Ex-Cop's Gloomy on Crime
Serial Slays Rising

By John Marzulli
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A former Bronx cop who is a nationally renowned homicide investigator says that in his new book there are more serial killers today than before.

"Many persons who were serial rapists escalated to serial killers," said Vernon Geberth, a retired NYPD Lieutenant Commander of the Bronx Homicide Squad, in the recently released 800-page "Sex-Related Homicide and Death Investigation" (CRC Press, $84.95)

"The sex-related cases that I am encountering today are more frequent, vicious and dispicable than what I ever experienced as a professional homicide cop."

Geberth, 60, has investigated or consulted on more than 8,000 violent deaths, and his earlier book, "Practical Homicide Investigation," is considered a bible for detectives in the U.S. and around the world.

"There are more serial killers today. In my opinion, we have had a proliferation in serial murder events, as well as sex-related homicides," he said.

Most serial killers are male (95%), and white, although recently there has been an increase in the number of black male serial killers, Geberth said.

Geberth told the Daily News that the idea for the new book came from the upsurge in sexual violence, stranger rapes, and stranger sex murders that he became aware of through consulting and teaching police departments nationwide.

His case files are chilling, and the book's photos unimaginably gruesome. One chapter deals with a rape fiend who kept a detailed journal describing his attacks.

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