Review of Who Killed...? Pittsburgh, Pa (Who Killed...?) (Who Killed...?) (Paperback)

Author Jack Swint brings these cold case Pensylvania murders back into the publics eye in his no nonsense straight to the point style of writing. As the second book in the "Who Killed?" series, Swint has detailed these unsolved murders in hopes someone will come forward to police with new information and clues to solve these brutal and senseless crimes.

I am confused though why Rooftop Publishing Company is not giving any acknoledgement or credit to this author. When I purchased this book online it arrived with NO AUTHORS name on the cover or anywhere in the content of the book.Jack Swint also wrote "Who Killed?" books in Savannah GA, Jacksonville, FL and Cleveland, OH.

Rooftops publisher needs to acknolwedge and give their writers credit!

Product Description
The second book in our Who Killed...? series focuses on Pittsburgh and its surrounding areas. The riverfront portal city is easily identified as the home of the Pittsburgh Pirates and Pittsburgh Steelers, but these sports franchises only represent a small part of the city's economic development over the past twenty years. In May 2007, Pittsburgh was once again awarded "most livable city" by Places Rated Almanacrecognition Pittsburgh hasn t been enjoyed since 1985, when current mayor Luke Ravenstahl was only five years old. During the twenty year time span between garnering the "most livable city" honor, the city's murder rate was 2.1 times the national average, according to FBI statistics. It wasn't until 2006 that Pittsburgh began to see a decline in its citizens being brutally killed. Another alarms statistic was the high rate of those same murders going unsolved. It's here that we will begin to unfold the truth, fact, and fiction of the region's killers and unsolved murders by asking the question, Who Killed...?

Who Killed...? depicts twenty of Pittsburgh's most notorious, heinous, and mysterious unsolved murders. Through laborious research and interviews with investigators and families of the victims, Who Killed...? has laid out particulars of these unsolved crimes. These chapter-length sketches provide a glimpse into fifteen mysterious murders: from the frustrations of law enforcement officials, to grieving family members, to the coping of local communities trying to make sense of the random acts of madness. As a whole, Who Killed...? reveals the dark underbelly of a city still struggling to diffuse the rage and brutality that so many of its inhabitants possess.

While society's momentary obsessions with sensationalistic unsolved murders quickly vanish, families and friends of these victims quietly suffer without closure. Who Killed...? aims to push these cases back into the public's consciousness in hopes of bringing the guilty to justice. Readers with any information that may have significance to the investigation may contact the assigned investigators to these open cases or provide anonymous tips using the contact information provided at the end of each chapter.

About the Author
A former consultant for the popular television program A Current Affair, Swint currently works as a marketing consultant for newspapers. He lives and writes in Northern Ohio.

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Review of Death of an Angel (Mass Market Paperback)

This book manages to rise above the dizzying plethora of paperback murder stories that seem to be inundating the literary market recently, primarily because of Davis's skill as a writer and the frankly fascinating and very sad story that he tells. Although I have certain reservations with Davis's style, I still must take my hat off to him and commend him for what he has accomplished in this book. It's the rare crime writer who can keep the reader's interest going through the often interminable police investigation that follows murder and the resulting courtroom scenes, but Davis skillfully manages this rare feat and keeps the suspense level high until the bitter end. He's also able to keep an often complex and intricate story moving briskly along and never does the narrative lose its inherently compelling qualities. You'll be hard put to find a more repugnant murderer than Christopher Hightower and your heart will break as you read how he cold-bloodedly wipes out an entire family for his own sociopathic ends. My only complaint with the book is that Mr. Davis makes little attempt to explain how a Christopher Hightower comes to be the warped, malignant mockery of a human being that he ultimately became, relying instead on superficial platitudes about the nature of good and evil and shallow moralizing. Perhaps this is unfair to Mr. Davis, expecting him to make sense of a dilemma that continues to perplex and plague civilized society. It's all well and good to speculate about the banality of evil and the perhaps intrinsic malevolence that resides in the human character but it brings us no closer to understanding what it is that causes one person to undergo the psychic and spiritual metamorphosis, the repellent transformation and disintegration of soul, that renders them capable of causing such a harrowing and haunting tragedy as the Brendel murders. How can a man from such a relatively normal background as Hightower's seems to have been become so callously capable of nearly unimaginable barbarity? Does such hideous evil emerge fully-formed from a vacuum? These are questions we need to ask ourselves as our murder rate continues to rise and become ever more appalling, and our civility as a race continues to diminish. Mr. Davis doesn't answer these questions (it's doubtful that anyone can) but it's imperative that we address them.

