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Psycho USA: Famous American Killers You Never Heard Of
Psycho USA: Famous American Killers You Never Heard Of
Psycho USA: Famous American Killers You Never Heard Of
Audiobook14 hours

Psycho USA: Famous American Killers You Never Heard Of

Written by Harold Schechter

Narrated by Danny Campbell

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

4/5

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About this audiobook

In the horrifying annals of American crime, the infamous names of brutal killers such as Bundy, Dahmer, Gacy, and Berkowitz are writ large in the imaginations of a public both horrified and hypnotized by their monstrous, murderous acts. But for every celebrity psychopath who's gotten ink for spilling blood, there's a bevy of all-but-forgotten homicidal fiends studding the bloody margins of U.S. history. In this book you'll meet

Robert Irwin, "The Mad Sculptor": He longed to use his carving skills on the woman he loved but had to settle for making short work of her mother and sister instead.

Peter Robinson, "The Tell-Tale Heart Killer": It took two days and four tries for him to finish off his victim but no time at all for keen-eyed cops to spot the fatal flaw in his floor plan.

Anton Probst, "The Monster in the Shape of a Man": The ax-murdering immigrant's systematic slaughter of all eight members of a Pennsylvania farm family matched the savagery of the Manson murders a century later.

Edward H. Rulloff, "The Man of Two Lives": A genuine Jekyll and Hyde, his brilliant scholarship disguised his bloodthirsty brutality.
LanguageEnglish
Release dateJul 20, 2016
ISBN9781515979142
Psycho USA: Famous American Killers You Never Heard Of
Author

Harold Schechter

Harold Schechter is an American true-crime writer who specializes in serial killers. Twice nominated for the Edgar Award, he is the author of the nonfiction books Fatal, Fiend, Bestial, Deviant, Deranged, Depraved, The Serial Killer Files, The Mad Sculptor, Man-Eater, the Amazon Charts and Washington Post bestseller Hell’s Princess: The Mystery of Belle Gunness, Butcher of Men, and the Amazon Original Stories collection Bloodlands. Schechter attended the State University of New York in Buffalo. A professor emeritus at Queens College, Schechter is married to the poet Kimiko Hahn. For more information, visit www.haroldschechter.com.

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Reviews for Psycho USA

Rating: 4.067708333333333 out of 5 stars
4/5

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  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    This book was about the most twisted true crime book I have read in a long time!

    I didn't realize there were so many psychos back in the 19th century, but after reading this book, there were more than I ever expected to be living in those days. The author, Harold Schechter, delved long and deep into the past to find these crazy murderers!

    All these murderers were people I have never heard of before and it didn't matter if it was a man or a woman as both were the most cold hearted individuals to walk this earth. In my opinion, the men in this book that committed the crimes back in the 1800's were worse than the famous killers that we know of today. We thought that Bundy, Dahmer, and Gacy were twisted, but after reading this book, there were worse killers than them back in the "old days".

    The women were just as bad and it seems that the women loved to use arsenic and any kind of poison they could get their hands on to commit their crimes. The men loved to use axes and hatchets to "chop" up their victims.

    This book is not for the faint of heart as the author goes into descriptive detail about the murders and it was one of the most detailed versions of murders that I have read in a very long time.

    I found myself through some of the stories getting queasy as the information of the murders were so detailed that I could imagine the pain and agony of the victims. That is saying a lot for me as I consider myself a hardened horror fan and normally I don't get queasy reading about twisted psychos! But with this book it was a different. This is no "walk in the park" book. It is a "ride into hell". Four stars for this one.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    A well put together book that sheds light on so many sensational-for-their-time killers who have since fallen by the waysides of history. It's easy to read and nicely organized. The best and worst part about this book is that it's got more info on some very obscure killers (e.g., Lizzie Halliday) than you can find in most places.
  • Rating: 2 out of 5 stars
    2/5
    I like my true crime to have more to it than this. As a collection of people it would be interesting to learn more about, this book is fine, but it isn't interesting of itself.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    There's nothing I love more than reading about some true crime--the more unknown the better. Sure, I like learning new things about all the cases I've already heard about but it doesn't beat learning about it for the first time. I'm not ashamed to say I hadn't heard about any cases gone into detail here. The little asides, especially the ones about "murder ballads" were also fascinating. Everything about this book is a five star for your average true crime connoisseur.

