5 comments about Inside the Mind of Scott Peterson.

1. The first book I read by Keith Ablow was Psychopath- and I couldn't put it down. As I read this book on Scott Peterson-so many questions were answered. Dr. Ablow gives examples, and explains in full detail from birth to prison how Scott Peterson became the person he was.
   
   As a psychologist there were so many questions I had about Peterson's past life with his family- now I know about his controlling, manipulative mother, his spineless dad. Amazing.
   
   A must read.



2. I have read all the books out on the Peterson case as well as having paid close attention to the news at it unfolded on national TV. I realize Keith Ablow, M.D. is an expert and very respected so I weigh my words carefully as I am simply a lay person, a medical transcriptionist for fifteen years who has typed a lot of psychiatric histories and have read true crime for years now. I do believe Dr. Ablow is on the mark with the family history and how Scott Peterson got to the point of looking like a solid human being but in actuality being as empty and void as a hollow chocolate Easter rabbit. Appearances of deception. I agree, this is a must read for anyone who followed the case. I think my mixed feelings come from the way Dr. Ablow presented his thoughts...I am at a loss quite honestly as to how to explain what I mean...I am believing other avid readers will understand after reading the book why it is difficult for me to explain. I think some of the way he presented his thoughts/findings/beliefs were odd. Again, I'm sorry I can't be more specific. Dr. Ablow talked numerous times about the pasted on SMILE, the plastic smile of Scott Peterson. What is strange here is the fact that just prior to reading Dr. Ablow's book I read the book by Laci's mother - and the cover has Laci and her mother on it smiling the same extremely wide...EXTREMELY WIDE...what I call "plastic, beauty pagent" type of smile that hurts my face muscles just looking at the picture. Every photograph of Laci has the same smile and her mother speaks in the book of her daughter ALWAYS SMILING. No one smiles ALL THE TIME, and if they do, there's something going on not being addressed. My heart aches for Laci, Connor and her family - please know I am not speaking of this for deliberate negativity, and Lord knows no one on earth deserves what she went through / what her family is going through every day of the remainder of their lives. I am only trying to understand why Dr. Ablow doesn't make a connection with Laci / smile - perpetual - as he does with Scott - smile - perpetual yet a sign of "hallowness and nonperson".
   I beieve Scott Peterson definitely is insane. I believe Laci had many, many of her own issues - like so many of us do - and sad to say, her own personality and smile masked to her family - to the world perhaps - much of the reality that was going on in her own life. So often it is said "If it looks too good to be true, then for sure it is."
   Like Laci's mom said - there always is divorce...then again, fairy tales do not end in divorce. They should not end in murder, either. I strongly urge anyone interested in this case to read Dr. Ablow's book, make your own judgment and please know I submitted my review with a genuine effort to express how the book left me feeling.



3. It gives a true account of who Scott Peterson really is. It helps to understand a person like Scott Peterson



4. I found Ablow's writing of this book informative and extremely educational. I have read many of his books of fiction, but, between this one and the one I read of his that shared quite a bit of his notes on his first years of psychiatric medicine I realize the author's vast knowledge and ability to 'educate'.



5. Keith Ablow describes Scott Peterson as a man who was already dead. A man who had a three generation bloodline of childhood loss and abandonment. He was a complete sociopath who viewed life as a vision of death. This is why he killed Laci and Connor. This is one of the most interesting books and explanations on the actions of Scott Peterson that I have ever read. I highly recommend this book. It so clearly explains in detail his thought process, his childhood fears and adandonment issues, his addiction to sex and to Amber Frey and his flippant attitude about the killings and how he will be released someday, that is was all just a big misunderstanding. Please read this book! Keith Ablow is brilliant and explains this story in such engrossing detail.

5 comments about Anyone You Want Me to Be: A True Story of Sex and Death on the Internet.

1. It is sickening to think that a family man as Robinson was able to sustained a family--a household-- and at the same time committed hideous crimes. Robinson used cyberspace as his hunting ground alluring vulnerable young women and take them into his world of sadomasochistic and sex-slavery, financially robbed them and ultimately killed them. In cyberspace, he portrayed himself as a charming, successful businessman, "claiming whoever he wanted to be." It was unfortunate that many fell for it. The story was engrossing at the same time horrific and plain gross. While this type of crime is less likely to occur in this generation, we are now facing another revolution of crime such as identity theft, phishing, bank fraud, cyberterror and child pornography. Hopefully, the Robinson's case is a cybercrime history that will never repeat itself, for it involved many precious lives. As a writer, this book is very helpful. It allowed me to take a peek at the mind of a psychopath and how he eluded the authorities. Cold Eyes



2. This is a fast paced true Crime novel about the murderer John Robinson, who started off his criminal career with fraud and embezzling money. Later as the Internet became more popular he would surf the net looking for his victims. Finding women who he could lure into his sadistic life.
   
   This book has some really graphic parts and also deals with the world of S&M, getting into detail about his relationships with some of the girls and how he made them sign slave contracts.
   
   Once again it is amazing to see what someone can accomplish and get away with for so many years just by being a smooth talker and knowing how to read other people. Compiling more and more information on them through casual conversations and then using that knowledge against them. Quite sick. Makes you really think about how much information you give out over the internet, do you really know who you have been talking too???
   
   This book also contains 8 pages of photos of John Robinson and some of his victims.



