Here is a collection of true crime stories from different countries and time periods that defy simple description. They include:
- The strange tale of a psychotic geisha who severed her lover's genitals to carry as a token of her love and who inspired a cult following
- How a small-town murderer helped inspire the movie Psycho and left his hometown with a reputation they never lived down
- A father who sacrificed his daughter to prove his faith in God and his followers who fully expected her to be raised on the third day (she wasn't)
- A Sorbonne graduate student who killed and cannibalized the woman he loved and went on to become a bizarre media celebrity
- A 19th century serial killer who earned the title of "the worst women in the world" by killing a series of husbands for profit
- The assassination attempt on John F. Kennedy you never heard about but which very nearly succeeded.
- George Stinney, the fourteen-year-old child who died in the electric chair for a crime he didn't commit.
- Joseph Vacher, the "French Ripper" whose crimes shocked France but tried to blame it all on the rabid dog that bit him.
- How mob boss Vincent Gigante earned himself the nickname of "the Oddfather"
- Leonarda Cianciulli, the Corregio "Soapmaker" who killed three women as a sacrifice to protect her own children.
These stories, and more, are all featured here making this book a must for any connoisseur of true crime and bizarre justice.