    a copy was given to me by a publisher via netgalley for an honest review.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    What is fascinating about this book is seeing what history considered “heinous” crimes, crimes that, quite frankly, would barely receive a mention in today’s media.Thoroughly researched, Schechter once again delivers an encyclopedia of true crime, this time of various cases stretching over two hundred years. There’s no Jack the Ripper here. Instead, Schechter focuses on crimes that were considered grisly for that particular time period, yet are cases that are often over-looked by the majority of true crime aficionados. In addition to the researched cases, the sidebars contain tidbits of further information about the crimes, the timer period, even ballads. True crime fans will definitely want to add this to their reference collections.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Some people kill and are soon forgotten, in spite of "crime of the century" label they receive. Some murderers remain infamous long after they have committed their crimes and, if possible, been held responsible. In "Psycho USA - Famous American Killers You Never Heard Of", author Harold Schechter has delved into the murderous history of some of America's least known killers. Starting in the late 18th century and continuing to the mid-20th century, these are the captivating stories of killers that have left the bodies and notoriety behind, only to have others step up to the forefront of public lore.One of the first killers of note is William Beadle, the "Family Annihilator" who in 1782 killed his wife and four children with an ax and knife simply because he had lost his financial stability and did not want them to suffer. He then took his own life by holding two pistols against his ears and pulling the triggers. In 1935, Mary Frances Creighton, the "Black-Eyed Borgia", poisoned her mother-in-law with hot cocoa laced with arsenic and then proceeded to kill her younger brother for the insurance money. She then helped to kill the despised wife of a boarder. She was only caught when authorities learned of the previous poison murders and an autopsy showed enough arsenic to "kill at least three people". She was sentenced to die in the electric chair. The "Cape Cod Vampire" killed four young women and dismembered their bodies. He had been previously arrested for assault and battery for breaking into the home of a neighbor. When the police were notified by the parents of the missing girls, a search was made and their bodies were found in the woods outside a small town on Cape Cod. Antone Costa as arrested, convicted, and sentenced to life in prison. In May 1974 he was found hanging in his cell.Some murderers kill for revenge, hatred, or fear. Some are certifiably insane and it's just a matter of time before they start killing. Often they kill for sexual reasons, such as Theo Durant of San Francisco who killed two women who rebuffed his advances and were killed in the church where they had met him. Perhaps what we do find so fascinating is that the reasons that people kill do not change over the decades - each story can be told without mention of time or place and the stories remain the same.Each person in this book has committed a terrible crime and each deserves their own justice. The stories are hard to imagine and painful to consider. It's not easy to admit that this is fascinating reading, but the author has written each story in a matter-of-fact style that makes for irresistible reading. Highly recommended for those who enjoy the true crime and historical non-fiction genres.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    Meticulously researched and filled with detail that is hard to handle if one attempts to read at too long of a stretch. Fascinating but quite disturbing. This is part of American history that should not be forgotten, yet not exactly a book for bedtime reading. It is a very good reminder that the mysterium iniquitatis has always been with us and is not a creation of sensationalistic modern media.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    What I find most interesting is why some crimes hit the spotlight and why some, such as these, do not? I found this book most intriguing. These horrific crimes have been going on for years and years, the media just wasn't around to beat them like a dead horse. The crimes from this book are no less horrible, they just haven't been covered, so we as a people, have not heard of them. I have read other books by Schechter and his standards and research of always of the highest quality. For all readers interested in the criminal mind, this book is a must for your library.