Lust Killer (Signet True Crime S.)

Media:	Mass Market Paperback
Author:	Ann Rule
Publisher:	Signet Book
Release date:	01 December, 1995
Our price:	$7.99

Lust Killer (Signet True Crime S.)

Average rating: Stars

Overrated!

I bought this book based on glowing reviews by a majority of readers; Ann Rule was touted as an outstanding writer. I found this book to be about as gripping as a newspaper article. Dull and boring. Sorry, Ann Rule fans.
Now I am trying another of her books "Every Breath You Take, and it is starting off even worse. I hope it gets better or my review on that one will be another grudging one star.

Lust Killer (Signet True Crime S.) - Ann Rule

"He has no mercy in him."

One of the most frightening aspects of this true-crime story is that theoretically, the serial killer, Jerry Brudos could be released back into the community. He's been in the Oregon State Penitentiary for over twenty years now, manufacturing leather key fobs, collecting women's shoe catalogues, and keeping the prison's computer network humming. If he does get his freedom, no one should be surprised if he starts collecting women's shoes again--with the feet still in them.

I found "Lust Killer" to be one of Ann Rule's most disturbing books, not in the least because a young, door-to-door encyclopedia saleswoman was Jerry Brudos's first murder victim. Usually I can distance myself from serial killer victims, telling myself that I would never allow myself to get in a situation like that, e.g. hitching a ride on the freeway. However, I did sell encyclopedias door-to-door while I was working my way through college, and yes, our bosses insisted that we wear high heels. If I'd been flogging my books in Oregon, my foot might have ended up in Brudos's freezer, too.

Ann Rule, a former policewoman writes about the victims with a compassion that sometimes ventures over the border into cliché. Many are described as stunningly beautiful, innocent, soft-spoken, harmless, well-loved, kindhearted creatures who would certainly have qualified for sainthood if their lives had not been cut tragically short. One good lesson does come out of this book though: the author emphasizes that the victims who fought got away. The ones who yielded or tried to talk their way out of captivity, died a gruesome death.

The author tells the story of Jerry Brudos, from several perspectives, including that of the unlucky encyclopedia saleswoman, Brudos's wife, and the homicide detectives who finally trapped and arrested him. Mainly though, we see the serial killer through his own thoughts and actions. I don't know how Ann Rule got into his head, but she does a very chilling job of portraying this man who preferred his sex partners dead, and who saved some very grisly souvenirs of his exploits.

One of the most pitiable victims was Jerry Brodos's clueless wife. She was actually arrested, charged, and tried for abetting in his murders (he brought his victims to his workshop in his garage, where he tortured, murdered, and dismembered them), mainly because her neighbors and the police couldn't believe that she didn't know what was going on. Her husband certainly gave her lots of hints: he never let her access the freezer in the garage--if she wanted something from it for dinner, he fetched it for her; he left nude photos and moulds of women's breasts lying around in the house; he occasionally paraded around in front of her wearing women's clothing.

She was just one of those women who never challenged an authority figure, no matter how strangely he behaved.

One factual error in the book: Wisconsin killer Ed Gein did not murder his mother as stated by the author in this book. On December 29th, 1945, Gein's mother died after a series of strokes, and Ed felt that he had "lost his only friend and one true love. And he was absolutely alone in the world." (quoted from Harold Schechter in his book "Deviant").

Ann Rule - Lust Killer (Signet True Crime S.)

Jerry Brudos Was A Sadistic Killer of Women

I've read quite a lot of Ann Rule's writings, and this book, though not the best of all, was still one of the most unusual true stories I've heard.

Jerry Brudos was a sadistic, (putting it mildly), killer of women. His hatred for women stemmed from the time he was little, and his mother mistreated him a lot, and favored his older brother much more.

As a boy, he would have fetishes for ladies clothing/lingerie, and steal them from neighbors who had women living there. He committed his first murder later as a married man.

After Jerry was married to Darcie, and she bore him two children, one of them a girl child, whom he didn't love at all, Jerry became much worse. In their home in Oregon, he had a workshop that was kept secret from the family at all times. He'd kill the women, and put them in his workshop, and do the most sadistic things to them, then murder them usually by strangulation.

The women he murdered were all young and pretty. Linda Slawson was an encyclopedia saleslady door-to-door. Jan Whitney was a young college student, and Karen Sprinker was a pre-med student on the way to lunch with her mother, when she was murdered by Jerry. And not to mention, there was Linda Salee, who kept her boyfriend waiting for hours, worried sick about what happened to her.

The police finally put the two and two together, and it was then that Jerry was apprehended. And it was surprising that when he was caught, he told the stories of the women's murders openly, as though he was proud of it.

His wife unfortunately was considered an accessory to the crimes though she had absolutely no idea what was going on in her own home. But it is a long trial before her slate can be wiped clean.
Their two children unfortunately, are taken into custody by the state until all of the evidence is proven otherwise that Darcie Brudos is innocent.

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