True Crime Books

It's been awhile since I tried, with great effort, to read this book. So this review comes as an after(little)thought! I'm fairly certain this was THE most boring piece I ever attempted to read. There was absolutely nothing to hold my interest. I kept it around for awhile to use in case I ran out of toilet paper, then realized it wasn't even good for that!

This book was one of the biggest wastes of my time. Having read true crime for many years now, I'm well past (as most readers are) in needing a quick study into the legal workings of our justice system; especially when they come from an egotistical, self-promoting Assistant District Attorney.

The book, one is led to believe, is based on the story of David Mead who killed his wife Pamela in the couple's backyard fishpond. On the rear cover, readers are told how David Mead almost escaped justice by avoiding arrest for three years; yet, we see Mead's arrest within the first 100 pages!

The Meads' story IS in the book, but readers must wade through a lot of legal mumbo jumbo to find it; not to mention all the boasting by the author Howard Lemcke about himself, his colleagues, friends, secretarial assistant, etc. - anyone that Lemcke has, in my opinion, had interaction with during his life!

Don't waste your time with this one. It's horrible. And beware....this book was previously published under the title Death in a Fish Pond: A Perfect Husband, a Perfect Marriage, a Perfect Murder?

I love true crime stories. But, this was not one of them. If you love Ann Rule books, as I do, skip this author. Too much "legal(eze)" & not enough story. I am not interested in the law being explained to me. More interested in the STORY not the legal aspect of it. No background interviews, as Ann does. Just the facts. Boring. Skipped over most of it. Don't waste your money.

This should be called the "I Am The Best....the True Story of Howard Lemke" as it is chock-full of little tidbits he must think we care about such as where he ate for lunch and what he ordered.......I have tried to finish this book for over 6 months. Just not enough of a story to motivate me. Most crime novels I can't put down and I will read them in a day or two. Not so with this author. It is more about him than the victim.

I bought this book because of my love of true crime. What I came away with was much more than a story of an ax murder in 1900 Iowa. The author's paint a vivid picture of the dismal life and the hardships of the wive's of farmers during this era, and the farmer's themselves, as they weave their story with true accounts of the actual investigation and trial.

Midnight Assassin is an easy read and real page turner. What I wasn't expecting was the portrait of desperation, fear and isolation that made this book so much more than a true crime story. "Little House on the Praire" this was not and is a must read!

This book was of extreme interest from beginning to end. I love true crime stories, so the legal and moral aspects were the reason I purchased this book, but I found a secondary reason as soon as I started reading it. I am also interested in genealogy and my ancestors came to Iowa the same time as the Hossacks and they lived less than 45 miles apart. The authors' descriptions and stories of their lives and the everyday living of the farmers of the area were amazing. I felt like I was there, experiencing their lives, and their trials. Whenever a book can make me feel as if I am actually there, while it is happening, it is well worth the read.

Excellent story told here, with a mix of history of farming life in the midwest in early 1900s, law, civil rights and the mystery of the murder. It keeps your interest with the who-done-it story line and the tease of incomplete information coming from crime scene research and from the witnesses at the trial. I recommend it.

This is a well-written book that casts the reader back into the lives of prairie farmers at the beginning of the 20th century. It shows the dark side of Little House on the Prairie.

It is especially good at introducing the reader to the plight of many farm wives in that era. Through the trial of Margaret Hossack for the ax murder of her husband, we get a feel for the isolation and desperation of these women. The man a woman married was her whole lot in life. It was strictly the luck of the draw for her. If a husband turned out to be cold and abusive, as it seems Mr. Hossack was, his wife had little recourse but to suffer through it to the end. Although Margaret may not have suffered in complete silence, since there was ample evidence of how often she had rushed to her neighbors to complain of her husband's foul, dangerous moods - there was little anyone else could or would do to help. As this book keenly points out, the code of being a good housewife and a "lady" constrained women to their places and prevented others from interceding too effectively. The book poses the question - Did Mrs. Hossack ultimately engage in self help?

