History of monsters. Postmodern age of serial homicide, 1970-2000 -- Brief history of serial homicide -- Method and madness. Classifying serial killers -- Evolution of monstrosity -- Question of madness -- Serial killers as children -- Serial murderer's first kill -- Killing times -- Fighting monsters. Art and science of criminal profiling -- Surviving a serial killer

"In this unique book, Peter Vronsky documents the psychological, investigative, and cultural aspects of serial murder, beginning with its first recorded instance in Ancient Rome, through fifteenth-century France, up to such notorious contemporary cases as cannibal/necrophile Ed Kemper, Henry Lee Lucas, Ted Bundy, and the emergence of what he classifies as "the serial rampage killer" such as Andrew Cunanan. Exhaustively researched with transcripts of interviews with killers, and featuring up-to-date information on the apprehension and conviction of the Green River Killer and the Beltway Snipers, Vronsky's one-of-a-kind books covers every conceivable aspect of an endlessly riveting true-crime phenomenon."--Publisher description