MURDER, HORROR, SERIAL KILLERS

BY: Ramona Duoba

True Crime has more than just a following of individuals who like a good “whodunit.” Podcasts, documentaries, TV shows, cable series, streaming platforms are all capitalizing on the obsession of murder. True Crime gives us a glimpse into a world we would never be part of and it shows us a deeper, darker side of humanity. Scott Bonn, the author of Why We Love Serial Killers, wrote at TIME, “Serial killers tantalize people much like traffic accidents, train wrecks, or natural disasters…the actions of a serial killer may be horrible to behold but much of the public simply cannot look away.” For the devout sleuth, Provokr has put together a list of top 10 true crime novels. These are stories about real people doing real things, even if those things are the most heinous and twisted acts. The public wants the whole shocking story and that’s what true crime literature is all about.

In Cold Blood by Truman Capote

Published in 1966, the book details the 1959 quadruple murder of the Clutter family in the farming community of Holcomb, Kansas. Capote traveled to Kansas with his friend and fellow author Harper Lee (To Kill a Mockingbird). They conducted extensive interviews with residents and investigators. Six weeks after the murders, two ex-convicts, Richard Hickock and Perry Smith were arrested and later executed by the state of Kansas. It took Capote six years to write the book. Not only was it an instant success, In Cold Blood is considered the genesis of American true crime literature.

Helter Skelter by Vincent Bugliosi

It was summer 1969 in Los Angeles and a series of brutal murders captured the headlines across America. Actress Sharon Tate and her unborn child, an heiress to a coffee fortune, and a supermarket owner and his wife were among the seven victims. A trail of evidence led to Charles Manson and members of his devoted “family” who, at the time, lived in a desert compound. Vincent Bugliosi, prosecuting attorney and author of Helter Skelter, shares in detail how he built his case against Manson and recounted the savage murders.

The Stranger Beside Me (Ted Bundy) by Ann Rule

In this book, Rule describes her awareness that her coworker, Ted Bundy, is one of the most wanted serial killers in America. Bundy confessed to killing thirty-six women and was eventually executed. Rule draws from their correspondence, which lasted until just before Bundy’s death. It’s a balance between her perspective and her role as a crime reporter in search of the brutal serial killer. In 2003 the grisly story, based on Rule’s book, was made into a TV movie.

I’ll Be Gone in the Dark: One Woman’s Obsessive Search for the Golden State Killer by Michelle McNamara

The “Golden State Killer,” terrorized northern California from the mid-70s to the mid-80s. McNamara, a true-crime journalist who created the popular website TrueCrimeDiary.com, describes the crimes and examines clues to uncover his identity. Knowing all of this, and with each chilling description, McNamara’s obsession begins to become our own. She believed that the “Golden State Killer” would still be alive today. But McNamara, at the age of 46, died suddenly and before she finished her book. The novel was released nearly two years after her death and two months before the arrest of Joseph DeAngelo. The HBO true-crime documentary series, based on the book, will premiere on June 28.

People Who Eat Darkness: The true story of a young woman who vanished from the streets of Tokyo–and the Evil That Swallowed Her Up: Richard Lloyd Parry

In the summer of 2000, Lucie Blackman, a 21-year-old British woman went on a date in Tokyo and was never seen again. Seven months later, her dismembered body turned up in a seaside cave. Parry, a foreign correspondent, covered the young woman’s disappearance, followed the search and investigation and reported on the lengthy trial. Over ten years, Parry established a relationship with Blackman’s family, friends and the Japanese detectives. He delved into the mind of the accused man, Joji Obara, who was described by the judge as “unprecedented and extremely evil.”

Say Nothing: A True Story of Murder and Memory in Northern Ireland: Patrick Radden Keefe

Keefe chronicles the abduction of Jean McConville, a 38-year-old mother of ten abducted by a group of masked intruders. McConville, believed to be a British informant, was never seen again. Her disappearance was one of the most notorious and ruthless episodes of the conflict in Northern Ireland. Keefe uses the McConville case to tell the story of guerilla warfare, a society paralyzed by fear and the consequences embedded in the memories of those who were part of the deeply personal history. F/X recently optioned the book for a potential series.

The Road to Jonestown: Jim Jones and Peoples Temple: Jeff Guinn

In the 1950s, Indianapolis minister Jim Jones preached the gospel and Marxism. He was a charismatic leader with a devoted following who eventually moved his church, Peoples Temple, to northern California. Jeff Guinn examines Jones’s life from his early days as a preacher to a secret and dark lifestyle, which leads him to uproot his congregation and move to a settlement in Guyana. It is a tragic saga exploring the details leading to that fatal day in November 1978 when more than nine hundred members of the Peoples Temple died after being ordered to drink a cyanide-laced punch.

For the Thrill of It: Leopold, Loeb, and the Murder that Shocked Chicago: Simon Baatz

It was a crime that shocked the nation, a brutal murder in Chicago in 1924 of a young child. The killers, two wealthy college students, murdered for the thrill of the experience. Nathan Leopold and Richard Loeb met years earlier and their friendship grew into a love affair. Both thought they were too smart to get caught, but a critical clue led to their arrest. The famous Clarence Darrow was the defense attorney and Robert Crowe, the state’s attorney, proclaimed he had a hanging case. Baatz uses court records and recently recovered transcripts to tell the pathological true crime story of Leopold and Loeb.

Columbine: Dave Cullen

On April 20, 1999, two armed students, Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, entered Columbine High School in Columbine, Colorado and murdered 12 students and one teacher before killing themselves. The horror rocked the nation. At the time, it was the deadliest school shooting in U.S. history. Cullen, one of the first reporters on the scene, spent ten years researching this book and addressing the myths of the massacre. He draws from mountains of evidence, insight from the world’s leading forensic psychologists and the killers’ own words and drawings-several reproduced in a new appendix.

Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI: David Grann

It’s a detailed account of the Osage Indians who, in the 1920s, became the wealthiest group of people per capita in the world because of oil under their land in Oklahoma. The Osage, whose reservation just outside of Pawhuska, Oklahoma, once sat atop one of the largest oil deposits in the country. They were then serially murdered in one of the most sinister crimes in American history. The book has been adapted for film with director Martin Scorsese at the helm and starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Robert Deniro.