For Heaven's Sake Catch Me Before I Kill More I Cannot Control Myself

There it was, on a desk in a neat stack: twenty oversized hardcover books, each marked at a tolerable $2.00.  Crimes and Punishment: A Pictorial Encyclopedia of Aberrant Behavior.  I got the set for half-price.

For a true crime junkie like myself, this set that delves into the likes of Jack the Ripper, zombies, serial killers, con men and the like was absolute porn.  Photos and drawings (many of them rare) galore, and a small font ensured that this provide hours of "entertainment." 

BPC Publishing Limited is the publisher, and the advisory editorial board includes the likes of Colin Wilson, H. Montgomery Hyde and Nigel Morland. 

I grabbed volume 20 off my shelf to get some information and turned to the section "Vice Breaker."  It opens with a full page photo of W. T.  Stead and this, "In staid Victorian London a double standard of morals existed.  Child prostitution was legal.  In changing the law, W. T. Stead suffered jail."  Throughout the book are crime scene photos (like the one above), photos of notes from Jack the Ripper, comparison photos of art forgeries, great photos of Maud Allen and the man who accused her of being the head of a "Cult of Clitoris," the man who was licensed to kill KGB members, Joseph Weil (the Yellow Kid) and more.  That's just in one volume!  There are 20 of these!  Amazing and unbelievable.

I talk to quite a few true crime fans who don't even know this set (which came out between 1973-1974) even exists.  I've never seen it in a store since, either, though it can be found online. 

Though it crams a lot in, and is not as in-depth as a single subject book would be, it still has a surprising amount of information, so you're bound to run into something you never knew about before.  Simply amazing.



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Dabbling in the Occult

Colin Wilson's The Occult is something of a triumph and a failure.  Published in 1971, this tome seems like it would cover the occult in-depth.  It is, after all, a thick read. If you are like me, a large book on a subject you are interested in is akin to a panhandler finding a cache of gold nuggets in the creek.  What it signifies here, however, is something quite different.

The book itself deserves praise for its scope.  Just about everything and  

anything occult related prior to the '70s gets mentioned.  (And some get referenced even though the occult ties are kind of spurious, such as the Masons.  I've never considered them in the realm of the occult, though I could see the argument that could be made.)  Because the book covers so much, it becomes little more than an overview, though in fairness to Wilson, even an overview from him becomes interesting reading.  It works as a history of the occult.  If you already knew some of the history going in, however, you can't help but feeling a bit empty after reaching the last page.  You want more.

There are books that go into great depth on each of the subjects, groups and people that Wilson covers in this book.  (Some of them are even written by Wilson.)  So to say this is the be-all end-all of occult history books is nothing more than a lie.  It is, however, an excellent place to start for someone who knows nothing of the past occult history.  Once finished, the reader can go seek out those subjects which peaked his interest while reading Wilson's work. 

I have an interest (though not a very deep one) in people like Aleister Crowley and Rasputin.  The thought processes of these men are fascinating, as is the hold they had (and still have) on people.  As I contemplate the theories that we live in a computer generated simulation, I find myself wondering how these men fit into that theory (quite well, actually).  That says to me that Wilson's book still has a place in our world.  Granted, there may not be a fascination with the occult like there was in the '70s, but it still has a use in our lives if only to send shivers down the spines of the easily scared and to open other minds to a new way of thinking.


Mandatory FTC Disclaimer:  Clicking on one of the links will not only curse you, but since it could be an affiliate, I could earn a commission.  I did not get a copy of this book for review.  I bought it.  That's right.  I paid cold, hard cash for it.