Murder and Mayhem: The Anthology of American Serial Killers from the 19th and Early 20th Centuries, Banks Taylar

Bludgeoning, stabbing, strangulation, mounted skeletons, poison, torture, mutilation, and scientific experiments. Outsiders did not hear the screams of the victims, some families did not get closure, and some serial killers got away with murder.

No one knew Belle Gunness murdered her foster daughter Jennie Olson until investigators discovered the remains along with at least twelve others buried on Belles farm; Belle had told everyone Jennie went off to college. Jesse Harding Pomeroy had no problem slicing the throat of 10-year-old Katie Curran when she went to the Pomeroys shop to buy paper. Katies decayed remains were discovered in Mrs. Pomeroys basement where Jesse had carelessly covered the body with ash and stone. The bludgeoned victims of the Bloody Benders never had justice; the killers were never found.

This book contains documents related to four serial killers and one serial killing family E. Luscomb Haskells The Life of Jesse Harding Pomeroy (1892), George L. Barclays The Poison Fiend Life, Crimes, and Conviction of Lydia Sherman (1873), Thomas S. Dukes accounts of Belle Gunness and H. H. Holmes from Celebrated Criminal Cases of America (1910), The Chicago Tribunes 1895 account of H. H. Holmes crimes and castle, and The Kansas Chiefs 1873 article, The Devils Kitchen Further Particulars of the Butcher Benders Den.