• PREFACE:   MY TWO SERIAL KILLERS
  
  How I came to write this book after briefly encountering two serial killers before they were caught:  Richard Cottingham in New York City in 1979 and Andrei Chikatilo in the Soviet Union in 1990.

PART ONE
A HISTORY OF MONSTERS

• 1.  THE POST-MODERN AGE OF SERIAL HOMICIDE: THE SILENCE OF THE "LESS DEAD"
  
  An introduction to the evolution of serial murder from 1970 to 2000 and the nature of serial killers.
  -  The Post-Modern Serial Killer
  -  Who Are the Serial Killers
  -  A Primer on the Nature of Serial Killers and Their Victims
  -  The "Serial Killer Epidemic":  The Statistics of Murder
  -  Behind the Making of the "Serial Killer Epidemic"
  -  Previous Serial Killer "Epidemics"
  -  The Global Rise of Serial Murder
  -  Why The Rising Wave of Serial Killing 1970-2000?

• 2.  A BRIEF HISTORY OF SERIAL MURDER: TWO THOUSAND YEARS OF MURDER FROM ROME TO BOSTON
  
  A survey of serial murder from the recreational killings in the Roman Coliseum to the Boston Strangler.
  -  Rome:  Empire of Hedonistic Killing
  -  Gilles de Rais:  The Bluebeard Child Murderer
  -  Elizabeth Bathory:  The Female Vampire Killer
  -  Serial Killers in Pre-Modern History (1550 - 1750)
  -  Slouching Towards Whitechapel:  The Rise of Sexual Murder
  -  Jack the Ripper and After
  -  Explaining Mutilation and Picquerism
  -  Why the Rise of Sexual Homicide?
  -  Into the 20th Century
  -  Back in the USA
  -  Albert DeSalvo:  The Boston Strangler
  -  America Tumbles into the Sixties: 1966--"The year the world went mad."

PART TWO
THE METHOD AND MADNESS

• 3.  CLASSIFYING SERIAL KILLERS:  THE TYPOLOGIES OF MONSTROSITY
  
  An introduction to the basic FBI "organized/disorganized" method of classifying serial killers.
  -  Organized Killers
  -  Disorganized Killers
  -  Mixed Category Killers
  -  Ted Bundy:  The Ultimate Organized Killer
  -  Miguel Rivera--Charlie Chop-off:  A Disorganized Killer
  -  Richard Ramirez-The Night Stalker:  A Mixed Category Killer

• 4.  THE EVOLUTION OF MONSTROSITY:  VISIONARY MISSIONARY HEDONIST POWER-ASSERTIVE ANGER-RETALIATORY MUNCHAUSEN SYNDROME BY PROXY SERIAL SPREE KILLERS AND OTHER EMERGING CATEGORIES
  
  A look at the more complex range of categories used by criminologists and psychologists to classify serial killers including types of female serial killers and the recently defined "spree" type serial killer.
  -  Evolving Categories
  -  Visionaries:  Herbert Mullin-The Die Song
  -  Missionaries:  Joseph P. Franklin; The Zebra Killers; Ted Kaczynski
  -  Hedonist Comfort Killers:  Dr. Marcel Petiot
  -  Hedonist Lust Killers:  Jerry Brudos; Ed Gein
  -  Hedonist Thrill Killers:  The Hillside Stranglers
  -  Power/Control Killers:  John Wayne Gacy
  -  Recent Revisions in serial killer categories
  -  Power-Assertive, Power-Reassurance, Anger-Retaliatory, Anger-Excitation
  -  Offense Distribution of Proposed Categories
  -  Other Classifications and Typologies
  -  The Female Serial Killer
  -  Female Sexual Killers as Accomplices
  Gwendolyn Graham & Catherine May Wood; Myra Hindley & Ian Brady; Karla Homolka & Paul Bernardo; Carol Bundy & Douglas Clark; Charlene and Gerald Gallego
  -  Aileen Wuornos:  The Female Single Sexual Killer Who Wasn't
  -  Other Types of Female Serial Killers:  Black Widows; Angels of Mercy; Myunchausen Syndrome By Proxy
  -  The Spree Serial Killer:  A New Emerging Breed--Andrew Cunanan; John Allan Muhammad & John Lee Malvo:  The Beltway snipers.

