Masterpieces of Murder by Jonathan Goodman (Editor)

From the Publisher

In Masterpieces of Murder, Jonathan Goodman has brought together more than thirty-five accounts of some of the most notorious true murder cases in history, covering a variety of different aspects and styles of true crime writing.

Goodman quotes approvingly Hitchcock's dictum that the sort of murder that most appealed to him was "like blood on a daisy". Here you will find cases similar to that of George Joseph Smith who drowned his new bride in the bathroom of a guest-house and, while still drying his hands, tiptoed downstairs to concoct an alibi from an all-stops-out performance of "Nearer My God to Thee" on the harmonium in the parlor. Included are pieces such as A.E. Housman's poem "The Culprit" which was quoted by Clarence Darrow during his closing speech for the defense at the 1924 Chicago trial of the teenaged "thrill killers" Nathan Leopold and Richard Loeb, for their kidnapping and murder of fourteen year-old Robert Franks. Goodman claims to "find most cases of serial killings humdrum" — what you will find here are masterpieces of murder, cases of quality rather than quantity.

Jonathan Goodman is the highly successful author of numerous true crime books, including Bloody Versicles: Rhymes of Crime, Burning of Evelyn Foster, The Slaying of Joseph Bowne Elwell, The Lady Killers: Famous Women Murderers, and The Supernatural Murders: Classic True-Crime Stories.

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