Quotes from Harold Schechter

Fish had already told both Wertham and Detective King that, in addition to shoving needles inside his body, he liked to soak pieces of cotton in alcohol, cram them up his rectum, and set fire to them.

Religion in its fanatic state may be a passion devoid of morality that will take any means to an end.

In comparing Belle to Jack the Ripper as a murderer driven by bloodlust and employing a signature MO, this anonymous expert accurately identified her as the type of homicidal maniac for which no name had yet been coined: what a later age would call a serial killer.

No, sir!" cried Maxson, clearly incensed at the suggestion that he might engage in an activity as effete as reading fiction. "I want you to understand here and now that I do not read novels, no kind of novels!

Definitions vary, but the most useful comes from the National Institute of Justice, which describes it as a "series of two or more murders, committed as separate events, usually . . . by one offender acting alone. The crimes may occur over a period of time, ranging from hours to years. Quite often, the motive is psychological, and the offender's behavior and the physical evidence observed at the crime scenes will reflect sadistic, sexual overtones.

Nelles explained that its inmates "could be divided into three groups": "those who are feeble-minded," those "of sound mind whose delinquency is associated with some form of misunderstanding or neglect," and "those who wrong-doing has become habitual and who are intentionally, deliberately, and willfully guilty of misconduct.

disobedience, refusal to work, refusal to answer when spoken to, and a determination not to succeed.

British baby farmer Amelia Dyer, believed to have murdered several hundred infants in her care.[1

Frémont failed in his presidential bid, losing the 1856 election to his Democratic opponent, James Buchanan.

When he died on February 23, 1902, at age ninety-six, he had broken a local longevity record

Trilby's face appeared on dolls, fans, writing paper, puzzles, and there were ice cream bars made in the shape of her feet.

She held him spellbound," he went on, then let out a ragged breath. "So he went to his death."[

publicly raped by a specially trained giraffe, after which she was torn apart by wild animals.

The scientific investigator, in seeking an explanation for Mrs. Gunness' unnatural crimes, would say that she was emotionally dead," Munsterberg wrote.

In Chicago, the appetite for every juicy tidbit about the case was fed by the yellow papers, which—when no actual news was available—cheerfully dished out wild rumor, lurid gossip, and even rank fabrication.

It's cold here; I have a sparrow in a box with his foot frozen off; I'm afraid I'm going to have to kill him as I cannot keep him in that box & he can't possibly live if I turn him loose. This is a tough world for lots of people, including sparrows.10

Asked at one point why he had slain so many of his neighbors, Unruh replied: "I'd have killed a thousand if I'd had bullets enough."[55]

Largely because of its emphasis on gore, the Illustrated Police News had the highest circulation of any publication in Victorian England.

I have observed that religion is not restraining in a moral see. Religion is not the same as ethics. Religion in its fanatic state may be a passion devoid of morality that will take any means to an end.

Why did they have to keep the heat on in Ed Gein's house? So the furniture wouldn't get goose bumps.

In other words, serial killers are, by and large, sexual psychopaths of a particularly depraved variety—deviants who can only achieve orgasmic release by making other people die.

Religion is not the same as ethics. Religion in its fanatic state may be a passion devoid of morality that will take any means to an end.

The friendly relations Belle enjoyed with her neighbors when she first came to La Porte were not fated to last. "No one was a friend of hers," Louisa Diessl

American values as self-reliance, rugged independence, a reverence for the land, a belief in the importance of hard work and self-sacrifice, and a willingness to fight when necessary for home, family, and community. And