Serial Killers & Mass Murderers - Biography, Serial Killings & Mass Murders, Criminology - Sex Crimes, True Crime - General & Miscellaneous, Criminals - Murderers - Biography
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Overview
On September 12, 1978, two teenage girls followed a woman back to her dirty van in a local mall parking lot to meet a man she called "daddy." The following day, their savagely raped and beaten bodies were found, shot in the heads at dose range. This proved to be only the first of ten such killings by two of the most bizarre serial murderers in California history: Gerald Gallego and his wife, Charlene. A true crime account unmatched in its raw power, A "Venom In The Blood" draws heavily on the Gallego's own words to create one of the most mesmerizing portraits of serial killers ever published!Editorials
Publishers Weekly -
In 1978 Gerald Gallego and his common-law wife Charlene began a three-year spree of kidnapping, rape and murder in California and Nevada. Eventually they took 10 lives. Former L.A. policeman-lawyer-judge van Hoffmann presents in-depth portraits of this oddly matched pair, he a sociopath raised in the streets, his father executed for murder, and she an indulged, extremely intelligent daughter of upper-middle class parents, a bisexual passive in her dealings with men and aggressive with women. The couple, we're told, could not achieve sexual satisfaction without raping, then killing young girls whom they called their ``love slaves.'' After their capture Charlene turned state's evidence. Gerald is now awaiting execution, while his wife is serving a 16-year sentence. Both are imprisoned at San Quentin in California. The story of these serial killers makes for intriguing, if horrifying, reading. Doubleday Book Club alternate. (July)Library Journal
Gerald and Charlene Gallegos are the only known husband-and-wife serial killer team in the United States today. Between 1978 and 1980, they kidnapped, raped, and murdered nine women and one man. They were finally apprehended because their last victims, unlike the others, were people with strong community ties and immediately missed; the search to find them began quickly. Nothing connected the pair to the earlier murders, however, until Charlene, in return for a lighter sentence, wrote a 260-page blow-by-blow confession to those killings. The author draws heavily on this written confession to paint a psychological portrait of the killers. The language is raw, the descriptions of the sadistic crimes extremely vivid. This is definitely not for the fainthearted. Although the book provokes interest because of the Gallegos' unique place in the annals of crime, it does not increase our understanding of serial killers. Recommended for inclusive true crime collections only.-- Sandra K. Lindheimer, Middlesex Law Lib., Cambridge, Mass.Book Details
Published
July 1, 1990
Publisher
Donald I Fine
Pages
322
Format
Hardcover
ISBN
9781556112065