Book Review: Serial Killers of the '70s

Jane Fritsch, Serial Killers of the '70s: Behind a Notorious Decade of Death. New York: Sterling, 2020. ISBN: 9781454939382.

Genre: true crime

Subgenre: 1970s, serial killers

Format: trade paperback

Source: Eastside Branch, Lexington (KY) Public Library 

This book is basically a collection of short stories of serial killers active in the 1970s. The book includes fourteen chapters plus an introduction, an epilogue, and three appendices. The appendices are excerpts from three court case documents. The book includes some very famous killers such as David Berkowitz (the Son of Sam), Ted Bundy, and John Wayne Gacy. It also features some lesser known, or at least not as known nationally, such as Coral Eugene Watts (the Sunday Morning Slasher). 

If you want to get a basic overview of what is often known as the "golden age of serial killers" in the United States, this book can be a good start. The chapters are not very long. However the narrative is not terribly interesting. At times, the narrative can also jump around a bit in terms of chronology. The book is a bit dry, and at times it reads like a textbook. For readers just wanting to get the basics on these criminals and their time, this book does the job. For true crime fans, the prominent killers have full books written about them that may be better reads. A good feature of this book is that it includes lesser known criminals that may not have full books written about them. 

Overall, the book was OK. I appreciated learning a bit more about the time period and its serial killers. However it is a somewhat dry book with a narrative that may have needed some editing for better flow and continuity. Public libraries may want to add it to their true crime collections due to coverage of lesser known figures. 

2 out of 5 stars. 

Additional reading notes: 

What is baffling about serial killers:

"The baffling thing about serial killers is how ordinary they seem. How is it possible that someone holds down a job, pays his bills, and mows his lawn can suddenly turn into Jack the Ripper or John Wayne Gacy-- and just as suddenly turns back into an average guy?"

Seeking to answer that question may be why many true crime readers including me read these kind of books. For me at least, another reason I read books like this one and books about older times like the 1970s is the crime solving and other details of the time. For example, journalists converging in town to cover Juan Corona's crimes. Today we have computers, cell phones, and the Internet, but that was not th case back then: 

"Television crews rolled into town, and reporters from wire services and all the major newspapers showed up. They brought along rolls of quarters to deposit into pay phones-- most with rotary dials-- so they could dictate their stories to rewrite men-- mostly men at the time-- working on typewriters holding sheets of carbon paper back at the office" (3).

More on the 1970s: 

"At the time, before cell phones, it was harder to track a person's whereabouts. Missing persons databases would not emerge until a decade later. Communication among police departments-- over radios, desktop telephones, and fax machines-- was spotty. The internet and personal computers were years away, as were instant messaging, Facebook, Twitter, and the like. Hitchhiking was understood to be a safe way to get around, and some people in what was know as the 'counterculture' disappeared intentionally" (8). 

I find it very interesting that back then it was very easy to disappear. For one, the massive and often intrusive surveillance apparatus of today did not exist. And as mentioned, hitchhiking was seen as a viable option back then, but today, not really.