The book's other purpose is to juxtapose the lives of two women situated very differently in 1900. On the one hand, there is Mrs. Hossack, confined to her meager, loveless life on the prairie. On the other hand, there is Susan Glaspell, the liberated young reporter who covered Mrs. Hossack's first trial. I would have liked to have read more details about Glaspell's early career as a crime reporter in a man's world. But perhaps that would have been spreading the content of this book too thin. The author does circle back at the end of Midnight Assassin to provide a follow-up on Glaspell's writing career. Trifles, the play Glaspell eventually wrote, based loosely on the Hawkin's trial, has a heart-wrenching conclusion. It's worthwhile reading this book for that dramatic take on the caged lives of these farm women alone.

It is a Cardinal Rule for this longtime reader and reviewer of "true crime" books (See my List - True Crime 101) that books of this genre *Must Have Pictures* - of the participants, the "scene," etc., for the reader to understand whither thou goest and wherefore. Although authors Bryan and Wolf have obviously and thoroughly researched time and place, the reader may not be as familiar, hence photos are essential and their absence gets this book docked one star. Tintypes were prevalently hawked by city street vendors and chroniclers of the battlefields by the American Civil War and the technology continued to improve. This case was an Iowa OJ of its day. So there were pictures. Yet all the reader of this fin de 19th siecle saga is provided is one paltry diagram of the house on the frontispiece. Nonetheless, the authors attempt to impart appropriate prose pictures of the not-so-bucolic life, death, and legacy of a domestically battered farm family in rural Iowa. Oh they had trouble! Right there past rivered cities! (See also *Lillian's Legacy: Marriage and Murder in Rural Iowa* by Carroll R. McKibbin, where, at least, the reader is provided a picture of Lillian on the cover.)
This sometimes engaging and engrossing true crime/sociological/historical retrospective often bogs down in extensive direct quotes of bad and archaic American English which the reader must take pains to interpret - impeding the flow. Then there is the authors' proclivity for wending off-stream to ponder Lizzie Borden and other contemporaneous women/defendants whose fates were determined by a jury of her victims' (not her own - as females were not allowed to serve as jurors at the time) peers.
All that considered, I'd rate this a 3 ½ - if we were allowed half points here. /TundraVision, Amazon Reviewer

I'm a big fan of the forensic programs on Court TV, and I always check the date of the featured crime (almost always murder and/or rape) to see if it occurred before or after DNA testing became common in the United States. If it occurred after 1992, the perp is usually doomed. Even decades-old cases can be solved if blood/semen/saliva samples were properly stored from the crime scene. According to a prophecy in the weekly "New Scientist," there will soon be kits available that will allow police to process DNA samples in less than two hours.

In "The Blooding," former policeman, Joseph Wambaugh writes about the first serial killer who was caught and convicted through the use of DNA testing: two teenage girls in the English village of Narborough were brutally raped and murdered in 1983 and 1986, and it took four years, a scientific breakthrough, and the blood of 5,000 men to capture the killer, Colin Pitchfork. DNA testing also freed the suspect that police had already jailed for the crime.

On September 10, 1984, at nearby Leicester University, Dr. Alec Jeffreys (now Sir Alec) discovered that each human being (except for identical twins) has a unique genetic profile. At first, his DNA profiling technique was used to sort out immigration cases. Then the Leicestershire constabulary became familiar with DNA 'fingerprinting' and collected blood from over 5,000 men in the ultimately successful search for their murderer.

(By 2004, the UK had a national database of 2.5 million genetic profiles from convicted criminals. Statistics show that 38% of all crimes are detected where DNA has been loaded onto the UK national database, compared with a 24% detection rate overall. And 48% of burglaries are detected where DNA has been loaded onto the database, compared with a 14% detection rate for burglaries overall.

Nowadays, British bus drivers are issued DNA testing kits to help catch passengers who spit at them.)

Wambaugh does not spend much time exploring the scientific aspects of the Narborough Village murders. He tells the interwoven stories of the victims, their families, the murderer, and most especially the policemen who were involved in the hunt.

From the shadowy paths that wound past the grounds of the local psychiatric hospital to the ancient, smoke-filled pubs where the villagers spent their free hours, this author will have you living and breathing the horror of these crimes. There are a few of the patented Wambaugh belly laughs as the Leicestershire police invent their own techniques for 'blooding' the local men. One of my favorite scenes takes place after Colin Pitchfork is apprehended, and he insists on telling his bored interrogators his whole life story before he will confess to his crimes.

Everyone comes to life in a Wambaugh story, but most especially the policemen.

I have never been able to pick up one of this author's books without reading it through to the end, and "The Blooding" is no exception.

