It’s hard to imagine wanting to read such a story, but devotees of true crime will be drawn to this narrative.
Horrific account of a headline-making case of criminal abuse that shook a California community.
The cliché screams out at the beginning: They seemed to be such normal people, and, as a neighbor said, “nobody here knew they had twelve kids….I thought there was just one or two.” The 13 children in the Turpin household in an otherwise ordinary Southern California suburb, though, were anything but normal. They were held captive in their home for years, beaten, chained to furniture, sexually abused, forbidden to wash, fed a diet of frozen burritos and peanut butter or bologna sandwiches meal after meal. Infractions that merited corporal punishment included playing with toys or looking out the window. The children had never been to a dentist. The parents/perpetrators had themselves experienced abuse and trauma, a family history that Glatt (The Lost Girls: The True Story of the Cleveland Abductions and the Incredible Rescue of Michelle Knight, Amanda Berry, and Gina DeJesus, 2015, etc.) traces over generations. There were exceedingly odd twists. The parents bought their children 10 brand-new, expensive bicycles and then "lined them up under the carport with the price tags on the handlebars and stickers on the wheels for all the neighbors to see”—but forbade the children from leaving the house to play with them. The story is creepy, with a few twists—e.g., after they were freed, it developed that the children were musically adept, singing being one of the few things they could do in captivity. Train-wreck attention-getter that it is, the book is longer than the story warrants, and it calls out for comparative treatment—for case studies of similar crimes, that is, and any conclusions that can be drawn about the perpetrators other than that they’re monstrous, which seems abundantly clear from the first page.
It’s hard to imagine wanting to read such a story, but devotees of true crime will be drawn to this narrative.Pub Date: Aug. 6, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-250-20213-0
Page Count: 320
Publisher: St. Martin's
Review Posted Online: May 25, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2019
A dramatic account of a young immigrant, who in 1895 slit her lover's throat and became the first woman sentenced to the recently invented electric chair. Pucci (Bhima Swarga: The Balinese Divine Comedy, not reviewed) became interested in this story when she learned that her American-born grandmother, Cora Slocomb, Countess di BrazzÖ, was one of Maria Barbella's staunchest advocates, traveling from her Italian estate to New York City to directly assist and use her influential social connections to benefit a woman she saw as ``another poor Italian immigrant at the mercy of the American courts.'' Barbella, a seamstress who worked grueling hours for eight dollars a week, believed Domenico Cataldo when he lured her from her parents' home by promising marriage. Finally rejected by him, Barbella murdered Cataldo in front of witnesses; a biased judge and entirely non-Italian jury readily discounted the lame defense, which Barbella herself, who was bewildered by events and spoke little English, could not even understand. Convicted of first- degree murder, she was sentenced to die at Sing Sing Prison. While she learned English in prison, advocates wrote and petitioned on her behalf; the public devoured her story in the newspapers; and almost a year after her arrest, the state Court of Appeals ordered a retrial in which she was acquitted. Pucci's own fascination with the story's characters gives the account considerable life and immediacy. However, one senses that Pucci is less determined to peel back the layers of the story than simply to tell it well—which she does. But Barbella's conflicting explanations for her actions are unreconciled and there is no modern assessment of the medical arguments regarding her epilepsy (apparently important to her acquittal). An intriguing story, but don't count on being able to render a verdict on Barbella's case at the end of it. (12 pages photos, not seen)
Pub Date: March 2, 1996
ISBN: 1-56858-061-4
Page Count: 300
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 1996
This exceptionally captivating narrative, tracing the glittering rise and bloody fall of the Billionaire Boys Club, lives up to its subtitle's lofty, lurid promise. Joe Gamsky, a latter-day Jay Gatsby, grew up poor but smart enough to win a scholarship to L.A.'s posh Harvard School. Joe became friendly with schoolmate Dean Karny, and the two remained close after Joe (who changed his last name to Hunt) began a stint as a trader in Chicago. After losing millions on speculative trades and being expelled from the Mercantile Exchange, he rebounded, starting a new venture in Los Angeles, the Billionaire Boys Club, with Karny. The two attracted their richest friends from the Harvard School, and soon money was pouring into the BBC coffers for the stated purposes of technological research and investment. Sullivan (whose 1986 Esquire article on Hunt was the origin of this book) expertly details the grand ambitions of the BBC, which seemed achievable for a time. But the boys were greedy, as they candidly admitted to Sullivan; and Hunt's ability to manipulate their parents, along with his Ponzi and pyramid schemes, relied on a constant influx of cash. When Hunt matched wits with Ron Levin, a far superior con artist, the BBC was doomed. Karny provides fascinating details about the BBC's slide into a total amorality, rooted in avarice and almost cultlike devotion to the emotionally contained but charismatic Hunt. The result was the murder of Levin and two others. This archetypal L.A. story, set against the waning '80s, takes a further twist when Karny enters the Witness Protection Program, sending Hunt and other BBC members to jail for life. But Hunt has already gained what amounts to an acquittal on one murder charge, and he is fighting for a new trial on his outstanding convictions. Thoroughly researched and compulsively readable, an essential entry in the true-crime canon. (First printing of 50,000; $50,000 ad/promo; author tour)
Pub Date: April 1, 1996
ISBN: 0-87113-512-4
Page Count: 736
Publisher: Grove
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 1996
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