Thursday 30 April 2015

Serial Killers: Jarvis Catoe

Born: 1905

Number of victims: 8  

Date of murders: 1935-1941  

Method of murder: Strangulation

Location: Washington DC / New York, NY  




When 26-year-old waitress Evelyn Anderson was found strangled to death in a New York alleyway on August 4, 1941, the police picked up a clue almost right away. Anderson’s watch had been stolen and it turned up in a pawn shop in the Bronx just days later, hocked by a man named Charles Woolfolk.

Under questioning, Woolfolk said that he received the watch from a lady friend, Hazel Johnson. She in turn said that it had been given to her by a man named Jarvis Catoe, a resident of Washington, D.C. Catoe, a 36-year-old black man, was arrested on August 29. Under questioning he admitted to killing Anderson, then dropped a bombshell, admitting to seven more murders  

Catoe’s murder spree had started years earlier when he raped and strangled Florence Darcy in 1935. After that murder he lay low for four years before killing Josephine Robinson on December 1, 1939. Three more murders quickly followed. Lucy Kidwell and Mattie Steward were killed in September and November 1940, before Catoe strangled Ada Puller on January 2, 1941.

So far the murders had attracted little attention as the victims were all black. But once Catoe shifted to Caucasian victims, there was a predictable outcry. Rose Abramovitz had been married for just one month when she was killed in her home on March 8, 1941. Then  Catoe committed a murder that attracted even more attention. Jesse Strieff, a secretary at the War Department, was picked up by Catoe during a downpour in Washington on June 15. Presuming he was a cab driver, she got into his car. Her nude body was found the following day, discarded in a garage. She’d been raped and strangled.

Yet despite a massive investigation by the Washington police, Catoe remained at large until his arrest in New York. Had he not confessed, the murders of Jesse Strieff and others would likely have gone unsolved.

Tried on eight counts of murder, Catoe was found guilty, the jury taking just 18 minutes to deliver its verdict. He was executed by electrocution in the District of Columbia on January 15, 1943


Read the full, horrific story of Jarvis Catoe, plus 49 more serial killer cases in 
50 American Serial Killers You’ve Probably Never Heard Of Vol. 2. 
Available now on Amazon
 
 

Wednesday 29 April 2015

Serial Killers: Jerry Brudos

Born: January 31, 1939 in Webster, South Dakota

Number of victims: 4

Date of murders: 1968 - 1968

Method of murder: Strangulation 

Location: Oregon




A deadly fetishist, Brudos developed a fascination with women’s shoes at the age of just five. That fascination soon turned dangerous. By his teens he was stalking and attacking women, landing him in one psychiatric hospital after another. The treatment, however, did no good. By 17, Brudos was drawing up elaborate plans to dig an underground bunker to keep women as sex slaves.

Despite his difficulties, Brudos graduated high school and trained as an electrician. In 1961, he married and settled in Portland, Oregon. Around this time, that he began complaining of severe headaches and blackouts. The only thing that seemed to relieve his symptoms was prowling around at night, peeping into windows and stealing women’s footwear and undergarments.

In January 1968, 19-year-old Linda Kay Slawson was selling encyclopedias door-to-door in Brudos’ neighborhood, when she disappeared. In November of that year, Jan Susan Whitney, 23, vanished, her car later found abandoned at a rest area along Interstate 5 between Salem and Albany.

Karen Elena Sprinker, a 19-year-old honor student at Oregon State University, was killed in March 1969. Police suspected that she had been abducted from the parking lot at Meier & Frank in downtown Salem, where she was to meet her mother for lunch. A man watching Brudos description was reported near the scene.

Linda Dawn Salee, a 19-year-old secretary and part time Portland State University student, went missing from the Lloyd Center in Portland in April 1969. She’d gone to the mall to buy her boyfriend a birthday present.

After the mutilated bodies of three victims were fished from local rivers police received at tip from a Portland University student, leading them to Brudos. Inside Brudos home they found pictures of his victims as well as a severed female foot in the freezer, wearing a red pump.

Convicted on three counts of murder, Brudos was sentenced to life in prison. He died there in March 2006.


Read the full, horrific story of Jerry Brudos, plus 11 more serial killer cases in 
American Monsters Volume 7. Available now on Amazon
 
 

Tuesday 28 April 2015

Serial Killers: Charles Albright

Born: August 10, 1933

Number of victims: 3 

Date of murders: 1990 - 1991  

Method of murder: Shooting

Location: Dallas, Texas 




Abandoned at birth by his biological mother, Charles Albright was adopted by Delle and Fred Albright. Delle, a schoolteacher, was very strict and overprotective of Charles. She also accelerated his education, helping him to skip two grades.

But despite his obvious intelligence, there was a dark side to Charles Albright. Beginning his criminal career with petty theft at age 13, he soon graduated to forgery and burglary, ending up with a one year jail term. After his release he enrolled at Arkansas State Teacher's College but was expelled for possession of stolen items. Unfazed by this setback, he simply forced his degree certificate.

Albright married soon after but divorced in 1974 after he was sent back to prison for theft. In 1981, he was arrested for sexually molested a nine-year-old girl but received only probation. Not long after he turned to murder. 

On December 13, 1990, the body of 35-year-old prostitute, Mary Lou Pratt, was found in the Oak Cliff neighborhood of Dallas. She’d been shot in the head with a .44-caliber weapon and the killer had removed her eyes, apparently taking them with him. On February 10, 1991, another prostitute, Susan Peterson, was found shot to death. Her eyes had also been removed. A third woman, Shirley Williams, was found shot to death on March 18, 1991, her body bearing the familiar mutilations, with both eyes removed. 

Four days after the murder of Shirley Williams, the police received a tip-off naming Albright as the “Eyeball Killer.” He was arrested soon after.

Tried for murder in December 1991, Albright was found guilty and sentenced to life in prison. 


Read the full, horrific story of Charles Albright, plus 11 more serial killer cases in 
American Monsters Volume 5. Available now on Amazon
 
 

Monday 27 April 2015

Serial Killers: Ian Brady and Myra Hindley


Number of victims: 5 

Date of murders: 1963 - 1965 

Method of murder: Strangulation, Bludgeoning

Location:  Manchester, England


Quite possibly the most reviled killers in British history, Brady and Hindley were a depraved couple who preyed on children, torturing and murdering five victims between July 1963 and October 1965.

