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The term serial killer was not coined until 1961 - but that's not to say sick and twisted mass murderers did not exist before that. For before the most well-known, most-celebrated and most truly-evil serial killers in the world became household names and even - in a twisted, macabre way - celebrities, there were psychopaths just like them who were just as, if not more, sick, sinister and deadly.
The Charles Mansons, Ted Bundys and Jeffrey Dahmers of the 18th and 19th Centuries were known as 'multi-murderers' and America's fascination with the sex killers and homicidal maniacs of the day was as prevalent then as it is now.
Author Harold Schechter has brought together some of the most deadly and notorious killers spanning several centuries and put them together in one chilling book called Psycho USA: Famous American Killers You Never Hear About. Spurred by profit, passion, paranoia, or simply perverse pleasure, these men and women filled pages of newspapers and true crime pamphlets and terrorized and haunted neighborhoods.
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