Kevin M. Sullivan (1)Besprekingen

Well what’s to say here? Short and not so sweet - considering the subject matter. It doesn’t stand out in any way from the plethora of Books on Ted Bundy. Seems to me like the author, after completion of his very comprehensive 2009 book The Bundy Murders, had some afterthoughts occurring to him. So, from some missing details, stuff deemed not important enough earlier and perhaps a few new realizations, he produced a short if not in style certainly in meaning, appendix to his earlier work.
If you are truly fascinated by all that is Ted Bundy, then go ahead and knock yourself out, otherwise you might just want to skip on it.

This book should have a trigger warning, due to the graphic detail of what Richard Trenton Chase did to a baby, so you have been warned, it's disgusting and disturbing. This true crime book won't be for everyone, it's understandable if you don't finish reading it.
This true crime book was difficult for me to read, since it made me feel physically sick due to the graphic detail of the murders committed by "the vampire of Sacramento" Richard Trenton Chase.
I will not mention the details of the murders due to the disturbing and graphic and disgusting detail of what he did, none of the victims deserved to be killed in the way they were murdered especially the 22 month old baby, it made me feel sick reading about it.
Richard Trenton Chase was a paranoid schizophrenic but sane during the murders he committed, he was a vampire, cannibal, necrophile and killed 6 people including a 22 month old male baby, a pregnant woman, rabbits, a cat that was his pet, dogs that he shot, mutilated and consumed the flesh and blood due to his delusional beliefs that he needed to "consume blood to repair his body" because he believed that he was/had been "poisoned with iodine or mercury" He purchased rabbits and drank their blood, and attempted to inject himself with their blood which lead to him being hospitalised for a few days where he was diagnosed as a paranoid schizophrenic due to his behaviour and paranoid beliefs. He purchased dogs, hung them up, cut their organs out of the body and partially ate them and drank their blood.
He was "eating dog viscera raw"
He used a .22 calibre Luger pistol and knives during the murders and kidnapped the baby after murdering his family, he shot the baby in the head, consumed part of his brain matter, mutilated his body and decapitated him because "cause...I needed something to eat" After he murdered a victim he would keep a copy of the newspaper asa trophy to re-live the crime by reading about it.
He was similar in some ways to Jeffrey Dahmer both seem like they were loners wrapped up in their delusional fantasy world that only existed in their minds. All the victims were not connected to each other except the small geographical area where they lived and were murdered was very close to where Richard Trenton Chase was living at the time of the murders.
The murders occurred within walking or driving distance from his house, where he was living at the time of the murders. From a young age he was developing a extremely violent and predatory nature towards animals or people, so even if he wasn't a risk to others he would have been a risk to himself. He cut the paw of his pet dog and would frequently have attempt to crush the jaw of the dog by tightly gripping it around it's jaw almost to the point of broking it's jaw.
He believed his family was trying to poison him or control his mind, he also had conversations with people that were not real or no one else saw. His mother thought it was a good idea to slowly stop giving him his medication till eventually he wasn't taking his medication and his paranoia became a problem again.
If he continued taking his medication he would have been fine, and possibly none of the deaths of any of the animals or people he killed would or happened, it could have been avoided and lives would have been saved.
He was a disorganised killer that left fingerprints or evidence of his presence at the crime scenes, due to the violent, graphic way he killed his victims.
People were known to fire guns in a creek, near or around the area of some of the crimes and the gunshots were heard by multiple people in the area at various times of the night.
When Richard was living with his family he behaviour become very bizarre and they all thought that something was off about him, that something was wrong despite acting or appearing normal most of the time, he was known to talk to himself however. "Richard, you're a good boy aren't you?
Yes you're a good boy" He would do a handstand because he wanted the blood in his body to flow back to his head and would wrap a towel with oranges slices on it around his head.
He was unable to keep a steady job due to not doing his job properly and inadequate in terms of dating due to a inability to perform sexually with women, which is one of the reasons he might of hated women and murdered them due to humiliation and rejection.
The closer he came to murder the better he looked in terms of appearance or demeanour.
He was aware of social condemnation in social for his actions.
He would target homes that didn't have a car outside, but he would knock first to see if anyone was at home so no one would die.
During the murders he was considered sane due to being aware of his actions being wrong, he was aware of what was right or wrong so wasn't able to claim "temporary insanity" as a way to get a more lenient sentence he knew what he did was wrong and excited about reading about his crimes in the newspaper after he committed them, he liked the attention.
Eventually he was caught due to eyewitness testimonies and the the daughter of the one of the investigators being approached by Richard in a supermarket, that felt uncomfortable being around him and talking to him. All the evidence pointed to Richard Trenton Chase and he was finally brought in to be questioned, then brought to trail in a court and convicted of 6 counts of murder in the first degree and sentenced to death in the gas chamber. He decided to killed himself to cure whatever he believed ailed him his whole life that he never re eived sufficient help for because he was delusional and it was all in his head.
He overdosed on Sinequan (a medication for depression) while in prison.