The deadly pair first met while working together at Millwards Merchandising in 1961. Hindley was instantly attracted to Brady. For his part, he saw a pliant female who he could indoctrinate into his warped worldview of sadomasochistic sex, Nazi ideology and Friedrich Nietzsche. Hindley was a willing disciple and when Brady suggested kidnapping, torturing and killing children, she didn’t flinch.  

On July 12, 1963, Brady and Hindley lured 16-year-old Pauline Reade into their minivan. They drove with her out to Saddleworth Moor where Brady strangled her into submission and raped her. He then smashed in her skull with a shovel and slashed her throat. Pauline was buried on the moor, where she would remained undiscovered for over 20 years.

On November 23, 12-year-old John Kilbride was lured to Saddleworth Moor, where he was strangled to death with a piece of string and buried in a shallow grave. Another 12-year-old boy, Keith Bennett was sexually assaulted by Brady and then strangled to death on June 16, 1964. His body has never been found.

The fourth murder was the most horrendous of all. Ten-year-old Lesley Ann Downey, was kidnapped from a local fairground and taken to Brady’s apartment. There she was subjected to hours of torture and sexual assault while the vile couple recorded everything on tape and in obscene photographs. It is uncertain who killed Lesley Ann as Brady and Hindley blame each other. She was buried on Saddleworth Moor.

On October 6, 1965, the Moors Murderers claimed their fifth and final victim, 17-year-old Edward Evans. However, in this instance Brady miscalculated. He tried to involve Hindley's 18-year-old brother-in-law David Smith in the murder. Smith idolized Brady but he was shocked when Brady smashed in Edward Evans’ head with an axe. As soon as he was allowed to leave the house he contacted the police. 

Brady and Hindley were arrested and placed on trial. The death penalty had been abolished in Britain just a month before their arrest but the public was so outraged at the murders that there were widespread calls to reinstate in. That was never going to happen, so Brady and Hindley got the next best thing - life in prison. Hindley died in 2002. Brady remains incarcerated and will die in prison.


Read the full, horrific story of the Moors Murderers, plus 9 more serial killer cases in 
British Monsters Volume 1. Available now on Amazon
 
 

Saturday 25 April 2015

Serial Killers: Peter Kurten

Born: May 26, 1883 in Mülheim am Rhein, Germany 

Number of victims: 9+ 

Date of murders: 1912 - 1929

Method of murder: Stabbing / Bludgeoning / Strangulation  

Location: Rhine Province, Germany




Born into poverty, Peter Kurten suffered horrendous childhood abuse at the hands of his alcoholic father. It is no surprise therefore that he became an abuser himself, and started sexually abusing his younger sisters. He also began engaging in criminal activity from a young age and later claimed to have committed his first murders at age five, deliberately drowning two young friends while they were swimming in the Rhine.

After Kurten’s family moved to Dusseldorf in 1894 he fell under the influenced of a depraved dogcatcher, who introduced him to bestiality, animal torture and arson. Kurten soon graduated from there to attacks on people. He committed his first provable murder in 1913, strangling 10-year-old girl Christine Klein, during the course of a burglary. His crimes were then halted by an eight-year prison sentence.

After his release in 1921, he moved to Altenburg, where he married. In 1925 he returned to Dusseldorf and resumed his murderous career. On 8 February 1929, Kurten molested and murdered an eight-year-old girl. On 13 February he killed a middle-aged mechanic, stabbing him 20 times. Kurten then went to ground for several months, emerging again on August 21, stabbing three people in separate attacks. Two days later, he murdered two sisters, aged five and 14. The following day he carried out a frenzied knife attack on a woman.

With the city in a state of terror over the mysterious killer now known as the “Vampire of Dusseldorf,” Kurten beat a servant girl to death with a hammer in September, before attacking two more women the following month. In November he murdered a five-year-old girl stabbing her 36 times with a pair of scissors.  

The hammer attacks continued through to March 1930, although the victims all survived. Then, in May, Kurten deviated from his M.O. raping a young woman named Maria Budlick but leaving her otherwise unharmed. Budlick was able to lead the police to Kurten's home. In custody, he confessed to 79 offenses, and was charged with nine murders and seven attempted murders.

Kurten was guillotined on July 2, 1931. Before his execution, he famously asked the executioner if he would be able to hear the blood spurt from his neck after his head was cut off. Told that he would, at least for a brief moment, Kurten is reported to have said: “Good, that would be the ultimate thrill.”


Read the full, horrific story of Peter Kurten, plus 29 more serial killer cases in 
Human Monsters Volume 2. Available now on Amazon
 
 

Serial Killers: Donald "Pee Wee" Gaskins

Born: March 13, 1933 in Florence County, South Carolina   

Number of victims: 8 - 100+ 

Date of murders: 1969 - 1975

Method of murder: Stabbing  

Location: South Carolina



Pee Wee Gaskins got an early start to his life of crime, spending most of his youth in and out of reform schools and later prison. Because of his small size, he was initially picked on, beaten up and raped by other prisoners but Pee Wee soon put a stop to that. He picked out the toughest inmate in the prison, befriended him and then cut his throat. No one messed with Pee Wee after that.

Released in 1969, he took to cruising the highways along America’s east coast, picking up hitchhikers, raping, torturing and killing them. He called these his “Coastal Kills,” murders committed purely for his pleasure. But Gaskins committed other murders too. These he called “serious murders” and they were to eliminate anyone who got in the way of his criminal enterprises (mainly fencing stolen cars) or anyone who offended him in any way. It did not take very much to offend Pee Wee Gakins.

Just how many people Gaskins killed is unknown, but it is speculated to be over 100. Eventually though, luck ran out for Pee Wee and he was arrested in December 1975. Sentenced to life in prison, Gaskins was dubbed the "Meanest Man in America" after he murdered a Death Row inmate. That murder earned him the death penalty and he was executed in the electric chair on September 6, 1991.


Read the full, horrific story of Pee Wee Gaskins, plus 11 more serial killer cases in 
American Monsters Volume 6. Available now on Amazon
 
 

Friday 24 April 2015

Serial Killer Video: Dorothea Puente


A seemingly respectable boarding house operator, Dorothea Puente was in fact a heartless killer who murdered her tenants and then continued cashing their social security checks after their deaths.

