The body snatcher who inspired Psycho, the noblewoman known as Countess Dracula, Jack the Ripper, and other killers for whom murder was just the beginning.
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From Gilles de RaisтАЩ castle in fifteenth-century France to тАЬthe Bloody BendersтАЩтАЭ eighteenth-century Kansas farm to Jeffrey DahmerтАЩs quiet apartment in twentieth-century Milwaukee, history is littered with serial murderers whose first impulse was to take a life. For some, it was never enough. The real thrill came after their victims were dead.
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In this shocking anthology, true crime journalist Nigel Blundell brings together more than two dozen chilling profiles of the worldтАЩs most unforgettable fiends, including: Ed Gein, the Plainfield necrophile and inspiration for The Silence of the Lambs; Andrei Chikatilo, the тАЬRostov RipperтАЭ, whose uncontrollable hunger was satiated by more that fifty victims; Dennis Nilsen, whose London house of horrors so overflowed with body parts that they blocked the drains; GermanyтАЩs Fritz Haarmann who killed and consumed more than two dozen men, then peddled the left-over meat on the black market; Hungarian countess Elizabeth B├бthory whose lust for the blood of virginsтАФa body count estimated to be in the hundredsтАФhas branded her the most prolific female serial killer in world history; and many more human monsters whose appetites are still the stuff of nightmares.