A master-class in bringing history to life, in all its creepy, twisted glory'-Karen Kilgariff, co-host of My Favorite Murder podcast
The thrilling story of Edward Rulloff-a serial murderer who was called 'too intelligent to be killed'-and the array of 19th-century investigators who were convinced his brain held the key to finally understanding the criminal mind. Rulloff was a brilliant yet utterly amoral murderer-some have called him a 'Victorian-era Hannibal Lecter'-whose crimes spanned decades, but by 1871 he was captured, chained in a cell-a psychopath holding court while curious 19th-century 'mindhunters' got to work. From alienists to neurologists to phrenologists, each one thought he held the key to understanding the essential question: is evil born or made? Acclaimed crime historian and podcaster Kate Winkler Dawson draws on hundreds of source materials and never-before-shared historical documents to present one of the first glimpses into the mind of a serial killer-a century before the term was coined-through the scientists whose work would come to influence criminal justice for decades to come.
