Showing results for "Personality" in Mystery, Thriller & Suspense

Revisiting Dr. Michael Stone's groundbreaking 22-level Gradations of Evil Scale, a hierarchy of evil behavior first introduced in the book The Anatomy of Evil, Stone and Dr. Gary Brucato, a fellow violence and serious psychopathology expert, here provide even more detail, using dozens of cases to exemplify the categories along the continuum. The New Evil also presents compelling evidence that, since a cultural tipping-point in the 1960s, certain types of violent crime have emerged that in earlier decades never or very rarely occurred.

True Crime Psychology and Personality dives deep into the pathology behind some of the most horrendous crimes and those who commit them. We discuss topics like narcissism, psychopathy, sociopathy, and antisocial personality disorder from a scientifically informed perspective. What is a narcissist? What makes a person develop narcissistic personality disorder or become a psychopath? How do you spot a sociopath? What signs can you look for to protect yourself from these dangerous personalities? It's not just about the stories, it's about the science and psychology behind them.

The science of personality theory has advanced dramatically in recent years clearing the way for this useful and edifying speculation about the inner workings of horrific serial killers. Applying personality theory to more than a dozen of the most notorious serial killers in modern history, the mystery surrounding their crimes begins to unravel. What drives them to commit horrific crimes? How does sexual desire fit into their motivation? Why do some stop killing while others escalate? What are the different types of serial killers based on personality theory?

On October 20, 1973, in San Francisco, a White couple strolling down Telegraph Hill was set upon and butchered by four young Black men. Thus began a reign of terror that lasted six months and left 15 Whites dead and the entire city in a state of panic. The perpetrators wanted nothing less than a race war.

As a forensic psychiatrist, it's Dr Das' job to treat and rehabilitate what the tabloids might call the 'criminally insane', many of whom assault, rob, rape and even kill. His work takes him to high-security prisons and securely locked hospital wards across the country, as well as inside courtrooms, giving evidence as an expert witness.

What is it about killers, cults and cannibals that capture our imaginations even as they terrify and disturb us? How do we carefully consume these cases, and what can they teach us about what makes victims and their murderers our collective responsibility? Redhanded rejects the outdated narrative of killers as monsters and that a victim 'was just in the wrong place at the wrong time'. Instead, it dissects the stories of killers in a way that challenges perceptions and asks the hard questions about society, gender, poverty, culture and even our politics.

Today, neuroscientists are imaging, mapping, testing, and dissecting the source of the worst behavior imaginable in the brains of the people who lack a conscience: psychopaths. Neuroscientist Dean Haycock examines the behavior of real life psychopaths and discusses how their actions can be explained in scientific terms, from research that literally looks inside their brains to understanding how psychopaths, without empathy but very goal-oriented, think and act the way they do.

On February 29, 2000, John Price took out a restraining order against his girlfriend, Katherine Knight. Later that day, he told his coworkers she had stabbed him and that if he were ever to go missing, it was because Knight had killed him. The next day, Price didn’t show up for work. A coworker was sent to check on him. They found a bloody handprint by the front door, and they immediately contacted the police. The local police force was not prepared for the chilling scene they were about to encounter.

"He pushed me." Three words turn a suspected suicide into an unsettling murder, pointing to a killer whose methods and motives threaten to expose buried memories of Seong-Jae's past. Yet neither Malcolm nor Seong-Jae are ready for the shadowed secrets that could shatter their tenuous new relationship, when a haunting presence seems to stalk them around every corner, watching their smallest move, baiting them and flirting just out of reach. Is it the killer, always staying one step ahead?

On July 20, 2012 in Aurora, Colorado, a man in dark body armor and a gas mask entered a midnight premiere of The Dark Knight Rises with a tactical shotgun, a high-capacity assault rifle, and a sidearm. Soon twelve were dead and fifty-eight were wounded. A Dark Night in Aurora uses the twenty-three hours of unredacted interview transcripts never seen by the public and Reid’s research to bring the listener inside the mind of a mass murderer. The result is chilling, gripping study of abnormal psychology and how a lovely boy named Jimmy became a killer.

