The Axeman of New Orleans specialised in killing grocers of Italian descent in the 1910s, apparently to promote "jazz" music. Dorothea Puente was a little old landlady who murdered her tenants and cashed their government cheques. The Manson "Family' terrorised California in the 1960s, as did the Hillside Stranglers a decade later. The twelve serial murder cases presented here, representing the decades between the 1890s and 1990s, had one thing in common: significant presence of the mass media. This book examines specific cases of serial murder and the way that the media became involved in the cases, investigations, and trials of each. The author argues that the media plays a multidimensional and integral role in serial killings and the investigation into them.
Gibson examines the role of the media in serial murder cases, including ways in which media interest has interfered with the detection process; the body of knowledge on serial murder through the lens of mass communication; the effectiveness of law enforcement response to serial murderers and how it might be improved if the mass communication causes and consequences of serial murder were better understood; the magnitude of the serial murder problem, as well as the interaction between the media and serial killers and serial murder investigations. Specific examples and numerous quotes are provided throughout to illustrate this strange and detrimental "relationship" between the media and murderers. | 