3. After all, it has been said (by Mr. Douglas or someone else - I can't remember which) that 'Night Stalker' Richard Ramirez wasn't. In Mr. Robinson's case the same elements are present -- and the same elements are missing.
   
   Both of these guys were nasty SOB's. But Ramirez's killings weren't sexually based. He didn't go around killing people for the gratification it got him, nor did he have a need to go out and kill again when the gratification from the last killing dissipated. He was fundamentally a burglar. If he picked the wrong house and someone walked in, he'd kill out of sheer spite -- or he'd run away. Or if a woman was home, he'd commit a rape of opportunity -- or he'd just slap her around and let her go. All serial killers are sociopaths, but not all sociopaths are serial killers.
   
   John Robinson's contribution to us was a dandy of a demonstration as to how the internet could be used by a serial killer to lure his victims to him, rather than make him have to roam about looking for them. Mr. Robinson's winning formula is that he's a con artist, a scammer, a swindler. He's also into BDSM sex -- probably another way his desire to manipulate/dominate/control shows up. But his killings don't follow naturally as a result as they would with a true serial killer.
   
   Linkage blindness alert: old wives tales about sexual minorities. Remember the one about how 'all homosexuals (gay men specifically) molest children'? Or how a lesbian can be easy -- and indeed, a wild woman in bed who'd challenge your sexual prowess -- if just the right guy makes just the right advance? These came about because of the sort of thinking that equates other-than-strictly-hetero sexual practices with a fulfillment issue -- 'any guy who'd use another man for gratification (or allow another man to use him as one would a woman) will do anything to get off . . .', or 'any woman who'd use another woman just needs a guy to satisfy her: the problem is, not every guy has what it takes . . .'. Not necessarily true. Nor is it true that BDSM has to culminate in sexually-based homicide, or even accidental death or serious injury from playing risky games with those whips and chains and spiked dog collars. (If BDSM is indeed as popular as this very book would have us believe -- and I don't doubt that -- then you'd see a lot more bodies turning up if more than a very, very small minority of its practitioners engaged in practices that resulted in death or high risk of death or serious injury). I point this out, however, because a) those in behavioral science agree that linkage blindness is sometimes a problem and b) I've indeed seen investigators reach bad conclusions by linking things that had no correlation, or by missing significant links that were indeed there. That they know to watch for the error doesn't make them immune from making it.
   
   Evidence that Mr. Robinson't killings weren't sexually based?
   
   First, the number of women that he lured into his web that he let go, that he didn't kill. Barbara Sandre. Alecia Cox. Vickie Neufeld. Jeanna Milliorn. (In Neufeld's and Milliron's case, even late in the series). Others.
   
   Second, the missing pieces in Robinson himself. We see no elements of the 'homicidal trial' in his early life. We see a long record of fraud schemes and con games, but no nuisance sex offenses other than the occasional risque crack to a woman neighbor.
   
   Third, there is no indication of ritual elements in the way the killings were carried out, nor in Robinson's postoffense behavior. True, it's odd that he kept the bodies in 55-gallon barrells on his properties, but for souvenir value? Or perhaps because he'd given no thought as to a better way to dispose of them. Or because they were so heavy that moving them would require an accomplice -- and a potential witness against him if things went wrong later.
   
   Finally, all of the killings were disorganized. A hammer blow, or the use of some other blunt instrument to the head in each case? There are less messy ways of doing the job of intentional, premeditated murder.
   
   More likely, one by one, these women got out of control somehow, caught on to the fact they were being used, caught on to who was picking up the alimony checks and disability checks at the Mail Room and cashing them. Or maybe they just wanted out, but knew too much to be let go without putting Robinson at risk. A confrontation occurred. And each of the killings in turn was Robinson's response to just that thing going wrong, his need to cover up his activities and his frauds (the discovery of which would no doubt lead to an investigation and the discovery of his double life).
   
   Indeed, if the killings were done to cover up other crimes, that's a different classification of murder; not the sexually-based killings that are the mark of true serial killers.
   
   The killings followed in sequence, and were related to, someone's need for kinky sexual gratification. But they weren't part of that need. They didn't happen as even a result, never mind a necessary result, of Robinson's sick kinky sex games. They didn't necessarily follow.
   
   This one is like the Susan Smith tragedy in South Carolina, which I reinvestigated in more detail. The pieces go together if you hook them together one by one, as in the old 'Barrel of Monkeys' game that was popular in the '60's. But just because someone did that doesn't mean that one thing follows the next naturally, that the next thing that occurred had to occur because the last thing that happened happened. They only follow in sequence because someone hooked them together in a way that made sense at the time.
   
   Here, we have a string of related killings that follow sexual exploitation. Accordingly, we naturally assume a serial killer. But it doesn't add up to how we define a serial killer.
   
   Unlike Susan Smith's story, the moral of the story is still the same. If Robinson had indeed been a true serial killer, his ability to lure his victims via the Internet would be exactly what you would see happening. As for Robinson himself (again, unlike Susan Smith), he still did it (and quite intentionally), he still got exactly what he had coming to him for what he did, and he doesn't have my shoulder to cry on. He may escape execution, but he belongs in prison, forever, finally, keep him there, lock him up and weld the door shut. Period. For the victims and their families, it's still not a happy ending, but justice prevails.
   
   And when criminal behavioral science experts make a mistake, it's easy for someone, somewhere to catch if they don't simply accept his work without question. It's going to happen once in awhile. We all have our bad days on the job.
   
   John Douglas has done some great stuff, and I admire his work, but this isn't one of his better pieces.



