My Life Among the Serial Killers: Inside the Minds of the World's Most Notorious Murderers

This is a brazen attempt to cash in on the misery of others. Helen Morrison is not much better than the internet ghouls that fawn over killers. Morrison offers a theory that murderers are born not made, but has no evidence to support her thesis. Most of the book recounts the events of various serial killers. How they killed, in graphic detail, how they were caught, where are they now. There is next to nothing new here. Read wikipedia about each killer and you get 90% of this book.
Of course she interjects herself into each story with the following format:
· Description of where she was when she found out she could meet killer.
· What the killer looked like when she met him
· The questions she asked ‘Why did you do it?”
· Huge show more unfounded theoretical leap to finish it off

Morrison demonstrates the worst side of psychology, the idea that theoretical concepts like the Id, Superego, etc, are solid proven facts and can be used to explain the actions of madmen. She also shamelessly inserts lurid details for pure sensationalism. John Wayne Gacy’s Mother revealed some strange, embarrassing parenting techniques. Even though “Dr”. Morrison is sure the details had nothing to do with Gacy becoming a killer, and that Mrs. Gacy seemed mortified, and denied the statements later, she includes a detailed account in her book.
It is impossible to respect this writer as a scientist. She claims to want to understand, to predict to save people, but those statements don’t stand up to examination. In reality she has achieved her, far less noble, goal of becoming famous. show less

Oh, where do I begin with this piece of work. I am fascinated by killers, specifically serial killers, and how their minds work. I thought this book would give me grand insight. To a degree it did, but with it came a very opinionated view disguised as a scientific conclusion.

It has been a while since I read this, but I will do my best to describe my biggest gripes with the book.

For starters, the author goes on about how she has to keep her personal life a secret so her patients (the serial killers) can't use it to manipulate her. However, in the book she will describe random moments with her children and husband in detail I would think her paranoid to say should one of her patients get ahold of the book. This is what I care about the show more least.

She has many moments where she makes a statement that just doesn't seem right compared to all the evidence. One statement, which is brought up many times against this book, is how she believes John Wayne Gacy would have still killed in front of a police officer. This was said in his defense as he could not help himself and wasn't in touch with reality enough to know consequences (again this is roughly speaking from my memory), when several times he did show that he did indeed know and avoided getting caught. She seems to ignore valuable details to support her theories.

Along with that, with the backlash of her defense of Gacy, she claimed it was because she was a female in her field and it was a boys club. She seems so out of touch with how her theories stack up against what we know and the evidence that she will say about anything to keep from admitting she may be wrong. From reading her book, I got a constant condescending tone and it was frustrating. And as long as we are on the topic of being a woman, she claims there are no female serial killers. She backs this up with an incorrect definition of a serial killer that pretty much allows her to selectively push out many people who qualify. Why? I suspect it's because they do not fit her theories. As a woman, I find this behavior peeving and likely maybe part of the reason some people do not take women in the field seriously.

Another issue I have is she claims serial killers are never addicted to substances and are never sexually motivated. Ted Bundy (I believe I have the right guy) alone is enough to disprove this. I could attempt to go into more detail about why she believes this to be true, but I no longer have the book with me. Should I get it again, I will update this review to cover it more thoroughly.

I could go on and on about my gripes with the author herself. Her claim that she has interviewed around 80 serial killers is questionable (and said to be impossible by some) and has been a hot topic for some time now. She overall, in the book, reeks of "praise me because I'm amazing!". I honestly got more about her than I recall of the serial killers. It was disappointing. From her disturbing controversial opinions to her general attitude, this book was a mess.

I truly did want to love it, but I just couldn't with the lack of professionalism amongst what I have listed above. show less

Dated, but brilliant. The author, a doctor, says she uses the scientific method but it's all personal interpretation.

I never supported the death penalty before reading the book. I always thought that a quick needle then going bye-byes was too good for murderers. That the best of all possible punishments was what happened to Myra Hindley. Life imprisonment and always the hope of freedom, which was never granted despite all her protestations of religion and repentance, and then she died in prison. Her partner in crime, Brady, (they killed children and teenagers for sexual pleasure and taped them as they were tortured) is still alive. He's been trying to starve himself to death for years but they force-feed him :-)

Having read the book show more though, having read the details of what some of these serial killers do to their victims purely because they are addicted to the act of torturing someone, usually women, to death, details that never appear in the press, I just don't think it is fair to ask the general run-of-the-mill prisoner to have to mix with people like these. Kill them I say. Preferably in a very slightly-defective electric chair. Not nice. No. I never said I was and I WANT them to suffer as they die, even if it's only 1% of the suffering they inflicted on their victims, I want them to know what the pain and terror is like. It's not enough just to ... put them out of their misery.

