Amanda Howard

Last updated

Amanda Howard (born 1973) is an Australian fiction writer, true crime author, and expert on serial killers.

Contents

Early life and education

Amanda Howard was born on 19 November 1973 in Bankstown, New South Wales, Australia. She lists her early crime influences as the 1989-1990 The Granny Killer case and the 1991 movie, The Silence of the Lambs . [1] [2] In 2003, she received a bachelor's degree in social science (criminology) from Charles Sturt University. [3] [4] In 2012, she received a diploma of management (health care) from TAFE NSW. [3] In 2015-2017, she studied for a master's degree of arts (writing) from Swinburne University of Technology [3] [5] and in 2019, a graduate certificate (criminology) at Griffith University. [3] She is currently studying a master's degree (criminology) at Macquarie University. [3]

Career

Her interest in criminology began when she noticed factual errors in an undergraduate textbook, and set out to confirm the information by writing directly to the criminal (in this case Ivan Milat). [6] Following this, she wrote to others and when many began writing back, she decided to pursue it further. [7] After 25 years of corresponding with hundreds of serial killers (including Milat, Charles Manson, David Birnie, Richard Ramirez, Ian Brady, and Roy Norris) she has been nicknamed "The Serial Killer Whisperer" by sections of the media. [1] [2] [5] [8] [9]

Howard released her first books in 2004, and has since made numerous media appearances on radio, television, at conferences, online, and also appears on the morning show Studio 10 as a regular guest. [10] [11] [12] In 2017, she was included in the Who's Who of Australian Women. [5] In 2018, she began work as an associate producer on an American film about serial killer Jesse Pommeroy. [5]

In 2019, Howard opened a pop up museum exhibition called Memento Mori Death Museum. It features pieces from her true crime collection and correspondence from killers from across the globe as well as pieces related to death and culture. [13] [14]

Personal life

Howard was married to Steve, a high-school peer, and they went on to have two children. In mid-2017, however, her husband committed suicide at the family home at the age of 42. [4] [15] As a result of his death, Howard is now a spokesperson for male suicide prevention. [5]

Bibliography

Howard has authored a number of books and articles in a number of genres: [16]

2004:

2005:

2007:

2008:

2009:

2011:

2013:

2014:

2015:

2016:

2017:

2018:

Kate Reilly series

Howard has also authored a series of investigative novels "following the life of a police detective who is an international expert on ritual crimes and ancient societies." [20] [21] The series, set in the fictional Somerset Police Violent Crimes Department, currently consists of:

Media

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Serial killer</span> Murderer of multiple people

A serial killer is typically a person who murders three or more persons, with the murders taking place over more than a month and including a significant period of time between them. While most authorities set a threshold of three murders, others extend it to four or lessen it to two.

True crime is a nonfiction literary, podcast, and film genre in which the author examines a crime and details the actions of people associated with and affected by criminal events.

Ann Rae Rule was an American author of true crime books and articles.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Claremont serial killings</span> 1990s serial murders in Western Australia

The Claremont serial killings is the name given by the media to a case involving the disappearance of an Australian woman, aged 18, and the killings of two others, aged 23 and 27, in 1996–1997. After attending night spots in Claremont, a wealthy western suburb of Perth, Western Australia, all three women disappeared in similar circumstances leading police to suspect that an unidentified serial killer was the offender. The case was described as the state's biggest, longest running, and most expensive investigation.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Belanglo State Forest</span> State forest in New South Wales, Australia

Belanglo State Forest is a planted forest, of mainly pine but some native forestry around the edges, open to the public, in the Australian state of New South Wales; its total area is about 3,800 hectares. The Belanglo State Forest is located south of Berrima in the Southern Highlands, three kilometres west of the Hume Highway between Sydney and Canberra. The forest is owned by the New South Wales Government and contains some of the earliest pine plantings in the state. The first radiata pines were planted in this area in 1919.

The backpacker murders were a spate of serial killings that took place in New South Wales, Australia, between 1989 and 1993, committed by Ivan Milat. The bodies of seven missing young people aged 19 to 22 were discovered partially buried in the Belanglo State Forest, 15 kilometres (9.3 mi) south-west of the New South Wales town of Berrima. Five of the victims were foreign backpackers and two were Australians from Melbourne. Milat was convicted of the murders on 27 July 1996 and was sentenced to seven consecutive life sentences, as well as 18 years without parole. He died in prison on 27 October 2019, having never confessed to the murders for which he was convicted.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Adolfo Constanzo</span> American serial killer (1962–1989)

Adolfo de Jesús Constanzo was a Cuban-American serial killer, drug dealer and cult leader who led an infamous drug-trafficking and occult gang in Matamoros, Tamaulipas, Mexico, that was dubbed the Narcosatanists by the media. His cult members nicknamed him The Godfather. Constanzo led the cult with Sara Aldrete, whom followers nicknamed "The Godmother". The cult was involved in multiple ritualistic killings in Matamoros, including the murder of Mark Kilroy, an American student abducted, tortured and killed in the area in 1989.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Paul Denyer</span> Australian serial killer

Paul Charles Denyer is an Australian serial killer currently serving three consecutive sentences of life imprisonment with a non-parole period of 30 years for the murders of three young women in Melbourne, in 1993. Denyer became known in the media as the Frankston Serial Killer as his crimes occurred in the neighbouring suburbs of Frankston.

