Peter Vronsky is a Canadian author, filmmaker and investigative historian. He holds a
PhD PHD or PhD may refer to:
* Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), an academic qualification
Entertainment
* '' PhD: Phantasy Degree'', a Korean comic series
* ''Piled Higher and Deeper
''Piled Higher and Deeper'' (also known as ''PhD Comics''), is a newsp ...
in criminal justice history and espionage in international relations from the
University of Toronto
The University of Toronto (UToronto or U of T) is a public research university in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, located on the grounds that surround Queen's Park. It was founded by royal charter in 1827 as King's College, the first institu ...
. He is the author of the bestseller true crime histories ''
Serial Killers: The Method and Madness of Monsters'' (2004), ''
Female Serial Killers: How and Why Women Become Monsters'' and ''Sons of Cain: A History of Serial Killers From the Stone Age to the Present'' (2018), a ''New York Times'' Editors' Choice,
and most recently ''American Serial Killers: The Epidemic Years 1950–2000'' (2021), a history exploring the epidemic surge of serial killers in the second half of the 20th century. He is the director of several feature films, including ''Bad Company'' (1980) and ''Mondo Moscow'' (1992). Vronsky is the creator of a substantial body of formal video and electronic artworks and new media.
[''Vanguard Magazine'', November 1983, p. 47; ''Art London Review'', Vol IV No. 3, March 15, 1984; John Bentley Mays, "Peter Wronski presents a garage sale of a show, ''Toronto Globe & Mail'', January 21, 1982, p. E3; Lisa Balfour Bowen, "Even Sadat's death becomes stuff of wry comedy for innovative video artist", ''Toronto Star'', January 16, 1982, p. F5; Susan Mackay, "Confession booth among video wizardry", ''Globe & Mail'', August 15, 1984, p. M9; Dan Proudfoot, "The Video Art Vortex", ''Toronto Sun'', October 28, 1984, p. S3; Christina Ritchie and Allan Blaine, ''Signal Approach'', Catalogue to accompany the video series Signal Approach, held at The Funnel Experimental Film Theatre, Toronto, January 9 – March 13, 1985, The Funnel, 1984: http://mikehoolboom.com/thenewsite/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/Signal-Approach.pdf; http://www.rewind.ac.uk/documents/Steve%20Hawley/SHA008.pdf] He has also worked professionally in the motion picture and television industry as a producer and cinematographer in the field of documentary production and news broadcasting with CNN, CTV, CBC, RAI and other global television networks in North America and overseas.
["Danger Man: The Underground Adventures of Peter Wronski", ''Metropolis Magazine'', Vol. 1, No. 4, June 9, 1988; Enrico Sorrentino, "Due Marine per Lee", ''L'Espresso'', February 23, 1993, p.61.] Vronsky's 2011 book, ''Ridgeway: The American Fenian Invasion and the 1866 Battle That Made Canada'', is the definitive history of Canada's first modern battle – the
Battle of Ridgeway fought against Irish American Fenian insurgents who invaded across the border from the United States on the eve of
Canadian Confederation
Canadian Confederation (french: Confédération canadienne, link=no) was the process by which three British North American provinces, the Province of Canada, Nova Scotia, and New Brunswick, were united into one federation called the Dominion ...
shortly after the American Civil War. He currently lectures at
Toronto Metropolitan University
Toronto Metropolitan University (TMU or Toronto Met) is a public research university located in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The university's core campus is situated within the Garden District, although it also operates facilities elsewhere in To ...
's History Department in the history of international relations, terrorism, espionage, American Civil War, and the Third Reich. He consults as an investigative criminal historian to a number of law enforcement cold case homicide units including the NYPD, New York State Police, and Bergen County Prosecutor's Office New Jersey.
1970s
Peter Vronsky was a writer and film reviewer for Canada's national film magazine ''
Cinema Canada
''Cinema Canada'' (1972–1989) is a defunct Canadian film magazine, which served as the trade journal of record for the Canadian film and television sector. The magazine had its origins in the Canadian Society of Cinematographers (CSC), which b ...
'' and
University of Toronto
The University of Toronto (UToronto or U of T) is a public research university in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, located on the grounds that surround Queen's Park. It was founded by royal charter in 1827 as King's College, the first institu ...
's ''
The Varsity''. He was a member of Toronto Filmmakers Coop and University of Toronto Film Board (Hart House). He studied with Canadian film directors
Don Shebib
Donald Everett "Don" Shebib (born 27 January 1938) is a Canadian film director. Shebib is a central figure in the development of English Canadian cinema who made several short documentaries for the National Film Board of Canada and CBC Televisi ...