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    First of all, I want to say that this book is so much bigger than I thought it would be; and that's a good thing! I, too, found the cover disturbing, and would put the book face down when I was not reading it.There are so many tales of horror, murder and mayhem, it's hard to believe that they are now forgotten, while some, like Lizzie Borden remain in infamy forever. I've read a lot of true crime books, but this one has to be at the top of the list. If you like to read true crime stories, you really should read this book.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    This book is an interesting history lesson for two reasons: first, that it chronicles some of the most grisly murders in American history, interesting in and of itself because most of them are little known in the 21st century. Second, it makes absurd the claims of "crime of the century" that seem to come along every ten years or so. On the contrary, as Schechter illustrates, sensationalist media coverage of tragic events such as these has been going on since the first colonists arrived. The shocking nature of the acts themselves hasn't escalated; we are only shocked now because these earlier cases have been long forgotten. I found this book extremely interesting for both of those reasons. The author has done his homework well; the stories seem well-researched, and source material is cited in the text instead of at the end of the chapters or the book, giving readers with further interest an easy way to access it. I also very much liked the sections in which particular cases are connected to contemporaneous culture or how they were inspiration for literary works. Well done; a good read for those interested in true crime or American history.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    This book is quite up to Schechter's sterling standard, perhaps even better than his previous books. Not only does the man have a nose for ferreting out extremely interesting and obscure crimes (some of them even I hadn't heard of, and that's saying something), but he's an awesome storyteller. I eagerly anticipated this book's publication and it did NOT disappoint me.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    A well written book detailing through the years some of the atrocities men and women have done to each other.This books proves that what makes the headlines today as the "crime of the century" or the "most shocking" crime ever committed was actually done long ago and completely forgotten. From the beginning of recorded time, there have been murderers among the "civilized" people killing their families, strangers, for profit, or just because they feel the need - people have been killing each other some of it horrifically for centuries. It's books tells the tales of some of the crimes throughout history that people no longer remember , but at the time shocked and horrified people.A history lesson on what drives people to murder, how they do it, and how society forgets bout it.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    This is a collection of stories about unknown serial killers. Organized by date, it follows American history and development. I found the stories interesting, but grew tired of the author's writing style. The author has a habit of introducing the stories by talking about other killers, and then diverting to someone else. I found this a bit annoying and at times, misleading. Overall, not a bad book, but not one I would pick up and read again.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    The skull on the cover didn't bother me at all. Even cozy mysteries had skulls on their covers for years, especially during the 1980s, so I 've long since gotten over finding skulls creepy.Out of this collection of once-famous American serial killers, the Smutty Nose Butcher is the only one I recall ever hearing about before. (That was on a program on one of the Discovery or History channels. If the greater detail this book provides for the case is correct, the program's pick for the murderer is unlikely.)I found the cases interesting and particularly appreciated the illustrations, photographs, quotations from contemporary sources, and the added material after the cases (often comparisons with other cases or information about the period, as well as murder ballads). Edmund Pearson's "Rules For Murderesses" on page 294 is funny as well as grim. Of the main cases, the Bath School Disaster of 1927 was the most harrowing. As the author states, it combined features of the Oklahoma City Bombing with the Columbine Massacre, and added a suicide bomber. The period covered is 1782 to 1961. Here's a list of the killers:

    William Beadle, Polly Bodine, Dr. Valorous F. Coolidge, Robert Edwards, Franklin Evans, Charles Freeman, Francis Gouldy,

    Samuel Green, Martha Grinder, Carlyle Harris, Julian Harvey, Harry Hayward, William Edward Hickman, Albert Hicks, Robert Irwin,

    Scott Jackson, Andrew P. Kehoe, Joseph LaPage, Ada LeBoeuf, Eddie Leonski, Robert McConaghy, Emeline Meaker, Pearl O' Loughlin,

    Harry Powers, Anton Probst, Henrietta Robinson, Peter Robinson, Sarah Jane Robinson, Edward H. Rulloff, Lydia Sherman,

    Jesse Strang, Louis Wagner, and Return J. M. Ward.(Those three Robinsons were not involved in the same crime. Peter committed murder in New Jersey in 1840. Henrietta did it in Troy, New York, in 1853, and it wasn't her real name. Sarah Jane did most of hers in Boston in 1885-1886.)The author wonders why Jack the Ripper and Lizzie Bordon are still remembered when these other crimes have been forgotten. I suspect it's because their cases were never solved.Theodore Dreiser's theory about why some men murder their women so they can move up socially with another woman (see page 343) doesn't make me feel any more sympathy for such killers than Marilee Strong (same page) felt for them. I don't care how inconvenient those men found those women -- they had no right to kill them. I'm sure Dreiser would have been far less sympathetic if the series of crimes he'd observed as a novice reporter had been of women killing inconvenient boyfriends or husbands in order to pursue upward social mobility. I'm happy to add this book to my reference collection. True Crime buffs who can't get enough will probably want to add it to theirs. Persons who like to lament about the depraved times we live in and our country's lost innocence should read this book. So should persons who, like myself, get tired of those laments and would like to have some "reasons that ain't so" readily at hand. I hope one of those Discovery or History channels buys this book and does a series of programs based on these cases. I think they would make fascinating, if unpleasant, viewing!
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    So....This book was exactly what I expected. I have read a lot of books on murders/serial killers/historical crimes, etc. and this one added a lot of stories which I had never heard before. It's funny how something so shocking, a"crime of the century"as it were could fade into oblivion in such a short time. How many times have we heard this term bantered about in the media? Well a lot of these events are soon overlooked......until someone like Mr. Schechter writes a book on the the subject. Additionally I loved this historical elements in the book as well. In the words of an earlier reviewer, "Cool book!"
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    I found myself enjoying this book more than I thought I would. The author gives a highly "readable" account of each killer, without being weighed down by heavy, technical language or psychoanalysis. I liked that parallels are drawn between some of these killers and their contemporaries, and there is some indication of possible/probable motivation in each case.This is not a book for the hard-core enthusiast. And the title is a bit of a misnomer - not all of these folks struck me as "psycho." Some seemed sad, hopeless, and deluded rather than mentally deranged.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Just what is it about psycho killers that people find fascinating? I don't know, but Psycho USA: Famous American Killers You Never Heard Of is a great collection of obscure American killers. There are serial killers, mass murderers, Bluebeards, poisoners, and robbers and kidnappers who just sort of snapped and started carving people up. This is some gruesome stuff. It's the sort of thing that should appeal to fans of true crime and the more gruesome sorts of horror. The only complaint I have is that not all of the killers seem like psychos. Ada Lebouf had a reasonable case for self defense, and even she was guilty, the case seemed more like a standard love triangle than a psycho killing. The rest, though all seem like total nutjobs.This is a cool book.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    I almost didn't pick this up due to the rather unfortunate cover that creeps me out and the sensationalized title. In spite of the disturbing cover I was pleasantly surprised to find how much I enjoyed reading this book. It is the perfect marriage of history and true crime. The book is full of stories that mimic the crimes we are all so familiar with today but the catch is that happened a long time ago and have largely been forgotten by the public. Today when something sensational happens in the news the internet spreads it like wildfire and we can watch the trials on TV but back when these crimes occurred they were reported in the paper and then largely forgotten. While some cases caught the public's attention and are still well known today such as Lizzie Borden and Jack the Ripper, the cases presented in this book have become so obscure that I hadn't heard of any of them. I always tend to think of people who lived a hundred years to have more manners and be a it more refined than the people of today. Turns out they had their share of money hungry crazies too. The wheels of justice seemed to turn faster in the past and most of the murderers recounted in this book met their fate at the end of a hangman's noose. It was particularly interesting to read how the crimes of the past were solved without the benefit of the forensics and DNA techniques of today.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    It seems that most murderers have the spotlight for a few months, or a few years, and then they fade into obscurity as something else takes their place. That is exactly what happened to the murderers profiled in this book; at one time, they terrorized and titillated the American public, but for whatever reasons, no one remembers them today.From black widows to bluebeards to family slayers to those who killed for a grudge or no discernible reason at all, Harold Schechter details the lives and crimes of those whose deeds had been notorious in their times. Many spawned murder ballads; some even inspired best-selling books. A few were molded into chilling movie characters. But none are widely remembered today.I found the book interesting. Schechter has a readable and engrossing way of writing, although sometimes the same phrases kept popping up in the profiles (I kept getting the Styx song "Renegade" in my head from the numerous times that "the jig is up" was used). He also supplements the profiles with information about the times or what other important events were occurring. He also includes a lot of lyrics to murder ballads, which is interesting. Altogether, recommended to those who are into true crime.