For a large number of human killers, the reason for their taking another person’s life are often not as straightforward as the basic need for food, water, shelter, territory, or the need to reproduce. Rather, most human killers are thought to have been driven by a variety of reasons, some that society might deem to be reasonable, such as those who kill in self defence, to those whose motives are regarded as incomprehensible, such as the spree killer who kills a large number of his fellow citizens for no apparent reason. Within human society there are said to be a variety of reasons why individual people kill other members of their own species, including fear, jealousy, power, love, rage, intolerance, perversion and greed, in fact the full gamut of human emotion, as well as just plain and simple psychological impairment.

The first part of a two part book project, British Serial Killers looks at a number of Britain’s most infamous murderers, including those who are generally categorised as being “Spree” killers including the likes of Gordon Frederick Cummins, Michael Ryan, Thomas Hamilton, and Derrick Bird. Also featured are “Team” killers such as Amelia Sachs and Annie Walters, Burke and Hare, Brady and Hindley, Fred and Rosemary West, as well as John Duffy and David Mulcahy. The final group of killers featured in this first book are those who are deemed to be “Profit” killers, including the likes of Doctor William Palmer, Mary Ann Cotton, Amelia Dyer and Jeremy Bamber, all of whom were convicted of killing family, friends and associates purely for financial gain.