Quote:
Originally Posted by Vector
The description of Holmes as "America's First Serial Killer" piqued my curiosity, so I did some googling. According to one site, America's first known serial killers were the Harp Boys, who got started during the American Revolution. There may have been many we don't know about. One interesting thing about the Holmes case is how long he was at it before anyone suspected anything.
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The author may have been referring to the first serial killer that made the headlines. His book, Thunderstruck, is about the first high-speed chase covered by the media *as it happened*. He documents the development of wireless radio transmission technology by Marconi and how the implementation of the technology coincided with the wife-murderer Crippen's need to escape across the Atlantic Ocean. Someone recognized him on the ship and messages were sent ahead to the authorities, and the papers. It was all very exciting at the time.
DITWC also compares the thought-process and techniques of higher-order thinkers. Creating the Exposition and creating a murder house to take advantage of the increased number of potential victims the exposition would bring, require a very similar mind and skill set. But that's just what I get out of Larson's books - he's the only true-crime guy I read because his books aren't just about vicious criminals, they're also about what's going on in the world around them and how they are affected by contemporary technology.