This book isn't the only book on serial killers, there are many, but perhaps the most repugnant and possibly the most interesting is [b:The Gates of Janus|630483|The Gates of Janus|Ian Brady|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1328768805s/630483.jpg|616803] written by Brady, the serial killer himself. show less

I have a morbid fascination with serial killers, and a newfound appreciation for true crime, so of course I was going to give this book a try. And here is where I'm torn. The author's psychological explanation for why serial killers kill is that they are addicted to killing, they are impulsive and incapable of controlling their actions once they are pushed too far, and they have the emotional maturity of a young infant. Ie. their killing sprees are impulsive rather than premeditated. That's a pretty hard claim to justify, and a claim that had me raising my eyebrow in certain parts.

But on the other hand, the visceral details of these murders are truly shocking and gut-wrenching, and that was why I picked up the book in the first place. show more The big names (John Wayne Gacy, Gary Ridgeway, etc.) had the most pull for me, but even the unfamiliar criminals had me enthralled and disgusted. At any rate, it certainly has me clamoring to learn more about true crime and serial murders.

So I suppose that determining whether or not a reader will like this book comes down to their interests: if they're interested in the details of serial murderers, they'll probably find a wealth of fascinating information in here. If they're interested in a strong psychological analysis of the criminals' motives, they might be better off choosing a different title.

I'm giving this book four stars because of my personal reaction to it. But will it be the book for every fan of true crime? Not likely.

Readalikes:

If you're interested in learning more about some of the people mentioned in the book, you might try Green River, Running Red (Ann Rule), The Stranger Beside Me (Ann Rule), or John Wayne Gacy: Defending a Monster (Sam Amirante).

If you're interested in the idea of psychological profiling, you might try How to Make a Serial Killer (Christopher Berry-Dee), The Measure of Madness (Cheryl Paradis), or Whoever Fights Monsters (Robert K. Ressler). show less

She’s a psychiatrist who works as a profiler and claims to have interviewed 80 serial killers. A lot of it feels like bullshit, like how she talked to Ed Gein, but has nothing new to add about him. She says she had a correspondence with UK accessory to murder Rose West, but sorry, she doesn’t have permission to share any of the content. True crime name dropping?
Her own theories seem like personal opinion - she thinks serial killers aren’t psychopaths but are stuck at an infant level of emotional development, and she says there are no female serial killers, which is demonstrably false. The only interesting parts were descriptions of a few cases I wasn’t aware of.
Though I’ll admit my jaw dropped at the fact that Rose West, in show more prison for life, became engaged to the bass player from Slade, a glam band I like. Turns out it was Slade II, a later lineup of new musicians, and they fired him “for the good name of the band”. show less

This was a very interesting book, but I don't think that much of the author's theory. She believes a genetic, neurological problem causes serial murder and environment, upbringing, etc., has nothing to do with it. In order to get her theory to work she used a very narrow, arbitrary definition of a serial killer. If Ed Gein was a serial killer, why wasn't Elizabeth Bathory? This book is good to read for all the information it contains about certain serial murderers, including some relatively obscure ones, but I don't think it's the answer to everything.

My Life Among the Serial Killers was a fascinating view into the debate about what drives a serial murderer to kill. Although the book became technical at times, for the most part it was written in layman's terms and in depth enough to leave the reader feeling a bit more knowledgeable in regards to the somewhat esoteric subject.

Where the book went wrong were the long (at times more than half a chapter) rants about the author's life. While I understand that it is important to realize how deficient the police force and FBI can be in terms of catching killers -- and moreso, how the medical community is still prejudiced against women in the workforce -- I do not understand why the author feels compelled to push her cause in these two show more matters forward in a book regarding serial killers. Yes, her work was revolutionary, but no.. I am not terribly interested in learning whether or not her child did well at that hockey game.

Complaints aside, the book was well structured and a nice overview of the different types of serial murderers that exist. I came away from the book more interested in the subject than I was when I first opened it, which I suppose means I should tip my hat to this book; it was a job well done. show less