If you're looking for the perfect gift for someone who's riveted to television shows like CSI, you won't find a better one than Dr. Katherine Ramland's latest book, THE HUMAN PREDATOR: A Historical Chronicle of Serial Murder and Forensic Investigation (Berkley Hardcover; Oct. 4, 2005). It's an extraordinarily well-researched book, written in a flowing, easy-to-understand style. You'll not only learn about serial murder but also the historical background of forensic science in its response to this phenomenon.
THE HUMAN PREDATOR is the first book-length chronicle of the serial killer from ancient Rome to the present day, and it becomes clear that cultural factors influence their manifestation. While not every killer could be included, lest the book become encyclopedic, key cases from different time periods are analyzed for the "specific cultural conditions, individual processing of those conditions, and opportunity" that affected that criminal's development. In the Dark Ages, for example, wealthy nobles like French hero Gilles de Rais and the Countess Elizabeth Bathory made Jack the Ripper look like a Boy Scout.
Threaded throughout this absorbing book is how science and psychology evolved alongside the history of the serial killer, providing the tools to catch these criminals and a growing understanding of their psyche. Forensic sciences developed early: in 1247, a Chinese lawyer produced the first work of forensic science, including how to tell the difference between a suicide, homicide and natural death. The U.S. has led development of a body of knowledge about serial killers, mostly through the FBI's legendary Behavioral Analysis Unit that played a key role in The Silence of the Lambs. Ramsland knows firsthand the pioneering contributions of these profilers, John Douglas, Robert Ressler and Roy Hazelwood, having written about and with them.
Human Predator: A Historical Chronicle of Serial Murder and Forensic Investigation by Katherine Ramsland, Ph. D. is a detailed and comprehensive anthology of multiple murder events and serial killers from the "Alphabet Murders" through the infamous "Zodiac Killings" and is an excellent research resource.
Katherine, whose educational credentials include masters' degrees in forensic psychology, clinical psychology, and philosophy has utilized her research expertise to present to the reader an historical and cultural analysis of serial and multiple murder as well as the development of forensic science and the application of that forensic science as well as forensic psychology to the criminal investigation of serial murder.
This book delves into the phenomenon of serial murder in the context of specific historical periods. The author utilized over 180 publications and sources to trace the history and incidents of serial murder providing the reader with thumbnail biographical sketches of a myriad of multiple murderers. Starting with the Dark Ages and culminating with events of the new millennium, Katherine takes the reader through history up to the present time with her presentation and documentation of famous cases of multiple and serial murders, the journalistic coverage of these heinous crimes and the social reaction to the "evil" of serial murder, which to this day continues to shock our sense of wellbeing.
This book is without precedence. I was personally amazed by the amount of research, source information and exertion that Katherine Ramsland put into this tome. I am grateful to have an autographed copy of this book in my personal library and I would highly recommend this book to anyone who has an interest in the subject, history and etiology of serial murder.
