Killer Colt: Murder, Disgrace, and the Making of an American Legend
An in-the-room account of John Colt’s scandalous nineteenth-century murder trial from “America’s principal chronicler of its greatest psychopathic killers” (Boston Review).
Dr. Werthless: The Man Who Studied Murder (And Nearly Killed the Comics Industry)
From the creative team behind the award-winning “Did You Hear What Eddie Gein Done?” comes an examination of one of the most polarizing figures in pop culture, Dr. Fredric Wertham.
Harold reviews Larry McMurtry Bio
In the latest Times Literary Supplement, Harold reviews a biography of the late writer Larry McMurtry by Tracy Daugherty.
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Murderabilia review in Publishers Weekly
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"True crime writer Schechter (Butcher’s Work) spotlights objects linked to acts of violence in this eccentric volume. According to Schechter, the practice of holding on to such keepsakes dates back to at least 1827, when an English hangman cut up a noose from a notorious killer and sold one-inch sections of it for a guinea each.
...It adds up to a strange and fascinating tour of the macabre."
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Booklist review of Murderabilia
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It is the rare reference book that is compulsively readable, but Murderabilia is one.
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Murderabilia
The false teeth of a female serial killer from 1908, the cut-and-paste confession of the Black Dahlia killer, the newly cracked cipher of the Zodiac killer, the shotgun used in the Clutter family murders, which were made famous by Truman Capote's true crime classic In Cold Blood—these are more than simple artifacts that once belonged to notorious murderers. They are objets of fascination to the legion of true crime obsessives around the world.
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"Did You Hear..." wins three Ringo Awards
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Did You Hear What Eddie Gein Done received three Ringo Awards at a ceremony in Baltimore on October 29, 2022.
Eric Powell and Harold Schechter's graphic novel won Best Original Graphic Novel, Best Presentation in Design, and Best Non-fiction Comic Work.
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The best American novels inspired by true crimes
In an article for Shepherd.com, Harold discusses his picks for the best novels inspired by true crimes.
Butcher's Work
A Civil War veteran who perpetrated one of the most ghastly mass slaughters in the annals of U.S. crime. A nineteenth-century female serial killer whose victims included three husbands and six of her own children. A Gilded Age “Bluebeard” who did away with as many as fifty wives throughout the country. A decorated World War I hero who orchestrated a murder that stunned Jazz Age America.
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Publishers Weekly names Schechter's "True Crime" one of top ten
"When a genre finally makes it into the hallowed halls of the Library of America, that is a sign of its growing respectability. (Psychological suspense did with my own two-volume set, Women Crime Writers, in 2015.) As a writer, Schechter has done more work and research on historical serial murderers than anyone else (and become, alas, ripe for pilfering by true crime podcasters.) Editing this volume demonstrates the breadth of his knowledge and his astute choices of other nonfiction crime writers and their pet cases. Someday, I hope, there will be a follow-up anthology."