pt. I. Multiple murder -- America's fascination with multiple homicide -- The Gein legacy -- Multiple murder in popular culture -- The selling of multiple murder -- Craving attention -- Killer groupies -- The impact of celebrating murderers -- Sensitize, not sanitize -- Defining multiple murder -- Mass, serial, and spree -- A typology of multiple murder -- pt. II. Serial murder -- An anatomy of serial murder -- Prevalence of serial murder -- Extraordinarily ordinary -- A profile of the typical serial killer -- With deliberation and purpose -- When killing is thrilling -- On a deadly mission of terror or revenge -- Killing for expediency -- For love and loyalty -- Murder without guilt -- The sociopathic personality -- The culture of sociopathy -- Empathy and serial killers -- Borderline personality disorder -- Compartmentalization and dehumanization -- Partners in murder -- Insanity in the relationship -- Partners for profit -- Partnerships of men and women -- Killing for company -- Placing the blame -- Killing for companionship -- The functions of cannibalism -- Desire for total control and ownership -- Fantasyland -- Keeping souvenirs -- Normal and abnormal fantasies -- The impact of pornography -- The making of a serial killer -- Childhood suffering -- Testimony under hypnosis -- Child abuse and murder -- Inordinate need for power -- Predicting serial murder -- Neurological impairment -- Blaming the family -- Nonsexual control -- Power over patients -- Female serial killers -- Munchausen syndrome by proxy -- Killing cults -- Killing for a cause -- The appeal of dangerous cults -- Suicide or homicide? -- Satanism and serial murder -- So many victims -- Vulnerable victims preferred -- Catching the serial killer -- Behavioral profiling -- Reducing linkage blindness -- Lucky breaks -- pt. III. Massacres -- For love, money, or revenge -- Relative obscurity -- A profile of mass killers -- Selective and methodical -- When love kills -- Sweet revenge -- Profiting from mass murder -- The great equalizer -- Family annihilation -- A profile of the family annihilator -- Murdering moms -- The defiant son -- Firing back -- Profile of the workplace avenger -- The impact of frustration -- Mixed motives -- Workplace murder by proxy -- Romantic obsession -- Externalizing responsibility -- Social isolation -- Screening out problem workers -- Copycat killings -- Going postal -- School massacres -- Fighting city hall -- Attacking the system -- Legal battles -- Filing a grievance -- Increasing alienation -- Hate-motivated mass murder -- Choice of victims -- A life of frustration -- Blaming women -- The killer as victim -- Settling a grudge with a gun -- Minority against majority -- Going berserk -- Paranoid thinking -- Confused state of mind -- Long-standing mental illness -- Civilian battlefields -- Brain abnormalities -- Deadly weapons -- pt. IV. Epilogue -- Remembering the victims.