4. This book drives home the point that we live in a world of technology that reaches into our homes and brings with it dangers and difficult challenges for law enforcement. John Robinson is the prime example of what can go terribly wrong when people trust strangers.
   
   What made Robinson so dangerous was his skill in adapting his criminal activity while lacking a conscience. He was charming and brazen.
   
   The progression of John Robinson from con-man to serial killer was uncommon.
   "Serial killers often have pasts that involve other violent crimes,but Robinson had seemingly evolved toward violence over decades.He'd graduated from one type of criminal to the next.He was always a work in progree."-page 212.
   
   Mr.Douglas described the three different types of serial killers.
   
   The prosecutions' difficulties presented by multiple jurisdictions was explained. The authors detailed some of the highlights of the death penalty trial in Kansas.
   
   This book is hard to put down! The authors have written a fast-paced book with few boring pages. John Douglas is an author that I have come to appreciate for his insights as a profiler.



5. So many names, so many places, I couldn't keep up with it. I didn't read much as I don't waste my time reading books for pleasure that I don't like.
   
   alienface

No comments about Remembrances of the Angels: A 50th Anniversary Retrospective on the Fire No One Can Forget.

5 comments about The Borden Tragedy: A Memoir of the Infamous Double Murder at Fall River, Mass., 1892 (Treasury of Victorian Murder (Graphic Novels)).

1. Rather than read a single book that "solves" the Borden killings (there's a new solution every few years), you should get a copy of this. This book beautifully outlines the ambiguity of the Borden scenario, leaving the reader with both the sense that noone but Lizzie could have done it, AND that there's simply no way she could have done it. This book clearly and beautifully lays it all out for you. With his expert eye Geary's illustration-diagrams clarify things in a way that even a movie can't. The wierd layout of the Andrew Borden house has never been more clear than in his cut-away illustration.
   
   Noone understands like Geary, the usefulness to a reader of foregrounding the factual information, which leaves you in a position to think more critically about the events. I find his books to be the most useful authority for getting my head around the facts and movements of the suspects, moreso than in the non-fiction books covering the same topic. Geary's best books bring the crime scenes and milieus vividly back to life. His calm, methodical sequencing of the surrounding events lends an operatic and important scale to some tawdry murders. They are perfect for reading just before bedtime.



2. This is an illustrated novel to provide a quick tour of this famous unsolved crime. The `Bibliography' fails to list David Kent's "Forty Whacks", the one best book on this case. Geary's book necessarily skims over the details; there are no page numbers. If Abby was called to the front door to receive a note would the door still be triple-locked as at night? The position of Andrew on that sofa shows how he was found; he must have been sitting upright (try it and see). The drawing of the barn omits the stairs to the second floor. Geary sums up the arguments for Lizzie's innocence, and covers the other solutions from other authors.
   
   The wounds on Andrew's skull suggest a right-handed killer who faced him; or a left-handed killer who struck while Andrew was reclining. Abby's killer would have to be right-handed to hit her right side of her head from the back; or left-handed if she faced the killer. This is one of the puzzles of this crime. The question about Andrew "apparently fallen over from a sitting position" can be explained by Andrew putting on his shoes to greet a secret visitor. Lizzie was guilty of withholding the identity of this visitor. But her actions were approved by the members of the Fall River ruling class. The back cover compares Lizzie Borden to O.J. Simpson on a number of similarities. The last item about "any other individual" points to an unknown subject given the lack of evidence against either (no bloody clothes or shoes, no murder weapon). Somebody else did it. It would be more accurate to compare Dr. Sam Sheppard to Lizzie. Both were at the crime scene, neither had blood spatter on their clothes or the murder weapon. Both were correctly found not guilty, but suffered from prejudice for the rest of their lives.
   
   You can read about other True Crime cases. If no one in the household did the murder, it was an intruder (or unknown subject). The Borden murders was solved in Arnold Brown's book: it was a nephew of Andrew. Lizzie kept this secret to avoid a scandal. Members of the Fall River ruling class knew, and also kept this secret (except to acknowledge it was a secret). Arnold Brown spent two years researching his book. That was more time than the professional writers used. Brown admits he has no documentary proof for his conclusion, the nephew's birth certificate is kept secret by Massachusetts' laws. There can be no documentary proof of the Mellen House Gang conspiracy because a secret is never committed to paper (else it is not a secret). Brown believes the conflict was over Andrew's will. But a will does not require an heir's presence. Andrew did business from his home, he often made loans to people and foreclosed on their property when they couldn't pay. I believe the secret visitor was there to explain why he could not repay a loan that was due. There are many stories of murder for money in True Crime. Remember the loan from Dr. Parkman to Dr. Webster?



3. best part is on the back cover where it compares oj simpson to the borden girl! very fun book to read although id have put more dialogue in it. but it does cover the murders nicely.



4. Detailed introduction to a baffling case
   
   I'll bet that most Americans have heard of Lizzy Borden, and know something about her reputation of having killed her parents with a hatchet. Beyond that, not so much.
   
   "The Borden Tragedy" tries to cover all bases in the case, introducing the reader to the major actors and the theories behind the murders, which occurred (I'm embarrassed to admit) in my own backyard -- Fall River, MA, barely half-morning's drive from my home. In the sweltering, mid-morning hours of August 4, 1892, someone brutally murdered Andrew and Abby Borden inside their cozy home with multiple blows from a weapon. A maid, a grown child, a border and neighbors scurried about, seemingly oblivious to the grisly drama unfolding inside. Suspicion fell, naturally, on those closest to the tragedy. But hard evidence was equally hard to find. Were the Bordens done in by those of their own household? Was this s revenge crime related to Mr. Borden's business ventures? Or was a madman on the loose?
   
