25 Must-Read Morbid Nonfiction Books

An intrepid reporter determined to make a name for herself at the Chicago Tribune sets her sights on two murderers: “Stylish Belva” Gaertner and “Beautiful Beulah” Annan. Both shot their lovers dead, and while “girl reporters” are meant to be writing about clothes and cooking, Maurine Watkins has her sights set on these two murderous women. Eventually she would write the play Chicago, but in the Jazz Age Second City, it would be her reporting on Belva and Beulah that turned them into criminal celebrities with admirers and copycats strutting down “Murderesses’ Row.”

One of the most infamous unsolved murder cases in U.S. history, the Black Dahlia has consumed public consciousness for decades. But with unredacted FBI reports, recently releases LAPD files, and exclusive interviews, Eatwell shows how the life of a brutally murdered aspiring actress was twisted into a warning for America’s “loose women” by a media thirsty for headlines. And she may have even finally figured out the most-likely culprit.

When you think of American serial killers, I’m sure a few big names come to mind, most of them men. But did you know that a family of four homesteaders in the post-Civil War West are among the most infamous? The Benders, who ran a trailside inn in Kansas, were a seemingly respectable family. But when countless bodies were discovered in their orchard along with a blood-stained cellar, a horrifying new picture came to light. Who exactly were the Benders, a family capable of such appalling crimes? Crack open Hell’s Half-Acre to find out.

The Galvin family is quite large, with 12 children, 10 of whom are boys. But that’s not the most shocking thing about them. Of the 12 children, six of them have been diagnosed with schizophrenia. In Hidden Valley Road, Kolker explores the effects these diagnoses have had on the family — particularly the “healthy” siblings — and the family’s contributions to medical science and the search for a genetic source of schizophrenia. If you enjoy this one, I also recommend Girls and their Monsters: The Genain Quadruplets and the Making of Madness in America by Audrey Clare Farley.

Patient Zero takes a look at some of the worst epidemics and pandemics that have ravaged society throughout history and the very first patients to contract them. It’s written with Kang and Pedersen’s signature wit and features chapters on science, culture, and cures to find out how these epidemics started, how they spread, and how we have tried to stop them.

Speaking of the world’s worst diseases, few carry with them the cultural dread of a cancer diagnosis. It’s almost impossible to live a life untouched by cancer, whether personally or through someone you know. And in The Emperor of All Maladies, physician and researcher Siddhartha Mukherjee takes down the disease’s biography, from its first recorded cases to our new understandings of what cancer really is.

Like Medical Bondage, Medical Apartheid takes a look at the ways that Black Americans have been used as unwilling and unwitting subjects in medical experiments throughout history. From grave robbing and eugenics to the notorious Tuskegee experiment, Washington reveals shocking instances of medical abuse. These events have shaped the divide in patient care and outcomes that affect people today while also giving important insight into the mistrust so many Black Americans feel toward researchers and medical professionals to this day.

In this more lighthearted Lydia Kang and Nate Pedersen team up (see also: Patient Zero), the duo explore the wild, wacky, and disturbing history of medical quackery. From mail-order tapeworms to prescribing morphine for infants, these quack cures go from undesirable to deadly. And with pages full of illustrations, ads, and other fun details, Quackery somehow makes the history of horrifying medical mishaps fun.

Throughout history, royals have gone to extreme lengths to prevent themselves from being poisoned. But while they forced prisoners and servants to taste their food and try on their underwear, the real danger was in the medications, cosmetics, and living conditions they surrounded themselves with every day. From mercury and arsenic to open latrines, the royal life was full of poison where you would least expect: in the very palaces royals built to keep them safe.

Agatha Christie’s intricate knowledge of poisons is central to many of her books and yet often goes unnoticed by readers. In A is for Arsenic, Kathryn Harkup, a former research chemist, explores a different Christie book with each chapter, diving deep into the poisons used to make these mysteries come to life. It’s a book that delights, whether you’re a mystery fan or simply a poison aficionado.

Born to original members of the “Moonies,” AKA the Unification Church, Nansook Hong was raised to believe that Sun Myung Moon was the new messiah. At 15, she was summoned by Moon and told to marry his eldest son. Fourteen years of abuse would follow before Hong finally decided to leave her husband and the cult. It’s a story of a corrupt organization, domestic violence, and the courage it takes to leave behind the only life you’ve ever known.

According the the preachings of the Herbert W. Armstrong’s Worldwide Church of God, the end of the world would come about in 1975. It was a white supremacist cult that rules its members lives with fear and intimidation. And Jerry Walker, the son of two blind parents, was raised to believe he was one of the chosen ones despite his race. Only when the end of the world didn’t come about in 1975, Jerry began to question the church’s terrifying teachings and hope there might be a better life away from its teachings.

In Dark Archives, Megan Rosenbloom lays out the terrible but true history of books bound with human skin. Dozens of books both proven and rumored to be bound in human flesh reside in museums and libraries around the world. And it is the job of a team of scientists, curators, and librarians to test these anthropodermic books to see if they’re the genuine artifact. But why do these books exist in the first place? Alongside modern day testing and ethical quandaries of how to care for and keep these books, Rosenbloom explores the history of those who bound — and were bound up in — these books made of human skin.

Frankenstein and Mary Shelley may have their place in the cultural consciousness, but are you familiar with the real-life science experiments that inspired her story? At the dawn of the Industrial Age, scientists obsessed with biology and electricity were attempting to reanimate the dead. And these real-life tales of horrifying human experimentation were taking place just as a young Mary Shelley began imagining a mad scientist of her own.

From a research biologist who decided to experience stings from every insect — for science! — to murderous mammals, this book explores the strangest and darkest sides of science. Science reporter Erika Engelhaupt interviews leading researches, adding a healthy dose of humor along the way. It’s science like you’ve never seen — or read — before!

Zoologist Bill Schutt debunks myths about cannibalism — including the idea that it has little or no biological significance — in this book about animals who eat their kin. And, yes, that includes humans, too. What role does cannibalism play in biology and history? And as climate change increases, what role might it play in an increasingly unstable future? Schutt explores all that and more in this fascination exploration into one of humanity’s most taboo subjects.

It’s a primal human fear: the dread of being buried alive. But where does it come from? In the 1800s, medical journals and fiction alike were filled with tales of people being buried alive. Some estimated that 10 out of every hundred people were buried alive because of the contorted positions they were found in? How legitimate were these fears? And how do they continue to affect us to this day?

Ever wondered what it would take to fake your own death? In the 21st century it seems harder than ever, but for $30,000 a consultant can help you disappear. At least, until a suspicious insurance company digs up your empty coffin. Elizabeth Greenwood takes us on a delightfully bizarre quest into the world of death fraud and the people desperate enough to give up their lives — and families — for the chance at a new start.

What brings people to work with death? From morticians to crime scene cleaners, the death industry is full of people with compelling stories for how they wound up there. Campbell has set out to tell their stories and find out for herself. Bringing together memoir, history, and philosophy, Campbell explores why people work with death, how it affects them, and whether our distance from death is hurting us as individuals and as a society.