Sign-In
Cart
Perfume, Pearls, and Poison: The Twisted Life and Crimes of Louise Peete, a Serial Killer in Plain Sight
Paperback
Biographies General20th Century United States HistoryCriminology
Please select the version of book you would like to purchase.
ISBN13: 9798248428168
Publisher: Independently Published
Published: Feb 15 2026
Pages: 160
Weight: 0.49
Height: 0.34 Width: 6.00 Depth: 9.00
Language: English
Publisher: Independently Published
Published: Feb 15 2026
Pages: 160
Weight: 0.49
Height: 0.34 Width: 6.00 Depth: 9.00
Language: English
She smelled of expensive perfume. She dripped with pearls. She moved effortlessly through drawing rooms, salons, and the private spaces of powerful men. And wherever Louise Peete went, death followed. In the glittering world of early 20th-century California, Louise Peete appeared to be everything a woman should be-charming, refined, impeccably dressed, and endlessly fascinating. Men trusted her. Women envied her. Society welcomed her with open arms. No one suspected that beneath the silk gowns and flawless manners lurked one of America's most calculating and remorseless female killers. Perfume, Pearls, and Poison is a chilling, meticulously researched true-crime history that peels back the polished façade of a woman who weaponized beauty, femininity, and manipulation to lethal effect.
Long before the term serial killer entered public consciousness, Louise Peete was quietly perfecting the art of murder-targeting those closest to her, poisoning lovers, benefactors, and husbands, and leaving behind a trail of unexplained deaths dismissed as misfortune. This story follows Peete from her restless, insecure beginnings to her rise as a social climber obsessed with luxury and control. It delves deep into her psychological hunger for status, her talent for emotional exploitation, and the cold patience with which she orchestrated death while maintaining her reputation as a devoted companion and grieving widow. Each crime unfolds like a slow burn, rich with period detail, mounting dread, and the haunting realization that evil often wears its most convincing mask. As suspicion finally closes in, the story explodes into one of the most sensational trials of its era-capturing a nation transfixed by the spectacle of a woman on trial for murder while dressed in elegance and innocence. The courtroom drama, the media frenzy, the jury's verdict, and the public's shocked reckoning all lead to an unforgettable final act: Louise Peete's transformation from society darling to condemned killer, her life ending beneath the gallows she believed she could charm her way out of. Dark, atmospheric, and deeply unsettling, this book is more than a chronicle of crimes-it is an exploration of how power, greed, and appearances can conceal monstrosity in plain sight.
Also from
Hermann, Elise
The Evil We Fear: A Dark Historical Odyssey Through Violence, Power, Manipulation, and the World's Most Dangerous People
Hermann, Elise
Paperback
$13.08
Empire in Ashes: Nero's Rule and the Dangerous Consequences of Absolute Authority in Early Rome
Hermann, Elise
Paperback
$13.08
Also in
Biographies General
Bluesland: Portraits of Thirteen Major American Blues Masters
Pete Welding (ED.)
Toby Byron (ED.)
Hardcover
$11.99
Karl Popper - The Formative Years, 1902 1945: Politics and Philosophy in Interwar Vienna
Hacohen, Malachi Haim
Hardcover
$236.28
The Children of Athena: Greek Intellectuals in the Age of Rome: 150 Bc0-400 AD
Freeman, Charles
Hardcover
$30.40
Make It a Double: From Wretched to Wondrous: Tales of One Woman's Lifelong Discovery of Whisky
Sackier, Shelley
Hardcover
From $12.99
The Code Breaker: Jennifer Doudna, Gene Editing, and the Future of the Human Race
Isaacson, Walter
Hardcover
$12.99
An Enemy Such as This: Larry Casuse and the Fight for Native Liberation in One Family on Two Continents Over Three Centuries
Correia, David
Hardcover
From $12.99
Agents of Chaos: Thomas King Forçade, High Times, and the Paranoid End of the 1970s
Howe, Sean
Hardcover
From $12.99
Someday Mija, You'll Learn the Difference Between a Whore and a Working Woman: A Memoir
Martinez, Yvonne
Paperback
$17.05
The Secret Life of the Savoy: Glamour and Intrigue at the World's Most Famous Hotel
Williams, Olivia
Paperback
$17.05
The Badger: The Life of Bernard Hinault and the Legacy of French Cycling
Fotheringham, William
Paperback
$20.89
The Devil's Diary: Alfred Rosenberg and the Stolen Secrets of the Third Reich
Kinney, David
Wittman, Robert K.
Paperback
From $10.99
Florence Kelley and the Nation's Work: The Rise of Womens Political Culture, 1830-1900
Sklar, Kathryn Kish
Paperback
$88.50
The Rise and Fall of Anne Boleyn: Family Politics at the Court of Henry VIII
Warnicke, Retha M.
Paperback
$29.45
A Woman of No Importance: The Untold Story of the American Spy Who Helped Win World War II
Purnell, Sonia
Hardcover
$10.99
Living with a Wild God: A Nonbeliever's Search for the Truth about Everything
Ehrenreich, Barbara
Paperback
$9.99
Seafaring Women: Adventures of Pirate Queens, Female Stowaways, and Sailors' Wives
Cordingly, David
Paperback
$17.10
The Butcher, the Embezzler, and the Fall Guy: A Family Memoir of Scandal and Greed in the Meat Industry
Cherington, Gretchen
Paperback
$17.05
Gift of Power: The Life and Teachings of a Lakota Medicine Man
Erdoes, Richard
Lame Deer, Chief Archie Fire
Paperback
From $8.99
My Own Devices: True Stories from the Road on Music, Science, and Senseless Love
Dessa Wander
Hardcover
$9.99
Nobody's Girl: A Memoir of Surviving Abuse and Fighting for Justice
Giuffre, Virginia Roberts
Hardcover
From $14.99
How to Be Okay When Nothing Is Okay: Tips and Tricks That Kept Me Alive, Happy, and Creative in Spite of Myself
Lawson, Jenny
Hardcover
$26.10
Family of Spies: A World War II Story of Nazi Espionage, Betrayal, and the Secret History Behind Pearl Harbor
Kuehn, Christine
Hardcover
From $17.99
Dangerous, Dirty, Violent, and Young: A Fugitive Family in the Revolutionary Underground
Dohrn, Zayd Ayers
Hardcover
$29.69
A Walk in the Park: The True Story of a Spectacular Misadventure in the Grand Canyon
Fedarko, Kevin
Paperback
$19.80
Catch the Devil: A True Story of Murder, Deception, and Injustice on the Gulf Coast
Colloff, Pamela
Hardcover
$28.80
Homeschooled: A New York Times Bestselling Memoir and Read with Jenna Pick
Merrill Block, Stefan
Hardcover
From $17.99
Through Mom's Eyes: Simple Wisdom from Mothers Who Raised Extraordinary Humans
Jones, Sheinelle
Hardcover
$27.55