David Wilson is a Scottish emeritus professor of criminology at Birmingham City University. A former prison governor, he is well known as a criminologist specialising in serial killers through his work with various British police forces, academic publications, books and media appearances.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Keith Hunter Jesperson</span> Canadian-American serial killer (born 1955)

Keith Hunter Jesperson is a Canadian-American serial killer who murdered at least eight women in the United States during the early 1990s. He was known as the "Happy Face Killer" because he drew smiley faces on his many letters to the media and authorities. Many of his victims were sex workers and transients who had no connection to him. Strangulation was Jesperson's preferred method of murdering, the same method he often used to kill animals as a child.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">David and Catherine Birnie</span> Australian couple convicted of four murders

David John Birnie and Catherine Margaret Birnie were an Australian couple from Perth who murdered four women at their home in 1986, also attempting to murder a fifth. These crimes were referred to in the press as the Moorhouse murders, after the Birnies' address at 3 Moorhouse Street in Willagee, a suburb of Perth.

Vikki Petraitis is an Australian true crime author, based in Melbourne, Victoria.

James Clifford Carson and Susan Barnes Carson are American serial killers convicted for three murders between 1981 and 1983 in Northern California and the San Francisco Bay Area.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ivan Milat</span> Australian serial killer (1944–2019)

Ivan Robert Marko Milat, commonly referred to in media as the Backpacker Murderer, was an Australian serial killer who abducted, assaulted, robbed and murdered two men and five women in New South Wales between 1989 and 1992. His modus operandi was to approach backpackers along the Hume Highway under the guise of providing them transport to areas of southern New South Wales, then take his victims into the Belanglo State Forest where he would incapacitate and murder them. Milat is also suspected of having committed many other similar offences and murders around Australia.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Edward Edwards (serial killer)</span> Convicted American serial killer (1933–2011)

Edward Wayne Edwards was an American serial killer and former fugitive. Edwards escaped from jail in Akron, Ohio, in 1955 and fled across the country, holding up gas stations. By 1961, he was on the FBI's Ten Most Wanted Fugitives list.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jillian Lauren</span> American writer, performer and former escort

Jillian Lauren is an American writer, performer, adoption advocate, and former call girl for Jefri Bolkiah, Prince of Brunei; about whom she wrote her first memoir, Some Girls: My Life in a Harem.

Hadden Irving Clark is an American veteran, murderer and serial killer, currently serving two 30-year sentences at Eastern Correctional Institution in Westover, Maryland for the murders of 6-year-old Michele Lee Dorr in 1986, and 23-year-old Laura Houghteling in 1992. He was also given a 10-year sentence for robbery after stealing from a former landlord.

References

  1. 1 2 "Amanda Howard, The Serial Killer Whisperer from Behind True Crime". www.stitcher.com. Retrieved 31 March 2019.
  2. 1 2 Elder, John (10 November 2018). "Secrets of the serial-killer whisperer". The Age. Retrieved 31 March 2019.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 "Amanda Howard". LikedIn. Retrieved 28 August 2020.
  4. 1 2 "Real Life: Author Amanda Howard shares her heart breaking story of a family left behind after suicide". Mosman Collective. Retrieved 31 March 2019.
  5. 1 2 3 4 5 Listen to Audiobooks written by Amanda Howard | Audible.com.
  6. "Amanda Howard: The Serial Killer Whisperer".
  7. 1 2 FM, Player. "Serial Killer Whisperer Amanda Howard - #49 Australian True Crime podcast". player.fm. Retrieved 31 March 2019.
  8. Williamson, Brett (29 June 2017). "'Serial killer whisperer' plays dangerous game of cat and mouse". ABC News. Retrieved 31 March 2019.
  9. Elder, John (10 November 2018). "Secrets of the serial-killer whisperer". The Age. Retrieved 7 October 2019.
  10. "Q&A with best selling True Crime Author Amanda Howard". Monsters Who Murder. 5 June 2018. Archived from the original on 12 March 2020. Retrieved 31 March 2019.
  11. "From The Mouth of Monsters: An Evening in Conversation with Amanda HowardSisters in Crime Australia" . Retrieved 31 March 2019.
  12. Studio 10 (18 May 2017), Killer Cults w/ Amanda Howard | Studio 10 , retrieved 31 March 2019{{citation}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  13. "Interview with the child killers: My story". www.dailytelegraph.com.au. 1 August 2014. Retrieved 7 October 2019.
  14. "Amanda Howard: The Serial Killer Whisperer". Hunt A Killer. Retrieved 7 October 2019.
  15. "When Amanda's husband wouldn't answer his phone, her gut told her something was very wrong". Mamamia. 19 May 2018. Retrieved 31 March 2019.
  16. "Books by Amanda Howard". www.amandahoward.com.au. Retrieved 31 March 2019.
  17. 1 2 3 4 "Ripperologist Magazine : An Ezine Guide : 2005-2019 - Jack The Ripper Forums - Ripperology For The 21st Century". www.jtrforums.com. Retrieved 25 July 2019.
  18. "Exploring the mind of a murderer". www.dailytelegraph.com.au. 27 March 2014. Retrieved 31 March 2019.
  19. "Amanda Howard reveals shocking experiences with serial killers from around the world". www.dailytelegraph.com.au. 19 May 2016. Retrieved 31 March 2019.
  20. "Amanda Howard". www.goodreads.com. Retrieved 31 March 2019.
  21. "The Kate Reilly Ritual Series by Amanda Howard". www.amandahoward.com.au. Retrieved 31 March 2019.
  22. "Monsters Who Murder: Serial Killer Confessions on Apple Podcasts". Apple Podcasts. Retrieved 13 May 2020.
  23. "Behind True Crime: Amanda Howard, The Serial Killer Whisperer on Apple Podcasts". Apple Podcasts. Retrieved 28 August 2020.
  24. The Woman Who Thinks Ivan Milat is Innocent - #70 , retrieved 16 December 2020
  25. True Crime Author Amanda Howard , retrieved 16 December 2020