I'm mentioned several times that I'm not really into true crime.
This book chronicles the resulting manhunt. I received a review copy courtesy of the publisher.From 1962-1964, thirteen women were sexually assaulted and murdered, strangled to death by an unknown assailant.
New ebook edition published July 5th, 2016 by Open Road Integrated Media. But it does stand well as a very readable true crime account, even with an element of the cautionary tale to it. Both for the conditions that contributed to DeSalvo’s mental state and for his victims. And of course, it should go without saying, but it’s very sad. There are some linguistic snags, unfortunate relics of the time in which it was written, that are unpleasant to read. You can learn a lot about some elements of American history from this book. Lee Bailey was actually the lawyer that defending DeSalvo and kept him from having a trial? I had no idea he’d done that as a young attorney. A 2013 DNA match proved pretty definitively that he did at least kill the last victim too. I’m not sure why, since the unpublished details he could recall about the cases related here seemed pretty conclusive to me. Then again, the psychiatrists and lawyers dealing with him after his confession always seemed suspicious that he was actually guilty. That just struck me as odd, if it had really happened as often as he claimed. What I would’ve liked to read more about were the hundreds, maybe even thousands, of breaking and entering incidents he claimed he did, specifically why the women involved didn’t report any information about him when the Strangler case became so notorious. You learn the bulk of what happened during Albert DeSalvo’s bizarre murder spree throughout the greater Boston area, some of his background, a little about the women who were his victims. It’s just well-written and consistently interesting, aside from a few pages relating to legal details and bargaining near the end which I skipped through, the rest was enough to keep me up late reading to finish. I can see why it’s endured as a popular title for decades already. It’s a page turner, and the narrative is really engaging. So I probably wouldn’t have picked this up if it hadn’t come so recommended. I can’t even remember why now but I really didn’t like it. I read Sebastian Junger’s book, A Death in Belmont, years ago when it first came out, and that’s all I really knew about the Boston Strangler. I wasn’t even particularly interested in this story. I know I have to take a break from true crime sooner or later, but this kept getting recommended as a good example of the genre, and then I noticed a newly released ebook version from Open Road Integrated Media on Netgalley. – $1.99 ebook alert for that one on Amazon) Book review : The Boston Strangler, by Gerold Frank ( Amazon / Book Depository) (P.S.
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