Thirty years after first asking the question, “Why do women fall in love with convicted murderers?,” author and journalist Sheila Isenberg answers it anew—in our age of the internet, smart phones, social media, mass shootings, celebrity worship of murderers, and modern prison dating. This updated edition of WOMEN WHO LOVE MEN WHO KILL: 35 True Stories of Prison Passion (Diversion Books; October 19, 2021; $17.99 Hardcover; ISBN 9781635768091) is a compelling psychological study of prison passion in the new millennium, perfect for fans of true crime.
Through extensive research and interviews with women who seek relationships with convicted killers through snail and e-mail, and in conversation with psychiatrists, social workers, and prison officials, Isenberg sheds light on why these women are drawn into relationships with incarcerated outcasts.
Many of the women vulnerable to these relationships know exactly what they are getting into. But they are willing to sacrifice everything for the sake of a love without hope or promise, or consummation. In these pages, meet:
The young women writing “fan fiction” featuring America’s most sadistic murderers;
Chris Watts, the killer serving consecutive life sentences for strangling his wife and smothering his toddler daughters—and the women who send him love letters;
Christie Smythe, the high-powered journalist who fell in love and risked it all for “Pharma Bro” Martin Shkreli; and
Many other women absorbed in online and real-life dalliances with their killer men.
Updated and revised since its original 1991 publication, this second edition of Women Who Love Men Who Kill includes gripping new case studies and an absorbing look at how the digital age is revolutionizing this phenomenon.