Sons Of Cain by Peter Vronsky

 

Peter Vronsky is a filmmaker and historian.  He became interested in serial killers when he actually encountered two of them.  The first was in New York and the man had a duffle bag when they brushed in a hotel corridor.  In the bag was a decapitated head from the woman the killer had just murdered.  Vronsky also encountered a serial killer in Moscow.  He spent years documenting Russian history as well as Canadian and various counter-terrorism and espionage topics.

In this books he gives an overview of serial killers over the ages.  In early years, most were not known with the location often rural and the lack of communication.  The first well-known serial was, of course, Jack the Ripper, and he covers that case as well as the French ripper who came after him. 

He also covers in detail the American period from 1950 to 2000 when 83% of the serial killers in the United States were active.  I've read several books that question why serial killers were so active at that time.  Vronsky believes that it had to do with the aftermath of World War II and all the men who fought in that war yet came home and never talked about what they saw and were forced to do yet raised sons while damaged.  

This is an interesting book for readers of true crime.  It is a great survey of serial killing throughout the ages.  Vronsky is not a psychologist so there is not as much as an in-depth analysis of the causes of serial killing although he is familiar and talks about the topic.  He has also spent time talking with the killer he encountered in New York who is now imprisoned.  His partner in that endeavor is the daughter of the woman killed that day.  Their interest is to find all the victims of that killer and where the undiscovered bodies of some of his victims still lie undiscovered.  This book is recommended for true crime readers.