Aug 10, 2026 · 21 min · 10 segments
Stella Sands is the author of Wordhunter, an Amazon Editor's Best Books of 2024, and Codebreakers, as well as a bestselling author of six true-crime books: *Baby-Faced Butchers*, *The Dating Game…
Stella SandsGuest
Terrence McCauleyHostAs someone who's worked in that industry and written in that industry and that genre for so long, what do you think it is about people's fascination with true crime? Because it has been going on for quite a while now.
A great question, and people have various answers including, "Well, I just wonder how far humans can go.
I'm just interested to see what makes somebody go from a normal human being to a killer."
Has anybody wanted to kill anybody?" And, you know, every hand goes up sort of slowly at first like, "Oh, maybe.
Should I admit it?" And then I say, "Well, would you do it? Raise your hand," and not one person raises his, her hand.
The difference between, you know, people are fascinated with what happens between wanting to kill and then killing because-
Whether we've come from a trauma, a traumatic s- childhood or a perfect family, it doesn't matter.
I mean, some people say psychopaths these days have something functioning incorrectly in their brain.
But many people who are serial killers don't seem to, you know, highly functioning, smart.
S- one person I covered spoke five languages, was a librarian in Florida, had a wonderful childhood, and yet he killed two of his girlfriends and differently and over the years.
As someone who's worked in that industry and written in that industry and that genre for so long, what do you think it is about people's fascination with true crime? Because it has been going on for quite a while now.
A great question, and people have various answers including, "Well, I just wonder how far humans can go.
I'm just interested to see what makes somebody go from a normal human being to a killer."
Has anybody wanted to kill anybody?" And, you know, every hand goes up sort of slowly at first like, "Oh, maybe.
Should I admit it?" And then I say, "Well, would you do it? Raise your hand," and not one person raises his, her hand.
The difference between, you know, people are fascinated with what happens between wanting to kill and then killing because-
Whether we've come from a trauma, a traumatic s- childhood or a perfect family, it doesn't matter.
I mean, some people say psychopaths these days have something functioning incorrectly in their brain.
But many people who are serial killers don't seem to, you know, highly functioning, smart.
S- one person I covered spoke five languages, was a librarian in Florida, had a wonderful childhood, and yet he killed two of his girlfriends and differently and over the years.
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