A Civil War veteran who perpetrated one of the most ghastly mass slaughters in the annals of U.S. crime. A nineteenth-century female serial killer whose victims included three husbands and six of her own children. A Gilded Age 鈥淏luebeard鈥 who did away with as many as fifty wives throughout the country. A decorated World War I hero who orchestrated a murder that stunned Jazz Age America. While other infamous homicides from the same eras鈥攖he Lizzie Borden slayings, for example, or the 鈥渢hrill killing鈥 committed by Leopold and Loeb鈥攈ave entered into our cultural mythology, these four equally sensational crimes have largely faded from public memory. A quartet of gripping historical true-crime narratives, Butcher鈥檚 Work restores these once-notorious cases to vivid, dramatic life.
鈥淗arold Schechter is America鈥檚 dean of true crime, plundering the darkest corners of our history, and with this collection he delivers again. These tales take on the quality of campfire ghost stories鈥攁bsorbing, chilling, and hard to forget.鈥濃擱obert Kolker, New York Times bestselling author, Lost Girls
鈥淢aster of true crime, Harold Schechter offers a macabre smorgasbord of long-forgotten misdeeds. Each story鈥攁bout a mass axe murderer, a 鈥榩oison fiend,鈥 a prolific Bluebeard killer, and a scheming war veteran鈥攕hines a fascinating light on the darkest impulses of human nature. You鈥檒l read this in one sitting, but keep the lights on.鈥濃擜bbott Kahler, author, The Ghosts of Eden Park
鈥淗arold Schechter is among the top true-crime writers of our time. With this diverse collection, he demonstrates his skill once more at transforming historical chronicles into page-turning tales. He鈥檚 a master of research and storytelling.鈥濃擪atherine Ramsland, professor of forensic psychology and author, How to Catch a Killer
鈥淗arold Schechter鈥檚 presentation of these little-known cases is smooth and insightful, with perfect selections of contemporaneous newspapers blended seamlessly into the narrative. The reader is carried along by his flawless, compelling prose and his instinct for details and background. This book is not only about the killers, but a window on the times, as well as a depiction of recognizable behavior on the part of the public, trial attendees, and people鈥檚 infatuation with killers鈥攁ll mirrored in today鈥檚 sensational cases. Schechter has a knack of making it seem as if he was back there observing it all.鈥濃擵irginia A. McConnell, author, The Adventuress