When Tara Peary’s twin sister Sophie goes missing, Tara dives into New York’s underbelly to find her. Sophie is the one person who’s ever truly understood her, and Tara knows her sister isn’t the only one who needs help. Tara is also on the run emotionally from her complicated childhood. Her memories are threatening to derail the hunt for Sophie. A psychotherapist keeps her afloat, but then Tara begins dating her therapist’s young tech-millionaire neighbor. The more she uncovers about her the dark side of the rich elite, the less certain of the truth she becomes.

As with the two prior volumes of True Crime Case Histories, I want to start with a quick word of warning. Most news articles and television true crime shows skim over the sticky details of truly gruesome crimes. In my books I don't gloss over the facts, regardless of how horrible they may be. I try to give my listeners a clear and accurate description on just how demented the killers really were. I do my best not to leave anything out. The stories included in these books are not for the squeamish.

Penny Francone, age 16, is a murderer. Her guilt is beyond doubt: she was found alone in the victim’s apartment, covered in blood, holding the murder weapon. The victim’s identity and her secret relationship to Penny give Penny the perfect motive, sealing the deal. All the jury needs to decide now is where Penny will serve out her sentence. Will she be found not guilty by reason of insanity, as her lawyer intends to argue? Or will she get a life sentence in a maximum-security prison?

Hundreds of years in the future our civilization is shrunk down but we go on. There is advanced technology, there are robots. And there are clones. E. A. Smithe is a borrowed person, his personality an uploaded recording of a deceased mystery writer. Smithe is a piece of property, not a legal human. As such, Smithe can be loaned to other branches. Which he is. Along with two fellow reclones, a cookbook and romance writer, they are shipped to Polly's Cove, where Smithe meets a little girl who wants to save her mother, a father who is dead but perhaps not.

"Creepy crawling" was the Manson Family's practice of secretly entering someone's home and, without harming anyone, leaving only a trace of evidence that they had been there, some reminder that the sanctity of the private home had been breached. Now, author Jeffrey Melnick reveals just how much the Family creepy crawled their way through Los Angeles in the sixties and then on through American social, political, and cultural life for close to fifty years, firmly lodging themselves in our minds.

Lucas spent the first half of his life protecting himself from others, but now his own mind is his biggest enemy. He doesn't know what happens when the blackouts overtake him, but he can recall the feelings - the rage, the confusion, the fear. Thankfully the quiet life he's found in Payson, Arizona, has kept the darkness at bay. Until his boss' estranged daughter shows up in town, asking questions she shouldn't and sparking a desire Lucas can't control.

Danielle Rycroft suspects someone close to her has a dark secret. In the confidential setting of therapy, her patients share their anxieties and fears. Now, with a string of murders in town putting her on edge, Danielle’s own worries come close to eclipsing her patients’. In each case, the pattern is the same: parents killed while their children sleep blissfully unaware in their beds. Her best friend, Detective Tami Sloan, is the only person she has confided in.

Outspoken radio talk show host Jim Fate dies tragically when poisonous gas fills the studio while his polarizing show, The Hand of Fate, is on air. The triple threat of FBI Special Agent Nicole Hedges, crime reporter Cassidy Shaw, and Federal Prosecutor Allison Pierce must piece together the madness, motive, and mystery of what just happened. And this time, it's personal since one of the women was secretly dating the host and has access to his home...as well as possible evidence.

The winter child lived and breathed amongst us for several years. He was brilliant as he moved around society, exercising his charm and wit as he observed seemingly normal people going about their lives...After all is said and done, what do we understand about the fragile nature of mankind, and the reasons behind a life like the winter's child? This is an inward look at the development and sum total of the life of Edmund Kemper, one of the most notrious serial killers in recent history.

Cammie and her husband Dan start to deal with recovery, if for no other reason than to be functional parents to their precious baby girl, Angel. Recovery only seems to make things worse for the young couple when Cammie starts having blackouts. Dan and Cammie’s father and stepmother are terrified to leave her alone with the baby. Michelle is doing her best to suck Cammie back into the dark world of drugs and Satanism. How will Cammie deal with her mother, who is involved in the dark world of Satanism? Will she be lured back into the horrors of addiction and evil?