I've been interested in poisons ever since I read that section of my physician mother's copy of Harrison's Principles of Internal Medicine -- which is why I picked up the author's previous work on this subject, Elements of Murder: A History of Poison. If memory serves, that book concentrated more on the criminal apsect than the chemical, which is why this book caught my eye in the Vine newsletter. I was surprised, though I shouldn't have been, to see it was by the same author!

This somewhat compact volume is, I see, published by the Royal Society of Chemistry itself, which makes sense, as it does hew rather more to the chemical than the criminal aspect of these cases. The book could probably have used another editing pass and some trimming, but by and large Emsley knows how to write a good popular science work that doesn't talk down to his audience. I would like to have seen even more chemical discussion, but I can't fault the book for covering both topics. Especially interesting was the discussion of the Harold Shipman case and the Bulgarian umbrella poisoning. The thread of historical toxicology runs throughout, which touches on another of my interests (history) -- it is amazing what criminals used to be able to get away with.

I very much enjoyed this book, but as the author predicted, my enjoyment really didn't have much to do with Chemistry. I really wasn't that interested in the different molecules of various poisons. What I liked about the book was the history of the various poisons, many of them being known and used for thousands of years, the effects of each of them, the individual murders and attempted murders described in detail in this volume, the following investigations including the chemistry contributions and the trials and punishments of the murders. The single most important fact that I got from this book is that if one is planning to commit murder, don't do it with poison. Chemistry has been able to detect and prove some poisonings for hundreds of years. Very few people have gotten away with killing somebody with poison since Roman times. Today's chemistry can trace even the tiniest traces of poisons.
The various natural poisons discussed in this book that were used for murders had been known for millenniums and while deadly poisons in the wrong quantities, most of the same poisons could also be used as medical cures. The Greeks and Egyptians published books that listed hundreds of uses of these natural poisons. One such ancient Greek had 800 such cures.
One of the deadliest known natural poisons is Ricin, which is made from castor beans. Castor Oil has long been used as medicine and I remember having to take a spoon full each and every morning to ward off colds and other elements. In its deadliest form, tiny amounts of it were used for political assassinations and as a weapon of Mass Destruction. Iraq is known to have used it in their war with Iran and quantities of it were discovered after the Americans Invaded Iraq. In World War I both sides tested it as a chemical weapon. Nazi's used a cup full castor oil as a Concentration Camp punishment.
The second types of poisons discussed in the book were the Man-made Chemicals such as Carbon Monoxide, which is responsible for thousands of accidental deaths as well as suicides. It has been a silent, accidental killer for more than 300 years when "the poisonous nature of the fumes given off from red-hot charcoal was mentioned by Hoffmann in his book, "Considerations of the Fatal Effects of the Vapour from Burning Charcoal, published in 1716."
Emsley discusses the molecular structure of these various poisons and how today's Forensic Toxicologists can easily identify poison victims with even the tiniest amount of tissue and sometimes even after the victim has been cremated. They get plenty of practice in their trade not looking for murderers, but in identifying accidental deaths and athletes using drugs to enhance their performances.
For those people who love the current crop of Forensic Scientists who regularly solve the crime and catch the bad guy television shows, this is a great read. I loved it even though I didn't really care for all the chemistry. However, the other two-thirds of the book were riveting. For those geeks with a much stronger interest in chemistry and science that information will only greatly increase the enjoyment of reading this tome. Once again, I was surprised at how much I enjoyed this book. I'd half expected to dislike it. I was pleasantly surprised and delighted as I'm certain many other readers will be.

I am not able to personally able to review this book as it was a christmas gift for my husband but he finished it last night and loved it.

This collection of articles by former pot smuggler and convict Richard Stratton, shows his talent as a gritty and skilled writer. The subject matter is drawn from articles from "Prison Life", "High Times" and other edgy magazines. He does get you to think about the problems with the drug laws and the prison system, but the constant conspiracy theories gets a little hard to swallow. An interesting read, if you like the darker side of the law.

A collection of articles and interviews by convicted drug smuggler Stratton is often compelling. Profiles of rebels and criminals like Eddie Bunkerand Hunter Thompson.are filtered through Stratton's often icnredible life experiences. I feel the need to read Norman Mailer after eading both of the interviews contained herin. If you read this, you may realize that there is a difference between an outlaw and a criminal .