Wednesday 22 April 2015

Serial Killers: Douglas Clark and Carol Bundy



Number of victims: 7

Date of murders: 1980

Method of murder: Shooting  

Location: Los Angeles, California

Doug Clark and Carol Bundy made an odd couple, he a part-time gigolo with a taste for underage girls, she a frumpy, overweight nurse, pining for a lost love. Still Bundy was just Clark’s type, a vulnerable woman with low self-esteem who he could easily manipulate. 

The pair met at a country and western in January 1980, and things moved quickly from there. That same night Bundy took Clark back to her apartment and he never left. Soon he’d introduced her to his taste for kinky sex, including an ongoing relationship with an eleven-year-old girl who lived across the hall. Bundy made no complaint, not even when Clark started talking about murder and mutilation.

On June 11, 1980, half-sisters Gina Narano, 15, and Cynthia Chandler, 16, vanished from Huntington Beach. They were found beside the Ventura Freeway near Griffith Park the following morning. Each had been shot in the head with a small-caliber pistol. Clark confessed the murders to Bundy, gleefully describing how he’d forced the girls to perform fellatio on him, and shot them in the head as he climaxed.

In the early hours of June 24, 24-year-old prostitute, Karen Jones, was found behind a Burbank restaurant, killed by a gunshot to the head. Later that morning, police were called to Studio City, where a headless female body had been discovered. She was identified as Exxie Wilson, 20, another prostitute. The missing head would later be found in a Hollywood alley. Clark had carried it from the scene to use as a sex toy.

With the LA newspapers publishing lurid headlines about the "Sunset Strip Slayer" another victim was discovered, this time near Sylmar, in the San Fernando Valley. And the murders continued on July 25, when the corpse of yet another young woman was found near Sunset Boulevard. Like the others, she’d been killed by a bullet to the head.

So far, all of the murders had been committed by Clark, although Bundy had accompanied him on at least one occasion. But on August 5, Bundy carried out a murder of her own, shooting and then severely mutilating her former lover, John Murray.

That murder would bring about the downfall of the deadly duo. Two days later, Bundy broke down at her job and confessed everything to co-workers. The police were called and both Clark and Bundy were soon under arrest. At trial, Clark tried to pin the blame on his female accomplice but it was to no avail. He was sentenced to death, she to life in prison   

Carol Bundy died of a heart attack on December 9, 2003. Douglas Clark is still on death row.


Read the full, horrific story of Douglas Clark and Carol Bundy, plus 11 more serial killer cases in American Monsters Volume 4. Available now on Amazon
 
 

Tuesday 21 April 2015

Serial Killers: Juan Corona

Born: 1934 in Autlán, Mexico 

Number of victims: 25 

Date of murders: 1971

Method of murder: Stabbing

Location: Sutter County, California




Born in Autlán, Mexico in 1934, Juan Corona moved to Yuba City, California in the early 50's. Beginning as a penniless fruit picker, he eventually built up a successful business as a labor contractor. He married and had kids and was regarded as a respected member of the community. But he was also a schizophrenic and a sexual sadist who in 1971 turned to murder.

On May 19, 1971, a farmer was touring his peach orchard when he came upon a freshly dug hole between the trees. He asked members of a work crew about it, but they shrugged it off. The hole bothered the farmer, though, so he went back to check on it later that night and found it had been filled in. Perplexed by this, the farmer decided to call the police. They arrived the following morning and began digging in the loose dirt. They soon unearthed a fresh corpse, later identified as Kenneth Whitacre. He had been stabbed, and his skull cleaved open by a sharp blade, possibly a machete.

Four days later, workers found another grave, containing the corpse of Charles Fleming. Then, after a major excavation was ordered, the police discovered a mass burial site. Within nine days they had recovered 25 bodies and evidence found at the grave sites pointed to one man - Juan Corona.     

Corona was put on trial for murder and despite the defense trying to pin the killings on his brother Natividad (a known violent homosexual) he was found guilty and sentenced to life imprisonment. While in prison, he lost an eye in a knife attack. He also apparently confessed to a Mexican consulate official that he was responsible for the murders

Corona currently resides at Corcoran State Prison, in California.


Read the full, horrific story of Juan Corona, plus 11 more serial killer cases in 
American Monsters Volume 8. Available now on Amazon
 
 

Monday 20 April 2015

Serial Killers: Lawrence Bittaker and Roy Norris




Number of victims: 5 

Date of murders: 1979

Method of murder: Strangulation / Stabbing

Location: California

Lawrence Bittaker was serving time for assault when he met convicted rapist Roy Norris at the California Men's Colony in San Luis Obispo in 1978. The two soon became firm friends and began hatching a horrendous plan - to kidnap, rape, torture and murder teenaged girls, at least one from each teen year, from 13 through to 19.

Paroled on November 15, 1978, Bittaker bought a silver GMC Cargo van, which he christened “Murder Mack.” He then waited for Norris to be released in June 1979, before the depraved duo initiated their horrendous scheme. 

On June 24, 1979, 16-year-old Linda Schaeffer disappeared while walking home from church, never to be seen again. Just two weeks later, on July 8, 18-year-old Joy Hall vanished without a trace from Redondo Beach, California.

On September 2, Jacqueline Lamp, 13, and Jackie Gilliam, 15, were thumbing rides in Redondo Beach when they disappeared. Shirley Ledford, 16, went missing in Sunland on October 31. Shirley was found the following morning in Tijunga. She had been strangled with a coat hanger, but it was evident that she’d been subjected to horrendous torture prior to death. Her breasts had been slashed, her face mutilated, and her body was covered in bruises apparently inflicted by a pair of pliers.

The break in the case came on September 30, when a young woman from Hermosa Beach managed to escape the deadly attentions of Bittaker and Norris. The victim failed to make a positive I.D. but Norris had in the interim been mouthing off to friends about the murders. He was placed under surveillance and arrested soon after when he was found in possession of drugs.

Under police questioning, Norris soon cracked and began talking, naming Bittaker as his accomplice. After Bittaker was arrested, the police executed a search warrant and recovered sickening evidence of murder. The killers had captured their horrific exploits with photographs and tape recordings. These showed their terrified victims being brutally assaulted and tortured.

Norris would eventually plead guilty and turn state's evidence against Bittaker. In exchange he was spared the death penalty and was given a life sentence with parole eligibility in 30 years. For his part, Bittaker was sentenced to death on March 24, 1981. Decades later that sentence has yet to be carried out.

