Christopher Berry-Dee

I gave this a good 45 minutes on audio before bailing. This was most of the prologue and introduction and I just could not get along with the tone of the author. He takes aim at Lord Longford's belief that criminals can be rehabilitated and implies that the eye for an eye should be a sound approach to modern sentencing. The passage where he denigrates the prison service is not a high point. If that makes me a soft liberal, so be it; I am happy with my position. I decided I didn't need a show more further 8 hours with this person in my ears. show less

In Serial Killers at the Movies, investigative criminologist Christopher Berry-Dee presents the real life killers who inspired film characters, either in whole or in part.

Through archival research and extensive interviews with many of the serial killers, Berry-Dee shows that fact truly is stranger, and more evil, than fiction. Whether a film character is based entirely on a given killer or is a composite of several, this background adds a new dimension to watching and appreciating the show more films.

An important element of this book, which I think is often overlooked when a book examines film based on any aspect of real life, is the author's willingness to point out which films got things wrong. Not always simply facts but presentation and even exploitation. One can certainly argue than any use of real life serial killers to create film characters, even for films claiming to be as factual as possible, is exploitation. That broad argument aside, there is blatant misuse of facts and procedures strictly for monetary gain that goes beyond any questionable appropriation and exploitation. Reading about those instances shed new light on those films.

I recommend this to fans of true crime as well as film lovers who like to know the story behind some of their favorite, or not so favorite, films.

Reviewed from a copy made available by the publisher via NetGalley. show less

Bought this book a while ago (like more than 2 years ago) and just recently I got around reading it. The author is certainly well known in the sector considering he got to interview such high-risk inmates and the writing style is smooth and easy to read, nothing too difficult of extraordinary in this department. My edition (ISBN 9781904034537) does NOT have an index of content which I thought was weird and didn't appreciate it. The killers whose voice we can briefly "hear" are:

- Harvey Louis show more Carignan

- Arthur John Shawcross

- John Martin Scripps

- Michael Bruce Ross

- Ronald Joseph "Butch" DeFeo Jr.

- Aileen Carol Wuornos

- Kenneth Allen McDuff

- Douglas Daniel Clark & Carol Mary Bundy (she's not related to Ted Bundy)

- Henry Lee Lucas

The author gives pretty detailed accounts of the lives and murders of these killers, their childhoods which were often traumatic, their relationship with the world and people close to them, their modus operandi and some details about their unfortunate victims.

Each chapter begins with a quote from the killer or important to understand the killer better, I especially loved the one that opened the chapter dedicated to Henry Lee Lucas, a quote by Dr. Rhawn Joseph (psychotherapist, neuropsychologist and neuroscientist): " Just as the living tree retains its early core, within the core of each of us is the Child that we once were. This Child constitutes the foundation of what we have become, who we are, and what we will be" This quote is of course referring to the traumatic childhood of Henry Lee Lucas which was made up of physical, psychological and sexual abuse by his parents and relatives, hardships in school and poverty.
The chapters end with the author narrating his interviews with the killers specifying how he came in contact with them and the killers are here allowed to express themselves in their own words which are surely captivating, but not enough in my personal opinion.

I would have loved to read more directly from these murderers and I was kind of let down by the scarcity of this particular bit which should have much more space in the book. All of the killers in the book are American, except for Scripps, an Englishman that killed in South-East Asia, on the other hand I appreciated the fact that the author focused on less known killers since I only knew Wuornos and Lucas and I only heard of the Amityville Horror.

In the end an interesting book that had the potential to become something much more interesting had the killers talked more. show less

I liked the idea of the book and thought it would be a good look into the psychology and physiology of a serial killer. I was sadly disappointed that there was no bibliography or research information included, also it makes me question the legitimacy of the subject matter.

The point where I was so disappointed with this book that I had to rate it one star is during the review of Dr. Harold Shipman's murders. The authors discuss that the doctor had a severe drug problem in his early adult show more life but they do not include drug addiction in the FBI High Risk Register outline of this killer as they do with every other killer that had a history of drug abuse.

Sadly this is not for someone who wants a real understanding of the mental and physical traits involved in creating a killer. 2-bit true crime at best. show less