The answers are hidden among the grisly evidence, the common threads that link each devastating act. Sparked by a growing concern over the steady rise of signature murders, Robert Keppel explores in unflinching detail the monstrous patterns, sadistic compulsions and depraved motives of this breed of killer. From The Lonely Hearts Killer who haunted the most desperate of women in 1950s America, to the savage Midtown Torso Murders that stunned the NYPD, to such infamous symbols of evil as Jeffrey Dahmer, Ted Bundy, and John Gacy, these are the cases-horrifying, graphic and unforgettable-that Keppel ingeniously taps to shed light on the darkest corners of the pathological mind.