Rating: 
Summary: This Guy is REALLY Sick!!
Review: "Lust Killer" is the best of the 7 Ann Rule books I have read to date. Set (once again) in "peaceful" Oregon, it tells the story of Jerome Brudos, an absolute Wacko of a "small time" serial killer. "LK" is notable for its brevity and compactness. The author does a first rate job of concentrating the plot, which never wanders or digresses into backgrounds, geographical descriptions, or introductiuons of minor characters as do some of her later works(see "And Never Ler Her Go"). There are no wasted pages in "LK". This is the perfect place for a reader to test Ann Rule to see if (s)he likes her. My guess is that the author passes with flying colors. AR fans need not think twice, this one is a no brainer. The story is so compact that the reader can even break the "Ann Rule rule" and view the few centerfold photos without telegraphing the ending. Another amazon reader e-mailed me with the thought that Brudos and Diane Downs of "Small Sacrifices" would make a great couple. Read both and see if you agree. Question: Why do the streets and subways of New York City seem safer than Oregon?
Rating:
Summary: Great Book - Horrible True Story
Review: 'Lust Killer' is a book about a married man,romantic thoughtful husband,an envious employee,and the most horrible,evil serial killer world has ever heard of. His name is Jerry Brudos.
He's a devil itself in the form of a human being. He's obsessed with the women shoes so wherever he saw a nice pair of shoes in an attractive young lady he followed them up to their doorsteps.Then beat them, raped them, and stole their possesions - shoes, clothes and underwear so he could wear them and smell them when he got depressed. This wasn't enough for the psycho and when an ambitious girl in need for money knocked on his door to ask whether they'd like to buy a set of encyclopedias. He appeared to be interested and invited her in just so he could brutally kill her afterwards in his basement.This was the new beginning for him and he wouldn't stop until he got caught and confessed for all his crimes - which were a lot. Heaps. This was the first book I've read from Ann Rule and I think she's a great writer. You have no choice but putting yourself into shoes of the victims,their sick worried,grieving relatives
and hard police work to identify the monster. I must admit this book is depressing too. It makes you cry when you read what J.B. victims endured from him. It's so sick. Nobody can even imagine what he has done. I know LAW and the ACTS are so smartly created - but letting a monster such as Jerry Brudos get away with a death penalty despite his confessions in cold blood without any regrets is something I can not understand. I may sound to tough but once you got all the proofs that exist I think he or anybody who would dare to do such things on human beings would deserve the very same - to let them know how it actually feels to torture, to let them know how cruel it is what they do to their victims even though they can never feel the pain of victims and other people's grief for the lost ones who had a great life ahead of them if they only did know not to cross jerry brudos path but how can we possibly know whose path to cross when we are born to live,walk,work,enjoy life. Ironic, but the lawyers who happen to be human beings to and who could have been victims or victim's relatives advice people such as Jerry Brudos to plead not guilty as if they were insane at the time when they've done the cruel things upon another human being.
Rating: 
Summary: true story of fetishist turned killer...
Review: 'Lust Killer' is one of Ann Rule's earlier true crime books. It doesn't quite reflect the extensive character study of some of her later (and brilliant) works but it does contain perhaps one of her most frightening characters, a man who has a [hang up on] women's garments ... and a true hatred of women. A deadly combination. The female killing spree happened in Oregon some 30+ years ago but the story feels fresh. This reader was amazed how such horrible atrocities could occur, commited by both a husband and a father. It is unfortunate Ann Rule doesn't delve much into the killer's background, and indeed it seems the author didn't do her usual interviews of family members and related individuals. So 'Lust Killer' has a somewhat abridged feel to it .. and it is indeed one of Ann Rule's shorter books. Bottom line: ghastly killer, horrible murders. Morbid yet fascinating.
Rating:
Summary: Pillsbury Doughboy meets Leatherface
Review: Above, best describes Jerry Brudos. A doughy family man who wanders from one job to the next and has a deep hatred for who else? -- his mother. Serial killer after serial killer say they hate their mother. So why do they kill other women? Brudos also likes to wear ladies undies and high heels which makes me wonder why his wife never thought there was more to her husband then just his headaches. I'm not saying that all men who wear women's underwear are serial murderers but I don't understand how Darcie Brudos never followed up on her husbands weird habits. For instance: locking his workshop door and refusing to let her in, telling her to call him from wherever before she could come home, disappearing at all hours, and finding a paperweight that in the shape of a woman's breast. Is it me, or are some people really that naieve? Ann Rule is great at true crime writing and this story holds your interest, I think Jerry got off easy considering that those four women no longer have their lives and their families no longer have them. This book should also serve as a warning to women....BEWARE....we are not as free as we think we are, when we have to worry about our car breaking down or walking in a Mall parking lot where a maniac could be waiting.
