Monsieur Chauvin
05-28-2009, 01:32 AM
Book Review: Female Serial Killers
Female Serial Killers: How and Why Women Become Monsters, Peter Vronsky (Berkley Books, 2007).
This is the single best book I know of about female serial killers. Vronsky has his own agenda--he is, to some extent justifiably, annoyed by some feminist analysis of female serial killers & seems to have a particular upset fascination with the term "phallocentric"--but he is careful and honest when it comes to facts, and he points out some interesting patterns in the rare and small-sample studies of female serial killers that have been done.
He defines "serial killer" as anyone who does two separate murders--a low number compared to other sources, but it makes sense to me. Often, the first murder is somewhat accidental, but the second shows choice and planning. Also, it correctly includes murderers like Ed Gein who are caught after the second.
I was especially interested in his debunking or qualification of the more informed stereotypes about female serial killers. That is, I knew that Aileen Wuornos was far from the first female serial killer--I call her "the first male-pattern serial killer"--but I did think of women, for instance, as primarily poisoners. This is generally true, but women do use knives and guns as well.
Two things I had not known, both of which interest me. First, while male serial killers tend to cool off or burn out in their 40s or 50s (with Fish or Chikatilo as famous exceptions), women tend to continue to kill into old age, sometimes accelerating after menopause. Also, while solo female serial killers do not generally torture or mangle their victims, female partners in dual serial killings often do, even more savagely than the male partner. Vronsky wisely does not speculate about what this says concerning biology or acculturation, but leaves that to the reader.
Also, Vronsky mentions one study of female serial killers that said all were "overweight" as children/adolescents. Fascinating, Captain. I have long felt that bed-wetting is a common precursor to serial killing, not because it shows something fundamentally wrong in the person, but because it becomes a source of teasing and belittling the child; I would guess the same is true with being fat, although the situation may well be more complicated than that.
After two chapters of general findings and history--including a spate of "black widow" poisonings in the mid-19th-century after insurance became common but before arsenic sales were regulated--the book concentrates on 20th-century cases. Most will be familiar to the serial-killer buff, but not all; and the author's judgments are always interesting, especially when the female partner could be seen as a terrified dupe or (Vronsky usually concludes) active participant.
I had not known that Carol Bundy (no relation to Ted Bundy) was Richard Geis' girlfriend "C--," often mentioned in his fanzines! It would be interesting to dig up her published fiction, her fanzine, and fanzine writing about her.
While I had heard of Karla Homolka and Paul Bernardo, and known that he raped her younger sister Tammy with Karla's assistance, I was amazed to find that the whole situation was even sicker than I'd imagined. I felt soiled--and have ordered two books about the couple. Just when I think I've read it all & nothing can shock me. Vronsky also mentions a book about serial killers by Ian Brady (although he does not directly address his own case), which I have ordered from Feral House.
So for the serial-killer buff or even newbie, this book offers some interesting facts, challenging insights, and directions for further research.
Mood: reviewish, chatty but babying my shoulder
Link: Cunt serial killers. (http://nellorat.livejournal.com/391082.html)
Female Serial Killers: How and Why Women Become Monsters, Peter Vronsky (Berkley Books, 2007).
This is the single best book I know of about female serial killers. Vronsky has his own agenda--he is, to some extent justifiably, annoyed by some feminist analysis of female serial killers & seems to have a particular upset fascination with the term "phallocentric"--but he is careful and honest when it comes to facts, and he points out some interesting patterns in the rare and small-sample studies of female serial killers that have been done.
He defines "serial killer" as anyone who does two separate murders--a low number compared to other sources, but it makes sense to me. Often, the first murder is somewhat accidental, but the second shows choice and planning. Also, it correctly includes murderers like Ed Gein who are caught after the second.
I was especially interested in his debunking or qualification of the more informed stereotypes about female serial killers. That is, I knew that Aileen Wuornos was far from the first female serial killer--I call her "the first male-pattern serial killer"--but I did think of women, for instance, as primarily poisoners. This is generally true, but women do use knives and guns as well.
Two things I had not known, both of which interest me. First, while male serial killers tend to cool off or burn out in their 40s or 50s (with Fish or Chikatilo as famous exceptions), women tend to continue to kill into old age, sometimes accelerating after menopause. Also, while solo female serial killers do not generally torture or mangle their victims, female partners in dual serial killings often do, even more savagely than the male partner. Vronsky wisely does not speculate about what this says concerning biology or acculturation, but leaves that to the reader.
Also, Vronsky mentions one study of female serial killers that said all were "overweight" as children/adolescents. Fascinating, Captain. I have long felt that bed-wetting is a common precursor to serial killing, not because it shows something fundamentally wrong in the person, but because it becomes a source of teasing and belittling the child; I would guess the same is true with being fat, although the situation may well be more complicated than that.
After two chapters of general findings and history--including a spate of "black widow" poisonings in the mid-19th-century after insurance became common but before arsenic sales were regulated--the book concentrates on 20th-century cases. Most will be familiar to the serial-killer buff, but not all; and the author's judgments are always interesting, especially when the female partner could be seen as a terrified dupe or (Vronsky usually concludes) active participant.
I had not known that Carol Bundy (no relation to Ted Bundy) was Richard Geis' girlfriend "C--," often mentioned in his fanzines! It would be interesting to dig up her published fiction, her fanzine, and fanzine writing about her.
While I had heard of Karla Homolka and Paul Bernardo, and known that he raped her younger sister Tammy with Karla's assistance, I was amazed to find that the whole situation was even sicker than I'd imagined. I felt soiled--and have ordered two books about the couple. Just when I think I've read it all & nothing can shock me. Vronsky also mentions a book about serial killers by Ian Brady (although he does not directly address his own case), which I have ordered from Feral House.
So for the serial-killer buff or even newbie, this book offers some interesting facts, challenging insights, and directions for further research.
Mood: reviewish, chatty but babying my shoulder
Link: Cunt serial killers. (http://nellorat.livejournal.com/391082.html)