|
by: Sebastian Junger
List Price: $14.95Amazon.com's Price: $10.17 You Save: $4.78 (32%)Prices subject to change. Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
Binding: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 364.1523097444
EAN: 9780060742690
ISBN: 0060742690
Label: Harper Perennial
Manufacturer: Harper Perennial
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 304
Publication Date: April 01, 2007
Publisher: Harper Perennial
Release Date: April 03, 2007
Sales Rank: 160359
Studio: Harper Perennial
Related Items:
Editorial Review:
Product Description:
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.
Amazon.com:
Imagine how strange and frightening it would be to see a picture of yourself, not quite a year old, with your mother and two men, one of whom is a confessed serial killer. This is what happened to Sebastian Junger, and only a small part of what he recounts in A Death in Belmont.
The quiet suburb of Belmont, Massacuusetts, is in the grip of fear. The Boston Strangler murders have taken place nearby, and now there is another shocking sex crime, right in Belmont. The victim is Bessie Goldberg, a middle-aged woman who had hired a cleaning man to help out around the house on that fall day in 1963. He is a black man named Roy Smith. He did the appointed chores, collected his money and left a receipt on the kitchen table. Neighbors will say that he looked furtive when he walked down the street, that he was in a hurry, that he stopped to buy cigarettes, that he looked over his shoulder. They didn't see a black man in Belmont very often, so, of course, they noticed him. So the story went, and on these slender threads, and his own checkered history, Roy Smith is convicted of the Belmont murder and sent to prison.
On the day of the murder, Albert DeSalvo, an Italian-American handyman, is also in Belmont, working as a carpenter in the Junger home, where the picture is taken. Two years after his work for the Jungers, he confesses in vivid detail to the crimes of which the Boston Strangler is accused, and sent to prison, where he is stabbed to death by an inmate. But he never confesses to the Bessie Goldberg murder. Could he have left the Junger home, committed the murder a few blocks away and calmly returned to finish his day's work? Could Roy Smith really have been the guilty party, even though his sentence was commuted after De Salvo confessed?
In the grand tradition of his bestselling The Perfect Storm, Junger tells a terrific story, lining up all the elements, asking all the pertinent questions, digging into the backgrounds of both men, retelling his mother's very strange encounter with Albert when she is home alone with Sebastian. He then asks the larger questions: Was Roy Smith convicted summarily because he was black? Was Albert De Salvo really the Boston Strangler?
Junger cannot answer all the questions, as no one can. Without DNA, there is no way to be certain of which of the two men might have committed the rape and murder of Bessie Goldberg, or if neither of them is guilty. While it is frustrating not to know for sure, the story is fascinating, reads like a tautly plotted mystery thriller, and Junger's close connection is downright creepy. --Valerie Ryan
Customer Reviews
Average Rating: 
Rating:  - 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.
Rating:  - "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 ... Read More
Rating: - 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. ... Read More
Rating:  - Fun with the Facts
S. Junger has traveled far from the truth in his attempt to connect the murder of Bessie Goldberg from his hometown of Belmont , Massachusetts to Albert DeSalvo the discredited Boston Strangler who once worked for Junger's mother. The facts of the case are cast aside as Junger exaggerates, distorts, lies, and omits important trial evidence.
The murder victim advertised as a neighbor of the Junger family actually lived on the other side of town. Between the two homes were 95 private residences, ... Read More
Rating: - The Terror of the Boston Strangler!
I have some doubts regarding Albert DeSalvo's guilt in the Boston strangling murders in the early 1960s. The author does argue for the innocence of an African American Roy Smith who is falsely accused of killing Bessie Goldberg since he was there to clean her home. He had left before the murder occurred and her body was discovered by her husband. The police of Belmont believed that Roy Smith was responsible despite his pleas of innocence. How could a man who had witnessed such cruel behavior in the south such ... Read More
|