Read the horrendous story of Lawrence Bittaker and Roy Norris, plus 11 more serial killer cases in American Monsters Volume 7. Available now on Amazon
 
 

Sunday 19 April 2015

Serial Killers: Belle Gunness

Born: November 11, 1859 in Selbu, Norway

Number of victims: 13 - 42+ 

Date of murders: 1880 - 1908 

Method of murder: Poisoning / Bludgeoning

Location: Illinois / Indiana




Belle Gunness was born in Selbu, Norway on November 22, 1859 and immigrated to America in 1881, settling in Chicago. In 1884 she married a man named Mads Albert Sorenson and the couple had four children. In July 1990, Sorenson died, apparently of a heart attack, although there were whispers that he’d been poisoned. Two of the Sorenson children also died in infancy under mysterious circumstances. With the insurance payouts from these fortuitous deaths, Belle bought a farm near LaPorte, Indiana.

Once settled in her new home, Belle began writing and responding to matrimonial ads. A man named Peter Gunness was one of those who replied and he and Belle were married in 1902. However, Gunness was killed in a bizarre “accident” after an iron meat grinder fell from a high shelf and struck him on the head, earning Belle another tidy sum. 

Shortly after Gunness’ death, Belle took to the matrimonial columns again. Over the years that followed, several wealthy suitors (John Moo, Henry Gurholdt, Olaf Svenherud, Ole B. Budsburg, Olaf Lindbloom, Andrew Hegelein, to name just a few) arrived at the farm and promptly disappeared. Belle, meanwhile, bemoaned her inability to attract a husband. During that time Belle’s daughter Jennie's also disappeared. According to Belle, Jennie had been sent to a finishing school in California.

In 1908, the brother of Andrew Hegelein arrived in LaPorte to enquire about his missing relative. Shortly after, a fire broke out and burned the Gunness farmhouse to the ground. In the ruins, rescuers found the body of a headless woman and three children, believed to be Belle and her offspring.

However, doubts soon surfaced over the identity of the woman as she was of a much smaller build than Gunness. Then, as the search of the property continued, someone found a human skeleton, partially buried in the pigpen. An excavation was ordered and unearthed a mass grave, containing the remains of more than forty men and children. Most of the men had traveled to La Porte in response to matrimonial ads placed by Belle Gunness. One of the children was Belle’s missing daughter Jennie.

With Gunness nowhere to be found the blame fell to her hired hand Ray Lamphere. Cleared of murder but convicted of arson, he was sent to prison in 1908 and died a year later. Before he passed however, Lamphere revealed the truth about Belle Gunness. The bodies found at the farm were men who Belle had lured to the farm, robbed and then murdered. The headless female corpse found in the ruins was not Belle but a maid who she’d recently hired. If Lamphere knew of Belle’s whereabouts, he wasn’t saying.

Over the years that followed there were numerous sightings of Belle Gunness from around the country and even from Europe. The elusive murderess however, was never caught.


Read the full, horrific story of Belle Gunness, plus 11 more serial killer cases in 
American Monsters Volume 8. Available now on Amazon
 
 

Saturday 18 April 2015

Serial Killers: Bela Kiss

Born: 1877  

Number of victims: 24+  

Date of murders: 1900 - 1914

Method of murder: Strangulation  

Location: Czinkota, Hungary



In July 1916,  police in Budapest, Hungary received a call from a Cinkota landlord regarding several large metal drums on a property he’d leased to a man named Bela Kiss. Kiss had since been killed in the war and the landlord wanted to re-let the property. First though, he needed to move the drums. Curious as to what they contained, he’d punched a hole in one of the drums and a vile smelling fluid had leaked out.

Detective Chief Charles Nagy went to investigate and ordered the drums opened. To his astonishment, each contained the corpse of a woman, perfectly preserved in wood alcohol.

With this gruesome discovery, Nagy started looking into the background of Bela Kiss and found that he had been carrying on a correspondence with dozens of women, all of them widows and spinsters seeking matrimony. Several of the women had been seen at the Kiss property for a time before they abruptly disappeared. Kiss’ young wife had also vanished, along with her lover. They were among the 24 victims found in the barrels.

All of this was, of course, academic since Kiss had been killed in the war. But then Nagy got word that his quarry might not be dead after all. A man fitting his name and description was being held at a prisoner of war camp in Serbia. Nagy rushed to the scene hoping to make an arrest but arrived too late. Kiss had already fled.

Not long after, a sighting of Kiss was reported in Budapest. A major search was launched throughout Hungary and then expanded to the whole of Europe, but Bela Kiss was nowhere to be found.

Over the years that followed there were several sightings of the elusive killer from across Europe. He was even reported to have been working as a janitor in New York City. Kiss, though, was never captured. Hungary’s most prolific killer got away with murder.


Read the full, horrific story of Bela Kiss, plus 29 more serial killer cases in 
Human Monsters Volume 2. Available now on Amazon
 
 

Friday 17 April 2015

Serial Killers: Charles Starkweather

Born:  November 24, 1938 in Lincoln, Nebraska 

Number of victims: 11

Date of murders: 1957 - 1958 

Method of murder: Shooting

Location: Nebraska / Wyoming




On November 30, 1957, 19-year-old Charles Starkweather stopped at a gas station in Lincoln, Nebraska. He tried to buy a stuffed toy for his girlfriend, Caril Fugate, but was refused credit by the station attendant. Starkweather left enraged returning the following day to gun  down the attendant, Robert Colvert, with a 12-gauge shotgun. Thus began one of the bloodiest episodes in American criminal history.

Starkweather kept a low profile over the following month as the police searched for Colvert’s killer. But on January 21, 1958, he got into and argument with Fugate’s parents. He settled the dispute by shooting Velda and Marion Bartlett, then strangling and stabbing their two-year-old daughter, Betty Jean.

When Fugate returned home, Starkweather told her what he’d done. Far from being shocked, the 14-year-old Caril seemed excited by the murders. The couple remained in the house with the corpses for six days before hitting the road, traveling to Bennet, Nebraska where Starkweather killed 70-year-old August Meyer, a family friend. Later, Starkweather’s car got stuck in the mud and two local teenagers, Robert Jensen and Carol King, stopped to help. King and Jensen were murdered for their kindness.

The murderous pair next drove to Lincoln, Nebraska, where they killed wealthy socialite Clara Ward and her maid Lillian Fencl. Both woman were stabbed to death. Afterwards Starkweather and Fugate ransacked the house and fled in Ward’s 1956 Packard.