   The book reconstructs in fascinating detail the movements of the many individuals on that fated day, but also in the days preceding. The Bordens were odd, in their way, but not seemingly bizarre. Father Andrew was a quite stern and forbidding man, though not unsentimental. He wore a ring Lizzie gave him as a gift years before. Stepmother Abby was hardly beloved, but seems not to have been detested. Daughters Emma and Lizzie, in their 40s and 30s respectively, were unmarried and still lived at home with their parents. If there were resentments, they were kept carefully in check. But was there more to the family drama than met the eye? While the speculation of moderns minds may tend toward the lurid (weird dad + 2 single women = ?) , the author follows the lead of his 19th century subjects and leaves this promising territory unexplored.
   
   The book does a nice job of laying out the rather confusing facts of the murders the subsequent trial, and the aftermath for the involved parties. Though the murders were brutal, involving extensive injury to faces and heads, the wounds are always hidden by shadows, except for a display of the skulls in the trial scene. This minor mercy makes the book appropriate for kids about 10-12 and up who have an interest in the story.
   
   The author's only stumble was in what must have been a marketing gimmick on the back cover -- a comparison of the Borden case with the more recent OJ Simpson case. Oh well. At the back of the book, the author does include a few newspaper clippings of the day, giving the interested reader the chance to get a feel for journalistic styles of the late 19th century.
   
   "The Borden Tragedy" gave me a good grounding in the case. Next time I swing (!) through Fall River, I'll have to pop by their home (still standing) and their family grave.



5. Too often, cartoons are thought of as "kid stuff". But Rick Geary has created a well-researched account of the infamous Borden murders in cartoon format, & it is useful for adults & children alike.
   
   Filled with illustrations from old photos, maps & blueprints, you get an excellent feel for the events. Geary makes plain other features, such as the oppressively hot Summer temperatures, the eyewitness that saw Lizzy in the yard, clean & un-bloodstained, & many other documented facts that less fair authors choose to omit.
   
   This early era in American History come across well, & the cartoon approach makes the "horse & buggy" period comprehensible to the Internet Generation.
   
   A big thumbs up for this one.

5 comments about Original Game: Interview with an Old School Player.

1. I had to write a review out of sheer respect and give propers where they're do. My collection of "pimp & player" books encompass just about every title released and this book by far has the most substance, bar none. I felt like I was sitting down in the presence of a true player being schooled about the in's and out's of a variety of game while reading this book. I hope the author writes more because this is one of the best books in the genre to date. I highly recommend this book, it's worth more than what they're selling it for.



2. Lame: So much lame, so little time. Okay, for all his talk, he drives into Canada with a primo ho and empty pockets. He has to beg another player for money. Huh? Lamer: His buddy, a certified player, claims his ho and he can score a quarter of a mil, cash, like snapping their fingers, but he works out of a basement, living on Salvation Army furniture. Lamest: White Folks is sued by his daughter on a TV court show for a few hundred in back rent. How lame is that? A player? I don't think so. Talks a good game, though.



3. Bought this book because I saw the author on a judge show.
   
   Book sucks.



4. my friend showed me this guy on youtube.com and said he wanted his book, but didn't have the cash. so I gave it to him on his birthday and he said it was great.



5. This is a book a real player, pimp, grifter, conman/conwoman, forger, prostitute or finess thief will really like and be able to identify with and is a must read. Now even a square with a open mind will enjoy this book. Of course the average trick, mark or chump will most likely hate on the book and even write a bad review just because it reminds them of their role in the Life which is a chump, mark, trick or vic and their part is to be fleeced for their money or to spend it on a prostitute. I have seen two bad reviews and I believe both of these reviewers fit into the lame/trick/vic category especially the one calling this book lame. White Folks breaks down the mentality of a Player/Pimp down from A to Z. He runs down the basics of the Pimp Game, the Confidence Game and the art of Forgery. It is not just a profession but a way of life and a lifestyle governed by rules, regulations and ethics. It is a honor to be a Player/Pimp in The Life and The Game! He also exposes the new generation of wanna-be thugs and dope dealers who try to claim fame to the Game but are just imposters who have no real Game and are just tricks and suckers who think using a gun or selling drugs is slick and most when arrested will snitch almost instantly. He has written a masterpiece book about "The Life and The Game"!!

5 comments about Justice: Crimes, Trials, and Punishments.

1. The man cannot string two words together without name dropping. It is disgusting and so is he.



2. Excellent book written by a man who has traveled in the social circles of the guilty as well as the innocent. His status as the father of a murder victim entitles him to an insight that would be almost too much to bear. However, Dunne is objective in his reporting, generous with his knowledge as an "insider," and brave beyond reason in revealing facts about famous legal cases most of us know only through the newspapers. Dunne has put together an amazing collection of essays that will open one's eyes to the power that money can have to manipulate the American justice system. I recommend it.



3. Briefly interesting, but after awhile it begins to read like a syrupy tabloid. Also, as the narrative went through the murder account and trial of Dominick Dunne's daughter, I couldn't help but think, why didn't the author do more to keep his daughter away from this convicted criminal? Maybe I missed something, but he was in the know that his daughter was involved with a convicted abuser: why didn't he do everything in his power to bring his daughter back away from this creep?
   Anyhow, as for the rest of the book, I really couldn't care less about individuals like Claus von Bülow, so the text tended to drag.



