Return of the Black Death
The World's Greatest Serial Killer
Chapter One
Birth of a Serial Killer
'Then a boil developed on their thighs, or on their upper arms
a boil ... This infected the whole body, so that the patient
violently vomited blood. This vomiting of blood continued
without intermission for three days, there being no means of
curing it, and then the patient died.' So wrote Michael of Piazza,
a Franciscan friar, describing the torment of the first victims of the
Black Death.
In October 1347, all that the people of the time knew was that
a deadly and hitherto unknown infectious disease had appeared
from nowhere on the island of Sicily. They could have had no
way of understanding the nature of their adversary.
The scale of the catastrophe was unprecedented. There was no
cure and anyone who was infected died a truly awful death. This
was the first manifestation of a plague that would blight Europe
for the next 300 years and claim countless millions of victims - the
worst serial killer of all time and the most tragic event in
human history.
The first victims: their story
Contemporary accounts of the plague's first appe ... read full excerpt from Return of the Black Death: The World's Greatest Serial Killer ebook
