An uneven but well-documented mix of forensic science, narrative nonfiction and criminal psychology.
Important developments in 19th-century forensics and criminal justice are interwoven with the killing spree of French serial killer Joseph Vasher.
Starr (Journalism/Boston Univ.; Blood: An Epic History of Medicine and Commerce, 1998) ushers readers into a French society in which criminals were not only becoming more violent but also more sophisticated. Meanwhile, the criminal-justice system was hampered by outmoded methods of investigation, dated autopsy procedures and often inappropriate dispensation of justice. The author situates his studies where forensic science and criminal-justice theory began to catch up with increasingly frequent and complicated 20th-century crimes. Then entering the picture are forensic scientists Alexandre Lacassagne and Cesare Lombroso. Lacassagne believed that criminals were shaped by sociological factors, while Lombroso insisted that crime was caused primarily by biological factors—criminals were “born,” not made. Intertwined with the intermittently compelling story of these scientists’ achievements is the more gripping account of “Killer of Little Shepherds” Vasher’s murderous rampage outside Lyon, France. Vasher was an honorably discharged sergeant who also happened to be a homicidal maniac. After a short stay in two different asylums, he was released, and the “cured” Vasher embarked on a series of gruesome murders that surpassed even Jack the Rippers’ in quantity and brutality. Although Starr’s heavy immersion into forensics and investigative procedure makes interesting reading for CSI fans, his focus too often meanders—from autopsies to “root” causes of crime to, finally, an inconclusive look at the sticky business of separating “insane” murderers from “sane” ones. Ironically, the evidence leading to Vasher’s capture and murder conviction had little to do with the forensic advances of either Lombroso or Lacassagne. Through a particularly cagey mode of psychological trickery, private investigator Emile Fourquet finally elicited a murder confession from the long-elusive killer.
An uneven but well-documented mix of forensic science, narrative nonfiction and criminal psychology.Pub Date: Oct. 7, 2010
ISBN: 978-0-307-26619-4
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Knopf
Review Posted Online: June 9, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2010
BOOK REVIEW
At times slow-going, but the riveting period detail and dramatic flair eventually render this tale an animated history...
A murder that transfixed the world and the invention that made possible the chase for its perpetrator combine in this fitfully thrilling real-life mystery.
Using the same formula that propelled Devil in the White City (2003), Larson pairs the story of a groundbreaking advance with a pulpy murder drama to limn the sociological particulars of its pre-WWI setting. While White City featured the Chicago World’s Fair and America’s first serial killer, this combines the fascinating case of Dr. Hawley Crippen with the much less gripping tale of Guglielmo Marconi’s invention of radio. (Larson draws out the twin narratives for a long while before showing how they intersect.) Undeniably brilliant, Marconi came to fame at a young age, during a time when scientific discoveries held mass appeal and were demonstrated before awed crowds with circus-like theatricality. Marconi’s radio sets, with their accompanying explosions of light and noise, were tailor-made for such showcases. By the early-20th century, however, the Italian was fighting with rival wireless companies to maintain his competitive edge. The event that would bring his invention back into the limelight was the first great crime story of the century. A mild-mannered doctor from Michigan who had married a tempestuously demanding actress and moved to London, Crippen became the eye of a media storm in 1910 when, after his wife’s “disappearance” (he had buried her body in the basement), he set off with a younger woman on an ocean-liner bound for America. The ship’s captain, who soon discerned the couple’s identity, updated Scotland Yard (and the world) on the ship’s progress—by wireless. The chase that ends this story makes up for some tedious early stretches regarding Marconi’s business struggles.
At times slow-going, but the riveting period detail and dramatic flair eventually render this tale an animated history lesson.Pub Date: Oct. 24, 2006
ISBN: 1-4000-8066-5
Page Count: 464
Publisher: Crown
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2006
Apt tribute to family endurance in the face of grievous loss.
A wrenching tale of a notorious murder’s long echoes for its survivors.
Cummins terms her debut “both a true crime [story] and a memoir,” intending it to celebrate the lives of her young cousins, Julie and Robin Kerry, killed during a chance encounter in the summer of 1991. Traveling with her family from Washington, D.C., to vacation with relatives in St. Louis, Cummins ruefully recalls, “I thought I was tough.” On their last night in St. Louis, her older brother Tom snuck out with Julie and Robin; the rebellious 18-year-old rookie firefighter had developed a deep emotional bond with his cousins, both lovers of poetry and social justice. The trio went to the decrepit Old Chain of Rocks Bridge, where they ran into four local young men whose friendly demeanor quickly turned savage. The men beat Tom, raped Julie and Robin, then pushed all three into the raging Mississippi River. Only Tom survived, and his family’s horror was compounded when investigators inexplicably charged him with his cousins’ deaths. Tom was held for several grueling days before a flashlight found at the scene led authorities to the real killers, who quickly implicated one another. The least culpable accepted a 30-year plea; the others received death sentences. Identifying herself by her childhood nickname “Tink,” Cummins re-creates these dark events in an omniscient third-person narrative that lends the tale grim efficiency. Although her prose is occasionally purple (“Tink’s blood turned to ice and the room started to spin out from under her feet”), she succeeds overall in acquainting the reader with the horrific toll exacted by proximity to violence. The conclusion, which examines how the cruelest of the murderers became a cause célèbre thanks to his youth, offers astringent commentary on our society’s fascination with killers, who in media coverage often overshadow their victims. Cummins’s memoir does a good job of retrieving the lives of Julie and Robin from that obscurity.
Apt tribute to family endurance in the face of grievous loss.Pub Date: June 1, 2004
ISBN: 0-451-21053-0
Page Count: 320
Publisher: NAL/Berkley
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2004
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