Murderers and then even MORE Murderers

I have been reading the book Mapping the Trail of a Serial Killer: How the World's Most Infamous Murderers were Tracked Down by Brenda Ralph Lewis. I think she's probably British since she uses kilometers and ques and the term nee (which is French).

I am actually really fascinated with this book. I have a problem with reading it before going to bed and then dreaming about some weird crap. I actually find it really interesting that it often takes the police a decade or more to find these guys. It is painful when the killer is interviewed and picked up but they just don't have enough evidence to convict the person.

It is interesting to see the paths that some of these killers had - one guy in South America narrowly escaped being tribally executed to only be convicted for only 15 years (the maximum sentence in the country) and then go on to kill even more people. His total amount of child victims is around 300+! 300 children had to die because of this guy and the lack of a firm judicial system in South America. He was never actually convicted for more than those 15 years; however, there were multiple hits put out on the guy and he never resurfaced. I can't say that I'm all that sad - it's sad when the judicial system fails, but at least this guy is not out there harming any more children. I wonder if his hit death was more painful than the tribal execution he managed to elude because of a missionary convincing the tribe to trust the judicial system. They had him buried up to his neck in the sand and then dumped honey all over him to attract the ants. You can guess the rest of how that would have turned out - very slow and painful. He was known as the Monster of the Andes.

Another serial killer I found interesting was the Stockwell Strangler. I mostly found his case interesting because the one person to survive his attacks was a Mr. Prentice. I found this interesting and I am wondering if it is a coincidence (I doubt it) but Emily Prentice is one of the characters on Criminal Minds - a profiler who catches serial killers.

The name of Cullen has also been tainted by this book. Charles Cullen was a guy who went around injecting patients with either insulin or a cardiac medication that would induce death. I find it appalling that so many of his murders were covered up or brushed over because the hospitals were worried about getting sued. There also wasn't a way for hospitals to check out the work history of employees. This guy moved from job to job and would either be sent away or would leave when suspicions would start to be raised.

This is an interesting read. A very shocking, disturbing, gut wrenching read, but something that I found interesting. I think even more disturbing than the crimes themselves were often the loop holes that let the murderers remain out and killing. Sometimes, the legal systems of countries just scare me!