Product Description

Sparked by a growing concern over the steady rise of signature murders, the author explores in detail the patterns, sadistic compulsions and depraved motives of this breed of killer, including such infamous murderers as Jeffrey Dahmer, Ted Bundy and John Gacy.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #100562 in Books
• Published on: 1998-09-03
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 384 pages

Amazon.co.uk Review
Signature Killers is a peculiar yet valuable book--simultaneously repetitious and brilliant, turgid yet passionate, and indispensable for understanding serial killers. Those who persevere through the prolixity of the writing style will be rewarded by compelling insights into the psychological needs, and evolution over time, of a specific type of murderer: one whose key characteristic is not so much that he kills multiple people, but that he leaves a signature behind at every crime scene. Robert Keppel knows what he's talking about: he's been involved in more than 2,000 murder investigations, including 50 high-profile serial cases. The topics he covers in exhaustive and harrowing detail (Signature Killers is not for the faint of heart) include "the essence of torture", "the anger-retaliation signature", "the picquerism signature", "the psychological imprint of a sadist", "the retaliation-to-excitation continuum" and why Jeffrey Dahmer is "the black hole at the end of the continuum".