Sons of Cain

A History of Serial Killers from the Stone Age to the Present

By: Peter Vronsky

Narrated by: Mikael Naramore

Length: 15 hrs and 1 min

Publisher's summary

From the author of Serial Killers: The Method and Madness of Monsters comes an in-depth examination of sexual serial killers throughout human history, how they evolved, and why we are drawn to their horrifying crimes.

Before the term was coined in 1981, there were no "serial killers." There were only "monsters" - killers society first understood as werewolves, vampires, ghouls and witches or, later, Hitchcockian psychos.

In Sons of Cain - a book that fills the gap between dry academic studies and sensationalized true crime - investigative historian Peter Vronsky examines our understanding of serial killing from its prehistoric anthropological evolutionary dimensions in the pre-civilization era (c. 15,000 BC) to today. Delving further back into human history and deeper into the human psyche than Serial Killers - Vronsky's 2004 book, which has been called "the definitive history of the phenomenon of serial murder" - he focuses strictly on sexual serial killers: thrill killers who engage in murder, rape, torture, cannibalism and necrophilia, as opposed to for-profit serial killers, including hit men, or "political" serial killers, like terrorists or genocidal murderers.

These sexual serial killers differ from all other serial killers in their motives and their foundations. They are uniquely human and - as popular culture has demonstrated - uniquely fascinating.

©2018 Peter Vronsky (P)2018 Brilliance Publishing, Inc., all rights reserved

Hung on every word!

Brilliantly written & read! Fabulous mix of psychology & details. Very eye opening. Thank you!

Great book

Great book bro good research and told superbly.I learned alot about cases I knew and some I didn’t great job.

amazing book for those who love twisted stories

loved it and loved the narration would highly recommend and in fact will recommend

Thoroughly Fascinating and Captivating

Normally, when I'm reviewing an audiobook, I wait until the end to comment on the quality of the narration. I have to make an exception here. Mikael Naramore's narration of Vronsky's fantastic history of serial killing is perhaps the most perfect match-up I've ever witnessed in an audiobook. The most important element is that he so perfectly captures the wry, often sardonic humor of the author. I was disappointed to see that Naramore didn't further narrate other titles from Vronsky, because there's no chance in my mind of another narrator embracing and conveying the strange blend of casual discourse and in-depth history lesson to be found in all of Vronsky's texts. I'll surely give the other audiobooks a chance, as my significant other and I listen to these while we're out adventuring, but I feel a sense of disenchantment in advance that is unfair to the other narrators who've worked on Vronsky's books.
Sons of Cain: A History of Serial Killers from the Stone Age to the Present is a mouthful of a title, to be sure, but it's a fitting title for such a densely packed deep dive into the history of serial killers throughout recorded civilization.
Spending a period focusing on the development of the triune brain, as proposed by evolutionary neuroscientist Paul D. MacLean in the 1960s (which, while oversimplified based on our current knowledge, is still a rather useful tool for understanding the way our brains work and how they sometimes malfunction), Vronsky discusses the four Fs that defined the existence of early man (and still define the existence of most life as we know it). Feeding, F***ing, Fighting, and Fleeing are still the core behavioral motivators underlying our daily lives, but with trappings of civility and leisure tossed into the mix.
There's some analysis of why and how homo sapien became the dominant hominid and the potential role of necrophobia in that success. There's surely some strong argument in opposition to his theories and hypotheses regarding how and why early man survived while other competing branches of the same evolutionary tree did not, but none of them are any more likely to be valid or accurate. It's all conjecture and educated guesswork when we're talking about things like that.
From there, we move on to the meat of the book, detailing early records of "lycanthrope" lust murders from early history, evaluating these past instances through the lens of the present, and applying our current understanding to these things. It's truly fascinating and well worth the time, reading or (in my case) listening to Vronsky's meticulous considerations of mass murder cases from centuries ago.
Arguably, the most rewarding aspect of this book is the author's discussion of Diabolus In Cultura, the combination of cultural factors and arrangements that contributed to the growing numbers of serial killers and the periods wherein we've experienced surges of what we would classify as modern serial killers. It's never one thing, isolated from other elements, but rather a concatenation of sorts that produces a surge of individuals prone to that sort of behavior.
Fair warning, as the end of the book approaches, and Vronsky is discussing the "Golden Age of Serial Killers" here in America, spanning from the mid-1960s through the 1990s, there are some rather long lists involved. They can become more than a little tedious but are essential to capturing a full understanding of what he's trying to convey. That was the one section of this book where I'd have preferred to be reading rather than listening to the narration.

Educational

This is an educational book. I’m glad I got it from the plus catalog. It isn’t my usual reading material.

Not bad

there's a lot of information going on in this book, but unfortunately for the length of this book not everything can be dived into deeply. it's really unfortunate that the author didn't go too deep with certain serial killers let alone not mention some of the more infamous killers in American history. I was actually surprised that he did not discuss Carl panzram. overall I was pleased with the book

wow. Wow. Woooow!

Wow! is SO MUCH INFO IN THIS BOOK, I couldn't keep up. I'm definitely going to take a week or three and come back to listen again.

Obvious political biases aside, still a good book

Obvious political biases aside, still a good book. No need to allow political affiliation to enter into the book in the final chapters, otherwise this was a well compiled, and presented account of the subject matter.

Interesting but questionable research

The author has some seriously fascinating theories and I was fascinated by the cases laid out. but in the last chapter he referenced a case that was local to me and his info was so basically wrong it made me question the authenticity of everything else he wrote. Hint: there's no such place as "West Mesa, NM". Anyway, it's also extremely graphic. This book seems almost like one of the pulp men's crime magazines he blames so much of the serial killer phenomenon on. I recommend it for critical thinkers who can listen to the authors general theories while not taking it as factual science.

Interesting?

Lists, lists, and more lists! Vronsky really has an affinity for list making, he also seems to have a real love of deep dives into different "philias"-- such as necrophilia, a big one covered at great length through this book. Rape is also another subject to be aware of being included in this book, its talked about quite a bit, and in an uncomfortable
way in my opinion.

This one wont be for everyone. I honestly don't think it was even for me, but I bought it and have had it on the shelf so was determined to give it a chance.