Serial Killers: The Method and Madness of Monsters, A Review

Serial Killers: The Method and Madness of Monsters

by Peter Vronsky

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" The question becomes more difficult with somebody like law student Ted Bundy...or John Wayne Gacy...On one hand their crimes seem 'insane', yet on the other hand, Bundy and Gacy knew exactly what they were doing. How insane were they? " - Vronsky

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I have been reading books on true crime and serial killers from a disturbingly young age. Most likely before the age of ten, when I would sneak into my mum's room and steal books from her shelf that made me too scared to sleep. A lot of what I had consumed then and in my early teens were quick lists. They brushed over the history of a criminal and focused on the aspects of the crime, without getting gory. Cheap paper back books with titles that followed the trend of "world's worst/best/greatest/scariest". I'm now taking the time to focus on the why of killers, along with the who, what, when and where. As part of growing older, I've become a lot more empathetic and understanding. I have a deep desire to know what makes the human mind work. How we can prevent such gruesome crimes, or at the very least how to detect them before they happen. If I was ever so slightly smarter and applied myself at school in subjects I was told weren't worth it, perhaps I'd be in the BSU of Quantico right now. C'est la vie.

To satiate that urge for a more in depth look at crime, and to trigger the warming feelings of nostalgia and revulsion, I've been hunting for more acclaimed books. Books by actual true crime authors. Peter Vronsky is definitely a name that fits into this category. His works don't shy away from detail. He uses blunt language, gives a clear history of our subjects and a description of the crime and aftermath. There's a hint of sympathy with how someone could end up like this. But a strong moral outlook and an interest in the victims as people, not as players on the stage of their killer.

Serial Killers: The Method and Madness of Monsters was the first book I read that was recommended on The Last Podcast on the Left. They reference it quite a lot throughout the series, and rightly so. I've always enjoyed true crime 'anthologies', and Vronsky covers a wealth of killers and methods in this book. He delves into attempts at understanding the psyche of the killers among us. I find some authors to be a bit too self-congratulatory of their works. Others I find can toe the line of actual awe and fascination of the crimes in a far too celebratory manner. These people are not popstars. They didn't release a generation changing concept album. They're monsters who kill, and it's all too easy to forget that sometimes in the pop-culture true crime climate we live in.

But Vronsky's book managed to avoid this. It was a tad sympathetic in some ways to serial killers which is not a fault. It's something I experience myself. But might be something that would put off other readers. Empathising with the kind of upbringing that leads someone to turn into a monster is something that happens when you delve into the history of a killer. Everyone has a story.

As an example of criticism for Vronsky's work, I read a lot of comments around his writing of the women in the lives of serial killers. Describing mothers as overbearing etc. was a point that many took as a symbol of misogyny in the writing. But, the mother's were overbearing. An overwhelming amount of serial killers do have issues with abuse stemming from their mothers. This maternal bond is important and can affect people the wrong way. It's hard to separate the evidence here. It's not placing the blame on the parents. It's more a case of attempting to find common factors which caused a person to develop in a way that provides them with, in their mind, an excuse to murder. The killer is a horrible person, but so are abusive parents. Nature and nurture definitely both play a part.

In tone the book is not very academic and I appreciated that. Vronsky writes like a normal human being, not some stuffy professor. He is intelligent and doesn't talk down to the reader, and provides copious amounts of real life theories and research, but in an easy to digest manner. This makes the tales of the killers he discusses seem more real to me than they would have had I felt I were reading a sturdy psychological evaluation. It's not clinical, but it's not too emotional either. The broad history and key points are there, with enough to help you get into the story surrounding the event.

I enjoyed the last section of the book. It seemed a little tongue in cheek actually. Instructions on how to avoid a serial killer, with the main takeaway being that if you find yourself cornered or captured by a serial killer, you're going to die anyway. Might as well die screaming and fighting.