Edition: Pocket
date: April 1994
Translator: Stephen Skill
Preface: Yves Lemoine
Number of pages: 214 p.
Cover: Photo of Philip Sohiez
Preview: "Diary of a killer is behind a small wound in the brain region which is sheltered social consciousness. It is a conviction in the form of entertainment. I do not expect not that it changes everything on earth, but I feel better having written a work so controversial. It is my pleasure to write these stories and if you do not like them, then do not read them. I say this from the beginning and I repeat it again. My story is the same as in 1973. " Gerard J. Schaefer about Diary of a killer .
Schaefer's presentation: Schaefer Assistant Police in Florida. Accused of the murder of a thirty women in the early 1970s, he was arrested and incarcerated in state prison in Florida where he Starke eventually murdered by a fellow inmate in 1995. Killing his victims in a ritual procedure and precise (by hanging strangulation and rape of the body), the serial killer decides to write for he declares in the foreword of Diary of a killer , expose " the evils of murder, the horror of prison life and the degrading spectacle of state-sponsored executions. " p.7
Comment: The Diary of a killer includes 19 texts "semi-fictional" that Schaefer wrote in his experience, testimonies and confessions of co- detainees, including those of Ted Bundy . Based on research in various textbooks including taxidermy or in books on homicide investigation, Schaefer delivers texts of great violence, which unfortunately are borrowed from reality. He justifies his literary work by his desire to restore the truth about her case: Police have pubished his lyrics without permission and would have used to charge him. Sentenced to 216 years in prison, he has a mission to write to make known to the world the concerns are those that occupy the minds of serial killers at the time of their crimes.
Widely studied by the scientific community, the texts left by Schaefer disgust and fascinate: particularly attracted by sexual perversion and vampirism, the author offers an analysis of human nature frightening. Besides, he proclaims loudly: those who think that his work is disgusting do not read it. Yet he knows that his stories are intriguing, much like those of Thomas Harris or Bret Easton Ellis and his legitimate work as well: "In my work, I do not compromise. I bring you good bloody murder, to flee. I do not give my reader chills on the cheap, but real emotional distress. Someone who has the spirit depraved can read me and get an enjoyment of sex and horror I am painting, but a person equipped with a social conscience will detect the pernicious nature of things that I strongly and claim this correction of unhealthy attitudes that allow such barbaric acts occur. " p.8 in the foreword. And he must have read to judge. Schaefer mark at least a point. That makes it a great manipulator. So one of the reasons I read his book with reservations.
I will not go into detail stories Schaefer who are mostly of pornography and scatological. Some deal with the sadism and abuse practiced on "whores." Others report the hell of the prison and details of public executions in the electric chair. But all have in common is that their author was both police, serial killer and detained. One can therefore understand the effect of a killer Journal may exert on their consciences. For me, the challenge of Schaefer is reached but I do not like his style: boastful, provocative, vulgar, nihilistic, Schaefer wants yet with a message "social". Now I note that since he was "stuck made by rotten" (p. 7 of his foreword), he seems to have forgotten that he himself has killed (no matter the number) of hookers (as he so loves to repeat) so despicable. Even if what he called his work has provided some understanding of the psychology of serial killers, I found, despite the relevance of his description of the horrors of prison life and that of public executions, that his work was appropriate. Indeed, as he explains it well, even be under the spotlight as much benefit. We can certainly recognize that it updates "regions of human nature so filthy that many writers believe they should be relegated to eternal darkness" (p.11). Besides, who better than he can write about. But his evident bad faith and the way he talks to me débectent as well as the character. If his aim in writing these texts, is "open the eyes of readers to the horrific reality of murder and violence." p.7, why he rejects as violently responsibility in the murders of 34 victims, while the identity papers of some thirty young women were found in his home at the time of his arrest? ( "I was accused of murdering 34 women." p.7). It deals with crimes reported by Bundy or Lucas but hardly recognized his own. He said that "Killing is a mortal sin" p.7 but he never regrets and does not recognize his psychopathology. How can one believe in the social message that He was given a duty to peddle?
No, no, no and NO. The violence is reported Schaefer despite what he said, free. Write fictional texts on serial killers when it was one and we refuse his crimes, is not acceptable for me. I am outraged. Schaefer got what he wanted. But I do not recommend this book. Especially it is no longer published and it is very expensive because it has become a collector's item. So for fans who would have 120 euros to spend, go ahead but it is not worth the candle.
For those interested in the subject, prefer the excellent work of Stéphane Bourgoin (see the note on the black book of serial killers ), a specialist in this field and who also had the opportunity to meet with Schaefer.
So my Challenge successful serial killers. That does not stop me of course, offer other tickets.
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