MURDERLAND by Caroline Fraser (epub)(Nonfiction)

Murderland: Crime and Bloodlust in the Time of Serial Killers by Caroline Fraser (epub) (Nonfiction)
Author: Caroline Fraser
First Published: June 10, 2025
Category/Genre: Nonfiction, True Crime, Environmental History, Memoir

Murderland is a groundbreaking work of investigative nonfiction by Pulitzer Prize-winning author Caroline Fraser, examining the chilling epidemic of serial killers that emerged in the Pacific Northwest during the 1970s and 1980s. Fraser, who grew up in Tacoma, Washington—Ted Bundy’s hunting grounds—blends memoir, true crime, environmental history, and cultural critique to offer a deeply original perspective on why this region became “America’s Killing Fields.”

Rather than simply recounting the grisly acts of infamous murderers like Ted Bundy, Gary Ridgway (the Green River Killer), Randall Woodfield (the I-5 Killer), Richard Ramirez (the Night Stalker), and the Hillside Stranglers, Fraser interrogates the broader forces that enabled their crimes. Central to her thesis is the “lead-crime hypothesis”: the idea that industrial pollution—specifically, lead, arsenic, and copper from smelters like ASARCO in Tacoma—may have warped brain development, increased aggression, and contributed to the rise of violent psychopaths in the region