• 5.  THE QUESTION OF MADNESS:  INSIDE THEIR HEADS
  
  A primer on the psychology of the serial killer.
  -  The Insanity Plea
  -  Psychotics and Psychopaths
  -  Biosocial Interaction
  -  Can psychopaths be treated and cured?  Case studies of Peter Woodcock and Edmund Kemper.

• 6.  SERIAL KILLERS AS CHILDREN:  THE MAKING OF MONSTERS
  
  A survey of common childhood factors in the histories of serial killers.
  -  The Serial Killer as Infant
  -  The Serial Killer as the Lonely Child
  -  The Serial killer and His Mother
  -  Childhood Mental and Physical Trauma
  -  The Childhood of Henry Lee Lucas
  -  Biochemistry
  -  Substance Abuse
  -  The Role of Fantasy

• 7.  THE SERIAL MURDERER'S FIRST KILL:  TRIGGERS, FACILITATORS, DETECTIVE MAGAZINES, PARAPHILIC HARD PORN AND THE BIBLE
  
  Every serial killer commits a first murder.  This chapter explores the various factors that might compel the frequently youthful offender to cross the line for the first time from homicidal fantasy to action.
  -  Serial Killers' Reminisces On Their First Murder
  -  Triggers
  -  Facilitators
  -  Pornography and the Internet
  -  Detective Magazines
  -  Other Literature
  -  The Bible and Serial Killing
  -  The Second Murder

• 8.  THE KILLING TIMES:  THE METHOD TO THE MADNESS
  
  A murderer becomes a serial killer only after their second and third murders.  An exploration of the cyclical psychopathology behind how and why serial killers kill again and again.
  -  Phase 1:  Dissociative-Fantasy State
  -  Phase 2:  Trolling-Hunting-Stalking Stage
  -  Phase 3:  Persuasion-Seduction Stage
  -  Phase 4:  The Trap and Capture
  -  Phase 5:  The Murder
  -  Phase 6:  The Totem-Trophy-Memory Stage

PART THREE
FIGHTING MONSTERS

• 9.  THE ART AND SCIENCE OF CRIMINAL PROFILING:  HOW THEY GET RIGHT AND WHEN THEY DON'T
  
  An introduction to the history and technique of serial killer profiling with a critical look at problems and controversies with the FBI's legendary system.
  -  Profiling and the FBI Behavioral Sciences Unit
  -  A Brief History of Profiling
  -  Profiling the Mad Bomber of New York:  1956
  -  Pierce Brooks and Linking Cases
  -  Coining and Defining the Term "Serial Killer"
  -  The FBI System of Profiling:  Crime Scene Analysis
  -  Criminal Signatures, MO, Staging and Posing
  -  FBI Profiling in Action:  Richard Chase, Wayne Williams, Larry Bell
  -  Issues and Problems with the FBI System
  -  Other Profiling Systems:  Diagnostic Evaluation and Investigative Psychology
  -  Geographic Profiling

• 10.  SURVIVING A SERIAL KILLER:  ESCAPING THE MONSTER'S CLUTCH
  
  A review of some possible options available if you should find yourself confronted by a serial killer based on law enforcement interviews with surviving victims and serial killers themselves.
  -  Avoiding the Serial Killer
  -  Trust Your Intuition
  -  Never Get Into the Car
  -  Dealing with Strangers and Recognizing Warning Signs of Duplicity
  -  Desperate Measures:  Escape; Verbal Confrontational Resistance; Physical Confrontational Resistance; Verbal Non-Confrontational Dissuasion; Physical Dissuasion; Acquiescence
  -  Summing It Up

• INDEX

• CITATIONS

• 20 illustrations, many published for the first time. 
  
  SERIAL KILLERS:  THE METHOD AND MADNESS OF MONSTERS
  Peter Vronsky
  Berkley Publishing:  $15.00/$22.00 Can.
  432 pages
  ISBN: 0425196402

• PETER VRONSKY IS REPRESENTED BY
  
  Deidre Knight
  THE KNIGHT AGENCY, INC
  577 South Main, 
  Madison, GA 30650