By now the murders had provoked outrage in Lancaster County, and the Nebraska governor had responded by calling up the National Guard to help in the search for the killers. With the police closing, Starkweather decided to abandon the Packard and steal another vehicle. The car he chose belonged to traveling salesman Merle Collison, who was shot to death just outside of Douglas, Wyoming.

But time had finally run out for Charlie Starkweather. As he struggled to get Collison’s Buick started, a deputy sheriff arrived on the scene. Starkweather sped off, engaging the police in a high-speed chase. However, as bullets shattered the windshield, he eventually pulled over and surrendered.

Tried and found guilty of murder, Charles Starkweather was sentenced to death. He was executed in the electric chair at the Nebraska State Penitentiary on June 25, 1959. Caril Fugate served 18 years in prison before being released.  

Read the sensational story of Charlie Starkweather, plus 11 more serial killer cases in 
American Monsters Volume 8. Available now on Amazon
 
 

Serial Killer Video: Richard Cottingham - The Torso Killer


Mild-mannered office worker by day, torturer and serial killer by night, Richard Cottingham, a.k.a. the Torso Killer, left a trail of mutilated bodies across New York and New Jersey.

Thursday 16 April 2015

Serial Killers: Robert Pickton

Born: October 26, 1949 in Port Coquitlam, British Columbia

Number of victims: 6 - 49 

Date of murders: 1995 - 2001

Method of murder: Strangulation / Shooting 

Location: Port Coquitlam, British Columbia, Canada 




On February 5, 2002, police in British Columbia carried out a raid on a pig farm run by a man named Robert Pickton. Their warrant was for illegal firearms, but the search soon took a sinister turn when they found the personal belongings of several missing prostitutes. The women were part of an ongoing police operation, known as the BC Missing Women Investigation, which was looking into the disappearances of at lest 40 women from the area.

The Pickton farm was immediately sealed off as police brought in equipment to carry out a search. It did not take long before mutilated and decomposing corpses began turning up, leading to Pickton being charged with 27 murders, making this the biggest serial killer investigation in Canadian history.

Yet even that victim count is considered shy of the mark. Pickton is suspected in at least 49 murders. The victims were all drug-addicted prostitutes lured to the farm with promises of food, a place to stay and a ready supply of narcotics. Pickton then killed them, although what he did with the corpses has been the subject of some controversy. It has been suggested that he cut off strips of flesh and gifted it to his neighbors as “pork.” Investigators also believe that he may have fed the victims to his pigs.

Robert Pickton was sentenced to life in prison, with no possibility of parole for 25 years – the harshest sentence possible under Canadian law.

Read the full, horrific story of Robert Pickton, plus 29 more serial killer cases in 
Human Monsters Volume 5. Available now on Amazon
 
 

Tuesday 14 April 2015

Serial Killers: Thomas Neill Cream

Born:  May 27, 1850 in Glasgow, Scotland 

Number of victims: 5+ 

Date of murders: 1881 - 1892 

Method of murder: Poisoning

Location: Illinois / London, England




London’s East End had barely recovered from the depravations of Jack the Ripper when there was another monstrous killer to contend with. Neill Cream’s killings may not have been as gruesome as Jack’s but they were far, far crueler. He killed his prostitute victims by giving them pills that he’d deliberately poisoned with strychnine. Cream convinced the victims that the pills would prevent pregnancy and venereal diseases.At least five women bought his story, and died in extreme agony.

Born in 1850 in Glasgow, Scotland, Thomas Cream was raised in Quebec, Canada. He later returned to the UK where he studied medicine and qualified as a doctor before moving to Chicago. In 1881, he was convicted of poisoning a man named Stott and sentenced to life in prison. However, he was released after just 10 years, apparently after his brother bribed prison officials.

After his release, Cream moved back to London, where he settled in Lambeth. Soon after, he began his murder spree, killing five prostitutes in just eight months. As if that wasn’t enough, he started a letter writing campaign and tried to implicate two respectable doctors in the murders.

Cream’s downfall came after he befriended a retired New York City detective who was visiting London. The two got talking about the ‘Lambeth Poisoner’ case and Cream offered to take his new friend on a tour of the murder sites. Cream’s descriptions of the crimes was so detailed that they roused the suspicions of the detective. He passed the information on to the British police and Cream was arrested.

Tried and found guilty, Cream was sentenced to hang. However, Cream had time to stir up one last controversy before he died. Just as the trap was sprung delivering him to his death, he shouted out: “I am Jack the Ripper.” Most Ripperologists reject this claim as Cream was in prison in Illinois at the time of the Ripper murders.     

Read the full, horrific story of Dr Thomas Neill Cream, plus 9 more serial killer cases in 
British Monsters Volume 2. Available now on Amazon
 
 
 
 

Monday 13 April 2015

Serial Killers: Randall Woodfield

Born: December 26, 1950 in Salem, Oregon 

Number of victims: 18+

Date of murders: 1979 - 1981

Method of murder: Shooting 

Location: Oregon / Washington / California




Randall Woodfield was once a promising college football player who even had a try out with the Green Bay Packers. But in 1974, Woodfield was arrested for exposing himself to a group of woman. It was the latest in a series of “flashing” incidents and the Packers eventually gave up and sent the promising youngster home.

Back in Oregon, and bitter at his axing, Woodfield began accosting women at knife point and forcing them to perform oral sex on him. Arrested in 1975, he was sentenced to 10 years in jail. He served four and was out in 1979. Soon after his release, a former girlfriend of Woodfield’s was found raped and strangled in her apartment. Woodfield was questioned but was not considered a suspect. A month later two of Woodfield’s friends were shot and killed. Again, he was not suspected. 

Beginning in late 1980, Woodfield began cruising the I-5 freeway from Washington to Northern California, committing a series of armed robberies, sometimes coupled with sexual assault. That spree earned him the nickname, the I-5 Bandit.

But the bandit soon graduated to rape and murder, claiming an estimated 18 victims in less than two years. He was eventually caught after killing a a woman he was acquainted with in Beaverton, Oregon. The victim was linked to Woodfield and a search of his home turned up the .32 pistol used in the I-5 murders, as well as other evidence linking him to the crimes. A victim who survived one of his attacks was also able to identify him.

Found guilty of murder, Woodfield was sentenced to life plus 90 years in October 1981.