4. Yes, he is gossipy but in many ways that raises him above others. Any one who likes true crime will love his work. I think that he has experienced such things he speaks with the a personal insight that only the person who has experienced the pain knows ho to convey that in written form



5. I've read most of Mr Dunne's books and he continues to hold my interest. I have the utmost of respect for this gentleman...his unbiased yet "in your face" take on the upper crust's trials and tribulations are bar none...right on the money, so to speak.
   I hope Mr Dunne keeps on doing what he does best...and that is TELLING THE TRUTH!~

5 comments about Sunk Without a Sound : The Tragic Colorado River Honeymoon of Glen and Bessie Hyde.

1. I think, at first, the cover scared me away, but once I started reading I was involved. I must applaud Brad Dimock's writing skill. He has written a book with the timbre and cadence of a Jon Krakauer about an episode of which we know very little. While Glen Hyde's life was well documented by his family, very little is known about Bessie Hyde or how the Hyde's marriage was holding up under the pressure of their Colorado River float. Despite this dearth of information, Dimock has succeeded in bringing Glen and Bessie to life. We care about these two people, who disappeared over 75 years ago, and we follow the scanty thread of facts that Dimock has been able to gather, hanging on to each clue in the hope of learning their fate even though we know from the beginning that the Hyde's were never found.

   Sunk Without a Sound can stand side-by-side with the best of Jon Krakauer and David Roberts.




2. The story of Glen and Bessie Hyde is the greatest Grand Canyon mystery. They are the honeymoon couple that disappeared without a trace in 1928. Many myths and legends have evolved in the intervening years (including a segement of "Unsolved Mysteries"). Brad Dimmock is a Colorado River guide (and a very good writer) who duplicated the couples ill fated journey down the Colorado. He has interwoven the historical material with his own modern attempt using a sweepboat similiar to the one the Hyde's used. I read this while visiting the canyon again. It was great sitting on the patio at the Lodge on the North Rim reading this fascinating account. If you love a great mystery or you love Canyon lore, you'll love this book.



3. Just returned from 7 day trip down the Colorado River/Glen Canyon. One of the favorite stories was of these "honeynooners". the book is a wonderful adventure and worth a read, particularly if you have the joy of rafting that water. Enjoy!



4. Although there are some points where the book jumps back and forth upon itself, overall this is an engaging read about an interesting couple and a man's struggle to understand their ordeal. Very easy and enjoyable read in which you become enrapt in what happens next and makes you wonder what the "real" story truly was.



5. I love this book Just this April, that my wife and I visited the Grand Canyon for the first time together. For me, it was the first time ever. We mostly hiked here and there on the South rim and a bit down into the canyon, but it was nothing big, though it was pleasant. However, I was intrigued with the tales of Glen and Bessie and I wanted to know more. I got another Grand Canyon book through Inter-Library loan and it mentioned that a fellow named Dimock was in the process of publishing a book about them.
   
   So I finally got this book and devoured it, once I got my hands on it. This guy not only heavily researched the Hydes, he also built a similar boat and took it through the Grand Canyon, albeit with a sweep boat as back up. Then he went by kayak to personally survey the area where the Hydes most likely died.
   
   I admit to being taken aback a bit by the book cover, which shows two people in modern garb and wearing life perservers in whitewater. However, who is better to show there than the author and his wife on the replica of the Hydes' "Rain in the Face" while barreling down what is presumably the Colorado River?
   
   I would even bet that this failed exploit provided the idea for Dana Lamb's book "Enchanted Vagabonds", in which he builds a boat and supposedly paddles it with his young wife all the way from California to Panama. However, Dana selected a route where cheating is possible.
   
   I want to thank Brad Dimock for answering what can be reasonably argued about Glen and Bessie.

5 comments about And Never Let Her Go: Thomas Capano: The Deadly Seducer.

1. Like most all of Ann Rule's true crime novels, this was absolutely absorbing. Very thorough research made for an indepth reading about the lives of everyone involved in the case, everyone except - Kay Ryan Capano, the wife of the murderer. Throughout the whole book, I found myself asking, "What about Kay? What did she know and when?" I suppose it isn't the fault of the author if it is because Kay wouldn't grant her a real interview, but I just found it to be a major missing component of the story. I finished this book feeling so angry with the narcissistic Capano family.



2. Ann Rule delivers another of her thoroughly researched and grippingly written tomes in the tale of Thomas Capano and Anne Marie Fahey.
   
   This reviewer, True Crime afficianada, and regular Ann Rule reader, recently discovered a gem of a Made-for-TV movie Ann Rule's And Never Let Her Go. But even with its runtime of 3 hrs 20 minutes, it is not long enough.
   Adam Greenman's teleplay adaptation of Ms Rule's book leaves out a lot and might leave the non-reader watcher befuddled and confused. For example, the torrid tawdry Capano/Christine affair is barely hinted, although it was a focal point of the book, the trial, and fodder for the tabloids.
   
   So, get the book and the movie. Read the book this week, then, this weekend, make a nice cozy fire and settle in to watch a wicked good movie of the Evil that Men do.
   