,
Clarke Mackey, and
Peter Pearson at the Toronto Filmmakers Coop. Vronsky dropped out of the University of Toronto at the end of his second year to pursue filmmaking full-time. He wrote and directed two thirty-minute short drama films starring Paul Young from the Cardboard Brains: ''
American Nights'' (1976) and ''The Sheep-Eaters'' (1977). He received several Canada Council and Ontario Arts Council Grants and directed and produced a thirty-minute music documentary special on punk rock for CBC television ''Crash'n'Burn (Dada's Boys)'' (1977) with the Viletones,
Teenage Head, Dishes, The
Ramones
The Ramones were an American punk rock band that formed in the New York City neighborhood of Forest Hills, Queens, in 1974. They are often cited as the first true punk rock group. Despite achieving a limited commercial appeal in the United ...
and The
Deadboys, filmed at
CBGB
CBGB was a New York City music club opened in 1973 by Hilly Kristal in Manhattan's East Village. The club was previously a biker bar and before that was a dive bar. The letters ''CBGB'' were for '' Country'', '' BlueGrass'', and '' Blues'', Kri ...
in New York and the New Yorker Theater and Crash'n'Burn in Toronto;
(Not to be confused with Ross McLaren's independent
Crash 'n' Burn made the same year on the same subject). Vronsky produced and directed a feature film, ''Bad Company'' (1980). He worked as an assistant-director on Canadian feature films: ''Nothing Personal'' (1979), ''The Last Chase'' (1979) and ''Screwballs'' (1981). Vronsky frequently collaborated with documentary filmmaker
Peter Lynch
Peter Lynch (born January 19, 1944) is an American investor, mutual fund manager, and philanthropist. As the manager of the Magellan Fund at Fidelity Investments between 1977 and 1990, Lynch averaged a 29.2% annual return, consistently more tha ...
on Video Culture International projects and with horror film director
Tibor Takacs who before he left for Hollywood worked as a D.O.P. and Art Director on several Vronsky films.
1980s
Peter Vronsky created numerous video art tapes and formal video installations exhibited in Canada and internationally in Tokyo, Paris, Rome, Amsterdam, New York and London.
He was the Artist-in-Residence with Sony Corporation at Video/Culture International, 1983. He frequently worked as an undercover video specialist – field producer with CBC's ''
The Fifth Estate'' and CTV's ''
W5''. In 1984–1985 during the pioneering period of laserdisc development, Vronsky was the Head of Interactive Laser Optical Software Development, Sony Corporation-Video/Culture and the Project Director of the Berlin Wall Videodisc, Sony Canada-Image Over Time, 1985. He worked as a Field Producer/Cameraman for CNN International, Rome Bureau, 1986–1990. Vronsky was the Producer-director of ''Russian Rock Underground'' (1988), a thirty-minute music television special on underground ("unofficial") rock music in the Soviet Union, featuring
Boris Grebenshchikov
Boris Borisovich Grebenshchikov (russian: link=no, Борис Борисович Гребенщиков; born ) is a prominent member of the generation which is widely considered to be the "founding fathers" of Russian rock music. He is the fo ...
,
Televizor
Televizor (russian: Телевизор, "Television set") is a Soviet/Russian gothic rock/ industrial group formed in 1984 in Saint-Petersburg. is the lead singer and founder of group. They began to perform at the Leningrad Rock Club. They are ...
,
Zvuki Mu
Zvuki Mu (russian: Зву́ки Му , roughly translated as "Sounds of Moo") was a Russian alternative rock/ indie/post-punk band founded in Moscow in 1983. Lead singer and songwriter Pyotr Mamonov was one of the most revered and eccentric fi ...
and Auktion.
1990s
Vronsky was the writer-producer-director of ''Mondo Moscow'', a feature-length documentary on incipient Stalinism and underground culture in the USSR, 1990. In 1991 Vronsky investigated
Lee Harvey Oswald
Lee Harvey Oswald (October 18, 1939 – November 24, 1963) was a U.S. Marine veteran who assassinated John F. Kennedy, the 35th president of the United States, on November 22, 1963.
Oswald was placed in juvenile detention at the age of 12 ...
's activities in the USSR in 1959–1962 and was the first Westerner ever to interview Oswald's friends, lovers and acquaintances in Russia. Vronsky was the cameraman-line producer on ''The Hunt for Red Mercury'', an investigative one-hour documentary (Discovery Channel – CTV) on nuclear weapons material smuggling in Chechnya, 1992. He was the writer-director of ''The Uncanadians'', a NFB feature documentary 1994–1995 (but withdrew his name from the director's credit in a dispute with the National Film Board over the film's controversial contents). Vronsky was the Head of English Language Production, Panavideo, Venice Italy – service producer for Italy's national television network, RAI, 1997–1999.
