True crime

Posted on Apr 22, 2021 by Missy Chapman  | Comments (0)

If you are addicted to all things true crime, you have probably already binged shows like Making a Murderer or Mindhunter. Truman Capote's true crime book “In Cold Blood”, published in 1966, details a brutal quadruple murder in small town Kansas. An instant success, the book launched the true crime genre that today consists of thousands of titles, television shows, films and even podcasts. Disturbing as the subject matter may be, true crime genre is a fascinating look into the human mind.

We're compelled by our desire to understand how the criminal mind works, and wonder what we'd do in a similar situation. This is what makes true crime books one of the most popular non-fiction genres, and it explains why we binge watch true crime documentaries and listen to true crime podcasts.  Below are a few old and new true crime titles the Warsaw Community Public Library has on their shelves.

“The Babysitter: my summers with a serial killer,” by Liza Rodman is a chilling true story--part memoir, part crime investigation about a little girl yearning for love and how she found friendship with her charismatic babysitter--who was also a vicious serial killer.

“Maniac: the Bath School disaster and the birth of the modern mass killer,” by Harold Schecter is a riveting, definitive, systematically researched chronicle of a town forced to comprehend unprecedented massacre and the triggering of a "human time bomb". On May 18, Andrew P Kehoe ignited a set of rigged explosives with the sole purpose of destroying the Bath School in Michigan. Thirty-eight children and six adults were murdered that morning, culminating one of the deadliest school massacre in US history.

“American Serial killers: the epidemic years 1950-2000,” by Peter Vronsky tells the stories of the most unusual and prominent serial killings from the 1950s to the early twenty-first century. From Ted Bundy to the Golden State Killer, our fascination with these classic serial killers continues to grow. This book gives true crime junkies what they crave.

Lost girls: an unsolved American mystery by Robert Kolker is a portrait of unsolved murders in an idyllic part of America, of the underside of the Internet, and of secrets that are kept. It is an account of the lives of five young women whose fates united in the perplexing case of the Long Island Serial Killer.