From Publishers Weekly
With serial killers a hot topic in the wake of Charlize Theron's Oscar-winning performance in Monster, forensic psychiatrist Morrison's memoir of working with more than 80 serial killers couldn't be more timely. The author's countless hours of interviews with John Wayne Gacy and others of his ilk have led her to a controversial conclusion: she believes there's a serial killer gene ("He is a serial killer when he is a fetus, even as soon as sperm meets egg to create the genes of a new person"). Unfortunately, she offers little in support of this deterministic view, and she will offend some readers with an implied exoneration of criminals whom she describes as "completely unaware of the process leading up to murder," despite the detailed planning and preparation displayed by many of them. And even readers who are willing to have an open mind about Morrison's theories are likely to find some aspects of her report a little creepy, as when she discusses a treasured trophy she keeps in her basement: "I place John Gacy's brain back in the box because my kids are calling for me upstairs." Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.


From AudioFile
Morrison's unique firsthand experience with America's "most notorious murderers" is not for the faint of heart. Though Morrison delivers her bio as soccer mom/forensic psychiatrist with a practiced coolness, the explicit content will horrify most listeners. The good doctor skimps not at all on the brutal habits and crimes of such serial-killer luminaries as John Wayne Gacy as she explains her quest to understand their mental illness. A feminist pioneer in the field, Morrison persists in her studies despite the scorn and disdain of law enforcement, clocking thousands of hours of one-on-one interviews and expert testimony. D.J.B. © AudioFile 2004, Portland, Maine-- Copyright © AudioFile, Portland, Maine


From Booklist
In her role as consultant to a variety of law enforcement agencies, including the FBI, forensic psychiatrist Morrison has interviewed and studied such notables as John Wayne Gacy, Ed Gein, and Wayne Williams, along with many other, less well known but equally horrific serial killers. Her memoir is not what you might call pleasant reading; it is relentlessly unpleasant, as a matter of fact, as Morrison describes these men and women and their crimes in precise, often graphic detail. At the same time, however, it is a profoundly enlightening book. Morrison provides startling insights into what factors breed serial killers, and she avoids the broad generalizations that make other books of the topic seem slick and superficial. Still, Morrison recognizes that experts have only the sketchiest understanding of what makes a person commit murder repeatedly. This is an absorbing, disturbing book that makes it clear just how much we have yet to learn. David Pitt
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved


Book Description

Over the course of twenty-five years, Dr. Helen Morrison has profiled more than eighty serial killers around the world. What she learned about them will shatter every assumption you've ever had about the most notorious criminals known to man. Judging by appearances, Dr. Helen Morrison has an ordinary life in the suburbs of a major city. She has a physician husband, two children, and a thriving psychiatric clinic. But her life is much more than that. She is one of the country's leading experts on serial killers, and has spent as many as four hundred hours alone in a room with depraved murderers, digging deep into killers' psyches in ways no profiler before ever has.

In My Life Among the Serial Killers, Dr. Morrison relates how she profiled the Mad Biter, Richard Otto Macek, who chewed on his victims' body parts, stalked Dr. Morrison, then believed she was his wife. She did the last interview with Ed Gein, who was the inspiration for Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho. John Wayne Gacy, the clown-obsessed killer of young men, sent her crazed Christmas cards and gave her his paintings as presents. Then there was Atlanta child killer Wayne Williams; rapist turned murderer Bobby Joe Long; England's Fred and Rosemary West, who killed girls and women in their "House of Horrors"; and Brazil's deadliest killer of children, Marcelo Costa de Andrade.

Dr. Morrison has received hundreds of letters from killers, read their diaries and journals, evaluated crime scenes, testified at their trials, and studied photos of the gruesome carnage. She has interviewed the families of the victims -- and the spouses and parents of the killers -- to gain a deeper understanding of the killer's environment and the public persona he adopts. She has also studied serial killers throughout history and shows how this is not a recent phenomenon with psychological autopsies of the fifteenth-century French war hero Gilles de Rais, the sixteenth-century Hungarian Countess Bathory, H. H. Holmes of the late ninteenth century, and Albert Fish of the Roaring Twenties.

Through it all, Dr. Morrison has been on a mission to discover the reasons why serial killers are compelled to murder, how they choose their victims, and what we can do to prevent their crimes in the future. Her provocative conclusions will stun you.


Download Description
For most of her professional life as a forensic psychiatrist with a law degree, Dr. Helen Morrison has been on a mission to discover (or at least lay the groundwork to discover) the reasons why serial killers are compelled to murder. Many law enforcement officials say they have become hardened to killings. This is something Dr. Morrison will not allow herself to do. "It won't work if I treat a murder as through it is anything routine. I have to keep my emotions completely open in order to advance my theories and help eradicate the phenomenon of serial killing," says Dr. Morrison.

This will be a one-of-a-kind memoir by a female forensic psychiatrist who has profiled 80 seial killers in nearly thirty years of work. Some of her profiling-with killers including Richard Macek (known as the Mad Biter), Ed Gein (the inspiration for Hitchcock's Psycho), John Wayne Gacy (upon whom she performed an autopsy as well), Wayne Williams and others-involved 400 hours of interviews. (In fact, she was first to profile serial killers using methods of forensic psychiatry.) She will also provide "psychological autopsies"of serial killers throughout history, from the 15th century through today, demonstrating that this is not a recent phenomenon and these cases help us better understand the serial killers of today. Dr. Morrison will write the stories of her work with these killers as she takes us inside the interview rooms and pushes the killers until they break and reveal their true natures. She takes us out into the field and into the crime scenes as she struggles to profile a killer. The dramatic stories also provide her with the opportunity to explain her theories as to why they do what they do (and it's not, she says, because they were abused as children). While she's not an FBI agent, she has been hired to work on a number of their cases, as well as with other state and city organizations. At the end of the day, she goes home to her husband and two children in a quiet suburb of Chicago. Neither her children or her neighbors know what she does.