   /TundraVision, Amazon Reviewer



3. Tom Capano is a rich, successful, EXTREMELY egotisical, affluent pyschopath that murders Anne Marie Fahey, the young woman he was having a secret affair with. This man had a wife, who had the good sense to 'get out'. He also was involved(at the same time) in another affair with a woman who became so manipulated by him that he actually tried to frame her for Ms. Fahey's murder. She was so under his control, that he seemed to really believe, she would take the fall for him. Although, she was not involved, this mistress came to know he killed Anne Marie. After he was arrested, this mistress continued to visit him in jail. She well knew, he tried to frame her, but was still trying to "hang on". Believe me, I've had my bad moments, but self esteem that low; I cannot grasp. That type of mentality, I do not understand. It is an engrossing tale. Anne Marie's family was so forthcoming with interviews, that you could sense their real love, strength, and closeness. When they realized Anne was missing, they searched out and uncovered her secret affair with this man. They pieced together what happened, and despite their grief, would not stop until, Tom Capano was brought to justice; very affluent though he was. The only problem I have with Ann Rule, is her tendency to make victims out to be so saintly and innocent. This beautiful young woman certainly didn't deserve this monster--but she did choose him. She kept her affair from her family, even though they were very closeknit. Her family truly loved her. I sure her brother would have read her the "riot act" if he had known, She realized this too, that why she didn't tell him. She knew Capano was married. She made a mistake many women make, but unfortunately he was psycho. The hard fact is she was not without responsibility for putting herself in the position to be butchered by this man. At one point, she had broken off her relationship with Capano and found a young man she could have had a future with. Capano stayed away. One day at work, Ms. Fahey discovered her car wouldn't start. In a moment of weakness, she called Capano to come and pick her up and take her home. It was a momentary lapse, or maybe she was confused. Sometimes, you break up with someone because you know they are not good for you, but part of you still wants them. I believe Capano thought she was interested in re-establishing a relationship with him when she called him to pick her up.
   He set out to woo her with expensive clothes and dinners. When he realized she really didn't want him back, I really believe, he felt she was toying with him. He could not comprehend, she really wanted someone else. I can also mentally envision, egotisical Tom's thought processes when he realised, she really did not want him any longer: Who does this B**** think she is? I'm Thomas Capano, nobody plays with ME! Nobody messes with ME!--and lives another day. He snapped and killed her. It was disturbing. I wondered if she might still be alive, if she had stayed resolute and not contacted him after she initially broke things off. She had a beautiful spirit, you can see it in her photographs. So sad.



4. I, wanted to read the book to see if there were additions to the DVD version. Very Intersting Reading.
   
   Enjoy!



5. This is a sad story and I feel horrible for the Fahey family, but Ann Rule totally overdoes it. Deborah McIntyre was NOT the victim. And Ms. Rule continuously goes on and on stating how beautiful she was when she so clearly is NOT (sorry I just have to say that). Tom Capano is a disgusting individual. Ann Rule gets so carried away trying to explain away Ms. McIntyre's mistakes and Ms. Fahey's mistakes that it takes away from the story. She didn't have to. To read about the case, Summer Wind is much better.

5 comments about A Fever In The Heart And Other True Cases: Ann Rule's Crime Files, Volume III.

1. Once again Ann Rule, a great storyteller and writer on the horrific detail, tells a story on a perfect murder. So perfect that any detective can agree with. Theres no such thing as a perfect crime that are in all fictional mysteries. An experienced homicide detective investigates an unexplained death with only blood,and no body. An incredible story that sheds light on a marriage that seemed happy, but lead to a betrayal. Also the author of the story made it so exciting for a reader to read, like adding a serial killer in the story. This story is like a murder waiting to happen.



2. I love Ann Rule's books, but the first time I tried it, I laid it down. Thankfully, I picked it back up, I was hooked. This is one of Ann's true crime files volumes. I really got swept up in the title story of a young man, his coach and mentor who got swept up in a love triangle involving the two men and the wife of the first man. It makes soap operas stink,(which I think they do anyway), The good guy takes poor coach into his home afer a divorce, and next thing you know, wifey leaves husband for coach. (No doubt for money and materials), then she wants hubby#1 back. Well, what follows is murder which benefits nobody but the wife, whom after one man is dead and the other in prison, proceeds to marry another poor fool. Ann sometimes tends to give too much credit to characters, (especially to looks), as she does in this case. This was an average woman who just knew how to play two men against each other, also involving others to make the murder happen. The other short stories are good, too, especially "The Highway Accident". If you are a Rule fan, of course, read it.



3. Ex-cop and serial killer expert Ann Rule isn't a profound writer. She tells the same story over and over again with new victims and grisly variations on the way a human being can die. I suppose there's nothing profound about me either, since I read her stories. But it's a relief to know that no matter how badly my life is behaving, I'm profoundly better off than the victims of Rule's psychopaths.
   
   The title story, "A Fever in the Heart" is 245 pages long, and the author admits she had a problem writing it, possibly because she was so close to one of the victims. My impression is that she also blames one of the other victims for causing the whole affair.
   
   Briefly, two high school coaches are in love with the same woman, who marries one then divorces him and marries the second coach, then returns to husband #1 who is promptly murdered. It seems like a fairly straightforward case, since only coach #2 had a motive to kill coach #1. Then the prime suspect is also murdered.
   
   "A Fever in the Heart" is an interesting mystery with good police-work, and sad, intricate relationships between the victims. However, I believe it is about 220 pages too long. Possibly because the author was so involved in the story, she tells it over and over again, each time in a slightly different way, but not different enough to hold my interest.
   
