<div>Extraordinary accounts of forensic crime detection&mdash;from poisoners in ancient Rome to modern day serial killers&mdash;by the bestselling author of The Outsider. In 44 BC, a Roman doctor named Antistius performed the first autopsy recorded in history&mdash;on the corpse of murder victim Julius Caesar. However, not until the nineteenth century did the systematic application of scientific knowledge to crime detection seriously begin, so that the tiniest scrap of evidence might yield astonishing results&mdash;like the single horsehair that betrayed the murderer in New York&rsquo;s 1936 puzzling and sensational Nancy Titterton case. Many such dramatic tales appear in this updated edition of the most gripping catalog of crimes by acclaimed criminologist Colin Wilson. The book follows the progress of forensic science from the first cases of suspected arsenic poisoning right up to investigations using an impressive armory of high-tech methods: ballistic analysis, blood typing, voice printing, textile analysis, psychological profiling and genetic fingerprinting. &ldquo;Colin Wilson has made himself the Philosopher-King of forensic speculation, the Diderot of the path labs.&rdquo; &mdash;The Times Literary Supplement &ldquo;Will enthrall connoisseurs of violent crime.&rdquo; &mdash;The Glasgow Herald </div>

Written in Blood

<div>An examination of the motives for murder from the bestselling author of The Outsider&mdash;&ldquo;Colin Wilson puts the Manson murders in coldly sharp perspective&rdquo; (Evening Standard). Why is the &ldquo;motiveless&rdquo; murder an increasing phenomenon today? What is the mentality behind the Manson massacres and other shocking cases of brutal killing&mdash;too frequent to be written off as isolated cases? In his penetrating exploration of murder, Colin Wilson suggests that the apparently meaningless violence so frighteningly prevalent today is the result of boredom and frustration induced by a repressive society. Particular individuals of high creative potential are thwarted in their natural drives and ambitions and are forced to tread the deadly path of homicide. Colin Wilson traces this path, describing in detail many instances of violent crime, and provides valuable insights that may point to an explanation. </div>

Order of Assassins

<div>The classic study of alienation, existentialism, and how great artists have portrayed characters who exist on the margins of society. Published to immense acclaim in the mid-1950s, The Outsider helped make popular the literary concept of existentialism. Authors like Sartre, Kafka, Hemingway, and Dostoyevsky, as well as artists like Van Gogh and Nijinsky, delved for a deeper understanding of the human condition in their work, and Colin Wilson&rsquo;s landmark book encapsulated a character found time and time again: the outsider. How does the outsider influence society? And how does society influence him? It&rsquo;s a question as relevant to today&rsquo;s iconic characters, from Don Draper to Voldemort, as it was when The Outsider was initially published. A fascinating study blending philosophy, psychology, and literature, Wilson&rsquo;s seminal work is a must-have for those who are fascinated by the character of the outsider. &ldquo;Luminously intelligent . . . A real contribution to our understanding of our deepest predicament.&rdquo; &mdash;Philip Toynbee &ldquo;Leaves the reader with a heightened insight into a crucial drama of the human spirit.&rdquo; &mdash;Atlantic Monthly</div>

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The Outsider

<div>The acclaimed author of such seminal works as The Occult and The Outsider and his son investigate the history and causes of unnecessary human violence. Human history can be seen as a catalog of coldhearted murders, mindless blood feuds, appalling massacres, and devastating wars. We are the only species on the planet whose ingrained habit of conflict and perpetual warfare constitutes the chief threat to our own survival. In An End to Murder, the Wilsons assess whether human beings are in reality as cruel and violent as is generally believed. The book explores the possibility that humankind is on the verge of a fundamental change: that we are about to become truly civilized. Covering a wide-reaching history of violence from the first hominids to the twenty-first century, the book touches on key moments of change while also indicating where things have not changed since the Stone Age. It follows the history of violence from fifteenth-century baron Gilles de Rais (&ldquo;Bluebeard&rdquo;), the first known and possibly most prolific serial killer in history; to Victorian domestic murder, the invention of psychiatry, Sherlock Holmes, and the invention of forensic science; the fifteenth-century Taiping Rebellion in China, in which more than twenty million died; World Wars I and II; more recent genocides and instances of &ldquo;ethnic cleansing;&rdquo; and contemporary terrorism. As well as offering an overview of violence throughout our history, the authors explore the latest psychological, forensic, and social attempts to understand and curb modern human violence. &ldquo;I was amazed by the range and breadth of material . . . Their book will teach you a lot you didn&rsquo;t know about history and human behavior and violence.&rdquo; &mdash;Psych Central </div>

An End to Murder

<div>From the bestselling author of The Outsider, an exhaustive historical true crime survey. Colin Wilson, co-author of the bestselling Encyclopedia of Murder, has written a definitive volume on the world&rsquo;s major cases of violent murder. In doing so, he traces the history of violence from its beginnings. From Sawney Bean and his cannibal family to Ed Gein, the Wisconsin Necrophile, Wilson illustrates the &ldquo;changing fashions of murder&rdquo; and indicates some hope for the future.</div>

A Casebook of Murder

<div>This &ldquo;immensely stimulating story of true crime down the ages&rdquo; tells the history of human violence, from Peking Man to the Mafia (The Times, London). This landmark work offers a completely new approach to the history and psychology of human violence. Its sweep is broad, its research meticulous and detailed. Colin Wilson explores the bloodthirsty sadism of the ancient Assyrians and the mass slaughter by the armies led by Genghis Khan, Tamerlane, Ivan the Terrible, and Vlad the Impaler. He delves into modern history, exploring the genocides practiced by Stalin and Hitler. He then takes a chilling look into the sex crimes and mass murders that have become symbols of the neuroses and intensity of modern life. With breathtaking audacity and stunning insight, Wilson puts criminality firmly in a wide, illuminating historical context. &ldquo;A work of massive energy, compulsively readable, splendidly informative . . . it establishes Wilson in a European tradition of thought that includes H. G. Wells, Sartre and Shaw.&rdquo; &mdash;Time Out London &ldquo;A tremendous resource for crime buffs as well as a challenging exposition for some of the more subtle criminological thinking of our time.&rdquo; &mdash;Kirkus Reviews</div>

