The Mammoth Book of Bizarre Crimes

Incredible Real-Life Murders

By: Robin Odell

Narrated by: David Shaw-Parker

Length: 19 hrs and 9 mins

Publisher's summary

A gripping collection of stories of human criminality at its most bizarre.

These unusual, sensational murders recall not only gruesome historical crimes, but also touch on shocking and macabre modern murders. Included are details of groundbreaking advances in crime detection, law enforcement, and forensic science.

This is the top-secret report on the most grisly, and unusual, criminal activity of our time.

©2010 Constable & Robinson (P)2012 Constable & Robinson

Quick stories, fun listening, cant get anybetter

Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?

As long as they are a nut like me who loves crime stories

Any additional comments?

This is a good book to be able to pick up, listen to a couple of stories and put down. I't not like one story, it's many stories.

Lots of cases, little content

Great background noise. Lots of sickos, but told less as a story than a grouping of news-clippings. 1.5X-speed required. Despite my mediocre rating, this is actually one book I'll probably listen to again, since there really is no story-line you already know the ending to.

The love of listening

It's the best I had an account along time ago but now cause u can just listen it's better and they have everything u can think off

Terrible pronunciation

Why do I have to do all this just to submit the Overall, Performance, and Story ratings?? didn't have to before. So, I won't be rating anymore books., since it's a shyte system now.

Worth the listen.

Narration was excellent. Stories were interesting, if somewhat gruesome at times. Overall, a satisfactory purchase.

Bizarre crimes is right!

Had lots of enjoyable hours of all the crazies. Many twisted people though out history

Great compilation!

Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?

Yes, if the person is interested in basic facts about many different weird crimes. These are not in-depth, nor does the writer always give all salient facts; overall, though, it's a great compilation of bizarre crimes.

What was the most compelling aspect of this narrative?

The sheer amount of research done and obvious interest in the subject that the author has.

Any additional comments?

Some stories have apocryphal or urban legend-type "facts" added, which are not always true. For instance, the electric chair that killed Albert Fish did not malfunction. Also, Fish's victim Grace Budd was 10, not 12 years old. While not a great difference, there is in the public's perception of the victim and goes a bit to the horror the public felt at the time.

Great narration

I usually stick to single story books,but this one was well done with nice added touches of ominous music in between chapters.The narrator’s voice was one that went well with the subject matter too.

Junk food

Superficial synopses of often horrific crimes. There are some interesting stories in here, which you will forget within minutes.

True Crime for the Beach or Vacation Reader

Just because I said that this book's contents-- "story" is three stars does not mean that I didn't enjoy listening to it. The reader was fairly good and I learned something that I've often wondered about-- are books from the US translated fro the UK market. The answer, at least for this one is yes.

This is a compendium of true crimes. Many of them do have bits of the bizarre about them. Others are fairly banal. Some are well known, others I had never heard of before and I thought I was fairly well versed in at least historic crime. It made for undemanding listening while I was cutting out some winter killed vines from the front flower beds and doing some other chores. The accounts seem to mainly have been retold from secondary sources. The one that really bore that out was the retelling of the events in Vince Bugliosi's Till Death Us Do Part. Bugliosi for whatever reason used fake names for both the victims and perpetrators in his book. The real names are now readily available on the internet and the facts are a matter of public record so repeating this doesn't

Now for my favorite bit on the perils of translation. The Thomas Capano/Fahey trial was a bit of an internet sensation in part due to the fact that Capano was a well connected lawyer and political figure in Delaware. He killed Fahey in his own residence and then with his brother's assistance transported her body in a large plastic cooler to his brother's boat and tossed the cooler overboard. What happened then definitely put it's in the category of bizarre as the cooler just wouldn't sink. However, it becomes even more surreal when the cooler is called a refrigerator. The mental image of two men hauling a refrigerator out of a car and onto a boat, throwing it overboard then shooting at it because it won't sink and having to haul it back aboard made me wonder a bit about the facts as laid out in some of the other accounts.

At over 19 hours this is a solid listen.