Peters, Robert

Snapshots For A Serial Killer: A fiction and a Play

ISBN: 1879194074
San Francisco, CA: GLB Publishers, 1992. First Printing. Softcover. "The discerning reader will soon be aware of connections between my killer and the notorious serial murderer, Randy Kraft, who is currently on Death Row, San Quentin, having been convicted of the sex murders of sixteen young men and suspected of killing more than sixty...the interior life, which is what I am about, is entirely my creation...John Keats called this penchant for writers to engage the psyches of characters "playing the chameleon." Much of my writing, of several book-length monologues for an assortment of personas from saints to murderers, has been inspired by Keats' dictum. Snapshots For A Serial Killer is meant to provide yet another slant on the omnipresence of violence in our time..." (from author's "A Prepatory Note on Method") A late compilation of connected works subtitled "A Fiction and a Play" by Robert Peters (1924-2014), the great American poet, playwright, performer & critic. As he did in The Blood Countess (1987), based on the real-life seventeenth-century Hungarian mass murderer Elizabeth Bathory, Peters imaginatively enters the mind of Kraft, the "Freeway Killer" whose horrifying true-crime murder spree remains among the most infamous in American history- he still resides on Death Row, thirty-six years after his sentence as of this writing. The first three parts are "Snapshots," short vignettes from the perspective of the killer, regarding his personal history, the murders he committed & his trial. These are followed by a "Coda" based on an actual list of Kraft's victims dubbed as a "scorecard" by his trial prosecutors. The last section is a play for a single performer (probably Peters himself, as with The Blood Countess) wherein the killer shares his twisted thoughts & observations with an audience. Trade-format softcover original, first printing of March 1992 as stated on copyright page. An exemplary, essential collectible in the Peters canon. In very fine condition with only lightest rubbing & some short, faint creasing to glossy front, back covers & spine; very light wear & a few tiny bumps at edges & corners of same. Interior very fine with only tiny bumps at lower side edges of a few page leaves. Very Fine. [Item #3335]

Price: $20.00