2000s
Vronsky was the Queens Park/Toronto Bureau Chief at ''E-Press'', Canada's first online news streaming service, 2000 and the Broadband Content Specialist, ''Canada-Invest.com'', financial news streaming service, 2000–2001. He was the Director of Photography on the feature-length music documentaries, ''Life Could Be A Dream'' (Bravo Television, 2002) and ''I'll Fly Away Home'' (Bravo Television, 2004). He authored two crime history books, ''
Serial Killers The Method and Madness of Monsters
''Serial Killers: The Method and Madness of Monsters'' (2004) is a non-fiction true crime history by Peter Vronsky, a criminal justice historian. It surveys the history of serial homicide, its culture, psychopathology, and investigation from t ...
'' (Berkley-Penguin Books, 2004) and ''
Female Serial Killers: How and Why Women Become Monsters'' (Berkley-Penguin Books, 2007). Vronsky returned to the University of Toronto as a full-time student from 2003 to 2010, completing the following degrees:
* University of Toronto, Trinity College, Honours B.A., 2003.
* University of Toronto, Graduate School, M.A. (History) 2004.
* University of Toronto, Graduate School, Ph.D. (History), 2010.
In 2015
Leah McLaren, writing in ''
The Globe and Mail'', reported on the strange disappearance in Cambodia of
Dave Walker
David Walker (born 25 January 1945) is a British singer and guitarist who has been front-man for a number of bands; most notably The Idle Race, Savoy Brown and Humble Pie, he also served briefly with Fleetwood Mac and Black Sabbath.
History ...
, a friend of Vronsky's.
According to McLaren, Vronsky was working hard to determine what happened to Walker, when the Canadian government seemed to want his story to be forgotten. Walker had told Vronsky that he had worked as an advisor for the
Canadian Security Intelligence Service
The Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS, ; french: Service canadien du renseignement de sécurité, ''SCRS'') is Canada's primary national intelligence agency. It is responsible for collecting, analysing, reporting and disseminating i ...
(CSIS) ferreting out genocidal
Khmer Rouge
The Khmer Rouge (; ; km, ខ្មែរក្រហម, ; ) is the name that was popularly given to members of the Communist Party of Kampuchea (CPK) and by extension to the regime through which the CPK ruled Cambodia between 1975 and 197 ...
perpetrators infiltrating Canada among legitimate refugees from Cambodia during the 1980s and 1990s. Vronsky suspected this could have played a role in his death in Cambodia.
Currently
Vronsky is currently writing ''American Werewolf: The Life and Crimes of Richard Cottingham, the Last Serial Killer on the Left'' based on a series of prison interviews he is conducting with the notorious serial killer
Richard Cottingham
Richard Francis Cottingham (born November 25, 1946) is an American serial killer and rapist who murdered at least 17 young women and girls in New York and New Jersey between 1967 and 1980. His confirmed killings include nine convictions and a fu ...
. In January 2020, Vronsky revealed that Cottingham who has been incarcerated since 1980 in the
Trenton State Prison
The New Jersey State Prison (NJSP), formerly known as Trenton State Prison, is a state men's prison in Trenton, New Jersey operated by the New Jersey Department of Corrections. It is the oldest prison in New Jersey and one of the oldest correcti ...
for six murders committed between 1967–1980, had recently confessed to an additional three unsolved murders of school girls in New Jersey 1968–1969.
Vronsky currently lectures at Toronto Metropolitan University's History Department in international relations, American Civil War, Third Reich, espionage and the history of terrorism. In 2017, he was chosen as the Writer-In-Residence at the
Toronto Public Library
Toronto Public Library (TPL) (french: Bibliothèque publique de Toronto) is a public library system in Toronto, Ontario. It is the largest public library system in Canada, and in 2008 had averaged a higher circulation per capita than any other pub ...
.
He recently appeared in
Joe Berlinger
Joseph Berlinger (born October 30, 1961) is an American documentary filmmaker and producer. Particularly focused on true crime documentaries, Berlinger's films and docu-series draw attention to social justice issues in the US and abroad in such ...
's new Netflix show, ''Crime Scene (Season 2): The Times Square Killer'' (2021) about the 1979–80 torso murders in New York committed by serial killer
Richard Cottingham
Richard Francis Cottingham (born November 25, 1946) is an American serial killer and rapist who murdered at least 17 young women and girls in New York and New Jersey between 1967 and 1980. His confirmed killings include nine convictions and a fu ...
who Vronsky is in the midst of interviewing since 2018.
Peter Vronsky is fluent in English, Russian and Italian and resides in Toronto, Canada and Venice, Italy.
References
External links
Peter Vronsky Home Page: CV, Streaming Video Excerpts, Websites, etcPeter Vronsky YouTube ChannelBooks by Peter VronskyBattle of Ridgeway 1866''Sons of Cain'' Table of Contents
{{DEFAULTSORT:Vronsky, Peter
Year of birth missing (living people)
Artists from Toronto
20th-century Canadian historians
Canadian male non-fiction writers
Canadian multimedia artists
Canadian people of Russian descent
Canadian video artists
Film directors from Toronto
Living people
Writers from Toronto
21st-century Canadian historians