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

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 Belle’s 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 Pomeroy’s shop to buy paper. Katie’s decayed remains were discovered in Mrs. Pomeroy’s 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 Haskell’s The Life of Jesse Harding Pomeroy (1892),  George L. Barclay’s The Poison Fiend! Life, Crimes, and Conviction of Lydia Sherman (1873), Thomas S. Duke’s accounts of Belle Gunness and H. H. Holmes from Celebrated Criminal Cases of America (1910), The Chicago Tribune’s 1895 account of H. H. Holmes’ crimes and castle, and The Kansas Chief’s 1873 article, “The Devil’s Kitchen! Further Particulars of the Butcher Bender’s Den.”