This is a difficult review to write. I know the author dedicated a lot of time to the topic of Ted Bundy, and I want to be supportive, but this book was truly terrible for me.

First, be aware that this isn’t really a “book”, per se, but more of a supplement of assorted research to go along with previous books the author has written about Bundy. It’s a consolidated bunch of tidbits haphazardly strung together. The author references his previous books, a lot, in the absence of detail here. We have no coherent story, and this just does not read well as a true crime book.

Sullivan hands off the final chapter to a friend of his, Erin Banks, who lives in Germany and runs a crime blog. Banks proceeds to provide her opinion on how “the rest of the world” (outside of the U.S.) views true crime in general and Ted Bundy in particular. I don’t know what makes Erin Banks an expert on the opinion of the rest of the world, but there you have it.

If you are totally obsessed with all things Bundy, as the author appears to be, then you might want this book for your collection. Otherwise, stick with Google and read something else.

*I received a review copy from the publisher.*

Why did I read this? I've read about Chase's crimes before. He was batshit crazy and off his meds. He was also on mind altering drugs.

The author moralizes like mad here. Feeling sorry for the victims and horrified about the crimes that Chase brought to their doors can co-exist with understanding that mental illness stole all of their lives. It doesn't make him any less horrifying or bizarre. It doesn't shift the blame. It just puts his terrible crimes in a different category. Calling him evil and diabolical isn't appropriate. His crimes were evil for sure, but using diabolical to describe Chase is way off the mark. He was frenzied, impulsive and not the brightest crayon in the box.

So yeah, describing Chase as some kind of evil genius and diabolical is dumb. He was no Hannibal Lecter. Dude barely made it through High School because the crazy was setting in.

I'm beginning to think I have to stop reading true crime books. I am picking up repeat cases now and books by inferior authors.

Who am I kidding? It's summer. I'll be reading true crime all over the place.

Ted Bundy's Murderous Mysteries by Kevin Sullivan is the highly recommended fourth book in his series about the serial killer. The first three books are The Bundy Murders, The Trail of Ted Bundy and The Bundy Secrets. In this third volume, Sullivan shares inside, unpublished information, documents, case files, and interviews he has collected in his research. The complete files bring to light additional facts that never made it into the other three books.

While this fourth volume can be read by anyone who has some familiarity with the Bundy case, it will be better appreciated by those intent true crime aficionados who have seriously studied every aspect of the serial killer and his murders. Sullivan does, however, do an excellent job assisting the reader in following along and putting this new information into context of previous published information. He also adds additional information about the victims and a potential victim.

Sullivan has said that this will be the last Bundy book and completes his extensive true crime investigative series, but it should be noted that he is clearly an expert on Bundy at this point so one never knows what the future holds. In any case, his final volume on Bundy wraps up years of research and information and will be a must read for those who follow the case of this horrific serial killer.