Rating:
Summary: Rule Rules
Review: I am a recent Ann Rule fan and cannot get enough of her true crime accounts. This is an older one...but still very powerful! In Lust Killer the events take place in the 1960's and 70's in Oregon, but the story is timeless and makes you feel as if it could happen in anywhere, USA. Hated by his mother as a child (of course), Jerry Brudos grew to hate women, really hate women. Yet, even with that hatred he developed a strong liking for women's shoes and undergarments - but not his mother's. As with many serial killers, Jerry's behaviors started small and almost harmless (stealing undergarments and shoes) and quickly escalated to rape, murder and mutilation and not necessarily in that order. If not caught, Jerry Brudos would have continued killing for years. What is most horrific about this story is the type of victims he chose and where he found them. They were typical women out in the public eye (a shopping mall, a parking garage) and he was able to attack them, and/or take them and kill them. Some he even took home where his wife was none the wiser. Ann Rule does an amazing job of developing all the characters in this account. She covers Jerry's miserable childhood, Jerry's family including his wife and children, the victims short lives and the detectives involved in catching this sadistic killer. It is a quick read that will have you looking at every turn when you go in public. For that reason Ann Rule rules!
Rating:
Summary: Rule Rules
Review: I am a recent Ann Rule fan and cannot get enough of her true crime accounts. This is an older one...but still very powerful! In Lust Killer the events take place in the 1960's and 70's in Oregon, but the story is timeless and makes you feel as if it could happen in anywhere, USA. Hated by his mother as a child (of course), Jerry Brudos grew to hate women, really hate women. Yet, even with that hatred he developed a strong liking for women's shoes and undergarments - but not his mother's. As with many serial killers, Jerry's behaviors started small and almost harmless (stealing undergarments and shoes) and quickly escalated to rape, murder and mutilation and not necessarily in that order. If not caught, Jerry Brudos would have continued killing for years. What is most horrific about this story is the type of victims he chose and where he found them. They were typical women out in the public eye (a shopping mall, a parking garage) and he was able to attack them, and/or take them and kill them. Some he even took home where his wife was none the wiser. Ann Rule does an amazing job of developing all the characters in this account. She covers Jerry's miserable childhood, Jerry's family including his wife and children, the victims short lives and the detectives involved in catching this sadistic killer. It is a quick read that will have you looking at every turn when you go in public. For that reason Ann Rule rules!
Rating:
Summary: Ladies be aware......
Review: I got it as a used book from Amazon. After finishing it, I feel like telling all my female friends that no matter what, don't get into a stranger's car and when in doubt, fight and scream mightily. The 1960's OR seemed like an idealistic American town yet all the victims were cut short of their lives and dreams. They were your neighbors, friends, schoolmates, or co-workers. Yet they were unfortunate enough to chance-encounter the lust killer. Pacifc Northwest, with its abandon mountains and wilderness, had attracted influx of new residence yearly. Comparing with the density of New York City, it's way too easy to dispose bodies and evidences before they are discovered. Big city dwellers are usually more aware of their surroundings than those who live in more rural area. So in a way, NYC might be safer than Salem, OR.
Rating:
Summary: engrossing, shocking
Review: I have to agree with the reviewers who described LUST KILLER as one of Ann Rule's best. Rule's engrossing writing style accompanied with the sheer horror of this man's deeds makes for a guaranteed page-turner of a book. Some of the crimes Jerry Brudos committed were more disgusting than anything I've ever heard, so I'm surprised this is the first time I've ever heard his name. As always, Rule treats the victims with the reverence they deserve. This book doesn't go into the same extreme detail about their lives as other of her novels do, but then this is a very short book. If you've never read Ann Rule before, I recommend starting here.
Rating:
Summary: Jerry Brudos Was A Sadistic Killer of Women
Review: I've read quite a lot of Ann Rule's writings, and this book, though not the best of all, was still one of the most unusual true stories I've heard.
Jerry Brudos was a sadistic, (putting it mildly), killer of women. His hatred for women stemmed from the time he was little, and his mother mistreated him a lot, and favored his older brother much more.
As a boy, he would have fetishes for ladies clothing/lingerie, and steal them from neighbors who had women living there. He committed his first murder later as a married man.
After Jerry was married to Darcie, and she bore him two children, one of them a girl child, whom he didn't love at all, Jerry became much worse. In their home in Oregon, he had a workshop that was kept secret from the family at all times. He'd kill the women, and put them in his workshop, and do the most sadistic things to them, then murder them usually by strangulation.
The women he murdered were all young and pretty. Linda Slawson was an encyclopedia saleslady door-to-door. Jan Whitney was a young college student, and Karen Sprinker was a pre-med student on the way to lunch with her mother, when she was murdered by Jerry. And not to mention, there was Linda Salee, who kept her boyfriend waiting for hours, worried sick about what happened to her.
The police finally put the two and two together, and it was then that Jerry was apprehended. And it was surprising that when he was caught, he told the stories of the women's murders openly, as though he was proud of it.
His wife unfortunately was considered an accessory to the crimes though she had absolutely no idea what was going on in her own home. But it is a long trial before her slate can be wiped clean.
Their two children unfortunately, are taken into custody by the state until all of the evidence is proven otherwise that Darcie Brudos is innocent.
Rating:
Summary: A Quick Read
Review: Rule, who today is probably the best-known writer of very long true-crime books, here (in one of her first books) comes up with something short, and very, very scary. The subject of this book,
Jerry Brudos, could be considered one of the first modern serial killers (right around 1968). Brudos, who had a very unpleasant childhood, somehow grew up without a conscience, and unable to separate sex from violence. So he got his kicks from killing women. Fortunately, he didn't kill many (unlike Ted Bundy, who was a friend of Rule's before she knew what he was) before he got caught, and was imprisoned for life. Rule is very good at
going into the background and psychology of these monsters, and
telling us what creates them.
|