BLIND LOVE IS the story of David Graham and Diane Zamora who commit, in the name of proving David's love for Diane, what might possibly be the stupidest murder you will ever read about. Graham and Zamora were bright, driven, successful high school honor students. Tragically, they also fell obsessively in love with each other leading to the irrational kidnapping and killing of Adrianne Jones, one of Graham's classmates.
The author, Peter Meyer, proved he can be a thorough researcher and thoughtful and committed writer in one of his previous books, THE YALE MURDER. However none of those qualities is present in this book.
BLIND LOVE has the feel of the kind of book, familiar to veteran readers of true crime, which was rushed out before the suspects were even tried in order to capitalize on a sensational story; for which the publisher required a minimum number of pages; and which provides little information of interest that was not already available in newspapers and magazines.
Meaningful research is virtually non-existent. Meyer apparently used to a large extent an article by Skip Hollandsworth which appeared in TEXAS MONTHLY MAGAZINE. I have read articles by Hollandsworth, a fine writer, and since BLIND LOVE is really just a magazine article which Meyer has padded to 243 pages in order to turn it into a book, anyone who is interested in this case would probably be better off just reading the article.
BLIND LOVE is not the worst true crime you can find, as it doesn't approach the platinum standard reached by Maria Eftimiades in GARDEN OF GRAVES or by Michael Benson in BETRAYAL IN BLOOD. It is, however, pretty bad. I submit the following:

1. The book is loaded with uninteresting, irritating filler. This is especially true from about page 190 on when, apparently, Meyer began to realize that he was running short of the mandated number of pages. On page 200 he tells us that Graham appeared in court wearing a "bright orange, jail-issue jumpsuit---like the ones Timothy McVeigh, suspected Oklahoma City Bomber, and Theodore Kaczynski, the Unabomber suspect wore...".

An inordinate amount of time is spent on people like Gary Foster and his wife. Other than the fact that Jones' body was found on their land, they really have nothing do do with the case.

Meyer wastes a lot of our time reporting, over and over, the reactions of the friends and families of Jones, Graham, and Zamora. I can understand why he uses their quotes, even though they are pretty obvious, once. But we learn over and over that Adrianne Jones was a vivacious and much loved girl and that Graham and Zamora were also loved, respected and of the highest moral character. And each of the numerous times Meyer does this, he uses enough quoted material to fill at least a page.

On page 57 Meyer provides the number - 1187 - of a combination lock Graham is opening. I can only hope that, by divulging the number in this review, I have not ruined a potential high point for any readers.

2. I agree with previous reviewer Colle2000 that BLIND LOVE is annoyingly and sloppily repetitive. On page 141, Meyer tells us about David helping Amy Franklin to her feet during a Junior ROTC exercise. Two paragraphs later he advises us that Amy Franklin is a Junior ROTC member.

On page 220, Meyer quotes attorney John Linebarger saying about Diane, "All she wants to know is when she can see (David) or talk to him."
On 221 he quotes Lineberger as saying, "One of her main concerns is seeing David and talking to him."

And on pages 228-230, in a masterful stroke co-mingling repetition with totally tedious filler, he includes - word for stilted court-speak word - the entire formal indictment of Graham and Zamora. He also tells us Diane's and David's case numbers (0632829 and 0632999 respectively) and then, amazingly, repeats this information a page later. Again, I hope I have not, by revealing these numbers, ruined anyone's enjoyment of this book.

The main reason why this book is readable at all, and why I have not rated it 1 star, is that Meyer clearly is a professional and literate writer. But he has in this instance mailed it in. BLIND LOVE is lacking in energy, inspiration, and effort, and it is ultimately just boring. There is really no reason to read it.

However, I feel the book should have been written once the trial was over to give the reader the whole complete picture of the case from start to finish. I also took note that certain areas of the book repeated itself over and over and over again with the same quotes by different people or the same quotes written differently by the same people. That became annoying after awhile becuz I found myslef saying, "I just read this exact quote in the page before."

At any rate, the story itself was amazing but I'd still would have liked to find out what happened during the trial.

When I went camping with my friend, she was reading BLIND LOVE: THE TRUE STORY OF THE TEXAS CADET MURDERS. After she finished it, I borrowed it from her, because I thought it sounded incredibly interesting.

