THE QUALITY OF MURDER
By
A double dozen episodes of crime in America are related by members of The Mystery Writers of America and span some three hundred years, from Mayflower days to the present. John Billington who committed the first murder in this country; Alfred G. Packer who ate five of his companions in the gold rush; Irving Latimer, inept but with an ingenious alibi; the famous case of Florence Maybrick; the more famous Lizzie Borden, Dr. H. H. Holmes and his spectacular career: -- these give way to the latter day activities. Here are Gerald Thompson whose hobby was rape; Burton Abbott and his disdain for his conviction of kidnapping and murder; Charles Starkweather, the teenager who found status in killings, Ann Tracy who killed for love. There are others, some headliners, others commonplace all are examples of ""fact-crime"" that have the distinction of presenting human nature in action and of being considered by practised writers Anna Mary Wells, Patrick Quentin, James Reach, Lenore Glen Offord, Miriam Allen de Ford, Clayton Rawson, Robert Bloch, Poul Anderson, Thomas B. Dewey, J. Francis McComas, among others. There are additional readings noted on the cases and there is a suggested bibliography for the dedicated in this field.