About the Author
Helen Morrison, M.D., is certified by the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology for general psychiatry as well as child and adolescent psychiatry. She is also a certified forensic psychiatrist. She is the editor or coauthor of four academic books, as well as the author or coauthor of more than 125 published articles in her field. Dr. Morrison has worked with both national and international law enforcement, and has made presentations in more than fifteen countries. She lives in Chicago with her husband and children.

FROM THE PUBLISHER

Judging by appearances, Dr. Helen Morrison has an ordinary life in the suburbs of a major city. She has a physician husband, two children, and a thriving psychiatric clinic. But her life is much more than that. She is one of the country's leading experts on serial killers, and has spent as many as four hundred hours alone in a room with depraved murderers, digging deep into killers' psyches in ways no profiler before ever has. In My Life Among the Serial Killers, Dr. Morrison relates how she profiled the Mad Biter, Richard Otto Macek, who chewed on his victims' body parts, stalked Dr. Morrison, then believed she was his wife. She did the last interview with Ed Gein, who was the inspiration for Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho. John Wayne Gacy, the clown-obsessed killer of young men, sent her crazed Christmas cards and gave her his paintings as presents. Then there was Atlanta child killer Wayne Williams; rapist turned murderer Bobby Joe Long; England's Fred and Rosemary West, who killed girls and women in their "House of Horrors"; and Brazil's deadliest killer of children, Marcelo Costa de Andrade.

Dr. Morrison has received hundreds of letters from killers, read their diaries and journals, evaluated crime scenes, testified at their trials, and studied photos of the gruesome carnage. She has interviewed the families of the victims -- and the spouses and parents of the killers -- to gain a deeper understanding of the killer's environment and the public persona he adopts. She has also studied serial killers throughout history and shows how this is not a recent phenomenon with psychological autopsies of the fifteenth-century French war hero Gilles de Rais, the sixteenth-century Hungarian Countess Bathory, H. H. Holmes of the late ninteenth century, and Albert Fish of the Roaring Twenties. Through it all, Dr. Morrison's goal has been to discover the reasons serial killers are compelled to murder, how they choose their victims, and what we can do to prevent their crimes in the future. Her provocative conclusions will stun you.

FROM THE CRITICS

Publishers Weekly

With serial killers a hot topic in the wake of Charlize Theron's Oscar-winning performance in Monster, forensic psychiatrist Morrison's memoir of working with more than 80 serial killers couldn't be more timely. The author's countless hours of interviews with John Wayne Gacy and others of his ilk have led her to a controversial conclusion: she believes there's a serial killer gene ("He is a serial killer when he is a fetus, even as soon as sperm meets egg to create the genes of a new person"). Unfortunately, she offers little in support of this deterministic view, and she will offend some readers with an implied exoneration of criminals whom she describes as "completely unaware of the process leading up to murder," despite the detailed planning and preparation displayed by many of them. And even readers who are willing to have an open mind about Morrison's theories are likely to find some aspects of her report a little creepy, as when she discusses a treasured trophy she keeps in her basement: "I place John Gacy's brain back in the box because my kids are calling for me upstairs." Agent, Chris Calhoun at Sterling Lord. (On sale May 4) Forecasts: 60 Minutes II has committed to a profile with Dr. Morrison to air May 5. The author will appear live on the Today show on May 6, with more media appearances in the days to follow, including with Paula Zahn on CNN and Chuck Scarborough on MSNBC. Expect an initial surge in sales. Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.

Library Journal

Morrison is a forensic psychologist who focuses on the activities of serial killers; she has profiled more than 80 of them, reading their journals, reviewing their crime scenes, and conducting interviews. She has worked as an expert witness on the trial of John Wayne Gacy and interviewed Richard Macek and Ed Gein, the inspiration for Norman Bates in Psycho. She talks about the killers' limited emotional development, their above-average intelligence, and how an interview with one helped her to develop her theory that for the large majority of them, killing is like a drug. One limitation here is the lack of discussion of female serial killers such as Arlene Wurnos. In addition, the abridgment makes the work appear to jump from place to place instead of moving in a straight line. For large libraries with true crime collections; others should consider purchasing either an unabridged set or the print version.-Danna Bell-Russel, Library of Congress Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.

AudioFile

Morrison's unique firsthand experience with America's "most notorious murderers" is not for the faint of heart. Though Morrison delivers her bio as soccer mom/forensic psychiatrist with a practiced coolness, the explicit content will horrify most listeners. The good doctor skimps not at all on the brutal habits and crimes of such serial-killer luminaries as John Wayne Gacy as she explains her quest to understand their mental illness. A feminist pioneer in the field, Morrison persists in her studies despite the scorn and disdain of law enforcement, clocking thousands of hours of one-on-one interviews and expert testimony. D.J.B. © AudioFile 2004, Portland, Maine

Kirkus Reviews