BLIND LOVE is the true story of David Graham and Diane Zamora, two intelligent teenagers, a serious couple, and...murderers, too. David and Diane had been dating for a while (and very seriously) and they were talking about getting married. One night David tells Diane that he has a confession to make: when they were going out he slept with another girl. Tenth-grader Adrianne Jones. Diane is devistated and tells him there's one way that he can make it up to her - kill Adrianne Jones.

David wants to prove his loyalty to Diane, so he agrees. Early December 1995, he and Diane go through with their plans...

BLIND LOVE is an incredibly engaging book, and I recommend it to anyone who likes to watch Law and Order or other court shows. It was written before the two were put on trial, so we don't really get the full story, but I still recommend it. There are 14 pictures in the book - pictures of all three teenagers, the crime scene, etc. - all of them help to give you an idea of what happened and how it destroyed the lives of everyone involved.

Overall grade - B+

I really enjoyed this book.. My dad was Diane Zamora's lawyer so I got an inside view of the case. I'll shut up about me now, but this is a really good book.

This is the true story of two teenagers (David Graham and Diane Zamora) who where honor students that killed a young teenage girl (Adrianne Jones) in the name of love. After the murder, Graham and Zamora went about life as usual: attended classes, accepted honors, went to dances, etc. They were accepted into the Air Force and Naval Academy respectively.

For months, there were no leads about the murder until Diane Zamora confessed to her roommates at the Naval Academy one evening that she and her boyfriend had a secret that they would take to their graves. The next day, Zamora's roommates turned her in; she was required to take a leave of absence and was sent home pending investigation. Meanwhile, Graham was questioned and he typed a chilling confession discussing his part in the murder and how he carried it out. When Diane was arrested, she too wrote a chilling confession describing her part in the murder. Both were charged with murder.

Graham and Zamora had promising careers in the military where they were given special honors. They were engaged to be married. They will never fulfill their dreams and have no one except themselves to blame for that. We will never know what Adrianne Jones could have done with her life. She, too was an honors student with much promise.

Although, I liked reading this book and learned much from it, I am disapointed that the author didn't wait until the Zamora and Graham trials ended. I would have liked more information about their trials. Otherwise, the author seems to be accurate as he was writing/researching this book.

I just finished reading this book and was surprised by a few things. First of all the mother, Janet, writes about knowing everything about her daughter, Taylor, and that they were friends. Being the Mother of two daughters, I know that I do not know everything about them, and I am not their friend in the true sense of the word, I am their Mother. Also, Janet goes on to describe the food at the hotel, how much she slept, and that she did NOT attend the vigil that people had for her daughter while she was missing. What Mom, knowing that her daughter is missing, writes about eating, sleeping, and NOT going to a vigil for your daughter? If my daughter was missing, I would be all over the place looking for her and doing what I could to find her. It almost seems like she was relying on other people to find her daughter. As for telling her dauther's killer, who happened to be 20 years older than her, 'take care of her'. NO! I am sorry but I would definitely have expressed my concern to my daughter about hanging out with a man 20 years older than her. Her daughter was only 17. Although I feel so bad for Taylor and Taylor's family, I was left with so many questions regarding the behavior of Taylor's mother. I think she seems selfish and she should have left well enough alone and just be content with Taylor's memory. Very disturbed by the book and would not recommend it, especially if you have daughters of your own.

If You Have a Teenage Daughter, Or Know someone who does, this is a MUST Read. Even If You have No children, this Book will Touch Your heart! It is Not written to be some "Must Have Library addition" ..rather a story written in plain simple english about the mothers feelings, and it follows thru the Taylors Birth to her horrible death. I read this Book in two Days. It is a Good read I Reccomend it to all. If Your Looking for books with More "depth" to them.. this isnt it. I Cant beleive People critizied the book for Spelling or grammmar errors.. who cares? Its about the story! And this is a SAD ONE! Its a Good easy read, If You Like true Crimes, This is Perfect for you.

I have read the book and read these reviews of this book. I think this book brings to reader into the life of the family. You understand how they live their lives and how much love was shown between the mother and daughter. You can feel the love. As others have stated they seemed extreme close for a mother and daughter at that age. I wish I my daughter was more like Taylor. My heart goes out to both Matt and Janet. I just can't imagine what you went through. This book seems to be a theraby or type of closure for Janet. I hope it helped.
Brad, you Airport Friend

This is not the sort of book I tend to read, and I felt like a voyeur for the entire 223 pages. It is a heartbreaking story to be sure; but more than that, it is an unsettling peek into the broken-down soul of a mother who is clearly too close to her loss to write about it effectively.

