As a former Prison Governor who has had to work with a number of murderers and serial murderers – and who now writes about them as Emeritus Professor of Criminology – my professional life has inevitably been dominated by violent men. As they might say in the United States, I have “walked the walk” before doing my talking and I try and bring this applied dimension into my written and more academic work.
I wrote...
A History Of British Serial Killing: The Shocking Account of Jack the Ripper, Harold Shipman and Beyond
This is the definitive account of British serial killing and one which takes a victim perspective. Rather than focusing on what motivated the serial killer to kill – going “inside their minds”, the book considers which groups are more likely to be attacked. British serial killers have largely concentrated on five groups of victims, with women dominating four of those five groups – gay men are the only group of men to be targeted. Of the four groups of female victims, sex workers and women over the age of 60 dominate. This victim perspective allows Wilson to suggest that we could reduce the incidence of serial murder by challenging homophobia; having a “grown up” debate about how sex work is policed; and giving a voice to older people within British culture.
For me, Capote’s “non-fiction novel” is the beginning of the modern true crime genre.
Written in 1966 it details the 1959 murders of the Clutter family in Holcomb, Kansas by Richard Hickock and Perry Smith. There is now criticism of some details contained within the book and how Capote went about his research – as well as his ethical stance. In particular, it might be argued that the Clutters are poorly drawn within the narrative and too much space is given over to what might have driven Hickock and Perry to kill.
However, the book is atmospheric and, above all, it seeks to understand the murders within the broadest cultural context.
The chilling true crime 'non-fiction novel' that made Truman Capote's name, In Cold Blood is a seminal work of modern prose, a remarkable synthesis of journalistic skill and powerfully evocative narrative published in Penguin Modern Classics.
Controversial and compelling, In Cold Blood reconstructs the murder in 1959 of a Kansas farmer, his wife and both their children. Truman Capote's comprehensive study of the killings and subsequent investigation explores the circumstances surrounding this terrible crime and the effect it had on those involved. At the centre of his study are the amoral young killers Perry Smith and Dick Hickcock, who, vividly…
This is a superb and beautifully written book about one of Britain’s most notorious serial killers – Dennis Nilsen.
Brian Masters bases his text on documents, letters, and other materials that Nilsen sent, or shared with him and whilst the two would later fall out – Nilsen was a notoriously touchy and narcissistic man, this remains a detailed and forensic account of him and the crimes that he committed. In my own work I got to know Nilsen well and would often check out some of the things that he claimed to me by returning to Killing For Company.
The definitive story of the Dennis Nilsen case featured in BBC's The Nilsen Tapes, and the book behind ITV's Des, starring David Tennant
***WINNER OF THE GOLD DAGGER AWARD FOR CRIME NON-FICTION and THE NUMBER ONE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER*** __________________ Dennis Nilsen, who died in May 2018, admitted to killing at least 15 people before his arrest in 1983. This ground-breaking criminal study of his killings was written with Nilsen's full cooperation, resulting in a fascinating - and horrifying - portrait of the man who worshipped death.
In February 1983, residents of Muswell Hill had been plagued by blocked drains.…
First published in 1990 – based on a series of articles originally written for The New Yorker, this book is a warning to true crime authors the world over about the morality of reaching out and writing with and about murderers.
The journalist in question is Joe McGinniss and the murderer is the former Special Forces Captain Dr Jeffrey MacDonald who became the subject of McGinniss’s 1983 book Fatal Vision. Is it ethical to collaborate with someone who has been accused of murder? What are the pitfalls that need to be managed? And, at the end of the day, who is conning who – the journalist or the murderer?
'Every journalist who is not too stupid or too full of himself to notice what is going on knows that what he does is morally indefensible'
In equal measure famous and infamous, Janet Malcolm's book charts the true story of a lawsuit between Jeffrey MacDonald, a convicted murderer, and Joe McGinniss, the author of a book about the crime. Lauded as one of the Modern Libraries "100 Best Works of Nonfiction", The Journalist and the Murderer is fascinating and controversial, a contemporary classic of reportage.
First published in the 1980s, this book is a detailed account of the crimes committed by Peter Sutcliffe – the so-called “Yorkshire Ripper”.
It stands the test of time because the narrative is equally concerned with the women who would fall victim to Sutcliffe, and carefully tries to build up a picture of their lives before they were murdered. It is detailed and knowledgeable but, at the same time, has a narrative style that quickly connects with the reader.
Above all, it deals sensitively with the murders themselves and provides only a level of information which is necessary to understand what happened.
An extensively researched portrait of the character and motivations of Peter Sutcliffe, the Yorkshire Ripper, who was convicted in 1981 for the sadistic murders of thirteen women
This is a superb book that rightly won a number of literary prizes after its publication in 2020.
Rather than play the parlour game of trying to guess the identity of Jack the Ripper, Rubenhold – a social historian – does what the book says on its cover: it tells the stories of the women who were killed by Jack the Ripper. We see them in their complexity and begin to understand the crushing social and economic circumstances that came to dominate their lives before they were murdered.
THE #1 SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER WINNER OF THE BAILLIE GIFFORD PRIZE FOR NONFICTION 2019 'An angry and important work of historical detection, calling time on the misogyny that has fed the Ripper myth. Powerful and shaming' GUARDIAN
Polly, Annie, Elizabeth, Catherine and Mary-Jane are famous for the same thing, though they never met. They came from Fleet Street, Knightsbridge, Wolverhampton, Sweden and Wales. They wrote ballads, ran coffee houses, lived on country estates, they breathed ink-dust from printing presses and escaped people-traffickers.
What they had in common was the year of their murders: 1888.
Cleo Cooper, a cross-cultural psychology professor, is living the dream on the Big Island of Hawaii. With ocean-dipping weekends, she enjoys her dog, her job, and her boyfriend Ben - until the day she’s on a research vessel and a dead body is caught in the dragline.
The police determine it is murder and set their sights on a gentle former student, Kai. It doesn’t take much urging from Kai’s auntie for Cleo to investigate. But Ben grows distant, and Cleo’s dog grows ill. A couple of accidental deaths later, and someone makes an attempt on her life.
What happened to Cleo’s life in paradise? Can she discover the true killer? Can she stop the killer before the killer stops her?
Paradise is shaken when the body of a young woman is dragged onto a university research vessel during a class outing in Hilo Bay. Cleo Cooper is shaken when she finds her favorite student is on the hook for the murder. Danger lurks on land and sea as Cleo and her friends are enticed to search for the true killer. In between paddling, swimming, and arguing with her boyfriend, Cleo discovers all is not what it seems on the Big Island of Hawaii. But will she figure out the truth before she becomes the next victim?
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