Arts & Entertainment

Five Things Visiting Author Learned About Serial Killers

Chicago writer Richard Lindberg, who will speak at the Frankfort Public Library on Monday, talks about the insight he gained from researching two early 20th-century murderers for his new book.

Two turn-of-the century murderers in the Midwest. One modus operandi. Using personal ads, these killers lured their victims to their deaths through deceit. 

It sounds like crimes that could only happen in an age of Craigslist stalkers. But Belle Guinness and Johann Hoch committed these murders at the turn of the 20th century, not the 21st. 

Chicago author Richard Lindberg has recently written a book, Heartland Serial Killers: Belle Gunness, Johann Hoch and Murder for Profit in Gaslight Era America, examining the lives of these two serial killers who shared similar methods and lived relatively close to another (Guinness in LaPorte, Ind.; Hoch in Chicago) but never crossed paths. He'll be at the at .

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Given the research he's done on the subject, we asked Lindberg to talk about the five things he learned about serial killers while writing the book. 

  1. The oldest profession: They are not exclusive to our modern era. Although since 1970, there have been many more of them reporteed in the media. They have been around since the origins of mankind.

  2. Murder for gain: There are serial killers who, like Johann Hoch, are "comfort killers"--that is they do it for the expectation of financial profit. And there are serial killers who do it for the thrill of it or for sport--Belle Gunness falls into that category. Although financial profit was also her underlying motivation So she blended a perverted enjoyment of killing with greed.

  3. Don't blame the Internet: The method of these two--luring vulnerable single people into a death trap through matrimonial bureaus and newspaper advertising--rarely happens today. But Internet predators abound, individuals who use a source of communications to perpetrate a "long con" on lonely people looking for romance. The underlying motivation is the same as it was in 1900.

  4. Learning the trade: There is strong evidence to suggest that Johann Hoch was an apprentice of H.H. Holmes, the (subject of the book) Devil in the White City.  This book discusses that possibility, something (author) Erik Larson completely missed in his best-selling book. My book presents this evidence and allows the reader to decide. 

  5. Hunting among their people: It was inteesting to discover how criminals of this sort preyed on their own ethnic group, just as the Black Hand victimized Italian immigrants. Gunness, a Norwegian, advertised for Scandinavian men. Hoch, a German, preyed mostly upon German widows and spinsters.

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