Rampage

In 1949, things like this just did not happen. A quiet New Jersey resident took a morning walk with a 9mm Luger pistol. In twelve minutes he murdered thirteen neighbors, and then went back to bed.

Howard Unruh went from obscurity to infamy overnight. Even after his obsessive diaries were discovered — a catalogue of simmering rage, petty grievances, and sexual repression — the crime seemed incomprehensible. Succeeding decades would confirm that Unruh's 'Walk of Death' was only the beginning: the prototype for the modern mass murderer, he ushered in a new age of violence in America.

Rampage is part of Bloodlands, a collection of short historical narratives from true-crime writer Harold Schechter. Spanning a century of the American past, the collection resurrects nearly forgotten tales of madmen and thrill-killers that dominated the most sensational headlines of their day.