My Life Among the Serial Killers: Inside the Minds of the World's Most Notorious Murderers

by Helen Morrison and Harold Goldberg

Book Overview

Over the course of twenty-five years, Dr. Helen Morrison has profiled more than eighty serial killers around the world. What she learned about them will shatter every assumption you've ever had about the most notorious criminals known to man.Judging by appearances, Dr. Helen Morrison has an ordinary life in the suburbs of a major city. She has a physician husband, two children, and a thriving psychiatric clinic. But her life is much more than that...

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0060524073
• ISBN13: 9780060524074
• Release Date: May 2004
• Publisher: William Morrow & Company
• Length: 276 Pages
• Weight: 1.06 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.0" x 6.0" x 9.0"

Customer Reviews

'Okay'

I find the Author quite arrogant / egotistical, but the stories of these killers is good. I have read about all of them before from other authors and liked them much better.

Wonderfully informative

This book shatters the myths popular culture has ingrained into public perception of serial killers. It is closer to a work of scholarship than horror stories presented for your titilation, but if you want to understand one of the least understood criminal types in existence, you will find a wealth of information and personal anecdotes from a highly intelligent writer who has had a lifetime of contact with the world's most notorious killers. Further, it's all presented in accessible, enjoyable writing and well structured, contrary to the negative review, whose problems with the work I don't quite understand. There are many surprises here, one of them (for me) the insight that serial killers are anything but the sophisticated supervillains Hanibal Lecter would have us believe. Be warned, much of what you'll find here is shocking and may disturb your sleep - but if you want to understand the threat and nature of serial killers, this is by far the best source I've encountered on the subject. Congratulations to the author - a fine book on an important subject.

Put a new spin on things

I really enjoyed this book. Of course there are going to be a few odd looks when others see you reading a book on Serial Killers. But once I started to tell people what I had read, I ended up with a line of people wanting to borrow it after I was done. Morrison's tales of her experiences with these men is very insightful. You get to see how these killers are outside of the media spectacle. This has made me want to know more about serial killers; what makes them tick; are they products of their upbringing, or is there something they were born with. She goes farther into each killer more than other books I have seen. If you have an open mind, and want to know more about these people, I would highly recommended this book.

Interesting

Excellent book. Flows easily and keeps your attention. I highly recommend.

Prepare to enter the dark

I began this book while on a business trip and had to stop reading for a while because it left me so worried about my wife and family. The thing about this book is that it is not "The Silence of the Lambs." This is not some speculative book about Jack the Ripper. "My Life Among the Serial Killers" is not some pop novel that ties the killer up with a surprise ending that places the ranting kliller in a neat little padded cell. This is a book that shows you to what may well be out there by exposing you into the minds of those awful human sharks that did not make it back to sea. Read this book and you will look into the minds of John Wayne Gacy, Richard Macek, Robert Bedella. But don't expect the dark comedy/hollywood brutality of a Stephen King character. As I said before, this book is dark. There were times I wished that I could close my thoughts to what I read by simply closing the cover of the book. It left me drained and scared because these creatures are real and there is nothing sympathetic in them when you strip away their masks as few have done and fewer can do. Helen Morrison is one incredible person. Good Lord how could somebody even think of living a normal existence after doing the work that she has done--meeting these killers, and boring into their minds!

Excellent Take On The Worst Murderers In History

The passion, intensity and good science here, not only makes for a good read. It made me think that there really could be a genetic anomaly that makes a serial killer. Dr. Morrison mixes the science with a lot of drama that makes her story a real page turner. She's been in danger more than a few times with these guys. And the letters to her from serial killers really make the book different from anything else out there on the subject. One killer even begins to think Helen Morrison is his wife! This is really amazing stuff, well-reasearched and really a one of a kind book from an expert who's been doing this scary stuff for 30 years.