Friday, April 19, 2024
You think you know who dun it.
Sometimes, murder mysteries are like that: you get a few pages in, and the killer is obvious to anyone with eyes. And then sometimes, there's a sense of the unsettled and unfinished left to a story – especially if it's true – and those are the best kinds of books. With that in mind, here are two great true crime books for you to read this fall.
It had been a beautiful early-fall day that September 1934, a great day for a leisurely stroll along the shores of Lake Erie, to watch the water and the area's wildlife, to ponder life's little mysteries. Surely, however, the lower half of a female body was the wrong kind of surprise for the beach-walker who stumbled upon a crime scene but the "Lady of the Lake," as the woman was quickly referred to, was just the beginning.
Over the course of the next 48 months, a dozen more, similar bodies would be found throughout the city of Cleveland, Ohio. Each corpse was drained of blood, and all were dismembered, as if a surgeon was practicing his art. Investigators could tell that some of the women died in the most gruesome manner.
Understandably, every single person in the entire city was horrified and the mayor of Cleveland called for help from the best person one could then imagine: Eliot Ness, who came large to the city after a successful take-down of Al Capone in Chicago. Readers can almost imagine Ness, stalking like a boss into Ohio.
Could the "Untouchables" take down another criminal – this time, a killer?
Find out in "American Demon" by Daniel Stashower.
And speaking of Chicago, if you love a good true crime book, reach back a century ago and reach for "Nothing But the Night" by Greg King and Penny Wilson. It's the tale of a most gruesome murder that shocked America for its scandal.
Indeed, Nathan Leopold and Richard Loeb both had splendid futures ahead of them: they were educated, privileged, and their families were relatively well-off, even on the cusp of the Great Depression. They could have been leaders but no, they murdered fourteen-year-old Bobby Franks, and they did it just for kicks.
Immediately after the senseless murder happened in 1924, scads of rumors, misinformation and half-beliefs circled through every conversation about the boys, about their lawyer, and about the depravity of their crime. People couldn't stop talking about it.
And King and Wilson say today that none of that is true.
In this book, readers learn the real story of Leopold, Lowe, Clarence Darrow, and the "Crime of the Century," and it's a story that'll chill you even now...
If these are not absolutely the perfect books for your true crime-reading pleasure, then be sure to throw yourself at the mercy of your favorite bookseller or librarian. They'll know exactly what you want, what will interest you, and what will chill you on a chilly night.
Librarians and booksellers are like that. They've dun it all.
