"Al never went into the main part of the house but sometimes my mother would bring a sandwich outside and...

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	• A Death in Belmont (P.S.) Sebastian Junger Harper Perennial, 2007 - 304 pages average customer review:based on 119 reviews view larger image
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"Al never went into the main part of the house but sometimes my mother would bring a sandwich outside and keep him company."

Sebastian Junger, author of The Perfect Storm: A True Story of Men Against the Sea (P.S.), grew up with the story of Albert DeSalvo, the admitted "Boston Strangler," who once worked as a carpenter at the house where his parents lived in Belmont, Massachusetts, when he was an infant. And when the murder of Bessie Goldberg occurred not far from there, it was his mother who rushed outside and told Al about the murder. Since Al came and went on errands throughout the day, it would have been possible for him to have committed the murder and returned.

Using this "hook" into the story, Junger thoroughly investigates all aspects of the strangler and the murders. In the case of the Goldberg murder in Belmont, a black man, Roy Smith, who had worked cleaning her house, was accused of the crime, though he staunchly denied any involvement. Racial prejudice, the absence of any black families in Belmont, and the lack of any other plausible assailant led to Smith's arrest. Full disclosure did not exist then, and his lawyer was denied access to much of the evidence. The witnesses were coached by law enforcement, and the trial went on during the weekend of the assassination of President Kennedy. Smith had had some minor scrapes with the law in Oxford, Mississippi, where he formerly lived, and he was convicted and sentenced to life on the Saturday two days after the Kennedy assassination--by an all male jury drawn from Kennedy's former legislative district. DNA tests did not yet exist.

Albert DeSalvo eventually confessed to being the Boston Strangler, and though he admitted to most of the thirteen murders and provided details, he always refused to admit to the Goldberg murder, despite the fact that it fit the Strangler's M.O. better than some other murders DeSalvo did admit to.

Junger takes the reader through the evidence, using his access to the trial transcripts, the police records, witness interviews, newspaper accounts, and interviews with some of the surviving witnesses. He analyzes the nature of a serial killer vs. the spontaneous killer of one person. He evaluates the importance of circumstantial evidence in lieu of real evidence, and stresses its importance. His psychological analysis of the way the guilty behave when questioned, as opposed to the truly innocent, provides insights into whether Roy Smith was really guilty.

Best of all, Junger keeps an open mind. Though he grew up believing that Roy Smith was innocent, there are times during the book in which he presents evidence which would convict Roy, and there are also times in which he wonders if DeSalvo could really have committed these murders. Ten years after the murder, when Roy Smith is eligible for clemency, based on his exemplary behavior, and when Albert has changed his mind about having said he was guilty, the book becomes even more complicated, leaving the reader to deal with the aftermath. There are no conclusions about whether DeSalvo or Smith really committed the crime(s). Junger leaves that up to his individual readers. n Mary Whipple

Fire
Biography - Junger, Sebastian (1962-): An article from: Contemporary Authors Online

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Very Interesting Read

I have been avoiding this book for a long time. It sounded good when I read the snippets of information on it, it just isn't the kind of thing I enjoy.
Finally, I went ahead and bought it. It then sat on my night table for months.

I knew I had to do it, but it wasn't easy cracking a book about a serial killer. The descriptions were chilling but not overly graphic or gratuitous. Junger made sure to keep the facts of the murders quiet and respectful, even in their gruesome reality.

I knew nothing of the Boston Strangler, so I learned a lot about that time and how terrifying it must have been living in that area at that time.

The grave injustices made my blood boil and have given me a new perspective. It was well worth the wait and a great read.

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Could not put it down.

I could not put the book down, I was mesmerized from start to finish. How this man who wrote a famous and great tragic story was himself a part of such a larger-than-life infamous time frame and proximity. I highly recommend this story.

Interesting yet too long

This story was interesting. Although he is not old enough to actually remember any of the events, he draws in a very personal aspect to the crime in the title. The story of the man wrongly accused is heartbreaking but typical of the time. S. Junger takes too long however to make some of his points. No doubt the story is intriguing, but some superfluous wording could have definitely made it more enjoyable.

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reviews: page 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10

In the spring of 1963, the quiet suburb of Belmont, Massachusetts, is rocked by a shocking murder that fits the pattern of the infamous Boston Strangler, still at large. Hoping for a break in the case, the police arrest Roy Smith, a black ex-con whom the victim hired to clean her house. Smith is hastily convicted of the murder, but the Strangler's terror continues. And through it all, one man escapes the scrutiny of the police: a carpenter working at the time at the Belmont home of young Sebastian Junger and his parents?a man named Albert

From the acclaimed author of A Perfect Storm comes a powerful chronicle of three lives that collide in the vortex of one of America's most controversial serial murder cases.

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