I'm certain that Ms. Pelasara had the best of intentions in writing her story -Taylor's story - but what she has created is a bitter and sad testament to her daughter's life. After recounting her daughter's early years, filled with the instability of domestic turmoil in her marriage to Taylor's father, her second marriage and divorce, and numerous relocations in several European countries, Ms. Pelasara tries, with little success, to determine just why her daughter might have made the choices she did that lead to her terrible death. She points fingers at Taylor's father, Taylor's college, and at the man who was ultimately convicted of killing Taylor, but to the last page of the book refuses to look upon her own parenting and the lack of stability in Taylor's childhood for answers. Her attitude leaves the reader with a very unsettled feeling about when and whether parents of high-profile crime victims should share their stories in this manner. Authors like Frank Deford, John Walsh, and even Otto Frank have been able to take the tragedy of their childrens' too-brief lives and turn them into something valuable for the world to learn from and be moved by -- but, they wisely took time to heal before doing so.

Adding to the unpleasantness is Regan Books lackluster publishing work. As another reviewer mentioned, the book is, unfortunately, rife with proofreading and typesetting errors that are embarrassing, to say the least, and give the book the feel of quickie, true-crime exploitation piece. Taylor Behl really deserves a better written legacy.

Like it's been said before, this is a very sloppily put together book, withe numerous proofreading and typesetting errors. Obviously it was a quickie job.

This should have been a very interesting story. Seventeen year old girl disappears within days of coming to an urban university; eventually it is determined that she was murdered by an incredibly strange 38 year old man who had been her lover. It should have made for a great crime novel. One day maybe one will be written about this case. But this book was written by Taylor Behl's mother (with help, of course) and it is anything but objective and informative.

Janet Pelasara was obviously a troubled woman even before she lost her only child. Self-absorbed and immature, she goes from marriage to marriage, from America to Europe and back again, restless, never satisfied. She is distainful of Taylor's father, and disparages him in her book. She dotes on her "achingly beautiful" daughter Taylor, who she believes is close to perfection. Pelasara is of the "anything your little heart desires" school of parenting, and gives her daughter pretty much anything she wants, if it's within her power to give it and praises her to the skies. As a result, Taylor is of the belief that life is going to be a bowl of cherries, and that there will be nothing but smooth sailing in her future. But obviously there is something missing emotionally in this girl's life, because she tended to gravitate towards "damaged" people in hopes of "fixing" them. Pelasara attibutes this to her daughter's loving, sweet nature, but in reality it was co-dependence. After her daughter's death, Pelasara finally had to admit her daughter's weakness.

Taylor Behl obviously had a dark side that she no doubt tried to keep secret from her mother. She recklessly embarked on questionable sexual relationships (sex with four men before age 18, one of them a bizarre 38 year old man, and a possible lesbian experience), and rebelled by getting a pierced nose (she also was planning on getting a tatto; Pelasara was all for that, since she knew it would anger Taylor's father) and dabbling in witchcraft. In fact, she was so into witchcraft that she wanted to host a coven! Pelasara didn't go along with that one, at least.

And then there is Ben Fawley. This very weird man is barely touched upon in this book. His story would probably constitute a book in itself. A good true crime writer would have delved much deeper into the personality and behavior of this truly odd killer who managed to pass himself off as a kid for so long.

This book can be summed up in a sentence or two: "beautiful, wonderful, darling, sweet, loving girl killed by awful monster. The end." There is much more to this story and these two people, Taylor Behl and Ben Fawley, than that.

I hope a good true crime writer writes a book about this case. "Love Your More" does nothing but tell the world what a wonderful, special, darling, loving, beautiful, etc. girl Taylor Behl was.

First of all, I find it hard to believe that this book is out of print. I must assume that it did not sell well in its original print. Because of the circumstances surrounding this case, it is truly frightening.

Richard Speck entered the townhouse at 2319 100th Street in Chicago and murdered eight innocent nurses in cold blood. Because of an apparent lack of motive, the crime sent shockwaves across the country. Speck was a drifter that was harmless until he had some booze in his belly and a knife in his pocket. Most people that knew him suggested he was harmless when sober.