Disclosure: My review copy was courtesy of WildBlue Press.
http://www.shetreadssoftly.com/2019/05/ted-bundys-murderous-mysteries.html

The actual case files, the actual nitty-gritty, with further thoughts by this now-expert on the case. No protection from the gory details, no euphemisms. Just information for an intelligent audience.

This book was an addendum to his previous book. It still had parts from his other book as well. He had added things from witnesses that had come forward after the book had been published. Also people who had forgot things.

I was in high school during Ted Bundy's rampage of terror. I had heard of him, but this was way past his reign. As I was reading this, I recall my years of naivety. I had no idea this was going on. However, I was living in Kentucky, so I suppose I was out of harm's way.

In reading the book, like I say, I was aware of his abducting females, but not aware of his viciousness and utter lack of remorse or of the number of women he killed. I found this book to be interesting and informative. While it was short, I think it was just the right number of pages as I wasn't looking to be inundated for Ted Bundy's complete history.

Thanks to Wild Blue Press for approving my request and to Net Galley for providing me with a free e-galley in exchange for an honest review.

Book received from NetGalley.

This book could have been a great book, one of the many true crime writers explaining how he researched his first book on Ted Bundy. The author giving us the insight into how Bundy lived, worked and functioned as a supposedly normal human being while going out and kidnapping and murdering multiple young women. The author also mentioned some updated information that wasn't in the first book. It was interesting to hear how things have and haven't changed in the various places Bundy lived, and what people have done to change the areas he abused and murdered his victims. While the book did some of that, most of it was the author plugging the first book he wrote on the subject. There was a lot of "I mentioned that in the other book I wrote so I won't repeat it here. If you want to know more refer to it." Since I hadn't read the first book and this book in no way stated it was a sequel or addendum to it, I was a bit let down since I had never really read anything about Ted Bundy prior. I know little about him as a serial killer other than he murdered multiple women in multiple states, I was still a teenager when he was executed, so my parents tried to keep the worst of what he did from me though I remember hearing his name mentioned on the news. If you have already read the first book, definitely get this one for the extra material. If you haven't read the first book I suggest giving this one a pass until you read it.

DEATH BY SWORD ~ museum worker murdered ~ Carol Frances Mudd
BLOOD IN THE MOONLIGHT ~ Albert & Mabel Bauer ~ him beaten and strangled, her stabbed multiple times
RAMPAGE ~ Escapee from jail with life sentences
THE BOXHILL MURDERS ~ Kirk Ellington Tiff
JEALOUSY IS FOREVER ~ Mary F Byron killed by ex on her 21st birthday
THE ICE MAN ~ Todd Ice ~ 15 years old murdered Donna Knox 7 years old
A WORM IN THE NOSE ~ James Becker ~ Thomas A Rankin (step-father) shot with an arrow
CLOSING TIME ~ Barbel Poore ~ raped and murdered
THE BEST OF FRIENDS ~ Scott Nelson & Richard David Stephenson by George Ellis Wade & Victor DeWayne Taylor
A VOICE FROM ABOVE ~ Monica Berger killed her two year old son Joey ‘because God told her to’

These are the cases in this compilation, I have to agree with another reviewer that these weren’t all that bizarre. A few will, stabbed with a sword and shot with an arrow. Basically these are crimes that you would find committed anywhere. The fact that they were all committed in Kentucky could be considered bizarre if you think Kentucky is all horse farms and mint juleps. Those of us who read true crime can tell you, crime happens everywhere, and mentally ill people are everywhere. That being said this is what I thought of the book.

Some don’t like the ‘short story’ aspect of true crime. I like them if they are well done. I found all these to be well done. The author made a point to research the crimes, not relying on newspaper accounts but digging into the original case files to tell us what really happened.

These crimes were all new to me and I found this author’s relating of them to be compelling. At 109 pages it is a rather quick read but very informative and fascinating.

