Ever since I started trying to be a good Christian woman and have gotten engrossed in reading/reviewing non-fiction Christian books, it's been a while since I've sat down and read a good True Crime book. [I happen to be a TOP CONTRIBUTOR of Amazon for this genre.]

The reason an individual like myself would ever want to read such a shockingly, disturbing book like this is simple; I'm fascinated by how any person, such as the subject of this book, Carl Panzram, could ever become such a heinous, cruel, vile, murderous one, who went against almost every tenet of the Lord.

As in most cases, the root cause for their behavior stems from their children, of which Panzram's case is a prime example.

Growing up as a child, Panzram had no childhood to speak of. Instead of going to school like you and me, with the ominous threat of harsh chastisement hung over his head, he got forced to be like a slave as he labored his life away on his family's farm. This occurred because of the twisted way his parents wanted to mold him into their intention of becoming a timid, amenable son. Instead, his behavior grew increasingly viciousa, and before he turned ten, he wound up getting arrested for his first serious crime.

One might think that his going to school and going to church would his atrocious behavior around; however, the contrary occurred since he found himself confronted by merciless teachers and blasphemous pastors who wound up decimating any goodness he might have still possessed.

As the years went by, his behavior turned frighteningly revengeful as he rejoiced in inflicting as much misery and torment to others that he could muster.

The writing in this book is fraught with the highly graphic descriptive accounting of Panzram's brutal and heinous behavior, which should be avoided in reading by anyone who is fainthearted.

Given the intense nature of this book and my being an aficionado of the genre of true crime, I've given this book and its authors 5 STARS. ( )

My Earlier Reviewer winning item. This book described a Prussian American serial killer's life, in and out of jail. He's brutal but long forgotten by society. I am not sure, reading such mayhem does me any good but for those victims' family, that'll be a different story all together. How justice failed them and let the killer loose. ( )

Disclaimer: I won this in a LibraryThing Member Giveaway.

Possible triggers for readers: murders of children, sodomy, rape

This short work discusses the life and crimes of Carl Panzram in the pre-WWI era through the Great Depression.

The work is direct, almost stark in its approach to the subject. While not overly graphic, it paints a bleak picture of a man who felt life had given him nothing but pain, so he would pay it back in kind. Some of the sentences felt a little jarring while reading, such as after describing Carl's experiences in a school, the next sentence was "He was too tired to masturbate." It didn't really have any direct connection with the sentence in front of it, but it was connected to the overall arc of Carl's life. The whole of the book felt a bit like that.

The subject (Carl) is fascinating and overall the work was worth the time I took to read it. I'm just not certain I would re-read it anytime soon. ( )