After killing the nurses, ran from the police as well as his crimes. He attempted the ultimate escape in attempting suicide. His attempt was a failure. Once he realized that he left a living witness to his crimes, he realized he would soon be caught if he stayed in Chicago. He could not get out of Chicago quick enough.

The only thing that saved Speck from execution was the Supreme Court ruling several hundred death row inmates were to be set free from death row on a techincality.

Having worked very near the site of his murders for three years, I was intrigued by his story. Kids would often say they get chills just passing the house. These kids obviously were not even alive at the time of Speck's rampage. This shows Speck's impact on Chicago and America. The most frightening killer is the one that kills for no apparent reason.

Oh, this is a true story, all right. I was a child in the Chicagoland area when the nurses were killed, and I understood (superficially, at least) what Speck had done and the impact it had on the adults around me. "Richard Speck" became like "The Bogeyman," or the other monsters that haunt children's nightmares. So as an adult, I was eager to confront the demon of my girlhood by reading this detailed and serious study. I was not prepared for how genuinely horrible the crimes were, especially against the backdrop of those more innocent times. I had not been aware of how close Speck came to getting away. I had real admiration for the lawyers, jurors and judge who worked to ensure that our system of justice worked -- even for this piece of human flotsam. Most of all, I rediscovered a real-life heroine, Corazon Amurao. No one should have had to endure what she lived through that summer night, and the way she stood up to Speck in court was awe-inspiring. Hers is a truly indomitable spirit. But I'm still as afraid Richard Speck today as I was more than 35 years ago. He was my introduction to evil, and it seems that the killers who have come after him, from Bundy to Gacy to the Washington snipers, have just gotten stronger and meaner and smarter.

The Richard Speck Massacre of 8 Student Nurses in Chicago during the heat wave on July 13-14, 1966 is almost still impossible to believe. In this book, it's well-written but I have one criticism regarding the victims. The cover of my paperback book has the faces of those victims but nothing to identify one from the other unless you do some research on the internet. 8 beautiful dark student nurses, 5 Americans and 3 Filipinos, who would have made substantiate contributions in their field were robbed from us. One survivor, Cora, lived or survived the massacre but not without the emotional and traumatic scars that haunts war veterans. Cora's description and courage during a time of absolute terror is evident in this book. The two authors here have my absolute focus because they are clear to the reader about what is going on. The background information of Richard Speck is vital in understanding how a monster came to be and how this terrible tragedy occurred.

This book was written by the investigators of the 1966 crime which makes it more of a forensic novel -- more in line with modern crime stories. The plot follows the actions of mass killer Richard Speck who brutally bound, tortured and killed 8 Chicago nurses. In the confusion of his murderous frenzy, one nurse managed to slither under a bed, unnoticed, and later identified Speck as the killer.

After recently meeting this sole survivor, I purchased The Crime of the Century for some of her friends to better understand what happened nearly 40 years ago.

Richard Speck committed the most heinous of crimes in 1966. He savagely murdered eight innocent young women student nurses in the sprigtime of their lives and showed no remorse for what he did. This book, written by the man who prosecuted him and sent him to prison is a factual, precise account of the crime that began the "serial killing" and "mass murder" mode. What is so riveting, yet upsetting and shocking about this book is the fact that nothing is held back and one feels as if he is in the room with Speck waiting to be murdered by him or one of the witnesses at the trial, or one of the jurors or as part of the investigation team. Its all there and nothing is held back. I remember being a child of 6 in colorado in 1966 and my Aunt talking about the murders. The story made national headlines and even reached to a small country town where I was raised. I was scared then. About a month ago I was digging through some old magazines and found a people magazine article on Richard Speck from 1991, the year that he died of a heart attack in prison. (He was never executed though he received the death penalty but the Supreme Court ruled against the death penalty in Illinois so the man got off easy. But who knows about his eternal soul...only God can judge that). Anyhow, the article went into depth about what he had done and how one brave woman, Corazon Amurao, one of the nurses, survived. I looked here at Amazon to see if any books had been written on Speck and found this one! It is the best account of any Crime that I have ever read. My heart still reels with sadness at what those poor young women had to suffer and the terror that they must have gone through. How Corazon Amurao got through everything without going through Post Traumatic Stress is a testament to the way things were handled, her protection and shielding from police and reporters. Currently she is a nurse in Virginia. Speck was never punished sufficiently for his crime on this earth. The evil he perpetrated had far reaching repercussions as it ushered in the "terrorist" era that continues to this day. This book is not for the squeamish. It is excellent and well writing and cuts to the heart from first page to last. May God bless the young women who suffered at the hands of a madman and may God have mercy on the madman who didn't have mercy on those eight beautiful, decent, hardworking women he killed that hot July in 1966.

