Killing me softly…

by Ema Izquierdo

Donald Henry Gaskins, a serial murderer, let Wilton Earle, and author and journalist, into his deepest thoughts of conceiving and materializing the killings of innocent girls just because he thought he had an inner voice that used to tell him that was the way to go. With a graphic description of the crimes, Earle put together the book “Final Truth, the Autobiography of a Serial Killer”, telling the story with Gaskins own words. Gaskins was convicted and later, executed in the electrical chair, to only confess, hours before, that he killed almost 110 girls until he entered jail.

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His passionate explanations and lack of remorse, has made this book appealing not only for its forensic side but for the narrative of the events, that Gaskins told Earle to shape his story and later his autobiography. By the end of the book, Gaskins not only is not ashamed by his actions but he is also proud of what he has achieved. The reason he accepted to be part of Earle’s project was to let the readers know that he wasn’t asking for forgiveness but for understanding, which lead me to start my research by these hypothesis: Do the readers of these books feel empathetic with serial killers? Is there any way that this autobiography can change the feeling about a murder?

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