Biography
Harold Schechter is an American writer and academic. Born on 28 June 1948, he is Professor Emeritus at Queens College, City University of New York, where he taught American literature and myth criticism for forty-two years. He is a 1969 graduate of City College of New York and holds a PhD from the State University of New York at Buffalo.
Schechter specialises in true crime narratives, particularly those concerning serial killers of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. He has written more than forty books, including historical accounts and an Edgar Allan Poe mystery series, and edited the Library of America volume True Crime: An American Anthology. He has twice been nominated for an Edgar Award.
Schechter has also written for television. With David Black, he co-wrote the teleplay for the 1998 Law & Order episode 'Castoff'. He contributed to The Cosby Mysteries in 1994.
