#kim antonakos

[fletchermarple]

Quick Review of the True Crime Books I Read in 2018 (Part 2)

Review of Books in 2018 Part 1

Review of books in 2017 Part 1 and Part 2

Review of books in 2016 Part 1 and Part 2

Review of books in 2015

In the Name of The Children by Jeffrey L. Rinek: This book was written by a retired FBI agent who worked a lot of cases involving child abuse and murder, so be aware that its contents are very disturbing. Much like John Douglas in Mindhunter, Rinek mixes his personal history with some of the cases he worked in when he was in the bureau, although his book offers less academic and actual crime information and a lot more emotional response and family life. This is not really a bad thing. Rinek is an interesting person, and he really shows the effect that working with cases like this can have in one’s mental health and close relationships. As for the cases themselves, they are all horrific and some more detailed than others. Probably the best one, because of the amount of information and detail, is the Yosemite Murders, which happens to be the only one that doesn’t involve actual children (the youngest victim was 15). Overall, a gripping read which might not be as insightful as other books written by former agents, but way more personal and raw.

Dark Dreams by Roy Hazelwood: Roy Hazelwood is probably one of the main experts in sexual crimes, and he was one of the top agents in the Behavioral Analysis Unit at the FBI (he sadly passed away in 2016). If you’ve ever read books involving some kind of predator, it’s not uncommon that the cops went to him for his advice regarding profiles. Again, this is another John Douglas type of book in which he goes through some of the cases of his career in the agency, although in contrast to In the Name of Children, this has almost no personal information about Hazelwood himself. That means this book is purely concerned with identifying different types of sex crimes and criminals by giving real life examples. It’s very academical and informative and a fairly easy read (because of the narration style, the subject is as dire as you’d expect). My only issue is that he never goes in detail into the cases and most of the time won’t even mention the names of the victims or the perpetrators, which annoys me because it makes it hard to look up more information. But still, a worthy read for true crime enthusiasts who want to understand more what goes into this sort of cases.

Burned Alive by Kieran Crowley: This books details the murder of Kim Antonakos, who in 1995 was kidnapped for ransom and left with no food, water or warmth in a basement for three days before she was set on fire. It provides a lot of information I didn’t know about the case and it’s a good account of how things went down in the investigation and trial. I don’t like though that the writer decided to write a full passage telling us what Kim was feeling and thinking while she was in that basement, because there’s no way to know that’s true and when you insert that kind of thing in a serious, non fictional book it always throws me off. It’s also quite evident that a lot of the information came from one of the men accused in the kidnapping, Julio Negron, who was the one who made a deal with police and testified against the other killers in their trials in exchange for a more lenient sentence. Apparently he was the only one willing to give his version of the story to Crowley, so I would take some of the things presented here with a grain of salt.

Blood Justice by Tom Henderson: Do you ever read a book and completely forget it soon after you finish it? That happened to me with this one, which is obviously not a good sign. The case it talks about is very compelling: two murders, six years apart, committed by the same perpetrator. One was Margarette Eby, a music teacher savagely killed in her home in 1985. Then, flight attendant Nancy Ludwig was rape, butchered and tortured in a Detroit hotel in 1991. It took a really long time and a lot of effort from police to finally get enough evidence to arrest their murderer. The book has plenty of details about the case, the victims and the killer to satisfy the reader, I think the problem to me is that the narrative falls flat most of the time. This book has a structure problem that takes away all of the suspense, and also the author failed to really give us a good character to focus on, which happens a lot in true crime books about long winded investigations. But it is a fairly unknown case, so you might want to give this a try.

I: The Creation of a Serial Killer by Jack Olsen: This novel is about serial killer Keith Hunter Jesperson, also known as “The Happy Face Killer” because he had the tendency to draw smiley faces in the letters he sent to the media. Jack Olsen, an award winner journalist, makes the bold choice of writing some of the chapters in first person, as Jesperson. At first I was a little put off by this, because as you know, I’m a bit of a purist when it comes to non fiction, but I have to admit, those chapters are very gripping and really give you a glimpse into the workings of a very twisted mind. Most of what’s written in first person was culled from interviews Olsen had with Jesperson, so I’m sure he got the tone, the wording and the train of thought right. These chapters follow the actual murders and crimes committed by Jesperson, and they are interjected with more common third-person narrative and newspaper article style writing about the biography of Jesperson and what was going on with the investigation. It was a very interesting read, although you do have to be prepared to put up with a very sick individual pouring his thoughts, indirectly, on the page.

The Anatomy of Motive by John Douglas and Mark Olshaker: As usual, an excellent food for thought from one of the masters of crime analysis. John Douglas really knows how to pick cases to analyze and give you the right balance of information and opinion. In this case, as you can tell from the title, he wanders into the motive behind several crimes with very clear examples. This book reminds us that motive is probably the main mystery we always want to solve in any case. Even when we know the culprit, if we don’t understand the motive there’s always something very unsatisfying about its resolution. Douglas offers us a glimpse of his own thinking about some complicated cases, including Andrew Cunanan’s killing spree and the still unsolved Tylenol murders, among many others. Recommended.