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: #93095 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".

Customer Reviews

Perhaps the best book I've ever read on serial homicide
Robert Keppel really knows his stuff, and it shows. His knowledge and insight into the minds of these people is absolutely staggering. He puts them into their various categories and offers clear explanation of the motivations of these killers. If you want to know how the typical serial killer thinks and what caused him to commit his crime(s), then this book is a must read. I'm a big fan of John Douglas and Robert Ressler, but Robert Keppel is definately up there with them. Don't think twice - order this book!!

psycho killers for idiots
This book drove me crazy because it was so patronizing. It is obvious that Keppel knows his stuff, but it is equally obvious that he doesn't think the general reading public have progressed far beyond "A is for Apple". If the man says something once he says it a million times. The case information he gave was sketchy and most of his time was taken up reiterating several obvious points ad nauseum. The book could easily have been a good 75 pages thinner and it wasn't that thick to start with. Compared with writing by the equally professional Paul Britten ("The Jigsaw Man") there is no contest. A real shame.

So intensely insightful it almost scared me, or scarred me!
I've been studying this book for months now, re-reading and going back again and again. Every time I read a passage I find some insight into the killers mind that I hadn't noticed before. For anyone interested in criminology and Signature killers, You Must Read this book.