   The other five cases included in this volume are as follows:
   
   "The Highway Accident"--A man murders his wife and tries to make it look like an automobile accident.
   
   "Murder without a Body"--"Oregon's last murder conviction in which the body was never found was in 1904." Then a lovely, young teacher disappears, leaving behind lots of blood but no corpse. The prosecutor decides to go ahead with the case, anyway.
   
   "I'll Love You Forever"--Ann Rule found the murderer in this case so sinister that she changed her pen name so he wouldn't be able to find her. This is another sad story of a woman who marries a charming psychopath.
   
   "Black Leather"--A murderer who trolls for young men, then tortures them to death gets his just reward on his own killing ground.
   
   "Mirror Images"--Two convicts bond to the point where they take on the same alias. Both are sexual offenders who torture their victims, and both are on the loose way too long.



4. Ex-cop and serial killer expert Ann Rule isn't a profound writer. She tells the same story over and over again with new victims and grisly variations on the way a human being can die. I suppose there's nothing profound about me either, since I read her stories. But it's a relief to know that no matter how badly my life is behaving, I'm profoundly better off than the victims of Rule's psychopaths.
   
   The title story, "A Fever in the Heart" is 245 pages long, and the author admits she had a problem writing it, possibly because she was so close to one of the victims. My impression is that she also blames one of the other victims for causing the whole affair.
   
   Briefly, two high school coaches are in love with the same woman, who marries one then divorces him and marries the second coach, then returns to husband #1 who is promptly murdered. It seems like a fairly straightforward case, since only coach #2 had a motive to kill coach #1. Then the prime suspect is also murdered.
   
   "A Fever in the Heart" is an interesting mystery with good police-work, and sad, intricate relationships between the victims. However, I believe it is about 220 pages too long. Possibly because the author was so involved in the story, she tells it over and over again, each time in a slightly different way, but not different enough to hold my interest.
   
   The other five cases included in this volume are as follows:
   
   "The Highway Accident"--A man murders his wife and tries to make it look like an automobile accident.
   
   "Murder without a Body"--"Oregon's last murder conviction in which the body was never found was in 1904." Then a lovely, young teacher disappears, leaving behind lots of blood but no corpse. The prosecutor decides to go ahead with the case, anyway.
   
   "I'll Love You Forever"--Ann Rule found the murderer in this case so sinister that she changed her pen name so he wouldn't be able to find her. This is another sad story of a woman who marries a charming psychopath.
   
   "Black Leather"--A murderer who trolls for young men, then tortures them to death gets his just reward on his own killing ground.
   
   "Mirror Images"--Two convicts bond to the point where they take on the same alias. Both are sexual offenders who torture their victims, and both are on the loose way too long.



5. I'd just finished reading Truman Capote's In Cold Blood, (my first foray into true crime)and was so engaged in the story I thought I would give Ann Rule a try. I was very disappointed. The title story itself sounded intriguing, the love triangle turned deadly. Obsession and devotion leading to murder. The first 100 or so pages were okay, not Capote, but readable. But then the author just went on and on and on and on and on. I began skipping big chunks of the narrative,because it simply reiterated the same facts over and over again.We sat through a rehashing of every facet of the story, followed every excruciatingly dull bit of police/DA/Defense procedure. We sat through confessions, then sat through them again during the trial and through every incarnation of them given to cops, prosecutors, defense attorney's, etc. The entire judicial part of the story was five times longer than necessary. I nearly gave up. Stubbornness alone made me persevere and I finally slogged my way through the entire thing. I found the remaining stories more engaging, simply because they were more succinct. I've read that this isn't the best example of Rule's work, and may give her books another go. If you are new to Rule, I would recommend starting with something else.

5 comments about The Murder of Helen Jewett.

1. On one level, Professor Cohen's thorough investigation into one of 19th Century New York's most shocking murder cases doesn't tell us much that we don't already know: the society was sexist, accommodating toward the privileged, and hypocritical in its attitude toward sexual behavior (...and nothing has changed much since then). Whenever Ms. Cohen hammers these points home, and she does pretty often, the effect isn't very... well... effective. And the flow of the book suffers a little from this. Two other things hurt the story: one is the long, distracting section on the histories of the Weston and Jewett/Dorcas families in Maine; and the other is the constant need on Ms. Cohen's part to track the lineage of each and every participant in the case. But for the most part, Professor Cohen's telling of the event is engaging, chilling, and compelling. The participants are brought back to life in a way that most historical writers should envy. To me, the most rewarding part of the book was realizing how much the Jacksonian era in New York and America represented a turning point from the colonial to the modern era. This was the dawn of modern journalism and mass media--the pivotal point where newspaper publishers realized that the public wanted more than just shipping and business reports: where publishers realized there was a public at all. And the media circus--a national media circus--which surrounded this case was the first in a long line that goes on to this day. It was also the first time in western history when people no longer lived in the same place they worked, and when the entire apprenticeship culture was being replaced by the more indifferent employer/employee system. All these important factors do figure into the crime. But the most admirable aspect of the book, for me, was that while all this socio/political analysis went on (sometimes at the expense of the pacing) Ms. Cohen never leaves sight of the young girl at the center of it all. Jewett/Dorcas was by no means a pathetic babe-in-the-woods, and the author is very careful to avoid this perception. But Ms. Cohen makes clear that Jewett, like any crime victim, didn't deserve the end she met. And like any other human being, Jewett was worthy of justice.



