Hunting Humans: The Rise Of The Modern Multiple Murderer

A completely revised and expanded edition of a classic study from the authority on serial killers.

Hunting Humans is Elliott Leyton’s classic study of six of the world’s most notorious serial killers. It established him as a leading authority on one of crime’s most disturbing phenomena and as an expert consultant for the FBI, New Scotland Yard, and Interpol.

Now well into the twenty-first century, the broad social factors Leyton identifies as the breeding conditions for serial killings have only intensified. While mass murderers occupy the role in the public consciousness once held by evil spirits, Leyton looks beyond the hysteria, delving further into the often alarmingly human motivations of multiple killers. He shows how serial and mass murders are not simply the acts of deranged minds but are the personalized protests by alienated men against the society they believe has excluded them. While uncovering the central themes of modern culture that motivated their deeds, Leyton provides portraits of Bundy, De Salvo, Kemper, Essex, Starkweather, and Berkowitz that are as vivid and chilling as ever. This completely updated edition, with more than 50 per cent new material, confirms its place as the foundational work on the subject.