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Better To Reign In Hell

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About Me


The political construction and manipulation of the serial killer panic, and the workings of the FBI.

Credited with superhuman intellect and abilities, the serial sex killer emerged in the 1980s as a dominant figure in American popular culture. In a decade marked by conservative politics and fundamental protestantism, the serial killer was accused of attacking the traditional values underpinning society and was used to manipulate public fear for political gain.
Using government reports, trial transcripts and correspondence, Better to Reign in Hell examines the people and events that led to and perpetuate this panic, notably President Ronald Reagan, the New Right, the FBI and the media.
As well as detailing high profile cases such as Son of Sam and Ted Bundy, the book features interviews with law enforcement officers and convicted serial killers.
Features interviews with law enforcement officers (Robert Keppel, who investigated Ted Bundy), and convicted serial killers (Lawrence Bittaker)
Insight into the working procedures and cultural significance of such organisations as the FBI
Examines the social consequences of the inflated media presentation of ‘serial killers’ (in nightly TV drama shows, etc) which has helped to create quasi-celebrities of killers
Discussion of several ‘serial killer’ cases, including the Son of Sam who triggered the largest manhunt in US history
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My Interests

Music:

The Action, Agent Orange, Animals, Audioslave, Baby Woodrose, The Bellrays, Big Black, Big Chief, Black Flag, Black Furies, The Blue Van, The Brood, Bullet Lavolta, Cave, Nick. The Clash, Clutch, Compulsive Gamblers, Wayne County, The Cramps, Creedence Clearwater Revival, The Cynics, The Datsuns, Dead Moon, Deadstring Brothers, The Demonics, Descendents, The Detroit Cobras, Devil Dogs, King Khan and His Shrines, The Dragons, Dukes of Hamburg, Hardcore Superstar, The Hellacopters, Hellride, The Hives,The Hydromatics, Danko Jones, Lazy Cowgirls, The Lears, Lime Spiders, The Litter, Longhair, Professor, The Lords of Altamont, Love, Electric Frankenstein, El Vez, Flamin’ Groovies, Fleshtones, Fuzztones, Girl Trouble, The Datsuns, Gluecifer, Government Issue, MC5, Minor Threat, Minutemen, Miracle Workers, The Monomen, The Mortals, Mouse and the Traps, The Nazz, New Salem Witch Hunters, Nine Pound Hammer, The Nomads, The Oblivians, Phil Ochs, Overkill (the SST band), Paris,The Paybacks, Powder Monkeys,The Pretty Things, The Prisoners, Public Enemy, Queens of the Stone Age, Radio Birdman, Ramones, The Real Kids, Reigning Sound, Reverend Horton Heat, Riverboat Gamblers, Rollins Band, The Ruts, Gil Scott-Heron, Screaming Trees, The Seeds, The Sewergrooves, The Shadows of Knight, Sly and the Family Stone, Small Faces, The Sonics, Sonic’s Rendezvous, Squirrel Bait, The Standells, Supersuckers, Jack O and the Tearjerkers, Joe Tex, Thin Lizzy, 13th Floor Elevators, Thomas, Irma, Johnny Thunders, Big Joe Turner, The Undertones, The Wailers, Walker Jr., And The All Stars, Muddy Waters, ‘Howlin’ Wolf.Early albums by Motorhead, Deep Purple, Monster Magnet, The Who, Rolling Stones., AC/DC, Black Sabbath, The Damned. Blue Oyster Cult, Stevie Wonder, X, and ZZ Top.“Nuggets” series, “Garage Beat ‘66” compilation CDs. “Back From The Grave” compilation CDs (Crypt)and the podcasts at garagepunk.com

Movies:

Alien (Ridley Scott, 1979); Alligator (Lewis Teague, 1980); Battle Royale (Kinji Fukasaku, 2002); Bedlam (Mark Robson, 1946); The Big Red One: The Reconstruction (Sam Fuller, 2004); Blues Brothers (John Landis, 1980); The Body Snatchers (Robert Wise, 1945); The Brood (David Cronenberg, 1979); Pitch Black (David Twohy, 1999); Dark Fury (Peter Chung, 2004); Chronicles of Riddick (David Twohy, 2004); Cleopatra Jones (Jack Starrett, 1973); The Most Dangerous Game (Ernest B. Schoedsack, 1932); Dance of the Vampires (Roman Polanski, 1967); The Day of the Beast (Alex de la Ingelsia, 1997); Dr. Strangelove (Stanley Kubrick, 1963); Earth vs. the Flying Saucers (Fred Sears, 1956); 84 Charlie Mopic (Patrick Duncan, 1989); Election (Alexander Payne, 1999); Faust (F. W. Murnau, 1926); Fear And Loathing In Las Vegas (Terry Gilliam, 1998) ; Fight Club (David Fincher, 1999); Detour (Edward G. Ulmer, 1945); D.O.A. (Rudolph Maté, 1950); Forbidden Planet (Fred McLeod Wilcox, 1956); Frailty (Bill Paxton, 2001); Freaked (Tom Stern and Alex Winter, 1993); Freaks (Tod Browning, 1932); Freeway (Matthew Bright, 1996); Confessions of a Trick Baby (Matthew Bright, 1999); Ginger Snaps (John Fawcett, 2000); Ginger Snaps: Unleashed (Brett Sullivan, 2003); Godzilla (Ishiro Honda, 1954); Hairspray (John Waters, 1989); Haxan: Witchcraft Through The Ages (Benjamin Christiansen, 1922) Hellboy (Guillermo Del Toro, 2004); Hidalgo (Joe Johnson, 2004); Hollow Man (Paul Verhoeven, 2000); Hollywood Boulevard (Joe Dante, 1976); The House on Haunted Hill (William Castle, 1958); The Howling (Joe Dante, 1980); Killer Klowns From Outer Space (Stephen Chiodo, 1988); King Kong (Merion Cooper, 1933); King of New York (Abel Ferrera, 1989); Lake Placid (Steve Miner, 1999); Last House on the Left (Wes Craven, 1972); The Last Man On Earth (Sidney Salkow, 1964); The Libertine (Laurence Dunmore, YEAR); Lobster Man From Mars (Stanley Sheff, 1989); Mars Attacks (Tim Burton, 1996); Meet the Feebles (Peter Jackson, 1989) Metropolis (Fritz Lang, 1927); My Name Is Earl Series (2006); Near Dark (Kathryn Bigalow, 1987); Network (Sidney Lumet, 1976); Night of the Hunter (Charles Laughton, 1955); Ninth Gate (Roman Polanski, 1999); Nosferatu (F. W. Murnau, 1922); Opposite of Sex (Don Roos, 1998); Parents (Bob Balaban, 1989); Perdita Durango (Alex De La Inglesia, 1999); The Prophecy (Gregory Widen, 1995); Q - The Winged Serpent (Larry Cohen, 1982); Scanners (David Cronenberg, 1981); Seven (David Fincher, 1995); Shivers (David Cronenberg, 1975); Shock Corridor (Sam Fuller, 1963); Naked Kiss (Sam Fuller, 1964); Carnival of Souls (Herk Harvey, 1962); Starship Troopers (Paul Verhoeven, 1997); Sunset Boulevard (Billy Wilder, 1950); Taxi Driver (Martin Scorsese, 1976); Theatre of Blood (Douglas Hickox, 1973); Them! (Gordon Douglas, 1954); The Thing From Another World (Christian Nyby, 1951); The Thing (John Carpenter, 1982); The Thing With Two Heads (Lee Frost, 1972); Twenty Million Miles To Earth (Nathan Juran, 1957); Vanishing Point (Robert Sarafian, 1971); Werewolf of Washington (Milton Moses Ginsburg, 1973); The Wicker Man (Robin Hardy, 1973); Wolfen (Michael Wadleigh, 1981); Young Frankenstein (Mel Brooks, 1974).

Books:

Books? Yes, books are good.

Heroes:



My Blog

Media and crime

Was reading a bit of a blog about media reporting and  and crime and it made me think about two film's I discussed in 'Better To Reign In Hell', While the City Sleeps and Mean Season, both o...
Posted by Better To Reign In Hell on Tue, 07 Aug 2007 12:03:00 PST

Nostalgia... or something like it.

Over the last few years there is a site which I always seem to find myself drifting back to The Smoking Gun. Some of the stuff is quite mainstream and will be familiar, other stuff is weird and creepy...
Posted by Better To Reign In Hell on Tue, 17 Jul 2007 12:07:00 PST

John Wayne Gacy letter

Posted a letter from John Wayne Gacy in the early 1990s in pictures section. See what the creepy clown had to say for himself.
Posted by Better To Reign In Hell on Wed, 11 Jul 2007 03:42:00 PST

Nineteenth century true crime

Anyone interested in nineteenth century crime and criminals might want to check out 'The Word on the Street' a project run by the National Library of Scotland that has been ongoing for a few years now...
Posted by Better To Reign In Hell on Tue, 03 Jul 2007 12:25:00 PST

NYC Sex

Found an old review I did of a great book that is well worth checking out.   NYC Sex: How New York City Transformed America, Scala, New York, 2002. ISBN 1857592778 £14.95 NYC Sex was publ...
Posted by Better To Reign In Hell on Wed, 13 Jun 2007 03:05:00 PST

Amazon, voice of the people

This is a review I submitted to Amazon January 2006 "Jack Hunter's Freak Babylon is a rip off and, while the publishing details acknowledge that 'parts' of it were published in his earlier book I...
Posted by Better To Reign In Hell on Wed, 16 May 2007 02:42:00 PST

Belfast book launch

Books are probably only supposed to have one launch, conventionally anyway, but Better To Reign In Hell had it's second launch at No Alibi's bookstore (Botanic Avenue, Belfast) on 15 March 2007. The f...
Posted by Better To Reign In Hell on Tue, 27 Mar 2007 10:15:00 PST

A short piece about the 1930s

Once again thank you to all of the people who have visited the page and took the time to look at the blogs. This is a short section about sex crimes in the 1930s and 40s that the FBI did not take an i...
Posted by Better To Reign In Hell on Mon, 26 Feb 2007 12:54:00 PST

Some information about jack

Ok ladies and gentlemen. As I promised, or threatened, I will post short sections from the book (without footnotes) as blogs on a semi regular basis. Drifting through the myspace groups I have been di...
Posted by Better To Reign In Hell on Tue, 13 Feb 2007 12:30:00 PST

What John Wayne Gacy wants you to know...

Put a scan of an information sheet John Wayne Gacy would send to his new penpals in the 'my pictures' section. Gacy , for some unimaginable reason, didn't think people would know the real him so he tr...
Posted by Better To Reign In Hell on Mon, 05 Feb 2007 01:00:00 PST