Be careful who you "think" is the perfect man! That's what I thought of when I finished this book. The surgeon, the pilot-nice looking he seemed to be Mr. Right to her parents. But things went definitly wrong. It took 15 years to catch and convict this Dr. It's a good book, but the author seems to go over the same details quite often during these points it does get boring. Nothing to gross but not a kids book.

I agree with the rating that reader Anna Carroll gave earlier. The victim, Gail Katz, was NOT likeable at all. I cannot believe that this woman was warned by a professional of the danger she was in if she stayed married to Bob Bierenbaum...and she ignored the advice to get outta Dodge while she still could.

The woman was too hung up on herself and what she wanted. Her family's pushing her into getting married certainly didn't help. She didn't need a husband. She needed intensive therapy.

The convicted murderer, Bob Bierenbaum, sounded like a social cripple from the get-go. He seemed to think that women are to be used and thrown away like Kleenex once they've served their purpose. Classic sociopath. His second wife, Janet, sounded a little weird, too.

It was okay, but not one of Mr. Crowley's best.

An interesting analysis on the circumstantial evidence leading to the conviction of Robert Bierenbaum of the murder of his wife Gail (Yes this is technically a spoiler, but its right on the back cover)

Crowley paints both characters in impartial light. In fact the "victim" may be portayed as worse than the monster killer (though I don't think I'd like to be neighbors with either of them).

Crowley discusses the background of both Robert and Gail, the circumstances surrounding the murder, and the subsequent life of Robert up to and including the trial. One wonders if Bierenbaum had been more sympathetic, or had a different judge in his trial, if he still would have been convicted.

The coincidence are almost fictional except that this is a true story.

As another reviewer mentioned, the style and tack taken by Crowley is what makes this book interesting.

The younger one was the one that I knew, a high achiever, apparently to the present. While I'm sure Ms. Katz (Bierenbaum) was a difficult person, the circumstantial evidence was in fact overwhelming. It is too bad it took 15 years to get to trial while the violent lying psychopath continued to live free. Relieved that justice eventually was served. A. Katz continues to devote her working life to the law and to helping those in need.

In a style that reads like a gritty novel, Crowley has managed to write an outstanding book. He manages to convey a gripping tale, somewhat American Gothic in content, that feels its way through parts of three different decades. And although the publishers choose to indeed reveal the ultimate conclusion on the backcover (thus robbing it of the all-elusive 5 star rating), it was, nevertheless, a great pleasure to read.

the true story of one of the most intense manhunts in police history and of the young district attorney who brought a trio of cop killers to justice.

If this book is based on the New York 3 it is a terrible mistake and dis-service to those three men.

Long live the spirit of Nuh.

This is an excellent account of what was simply the double murder of Police Officers Joseph A. Piagentini and Waverly Jones by the Black Liberation Army in 1971. It seems that many revisionists, for political (and parole) purposes challenge the contents of this well written account of this tragic date in the American law enforcement community. Former New York County ADA Tanenbaum and the NYPD detectives assigned conducted a spectacular investigation and subsequent prosecution of Anthony Bottom, Herman Bell, and Albert Washington. The prosecution of the "New York 3" dealt a lethal blow to the Black Liberation Army and this book provides an accurate account of that blow. Highly recommended.

This book simply lacks the psychological depth of the Karp novels, which I have read every one of. This leads me to believe that Mr. Tanenbaum employs the service of an excellent ghost writer, although we may never know...

A excellent novel about the war with police and the Black gangs/armies/movements of the 70's. A true story about the murder of two NYPD officers. The story tells of the offenders capture and subsequent trial. One of the few books that tells of hatred people have for police and how many people (witnesses)put their lives on the line to help them. A book all liberals should read before they complain about unfair courts and police brutality.