Legends, Monsters, or Serial Murderers?: The Real Story Behind an Ancient Crime

216 Pages·2012·1.58 MB·English

by  Dirk C. Gibson

Legends, Monsters, or
Serial Murderers?
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Legends, Monsters, or
Serial Murderers?
The Real Story behind
an Ancient Crime
Dirk C. Gibson
Copyright2012byABC-CLIO,LLC
Allrightsreserved.Nopartofthispublicationmaybereproduced,storedinaretrieval
system,ortransmitted,inanyformorbyanymeans,electronic,mechanical,
photocopying,recording,orotherwise,exceptfortheinclusionofbriefquotationsina
review,withoutpriorpermissioninwritingfromthepublisher.
LibraryofCongressCataloging-in-PublicationData
Gibson,DirkCameron,1953–
Legends,monsters,orserialmurderers?:therealstorybehindanancientcrime/
DirkC.Gibson.
p.cm.
Includesbibliographicalreferencesandindex.
ISBN978–0–313–39758–5(hardcopy:alk.paper)—ISBN978–0–313–39759–2(ebook)
1. Serialmurderers—History.2. Serialmurders—History. I.Title.
HV6505.G53 2012
364.15203209—dc23 2011043413
ISBN:978–0–313–39758–5
EISBN:978–0–313–39759–2
16 15 14 13 12 1 2 3 4 5
ThisbookisalsoavailableontheWorldWideWebasaneBook.
Visitwww.abc-clio.comfordetails.
Praeger
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ManufacturedintheUnitedStatesofAmerica
This book is respectfully dedicated to a few of the
significant others in my life.
Mark S. Agness was an exceptionally nice man and a talented poker
player and Uno fiend. His widow Laura, daughter Emily, and Cooper,
and I will always miss him but enjoy the wonderful memories.
My brother Dennis has always been incredibly generous and caring and
supportive. Same with Si Ming. Without Aunt Noo-Noo (Lauria
Garcia) and my main man Lionel Beatwood (aka Dean), this book
would have been impossible.
Mitchell and Erica inspire and motivate me. Remember, kids, just do
wellinschool.Andlookoutfortheclownandtheroadrunner.Isuppose
that depends on what you mean by clown.
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Contents
Introduction ix
1 InvisibleSerialMurder 1
PartI:VampireSerialKillers 11
2 CountessErzsebetBathory 13
3 VincenzoVerzini 25
PartII:WerewolfSerialKillers 33
4 JosephVacher 35
5 GillesGarnier 45
6 PeterStubbe 53
7 WerewolfofChalons 63
PartIII:WitchSerialKillers 69
8 CatherineDeshayesMonvoison 71
9 GillesdeRais 79
PartIV:AristocraticSerialKillers 91
10 VladtheImpaler 93
11 QueenNzinga 103
12 DowagerEmpressCixi 111
PartV:CommercialSerialKillers 119
13 LocustathePoisoner 121
14 LaTofania 129
viii Contents
15 AndreasBichel 137
16 Conclusion 145
Notes 155
Bibliography 195
Index 199
Introduction
Thisisaverydifferenttypeofbookaboutserialmurder.Itisabouttheearly
days of serial murder, before the modern era. Ancient civilizations suffered
fromserialkillersjustascontemporarysocietiesdo.Butthatfacthaslargely
escapedtheattentionoftheserialmurderliterature.
In times past, people did not believe that other humans could mistreat
theirfellowmanassomeserialslayersdo,soitismybeliefthattheycreated
avarietyofsupernaturalphenomenatoexplainawaypremodernserialmur-
der. Cultures all around the world have accepted the reality of a series of
mythic entitiessince ancienttimes. Butisitlikelythatmankind reallywas
visitedbywerewolves,vampires,andtheirsupernaturalkin?Ithinknot.
Thisintroductionsetsthestageformystudyofhistoricserialmurder.My
purposehereistobrieflyintroduceyoutothemainconceptsdocumentedin
thisbook.Fourmainsectionsarepresented,beginningwiththerecognition
thatserialmurderiswidelyperceivedtobearelativelyrecentphenomenon.
Butthisisnotthecase,Isuggestinmysecondintroductorypoint.Thethird
subject discussed is the misidentification of serial murder victims as prey of
the supernatural, and we conclude with a brief identification of the main
typesofpremodernserialkillers.
SERIALMURDERISPERCEIVEDAS A RECENT
PHENOMENON
Anexaminationoftheserialmurderliteraturestrongly suggeststhatthis
isarelativelyrecentrecidivistoffense,amoderncrime.Thereweresubstan-
tial increases in the incidence of serial killing in the 1950s and again two
decadeslaterthatsomeobservershavemistakenasthegenesisofthiscrime.
Others have pointed to the age of industrialization as the origin of this