Countless criminals have made their mark on Chicago and the surrounding communities. Chicago Sun-Times journalist Jon Seidel takes readers back in time to the days when H. H. Holmes lurked in his "Murder Castle" and guys named Al Capone and John Dillinger ruled the underworld. Drawing upon years of reporting, and with special access to the Chicago Daily News and Chicago Sun-Times archives, Jon Seidel explains how men like Nathan Leopold, Richard Loeb, and Richard Speck tried to get away with history's most disturbing crimes. . .

Credited with superhuman intellect and abilities, the serial sex killer emerged in the 1980s as a dominant figure in American popular culture. In a decade marked by conservative politics and fundamental Protestantism, the serial killer was accused of attacking the traditional values underpinning American society and was used to manipulate public fear for political gain.

Using government reports, trial transcripts, and correspondence, "Better to Reign in Hell" examines the people and events that led to and perpetuate this panic, notably President Ronald Reagan, the New Right, the FBI, and the media.

As well as detailing high-profile cases such as those of Son of Sam and Ted Bundy, the book features interviews with law enforcement officers and convicted serial killers.

"One of the most atrocious crimes committed in this century, in this county, and probably the most atrocious against a male subject of Wakulla" - The Honorable Judge, George L. Harper On Friday, March 5, 1982, comedian John Belushi was found dead in California. At the same time, on the other side of the nation in a small Florida town, a man was abducted and his home set on fire. Two months later his skeletal remains were found along the canal of an abandoned airstrip. Southern Shock Americana is based on the true life accounts surrounding the case, its suspects, and the community in which it happened: Wakulla County, Florida.