Serial Killers of the '80s

The 1980s were a decade in what is sometimes referred to as the 'Golden Age of the Serial Killer' when news reports of the serial murders attributed to killers and the nicknames given to them - The Night Stalker, The BTK (i.e., "bind, torture, kill") Killer, The Butcher Baker, The Golden State Killer - became part of the era's cultural zeitgeist. The fifth title in the newly launched 'Profiles in Crime' series, Serial Killers of the '80s, features medium-length profiles of serial killers from the decade. Some are infamous, among them Jeffrey Dahmer, nicknamed the Cannibal Killer because he consumed some of his victims remains, and Aileen Wuornos, whose seven confirmed murders committed between 1989 and 1990, helped to establish the presence of women in the annals of serial-killer crimes. Other are less well known, including Dorothy Puente, who ran a care home in Sacramento and preyed on the elderly, and Robert Christian Hansen, who over more than a decade killed at least 17 women around anchorage, Alaska. The success of this title and Serial Killers of the '70s could lay the groundwork for additional studies of serials killers in other decades.