A short but very thorough account of Richard Chase's life and crimes. The writing is extremely graphic, but that's to be expected given the nature of the murders Chase committed. I thought the author did a good job of showing how, batshit crazy though Chase may have been, he was not insane under the legal standard. (Which, to me, speaks volumes about our need to broaden our application of insanity, but that's neither here nor there.) Anyone who wants to learn about this particularly gruesome serial slayer could not go wrong with his book.

I have read nearly every book written on Ted Bundy and when I heard about this one, I knew I had to read it. Particularly when the author claimed that he had previously unpublished information about some of the crimes.

I have heard that every true crime affectionado has a "favorite" (for lack of better word) crime or criminal and I suppose that's correct. There are some crimes, such as Bundy's, that I can read many books about without getting weary and there are other crimes that I have absolutely no desire to pick up the first book on.

For any reader who is unfamiliar with Bundy's crimes in general, The Bundy Murders is a great book to start with. It's not daunting in size (a relatively sleek 264 pages), with a variety of pictures (including ones the author took at locations that Bundy lived at or where he abducted a victim) and the text is easy to read, with a very nice overview of Bundy's past and formative years.

For those readers who have read other works about Bundy, I think you will find The Bundy Murders a resourceful tool that not only sheds further light on the killer himself but additional information, as Kevin Sullivan stated, about a few of Bundy's lesser known crimes and about the victims themselves.

One of my greatest pet peeves, and overall sadness, with some true crime books is the general lack of attention to the victims themselves. I understand that in some cases, the sheer volume of people being dealt with prohibits in depth information from being written. But I feel that in some true crime books, the victims are presented as just that - - victims, with nothing special other than the fact they happened to cross paths with a monster.

I feel that Mr. Sullivan has done an admirable job here in bringing to the forefront personalities and characteristics of many of the young women and girls that Bundy spirited away - - particularly those that did not receive as much press as the others at the time of the crimes. I also want to commend Mr. Sullivan for acknowledging that Bundy, and others like him, don't just take away the life of a single victim but often tend to destroy entire families. In The Bundy Murders' case, the families of the girls Bundy abducted and killed were subjected to not only the grief of losing a loved one in such a violent way but also divorces, early deaths, alcoholism and drug dependency. Oftentimes the criminal himself (or herself, as the case may be) becomes the "star" of the show and the living victims (the family and friends left behind) and their pain are quickly forgotten. Not so here.

I do wish that The Bundy Murders had gone more into Bundy's paternity. Mr. Sullivan mentioned that Bundy's biological father was supposedly a sailor who left his mother alone and pregnant but I would have liked for the book to address the rumors that Bundy's maternal grandfather may also have been his biological father, rumors that began circulating shortly after Bundy's execution in 1989.

Mr. Sullivan does keep his text to those victims that were absolutely attributed to Bundy, or that Bundy admitted to taking, and does provide a small amount of information as to Bundy's possible first victim, since Bundy never fully admitted or denied his part in her disappearance.

Overall, I found The Bundy Murders to be insightful, well researched and well written, and this in a market that can be oversaturated with cheap, "dime store" type quickie books. Rest assured that The Bundy Murders must definitely is not. The story stayed with me after I had closed the book for the night and prepared for sleep (and might I add that I had a hard time closing the book because I literally couldn't put it down). I felt sadness for the young women and girls who had lost their lives due to Bundy, I felt sadness for their families and friends, I felt sadness for Bundy's family and even I felt sadness for what Bundy could have been had the monster not been lurking below.

I would highly recommend The Bundy Murders for any true crime reader, or any reader wanting to know more about Bundy or about deviant personalities. The photographs are not graphic and the text is not objectionable. There are parts that may be difficult to read, particularly given that Bundy did play tricks on his victims after he had them in his murderous grasp, but the facts are presented in such a way as to be informative and a fascinating look into a crumbling psyche. In fact, this book should be required reading for any student of psychology or criminal law (ironically what Bundy was during his years at college and law school).