2. This book is 409 pages. It should be at least 259 pages shorter.

   The author fills the pages with irrelevancies, speculation and thesis-like sociological postulations.

   This book is ostensibly about the murder of a prostitute in the 1830's and the trial of the man accused. Why then must we be subjected to several pages on the following topic: the family history of the man who hired Helen Jewitt to work as a servant before she moved to Portland then to Boston then to NYC? If that were not enough in the irrelevant department, we also got some information on this man's grandfather's competitor in the general store business nearly a century before the events in the book. These irrelevant facts added nothing to the book.

   Added to this frustration were page upon page of the auhor's speculation about events unknown and motives of people long gone. She gets more out of an undated letter than anyone I ever knew.

   Lastly, are the author's often redundant postulations and theorizing about the socialogy of the age. Some would have been helpful, but by the fourth or fifth time the same theory was repeated it was decidedly tiresome.

   It is a shame this book was not cut and cut again. The story is a good one and the points the author made were good. It was the presentation and the stretching as if she felt compelled to write 400 page book rather than a short concise one that ruined the experience. You could read the first chapter, then skip @150 pages to the account of the trial and hardly miss a beat.




3. On one level, Professor Cohen's thorough investigation into one of 19th Century New York's most shocking murder cases doesn't tell us much that we don't already know: the society was sexist, accommodating toward the privileged, and hypocritical in its attitude toward sexual behavior (...and nothing has changed much since then). Whenever Ms. Cohen hammers these points home, and she does pretty often, the effect isn't very... well... effective. And the flow of the book suffers a little from this. Two other things hurt the story: one is the long, distracting section on the histories of the Weston and Jewett/Dorcas families in Maine; and the other is the constant need on Ms. Cohen's part to track the lineage of each and every participant in the case. But for the most part, Professor Cohen's telling of the event is engaging, chilling, and compelling. The participants are brought back to life in a way that most historical writers should envy. To me, the most rewarding part of the book was realizing how much the Jacksonian era in New York and America represented a turning point from the colonial to the modern era. This was the dawn of modern journalism and mass media--the pivotal point where newspaper publishers realized that the public wanted more than just shipping and business reports: where publishers realized there was a public at all. And the media circus--a national media circus--which surrounded this case was the first in a long line that goes on to this day. It was also the first time in western history when people no longer lived in the same place they worked, and when the entire apprenticeship culture was being replaced by the more indifferent employer/employee system. All these important factors do figure into the crime. But the most admirable aspect of the book, for me, was that while all this socio/political analysis went on (sometimes at the expense of the pacing) Ms. Cohen never leaves sight of the young girl at the center of it all. Jewett/Dorcas was by no means a pathetic babe-in-the-woods, and the author is very careful to avoid this perception. But Ms. Cohen makes clear that Jewett, like any crime victim, didn't deserve the end she met. And like any other human being, Jewett was worthy of justice.



4. The Murder of Helen Jewett by Patricia Cline Cohen. was recommended by an academic friend as a true crime effort with historical weight. She couldn't have been more correct about the weight business. The story of the murder of a New York City prostitute in 1836 generally interested me.
   
   I spent hours with Cline's work and, at the outset, felt well rewarded for the time spent. If detail and context were enough to make a great book, this would qualify. Few books that I have read contain as much detail as carefully analyzed as this one. Much of it illustrates the business of newspapers directed at the common person during the 1830s, something that I have a passing interest in, but it was all too much. By the time I had reached Chapter 4 on "The New York Sex Trade," I knew the basic story and most of the key characters in some detail, and I knew Cline's approach would be to analyze, reanalyze and again reanalyze each aspect of the murder so thoroughly that I couldn't stay with the repetition. I skipped to the end, found out what happened with the likely murderer and moved on to another book.
   
   Personally, I'd have liked it more if she had found an editor determined to serve the reader. Close, research-based document analysis makes good academic work, but it loses a reader looking for the true-crime counterpart of P.D. James.



5. We shouldn't like murder mysteries, but we usually do.
   
   While there's a real tragedy going on -- someone killed, families in disarray, a killer on trial -- we hang on for the gory details.
   
   Folks were no different in New York City in 1836, which is the setting for the real life, true story of the murder of Helen Jewett, a lady of negotiable virtue, who plied her trade at an upscale brothel. It's the story of Jewett's life, and how she came to be who she was, and how she came to do what she did for a living.
   
   And about Richard Robinson, her accused killer, and how a mild-mannered store clerk from rural New England came to New York, and was arrested for Jewett's murder.
   
   And about the trial, and about the crowds there (mostly young -- the defendant was 18 -- clerks like the accused), and about how long the trial lasted, and about the speculation that the judge might have been bribed.
   
   But this is more than a murder mystery. Because the author tells us vivid details about life in New York City during that time, and how prostitutes lived in that era (I didn't know that prostitution was legal in New York at that time), and how young Americans grew up during that time, and what was expected of them as far as behavior and decorum.
   
   This is a scholarly book. It's labeled "history/women's studies," and I wouldn't take that away Patricia Cline Cohen, the historian who wrote the book. But if you just want a better-than-average read that will entertain you as well as teach you, you can do no better than this. I might even suggest -- since I'm writing this review on May 8 -- it wouldn't be a bad beach book. The cover and title are just trashy enough that the people on the next towel won't think you're a nerd on the beach. It'll have to be a secret between you and me and the author that while you're busy turning pages, you're also having your mind expanded.