Another Guess the Story/Author

OK, dopers. My turn. The story I’m trying to recall is;

A young woman is interviewing an old man. He claims he was a serial killer in his youth but had to give it up because he couldn’t catch his prey any longer.

For some reason I keep associating it with Robert Bloch, which makes no sense, because I’m almost positive he didn’t write it.

Any ideas?

If the fellow killed Hitler, Stalin, and Bundy, you may be thinking of The Murderer by Lawrence Watts-Evans. If not, I’ve got nothing, at the moment.

No. The only person he kills in story is the girl. I remember him discussing being too feeble to fight and needing to use guile. He invites her into his house… And she goes.
I also remember it was a short story

Ah. It does sound like Bloch or Frederik Brown, but I don’t know the specific story.

Your story might be Lawrence Block’s “Catch and Release.”

It doesn’t sound like any Bloch or Brown story that I’ve read – and I’ve read a LOTY of Bloch and Brown (although, admittedly, bot all of them)

Not that either. But I still have to give you an assist :slight_smile:
Searching for “Catch and Release” pointed me to Anthologies, which made me look at Bloch Anthologies.

Interview with a Psycho” written by Billie Sue Mosiman is in an anthology named Psychos being edited by Robert Bloch before his death. Which is why his name was associated with it for me.

Thanks.

To the library! Well, actually, Amazon :smiley:

FWIW, Robert Bloch wrote the Star Trek episode “Wolf in the Fold,” about Jack the Ripper*, so he’s no stranger to serial murderers.

*I’m going to assume you knew that already. :slight_smile:

Of course I knew that! Well, not the title of the episode. Or that Bloch wrote it. But definitely that the ep existed :slight_smile: It was season two of Voyager, right? :smiley:

Just think, if Bloch had kept writing for TOS he’d be a household name instead of a virtual unknown. And that Matheson guy.

Bloch wrote quite a few “Jack the Ripper” stories. It was one of his interests, like Philip Jose Farmer with Tarzan.

Yes, the first Ripper story Bloch ever wrote (and one of his best) was Yours Truly, Jack the Ripper.

In his autobiography, Bloch remarks that an oddity connected with the Ripper was that he had christened himself in his letter to a news agency signed ‘Yours Truly, Jack the Ripper’:

*This interesting little detail, although often recounted, had implications that others seemed to have overlooked. I was fascinated by the phrasing the murderer used for self-identification and upon due reflection, realized that these five words could constitute both the title and the plot of a short story.’ *

Of course it’s widely accepted now among Ripperologists that none of the letters Jack supposedly wrote to the press is genuine but that shouldn’t get in the way of a good story.

Glad you found it - I might look for a copy myself…

[Voice of Troi]: I sense … hostility! :confused:

It is nice to have a hobby! :slight_smile:

Better writing about him than imitating him.

Bloch used to quip that he wrote the way he did because he had “the heart of a small boy…I keep it in a jar on my desk.”