraved: The Shocking True Story of America’s First Serial Killer
Deranged: The Shocking True Story of America’s Most Fiendish Killer
Deviant: The Shocking True Story of Ed Gein, the Original “Psycho”
Fatal: The Poisonous Life of a Female Serial Killer
Fiend: The Shocking True Story of America’s Youngest Serial Killer
Savage Pastimes: A Cultural History of Violent Entertainment
The Serial Killer Files: The Who, What, Where, How, and Why of the World’s Most Terrifying Murderers
The Whole Death Catalog: A Lively Guide to the Bitter End

N
ARRATIVE
N
ONFICTION

Killer Colt: Murder, Disgrace, and the Making of an American Legend

The Devil’s Gentleman: Privilege, Poison, and the Trial That
Ushered in the Twentieth Century

F
ICTION

Nevermore
Outcry
The Hum Bug
The Mask of Red Death
The Tell-Tale Corpse

H
AROLD
S
CHECHTER
is a professor of American literature and culture at Queens College, the City University of New York. He is widely celebrated for both fiction and true-crime writing, including
The Devil’s Gentleman
,
The Tell-Tale Corpse
, and
The Serial Killer Files.
He lives in Brooklyn and Mattituck, Long Island, with his wife, the poet Kimiko Hahn.