Jack Smith (15)

I read this book via an Amazon-US KINDLE Unlimited download.

Most of us have either seen the Broadway musical or the film Sweeney Todd – The Demon Barber of Fleet Street. In the story Mr. Todd, a barber, in order to rob his victims by slitting their throats while in his barber’s chair, and then pulling a lever which causes his victims to fall backwards through a trap door into the basement. Once he gets their possessions his cohort, Mrs. Lovett, takes their bodies and turns their flesh show more into meat pies and then selling them to her unsuspecting customers in the pie shop she owns.

This fictional story is only an example of what you’ll get reading about the 11 real-life depraved individuals who murdered their innocent victims solely to obtain their bodies for various nefarious reasons. Alex J. Mengel for example needed the scalps of his female victims so he could use the scalps and the hair attached as a wig for his disguise as a woman.

Age doesn’t matter, take 14-year-old Sandy Charles, who used several strips of his victim to make a potion so he could fly. And then you’ve got a senior citizen couple, Faye and Ray Copeland, who made quilts out of their victims’ clothing.

The depravity of these real individuals goes beyond the well-known cases of necrophiliacs, individuals who desire to have a sexual relationship with their victim’s corpses. Once their victims are dead, the corpses are used to make several everyday practical items and a variety of foods.

Unlike those individuals who commit murders for revenge or simply monetary gains, these individuals seem to commit their murders for the sheer sport of it. For having unsettled while enlightening the minds of his readers about this kind of individual, I’ve decided to give this book and its author 5 STARS. show less

A short overview of the crimes and demise of Knowles. This is more like an extensive police report than it is a biography. Such reportage could be a podcast episode, but the thin offering here masquerades as an audiobook.

The Casanova Killer, The Life of Serial Killer Paul John Knowles by Jack Smith is a true crime story that is frightening. I gave it three stars because it was documentary dry writing.

It took place in the 1970's, a time when serial killer activity spiked. He was a vicious & unpredictable killer. He killed men, women & children. "One prison official descried him as 'antisocial, profiting neither from experience nor punishment.'"

He gave his attorney an audiotape 'diary' describing his murders. show more He wanted the public to know about them so he could "become as famous as Bonnie & Clyde." He was linked to eighteen confirmed murders, although at one point he claimed thirty five.

I received a complimentary copy from Amazon. That did not influence my opinion for this review. show less

This was an interesting short book. Paul John Knowles was terrifying because he didn't have the motives we expect from serials. There was a sexual component, but it wasn't his primary motive. His need to make his mark so to speak was his drive. It's a sad story.