Read the full, horrific story of I-5 Killer Randall Woodfield, plus 11 more serial killer cases in American Monsters Volume 8. Available now on Amazon
 
 

Sunday 12 April 2015

Serial Killers: Joachim Kroll

Born:  April 17, 1933 in Hindenburg, Upper Silesia, Germany

Number of victims: 14+

Date of murders: 1955 - 1976

Method of murder: Stabbing / Strangulation

Location: North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany




A cannibalistic German sex killer, Kroll preyed on girls and young women, raping and strangling them to death before cutting flesh from their bodies for later consumption.

His first victim was 19-year-old Inngard Strehl, raped and murdered in a barn near the village of Walstedde in February 1955. Thereafter, Kroll embarked on a decades long campaign of terror, during which he claimed at least 13 more victims, although by his own admission the number is probably much higher.

In 1959, Kroll added cannibalism to his repertoire when he raped and murdered 16-year-old Manuela Knodt. The victim was found with flesh sliced from her thighs and buttocks. This would become a pattern for the man the police were calling “The Ruhr Hunter.”

But despite the police efforts to catch him, Kroll remained at large. He was not an intelligent man but he was clever enough to commit his murders in different locations and to leave long gaps (sometimes years) between the crimes. He also sometimes varied his M.O. to confuse the police.

Kroll was eventually caught in June 1976, after he abducted and murdered 4-year-old Marion Ketter. A massive search was launched for the child and her mutilated corpse was found in Kroll’s apartment. When apprehended he was cooking a stew of potatoes and carrots that also contained the little girl’s hand. 

Sentenced to 9 terms of life-imprisonment in 1982, Kroll died in prison on July 1, 1991.

Read the full, horrific story of Joachim Kroll, plus 17 more cannibal killers in 
Cannibal Killers Volume 2. Available now on Amazon
 
 

Saturday 11 April 2015

Serial Killers: John Wayne Glover

Born: November 26, 1932 in Wolverhampton, England 

Number of victims: 6

Date of murders: 1989 - 1990

Method of murder: Bludgeoning / Strangulation

Location: Sydney, Australia




Between November 1989 and March 1990, the area of North Shore in Sydney, Australia was plagued by a particularly brutal serial killer. Dubbed the “Granny Killer” by the media, this fiend preyed on elderly women, bludgeoning them over the head with a hammer before raping them and then strangling them to death with their own underwear. 

The killer, later identified as John Wayne Glover, became sexually obsessed with elderly women after his mother's death. Unusual for a serial killer, he began his murderous career at a very late age, committing his first murder when he was 57 years old. The victim was 82-year-old Gwendolin Mitchelhill. Glover would go on to commit five more murders before being caught. His final victim was Joan Sinclair, a 60-year-old with who he had been having an affair. 

Glover was captured at the scene of the Sinclair murder, unconscious after an apparent suicide attempt. In custody, he admitted to the North Shore killings and was arraigned for trial. Sentenced to six life terms in 1991, he remained in prison until September 9, 2005, when he was found hanging from a makeshift noose in his cell.


Read the full, horrific story of John Wayne Glover, plus 29 more serial killer cases in 
Human Monsters Volume 1. Available now on Amazon
 
 

Friday 10 April 2015

Serial Killers: The Chicago Rippers



Number of victims: 18+

Date of murders: 1981 - 1982 

Method of murder: Stabbing  

Location: Chicago, Illinois 

During 1981 and 1982, the mutilated corpses of young women started turning up around Chicago, Illinois. First to die was 28 year-old Linda Sutton, found in a field in Villa Park on May 23, 1981. A year later, Lorraine Borowski was abducted from her place of work. Her body was found five months later, in a cemetery in Villa Park. On May 29, Shui Mak was abducted from a street in Hanover Park. Her body was not found for four months.

So far the police had no leads in the case, but two weeks after the Mak abduction, a prostitute named Angel York was lured into a white van. There, three men assaulted and raped her, slashing her breasts before throwing her from the vehicle. York was able to provide a description of her abductors but they remained at large long enough to claim three more victims - Sandra Delaware on August 28, Rose Davis on September 8 and Beverley Washington on October 8. Washington was still alive when she was found and was able to provide a description that matched the one given by Angel York. She died soon after. All of the victims had been mutilated, with their breasts hacked off.

The break in the case came when a tip led police to a man named Robin Gecht. Gecht denied any involvement in the murders, but his accomplices, Edward Spreitzer and brothers, Andrew and Thomas Kokoraleis were more forthcoming. They confessed to a killing spree that involved rape, torture, mutilation and cannibalism.

Tried separately the Rippers received varying sentences. Gecht got 120 years in prison; Thomas Kokoraleis got life; Edward Spreitzer got the death penalty but it was commuted to life in 2003. Only Andrew Kokoraleis paid the ultimate price. He was executed by lethal injection on March 16, 1999.


Read the full, horrific story of Chicago Rippers, plus 11 more serial killer cases in 
American Monsters Volume 9. Available now on Amazon
 
 

Serial Killer Video: Joel Rifkin


A prolific prostitute slayer from Long Island, New York, Rifkin strangled and bludgeoned his victims to death before hacking their bodies apart. Rifkin claimed 17 victims before his arrest in June 1993. He was sentenced to 203 years in prison.

Thursday 9 April 2015

Serial Killers: Paul Bernardo and Karla Homolka

Born: August 27, 1964 in Toronto, Canada 

Number of victims: 3+

Date of murders: 1990 - 1992

Method of murder
: Strangulation 

Location: Ontario, Canada




They seemed like a golden couple, both of them attractive and intelligent, Paul a recently qualified accountant, Karla a veterinary assistant. But behind the facade lurked a monster who was already responsible for a series of brutal rapes, and a woman who encouraged his depraved sexual urges.

Six months before their 1991 wedding, Paul made a demand which tested Karla’s loyalty to the limit. As she had not been a virgin when they met, he demanded the virginity of her 15-year-old sister, Tammy. Karla agreed without hesitation.

On December 23, 1990, the depraved couple drugged Tammy with tranquillizers that Karla had stolen from the veterinary practice where she worked. Bernardo then proceeded to rape Tammy while Karla kept her sedated with chloroform. Sometime during the attack, Karla stopped breathing. She was rushed to hospital but was announced dead on arrival. The death was ruled an accident.