A Criminal History of Mankind

<div>Three case studies in the paranormal shed light on the limits of human potential. During his research for his major study The Occult, Colin Wilson became fascinated by three people whom he interviewed extensively. Strange Powers compiles and analyzes the compelling stories of Robert Leftwich, a retired sales manager in Sussex with proven powers as a dowser who also is able to take journeys out of his physical body; Mrs. Eunice Beattie, a hospital nurse, who has written hundreds of pages of predictions dictated to her by &ldquo;spirits&rdquo;; and Dr. Arthur Guirdham, a respected British physician, who is convinced that he is a reincarnated member of a thirteenth-century religious sect, about which he has written voluminously and accurately. All three consider their powers to be perfectly normal. If this is so, are the rest of us abnormal? Or subnormal? Colin Wilson challenges us to consider these questions, as well as the problem of how to gain scientific recognition for those vistas of reality that lie outside the experience of most of us, but that almost certainly exist.</div>

Strange Powers

<div>The acclaimed author of The Occult presents a groundbreaking theory of unexplained phenomena from ghosts and magic to the power of the unconscious. A renowned expert on the subject of occultism, Colin Wilson&rsquo;s sequel to his masterwork, The Occult, is &ldquo;a major work&rdquo; in its own right. In The Mysteries, Wilson continues his the investigation into magic, the paranormal, and the supernatural through extensive research as well as his own extraordinary first-hand experiences. The result is &ldquo;an extraordinary tour de force&rdquo; of scholarship (New Science). Through a personal mystical experience, Wilson discovered that human beings consist of a ladder&mdash;or hierarchy&mdash;of selves, whose upper members may be called upon at will for personal transformation and deep knowledge. This experience inspired him to apply this insight to all paranormal phenomena, from precognition to Uri Geller&#39;s spoon bending. Wilson presents detailed studies of hauntings, possession and demonic hypnosis, as well as magic, the Kabbalah, and astrology. At the heart of his work is a fascinating discussion of the Great Secret of the alchemists, which he sees as the key to the mystery of the ladder of selves.</div>

Mysteries

<div>The acclaimed author of The Outsider explores occult ideas, practices and figures from Kabbalah to Aleister Crowley in this &ldquo;fascinating history of magic&quot; (The Washington Post). Colin Wilson is widely regarded as one of the world&rsquo;s foremost experts on occultism. His classic historical study on the subject is an essential guide to the mind-expanding experiences and discoveries made by occultists through the centuries&mdash;from Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa to Giacomo Casanova, Helena Blavatsky, Grigori Rasputin, and many others. More than a chronicle of people and events, however, Wilson has produced a synthesis of the available material, presenting the occult in the light of reason&mdash;and reason in the light of the mystical and paranormal. The result is a wide-ranging survey of the subject that provides a comprehensive history of magic, an insightful exploration of our latent powers, and a revelatory journey of enlightenment.&quot;This most interesting, informative and thought-provoking book on the subject I have read.&quot; &mdash;Arthur Calder-Marshall, The Sunday Telegraph</div>

The Occult

<div>The renowned criminologist and author of The Outsider delivers a penetrating study of serial killers as a uniquely modern phenomenon. In this fascinating study, Colin Wilson explores the roots of the serial killer mindset, and the origins of this terrifying modern personality. The term &quot;serial killer&quot; is still relatively new, coined by the FBI to describe those who murder repeatedly and obsessively, usually with a sexual motive. Who are these killers? What social and psychological pressures drive them to their crimes? Can we understand and learn to predict their behavior? Wilson offers revealing profiles of some of the most infamous killers in modern history: from Jack the Ripper to Jeffrey Dahmer, the monster of Milwaukee; Reginald Christie to Dennis Nilsen, who killed for company; the Boston Strangler to Donald Gaskins, who murdered more than 100 victims; as well as Richard Ramirez, the Night Stalker and many more.</div>

A Plague of Murder

<div>A study of the methods to track and catch serial killers, featuring interviews with a criminal profiling pioneer, as well as Ted Bundy &amp; Charles Manson. Author Colin Wilson opens this illuminating psychological discussion with the development of the 1977 Behavioral Science Unit, which was set up in order to answer the many questions surrounding serial killers: How does someone become a serial killer? How do they choose their victims, and why do they not feel remorse? How are they caught? Wilson interviews FBI Special Agent Robert Ressler, coiner of the term “serial killer” and one of the pioneers of criminal profiling, as well as Ted Bundy and Charles Manson in order to figure out the motives behind their grisly actions. In Manhunters, by tracking the BSU’s development of psychological profiling and genetic fingerprinting, Wilson reveals the forensic investigations that caused the seizure and arrest of some of the most vile and villainous people in the world, including Jeffrey Dahmer, William Heirens, Peter Sutcliffe, John Duffy, Jerry Brudos, Wayne Williams, and many more. As he divulges the details of each case, the murderers’ fantasy worlds, sadistic motives, and monstrous psychological tendencies emerge. Also published as Serial Killer Investigations in the UK.</div>

Colin Wilson

Books By Colin Wilson (11 Books)