Product Description
When prosperous lawyer Ernest Brendel mysteriously disappeared, along with his wife Alice, and their 8-year-old daughter Emily, friends in the close-knit Rhode Island neighborhood worried that family had been kidnapped. It would be agonizing months in a massive FBI search before they would know the heartbreaking truth.

The shaken community began to lose hope that the family would ever be found alive. Their worst fears were confirmed when heavy rains from a tropical storm uncovered Alice and Ernest Brendel's badly decomposed bodies--shot with a giant crossbow, strangled, and buried in the quiet woods of the town. Lying under her mother's corpse was little Emily's lifeless body, now a silent witness to her killer's shocking identity.

Like a hand pointing from the grave, the evidence led authorities to one of Ernest Brendel's closest and most trusted friends. What Ernest couldn't have known was that Christopher Hightower--a Sunday school teacher and respected member of the community--was a psychotic liar obsessed with greed, jealousy, and murderous revenge.


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Review of Rope: The Twisted Life and Crimes of Harvey Glatman (Mass Market Paperback)

I've read a number of true crime books in the past. None of them has dealt with a character as strange as Harvey Glatman, a mousy little guy from New York who came to California to meet girls, and wound up tying them up and strangling them. It's a curious, strange story, and it'd be interesting if it weren't for Newton's obsession with getting every last fact before the reader.

The book includes a summary of each of the killings. Glatman essentially kidnapped the women, tied them up, photographed them, raped them, then strangled them, abandoning the bodies in the desert to the south or east of L.A. He was caught when his fourth victim fought back, and managed to get his gun away from him, running away right into the arms of a Highway Patrol officer getting off work. All of the facts of the crimes as far as the author can discern them, Glatman's trial (he pled guilty and requested execution as soon as possible) and subsequent execution, and even the disposition of the victim's personal effects, are covered in detail. It's fascinating for the most part, if a bit much.

The problem comes in the author's decision to go beyond that. He spends a chapter not only going over the killer's early life in New York, but briefly surveying the history of Jews in New York City (Glatman was Jewish and from N.Y.C.). The author seems obsessed with displaying a command of the study of serial killers which would no doubt be interesting in a survey of them. Unfortunately, given that the book is supposedly about Glatman, it's mostly distracting. To make things worse, the killings themselves are described in detail, mostly reconstructed from the interrogations the police did after Glatman was arrested. Several chapters later, the interrogations are repeated almost word for word, so that you go over the same material again. It's a bit much.

Lastly, remember that I said Glatman took photographs? They were apparently destroyed after his conviction (some of them were nude) but a newspaper in Denver got some of the milder ones and published them, and Newton reprints them. They're nothing compared with modern pornography: women bound wearing clothes, with frightened expressions on their faces. The idea that the fear is real, though, is a bit unsettling, and some may be squeamish about this.

All in all this is a solid true crime book, if a bit heavy on the detail and extraneous material.

Product Description

JOURNEY TO THE KILLING GROUND

It was an age of innocence -- an era of carhops, poodle skirts, and hula hoops. It was also a time of terror. In 1958, a man named Harvey Glatman sped along the Santa Ana freeway out of L.A., headed to the desert with his "date" huddled in the passenger seat beside him. In his pockets Harvey had a gun and a length of rope. Drunk on power, arousal, and rage, Harvey also had a plan. And beneath the desert stars, by the light of the moon, he carried out his ordeal of unimaginable cruelty -- using his body, a camera, and his rope....

