Sons of Cain: A History of Serial Killers from the Stone Age to the Present

Sons of Cain : a History of Serial Killers from the Stone Age to the Present is author Peter Vronsky's third book on the subject, following Serial Killers and Female Serial Killers. Expect little in the way of the most famous serial killers, aside from H. H. Holmes and Jack the Ripper. The subtitle is not a joke. The author does go back to the Stone Age to explain why we have serial killers. He also explains what has been the definition of a serial killer, a term coined in the 20th century. I was surprised to learn that the modern definition means one need kill as few as two persons to be considered a serial killer.

It was even more interesting to learn that 'werewolf' and 'vampire' were terms used for what we would call serial killers show more in the past. I remember reading about the 1929 serial killer Peter Kürten years ago. I'd wondered why he was known as the "Vampire of Düsseldorf" as well as the "Düsseldorf Ripper" and the "Düsseldorf Monster". Now that makes sense.

The chapter on the European Witch Hunts would probably have been more shocking to me had I not already read The Encyclopedia of Witchcraft and Demonology by Rossell Hope Robbins. If you've not read or seen much about that period, be prepared to start sneering at what's called a witch hunt these days after you've read this part.

Chapter 10 is the one about Jack the Ripper. The section on profiling the Ripper using today's techniques was food for thought.

Peter Vronsky makes the point that we keep forgetting what we learn about catching and interviewing serial killers. Reading about how an attorney named Émile Fourquet used linkage analysis to have Joseph Vacher, the French Ripper, captured as long ago as 1897 was fascinating -- as was the fact that his interrogation of Vacher used the proper manner for dealing with psychopaths. (See chapter 11)

The chapter about what a small percentage of our soldiers did during World War II (rapes) was disturbing. It was good to learn that there are protocols for returning the bones of Japanese soldiers that some GIs brought back as war souvenirs. When are we going to do the same for the bones of North Vietnamese soldiers? (What was with the family that objected to returning their skull?)

The author makes a point about how many of the serial killers of the 1970s - 1990s were the sons of World War II soldiers, as well as the effect of reading mainstream postwar men's adventure and true detective magazines known as 'sweats' because their covers featured sweating torturers and female victims. I've read reprints of earlier pulp magazine stories, but had no idea the ones available after World War II were as bad as described here.
They sound really sick. Vronksky asks a very good question: why aren't there more serial killers? Why are they such a small percentage of our population?

The last chapter is about a modern serial killer and the daughter of one of his victims.

NOTES:

Chapter 1: Has a list of proposed definitions of serial killings.

Chapter 3: Has a list of some paraphilias.

Chapter 6: Describes some of the instruments of torture used during the European witch hunts.

Chapter 7: Has Dr. Anil Aggrawal's 10 categories of necrophilia.

Chapter 8: Explains how the British slang term '[sweet] Fanny Adams' originated.

Chapter 9: The author mentions how very many books there are about Jack the Ripper and those in which he appears as a character. What about TV? I quickly thought of the episodes with Jack on the original "Star Trek" and "Babylon 5" series. (By coincidence, that very Trek episode was rerunning while I was reading the chapter, so I got to refresh my memory.)

Chapter 13: Lists some famous murders of the1960s. (Although the 1960s began on January 1st 1961 and ended December 31st, 1970. Anno Domini/Common Era years are supposed to have started with the birth of Christ. The first decade would start with the moment of birth and end when He turned 11 because he had to live the entire 10 years for it to be the first decade. That's why I, who am 65 as I write this, am in my 7th decade of life.)

Chapter 14: Has a list of some American Serial Killers, their birth dates, and the main years in which they did their murders. It also includes a sample of headlines from men's 'sweats' (adventure and true detective) magazines.

Personally, I want to know what makes serial killers able to do what they do to their fellow human beings. This book provides some reasons. show less

I generally do not read true crime, so this book was very new to me. I came across this "Sons of Cain: A History of Serial Killers from the Stone Age to the Present" by chance because of my interest in pre-civilization history. I did not think the author, Peter Vronsky, an investigative journalist turned crime researcher, could give a complete history of serial killers as described in the subtitle, but he did.

The book is mostly chronological. Following other theorists, Vronsky claims that violence is a part of our human nature, dating it all the way to the conquest of Neanderthals by modern humans, a time of terrible genocidal barbarity. He mentions laws from early civilizations as evidence that serial killers existed then, but there show more is a large gap until he reaches the Middle Ages of Europe, a section of the book that was quite interesting.

Vronsky says, convincingly, that werewolf and witch myths were created in order to explain the serial killers of that time. He describes several cases of the Medieval era in which murderers were accused of being werewolves before going into other cases during the Age of Discovery and Enlightenment. The cases of serial killers during these eras were all similar and held my attention, despite diatribes about church-sponsored sadism during sanctioned witch hunts. As the book goes on, a thesis appears that Jack the Ripper was not the first serial killer and Vronsky finds plenty of cases in the 1800's to prove that point.

Large sections of the book zigzag casually from one topic to the next. During a discussion of one murderer, he will mention similarities with others. This caused some frustration with me because I wanted to learn more about the topics and people he mentioned. Because of the nature of the topic and the killers written about, the book contains some graphic, though academic, information about the sexuality involved with serial murdering.

One downside to the book is that it mostly concentrates on European and American serial killers. Murderers from other parts of the world get brief mention. I would have been interested to read about murderers from other cultures and parts of the world. Vronsky could have bolstered his thesis that violence is inherent to humans.

It contains a comprehensive index and plenty citations and sources.

Vronsky clearly knows his stuff, but the book often meanders. Despite the material, the book is relaxed and unceremonious. I think readers of true crime will particularly enjoy it. show less

Pretty good and thorough pop science read on the topic.
Important to note that the book is over half a decade old, and in any social or related science, that's a long time. Some of the language is outdated and some facts presented are no longer considered facts.
I also noticed some minor factual errors when it came to language/translations and background anecdotes.
There are some WEIRD takes at the end that focus on islamic extremism, when right-wing terrorism would have been a much more logical connection (and it was alive and well when this book was written).

All in all I'd say it's a good Introductory read for people interested in some more historical aspects of serial killers. Just don't take the book as academic literature.

Utterly fascinating - you loved the content covering paraphilias and pre-historic psychopathy!