Rather than discourage Bernardo and Homolka, they now began actively seeking out teenaged girls to drug, rape and torture. Two more unfortunates would fall victim to the killers over the next year,  14-year-old Leslie Mahaffy and Kristen French, aged 15. The girls were abducted off the street and taken to Bernardo’s house where they were raped, sodomized, tortured and humiliated before being eventually strangled. All of these vile acts were captured on video, with Homolka a willing participant.

Bernardo was eventually caught after he was linked by DNA to several of his earlier rape victims. He was sentenced to life with parole eligibility in 25 years, although as a designated “Dangerous Offender” it is unlikely that he will ever be released. Homolka meanwhile, testified against her husband and received just 12 years in return. She was released on July 4, 2005.     

Read the full, horrific story of Paul Bernardo and Karla Homolka, plus 29 more serial killer cases 
in Human Monsters Volume 2. Available now on Amazon
 
 

Wednesday 8 April 2015

Serial Killers: Wayne Williams

Born:  May 27, 1958 in Atlanta, Georgia     

Number of victims: 24+  

Date of murders: 1979 - 1981

Method of murder: Strangulation  

Location: Atlanta, Georgia




It is one of the most controversial murder investigations in American history. Between the summer of 1979 and the spring of 1981, twenty-eight African-American children, adolescents and young adults were murdered in Atlanta, Georgia. In a case that would become known as the “Atlanta Child Murders” the police and FBI struggled to pinpoint a suspect, until their enquiries eventually zeroed in on one man.

The suspect was Wayne Williams, an Atlanta native. Like the victims, Williams was African American, which contradicted the local belief that the murders were racially motivated and carried out by white supremacists. 

Williams first became a suspect in May 1981, after police spotted his car parked on the Cobb Drive Bridge over the Chattahoochee River. Moments later, one of the policemen heard a loud splash. Questioned about his presence on the bridge, Williams claimed he was headed out of town to audition a young singer. This proved to be a lie and three days later, the nude body of 27 year-old Nathaniel Cater was fished from the river. An autopsy proved that he’d been strangled and police theorized that Williams had thrown Cater from the bridge on the night they’d seen him parked there.

Williams was arrested, tried and found guilty of the Cater murder, as well as the murder of 21-year-old Jimmy Ray Payne. Although never charged with the Atlanta Child Murders the police closed the file on those cases once Williams was given a life sentence.

Most experts agree that Williams could not have committed all of the child murders. Indeed, many are of the opinion that he committed none of them. However, it is telling that the killings ended once Williams was in custody.


Read the full, horrific story of Wayne Williams, plus 11 more serial killer cases in 
American Monsters Volume 3. Available now on Amazon
 
 

Tuesday 7 April 2015

Serial Killers: Richard Speck

Born: December 6, 1941 in Kirkwood, Illinois 

Number of victims: 8+  

Date of murders: 1966 

Method of murder: Strangulation / Stabbing 

Location: Chicago, Illinois




Richard Speck is usually thought of as a spree killer rather than a serial killer. But while it is true that Speck's most infamous crime involved the slaughter of eight student nurses in a single night, it is also true that Speck had killed before that singular outrage. At least one other murder can be definitely linked to him, and police suspect him in several other unsolved cases. That said, he will always be remembered for the tragic events of July 14, 1966.

On that evening, Speck invaded a South Chicago townhouse occupied by nurses Gloria Davy, Patricia Matusek, Nina Schmale, Pamela Wilkening, Suzanne Farris, Mary Ann Jordan, Merlita Gargullo, Valentina Pasion, and Corazon Amurau. He held the terrified women hostage for hours, beating and raping them, before finally stabbing all but one of them to death. The survivor, Cora Amurau, escaped by climbing through a window. She alerted the house mother who called the police.

A massive manhunt was launched for Speck, who was captured four days later. In custody, he did not deny the murders but claimed that he did not remember committing them.  

That defense held little sway with the jury who found Speck guilty on June 5, 1967. He was then sentenced to death although that penalty would later be commuted to 400 to 1,200 years in prison (8 consecutive terms of 50 to 150 years). Richard Speck died in prison on December 5, 1991


Read the full, horrific story of Richard Speck, plus 11 more serial killer cases in 
American Monsters Volume 10. Available now on Amazon
 
 

Monday 6 April 2015

Serial Killers: Danny Rolling

Born: May 26, 1954 in Shreveport, Louisiana

Number of victims: 8

Date of murders: 1989 - 1990

Method of murder: Stabbing

Location: Florida / Louisiana




Known as the Gainesville Ripper, Danny Rolling committed a serial of incredibly brutal murders in Florida during 1990. Five young victims were murdered in their apartments in three separate incidents, the killings marked by extreme overkill. One female victim was decapitated, others were skinned or had body parts removed, all of the corpses were posed at the scene.  

The horrific series of murders began on August 24, 1990 when Rolling broke into the apartment of 17-year-old university freshmen Sonja Larson and Christina Powell. They were found mutilated and stabbed to death. Both women had been raped, one postmortem.

The following day, Rolling killed Christa Hoyt, an 18-year-old employee of the sheriff’s department. Her body was found propped up in bed. The killer had sliced off her nipples and ripped open her abdomen from her breasts to her pubic bone. He’d also cut off her head and perched on a shelf across the room.

Two days later, Rolling struck again, killing roommates Tracy Paules and Manuel Taboada, both 23.

Rolling remained at large until September 8, when he was arrested after a botched bank robbery in Ocala, Florida. He was later linked by DNA to three more killings in Shreveport, Louisiana, committed in 1989.

Tried for the Gainesville murders in 1992, Rolling pleaded guilty and was sentenced to death. He was executed by lethal injection on October 25, 2006.

Read the full, horrific story of Danny Rolling, plus 11 more serial killer cases in 
American Monsters Volume 3. Available now on Amazon
 
 

Sunday 5 April 2015

German Monsters

The Lives and Horrific Deeds of 24 German Monsters, including;

Volker Eckert: A deadly trucker who ranged across Europe, raping and killing wherever he stopped off.

Fritz Honka: Slaughtered at least five prostitutes, leaving their corpses to rot in his attic.

Georg Karl Grossman: The “Berlin Butcher” killed over 50 women, grinding up their flesh to make frankfurters, which he sold at his hotdog stand.

Peter Kurten: One of Germany’s most depraved serial killers, Kurten went to the guillotine for a series of horrendous sex slayings.

Manfred Wittman: Known as the “Beast of Oberfranken,” Wittman killed and mutilated three teenaged girls during the late Sixties.

