INTRODUCTION

Serial murder is not a modern phenomenon. While serial murder hit its peak of notoriety in the 1990s, serial murder has been documented as far back as Ancient Rome. Killers such as Vlad the Impaler, Elizabeth Bathory, and Jack the Ripper seem so far removed from our contemporary society that they are considered mythical creatures of our imagination. While many would suppose that Albert Fish, born in 1870, was America’s first serial killer, they would certainly be wrong. While Albert was still forming his sadistic fantasies, America’s first serial killer, H.H. Holmes was busy constructing torture chambers into his castle so that he could properly torment his victims well back into the 1890s. Furthermore, while novel students of serial murder tend to suggest that Aileen Wournos was the first female serial killer, this too is proven false with further research. Countess Elizabeth Bathory precedes Wuornos by over three hundred years and earned her gruesome stake to the serial killer hall of fame by draining the blood of over fifty virgins, then bathing it in, believing it to be her fountain of youth. For years, researchers have explored the social, psychological, and biological makeup of serial killers in an attempt to establish accurate profiles of these menaces to society. …