LISTEN | Brin Hodgskiss and Nicole Engelbrecht discuss ‘Killer Stories’

In this episode of Jonathan Ball Publishers’ Pagecast podcast, Brin Hodgskiss and Nicole Engelbrecht discuss their book ‘Killer Stories: Conversations with South African serial murderers’

04 September 2024 - 13:57
By Jonathan Ball Publishers
Conversations with serial murderers by Bring Hodgskiss and Nicole Engelbrecht.
Image: Supplied KILLER STORIES Conversations with serial murderers by Bring Hodgskiss and Nicole Engelbrecht.

“If you made me angry, to me, for that anger to go away I have to get hold of you. For that anger to go away, I have to do something to you.’”

These are the words of one of South Africa’s most terrifying serial killers, as told to Brin Hodgskiss in the bowels of a secure prison.

Hodgskiss got his doctorate in psychology for a study based on interviews with 13 serial killers. The recordings sat gathering dust until recently, when top true crime podcaster Nicole Engelbrecht found his paper online. The two connected and the concept for the book was born.

In Killer Stories, Hodgskiss uses each of the interviews, combined with the tenets of narrative psychology, to take the reader into the minds of the killers. He lays out how the stories thee men told themselves about their lives contributed to where they ended up, and how they aren’t that different from the stories we all tell ourselves.

The book intertwines the killers’ versions of the truth and the true crime stories behind them, an interpretation of the tales using narrative psychology, and how Hodgskiss’ own journey as a psychologist and human contributed to his deeper understanding of the minds of the killers.

Listen to Hodgskiss and Engelbrecht’s conversation here:

Article provided by Jonathan Ball Publishers