Jürgen Bartsch: Sadistic paedophile who killed and dismembered four pre-teen boys between 1962 and 1966.

Joachim Kroll: A troll-like little man who preyed of children of the Ruhr region, claiming at least 16 young victims and cannibalizing their corpses.

Ernst-Dieter Beck: Charming ladies man who got his kicks throttling women to death during sex.

Rudolf Pleil: A chubby, jovial man, Pleil was addicted to murder, claiming 25 lives and describing himself as “the world’s best killer.”

Klaus Gossman: Known as the “Midday Murderer” Gossman struck while the noonday church bells disguised the sound of his pistol. Murdered seven people, either at random or while carrying out a series of robberies.

Wolfgang Schmidt: A giant of a man, Schmidt was a cross-dressing necrophile who killed five women and a three-month-old baby.

Plus 12 more riveting cases….


Click the "Read More" link below to read the first chapter of

German Monsters

Serial Killers: Cleophus Prince, Jr.

Born: July 24, 1967 in Birmingham, Alabama 

Number of victims: 6

Date of murders:  1990

Method of murder: Stabbing

Location: San Diego, California 




Between January and September of 1990, a serial killer was preying on the women of Clairmont, San Diego, a deadly fiend who stabbed and slashed his victims to death.The killer first appeared in January when he murdered 20-year-old Tiffany Schultz at the Buena Vista Garden apartment complex. He struck again at the same complex in April, first killing  April Weinhold, 21, then claiming the life of Holly Tarr, an 18-year-old student from Michigan, who was visiting her brother in California.

The killer was interrupted during the Tarr murder but managed to escape. Nonetheless, eyewitnesses were able to provide a description to the police. He was an African American man of medium height and stocky build.

With the police staking out the Buena Vista building, the killer moved to another Clairmont apartment block where he murdered 38-year-old Elissa Keller. His last victims, mother and daughter Pamela and Amber Clark, were murdered in their University City home in September 1990.

By now, the police had a solid lead on a man named Cleophus Prince, Jr., but by the time they moved in to make an arrest, Prince had fled back to his native Alabama. He was arrested there a week later, after a botched robbery.

Extradited back to California, Prince was tried and convicted of six murders. He was sentenced to death and currently awaits execution at San Quentin.

Read the full, horrific story of Cleophus Prince, Jr., plus 11 more serial killer cases in 
American Monsters Volume 1. Available now on Amazon
 
 

Friday 3 April 2015

Serial Killers: Henry Lee Lucas

Born: August 23, 1936 in Blacksburg, Virginia 

Number of victims: 11+  

Date of murders: 1960 - 1983 

Method of murder: Shooting / Stabbing / Strangulation  

Location: Michigan / Texas / Florida




Henry Lee Lucas is either the most prolific serial killer in American history or the biggest liar. He claimed to have killed over 600 victims in a murderous career spanning more than two decades. That number is without doubt exaggerated and few of the murders can be verified. Lucas was however responsible for the deaths of at least 11.  

Born to alcoholic parents on August 23, 1936, in Blacksburg, Virginia, Lucas suffered horrific childhood abuse. His mother was a prostitute who forced him to watch her performing with her clients. She also abused him physically, on one occasion beating him so badly that he lost an eye. Eventually, in 1960, he killed her, landing himself a life sentence.

Lucas was paroled in 1970. Thereafter his hit the road, teaming up with another sexual deviant named Otis Toole. This deadly pair drifted from place to place, committing rape, arson and murder wherever they landed. Lucas ended up back in jail for an attempted kidnapping in 1975, and again in 1983 for the murder of his 15-year-old lover, Becky Powell. It was while awaiting trial for this murder that he began confessing, sending police agencies across the south east scrambling for their unsolved files. Many of these confessions though, proved to be a lie.

Lucas was eventually convicted of the murder of Powell, plus that of Kate Rich, an elderly woman who had given him and Powell a place to stay. He was sentenced to death, although the punishment was later reduced to life imprisonment. He died in a prison from natural causes on March 12, 2001.

Read the full, horrific story of Henry Lee Lucas, plus 11 more serial killer cases in 
American Monsters Volume 10. Available now on Amazon
 
 

Serial Killer Video: Ronald Dominique - The Bayou Strangler


Although relatively unknown, Ronald Dominique is one of America's most prolific serial killers, responsible for the deaths of as many as 25 men. His method was to lure men back to his trailer in Houma, Louisiana with the promise of sex, or booze or drugs. Once there he'd overpower them, then rape and torture them before ending their lives by strangulation. The bodies were dumped in various bayous. Arrested in December 2006, Dominique was sentenced to eight life terms.   

Thursday 2 April 2015

Serial Killers: Randy Kraft

Born:  March 19, 1945 in Long Beach, California  

Number of victims: 60+  

Date of murders: 1972 - 1983

Method of murder: Strangulation  

Location: California / Oregon / Michigan




Shortly after 1 a.m. on the morning of May 14, 1983 California highway patrolmen pulled over a suspected drunk driver just outside of Mission Viejo. The driver, Randy Kraft, immediately got out of the vehicle and tried to placate the officers. It was soon clear why. Kraft’s passenger (later identified as 25-year-old US Marine Terry Gambrel) was dead, apparently strangled. Kraft was arrested on the spot. In the vehicle, police found a coded list containing 61 entries. This would turn out to be a list of young men that Kraft had tortured and murdered, earning him the nickname, ‘The Scorecard Killer.’  

Kraft is suspected of at least 60 torture slayings across Southern California, Oregon and Michigan. A soft-spoken computer programmer, he targeted hitchhikers between 18 and 25 years old, with a particular liking for US Marines. After picking up the victim, Kraft would offer the man a drink, which he’d drugged with prescription tranquilizers. Once the victim passed out, Kraft would tie him up, then subject him to horrendous torture and sexual assault before eventually strangling him to death. One victim's eyes were burned with a cigarette lighter, others had objects inserted into their anuses and penises, most were cut and slashed with knives and broken bottles, some were decapitated.

Tried for murder in November 1989, Kraft ignored the mountain of evidence against him, and continued to maintain his innocence, resulting in a 13-month trial. In the end the jury deliberated for two days before finding him guilty and recommending the death penalty.

Randy Kraft currently resides on death row at San Quentin.  

Read the full, horrific story of Randy Kraft, plus 11 more serial killer cases in 
American Monsters Volume 5. Available now on Amazon