I voted for “Fatal Vision” because of how the forensics fascinated me way back then. Since each family member had a different blood type it was easy to use simple ABO blood group testing to map whose blood was where (since DNA profiling had yet to be developed).
As an honorable mention I’d like to suggest “Final truth: the autobiography of mass murderer/serial killer Donald ‘Pee Wee’ Gaskins.” This “as told to” account of the life and crimes of South Carolina’s notorious murderer was published after his execution. It’s an astonishing and graphic look inside the mind of someone who considered himself “the meanest man in America.”
If you got the time, I would love to hear what you consider the reason to be. Because the impression I got from reading the book (years ago) was that Perry wasn’t sure himself. And that was what Capote was saying about it.
Just dropping in to mention a* third* book on H.H. Holmes, my favourite of the three: “The Scarlet Mansion” by Allan W. Eckert. The writing has an eerie kind of rhythm. Comes complete with maps of the mansion and its hidden rooms.
But my top true crime pick is “The Black Donnellys” by Thomas P. Kelley. Though there are also several books on this subject, Kelley’s style was mesmerizing, and included creepy little poems at the beginning or end of each chapter:
The True Story of Canada’s Most Barbaric Feud
“So hurry to your homes, good folks,
Lock doors and windows tight.
And pray for dawn, The Black Donnellys
Will be abroad tonight.”
– Old Song
The letter, sent from Port Huron, Michigan, adressed to William Donnelly of Lucan, Ontario, and dated February 14, 1880, read:
“William Donnelly: You and your surviving relatives have long been a disgrace to the Lucan district. Heed some good advice while the breath of life is still in you. You and your remaining brothers get to hell out of the country while there is still time, or you will get the same as your parents and the others did.”
It was signed: “One who had the pleasure of helping to kill your mother and father, and saw your brothers fall .”
I voted for *Helter Skelter, but *Steven Levy’s book about Ira Einhorn, *The Unicorn’s Secret: Murder in the Age of Aquarius * is a close contender. (Ira Einhorn is (was?) the Philadelphia hippie-activist who murdered his girlfriend, stuffed her in a trunk and moved to France.) Well written and deeply creepy.
I should also admit to reading Dominick Dunne’s dishy novelization of the Simpson trial, Another City, Not My Own. In one sitting. With a headache.