THE ENCYCLOPEDIA OF MASS MURDER

This is a remarkable, revelatory exploration of the world’s most extreme cases of mass murder by two of the UK’s most respected true-crime experts. From it, a significantly consistent pattern emerges of the person who commits multicide: almost always male, a loner lacking in social skills, not able to form stable relationships. Bearing a general grudge against society or blaming a particular individual, he determines to seek a fanatical revenge. Over 200 notorious cases include: Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, two heavily armed students who opened fire at Columbine High School, Colorado, killing 13 Michael Ryan, perpetrator of the notorious ‘Hungerford Massacre’, in which 16 people were shot dead, including his own mother Brenda Spencer, a rare instance of a female mass murderer, who opened fire at a junior school, killing 11, ‘Because,’ she said, ‘I don’t like Mondays’ Jeremy Bamber, the country boy found guilty of killing five members of his family Julio Gonzalez, who, after a row with his girlfriend, set fire to the Happy Land social club, killing 87 people The Supreme Truth Cult, who released nerve gas in subway trains in Tokyo, killing 12 people Timothy McVeigh, responsible for the deaths of 168 people in the Oklahoma bombing