Months later, after one of his inhuman attacks went awry, Harvey's torture killings were described to a shocked and silent California courtroom. For decades, these infamous deeds would inspire television and movie plots. But until now, there has been no definitive account of the forces that drove one of America's most legendary serial killers. And never before has it been explained why, for Harvey Glatman, his crimes weren't about killing, raping, and torturing at all -- they were all about the rope.

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Review of Mom Said Kill (Pinnacle True Crime) (Paperback)

I have been criticized for writing what appears to be book reports and spoiling murder mysteries. Unfortunately, the true crime books are all about real people and the truth is out there regarding the circumstances of their crimes. The title says a lot about the Barbara Opel case who is also a prime candidate for the worst mother in the world regarding the Jerry Heineman case in Everett, Washington. Burl Barer is an excellent true crime reporter who prefers to write about crimes that don't always get much media attention. Maybe because this group of characters would be more appropriate on the Jerry Springer Show than anywhere else.
Barbara Opel is quite a manipulator, con-artist, and quie frightening to her own children. Her case is one on par with Diane Downs easily involving a murder for rich scheme which backfired so badly that it is almost laughable except for the victims involved.
Barbara Opel robbed her children of a lot more than just a normal, stable childhood and loving environment. She brought them into this world to use them in her own schemes for quick money no matter who it hurts.
After all, she allowed her thirteen year old daughter, Heather, to have sex in her own home with a seventeen year old boy who she recruited for her crime.
This case reminds me of the Gertrude Baniszewski case in Indiana where she used the neighborhood kids to torture her young boarder. Fortunately, Barbara Opel was never bright enough to carry out the scheme herself but used her own children which should have been taken away by the state children's services long before they were harmed not only physically, psychologically, emotionally, and sexually by their own mother.
I recommend reading this true crime book because most of the books out there are repetitive and redundant with the same stories that you are actually comparing which writer is better at grasping the whole story.
Burl Barer doesn't write about those cases but writes about the familiar environment of Washington state.

Product Description
When Jerry Heimann's son arrived at his father's home in Everett, Washington, he found his grandmother, an Alzheimer's patient, alone in the house, starving and dehydrated. His father was missing. The furniture was gone. Within hours, police realised that Jerry's live-in housekeeper, Barbara Opel, had robbed him and fled. But where was Jerry?The next morning, Opel's 11-year-old son led police to Jerry's body. Soon, stunned detectives were getting confessions from a rage tag group of teens and pre-teens. At Barbara Opel's command, they had set upon Jerry Heimann with knives, fists, and baseball bats - and battered him to death.From 13-year-old Heather, who frantically stabbed Jerry after having sex with her boyfriend, to 7-year-old Tiffany, who helped clean up the blood, this is the horrifying true story of how a mother turned her children and their friends into stone cold killers - and then rewarded them for their crime...

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Review of Dangerous Attraction (Paperback)

How far will a mother go to protect her adult son from a murder charge? Sometimes, pretty far, as is revealed in the book Dangerous Attraction, by Robert Scott.

Twenty year old Katrina Montgomery was a lovely and warm young woman who was also a very beloved member of her family. None of her family is sure why she began to hang out with the lethal street gang in Ventura, CA. called the Skin Head Dogs. It appears that Katrina felt some sort of thrill involved with "taking a walk on the wild side."

Katrina befriended a member of the gang, the tattooed and drug abusing Justin Merriman, who himself was also twenty years of age and was doing time for the assault of a correction's officer. Katrina and Justin spent much time writing letters back and forth to each other until the day that Justin's time had been served and he was released.

Justin came out of prison with the impression that Katrina was his girlfriend, but that is not the way that she saw it. At a gang party on Thanksgiving of 1992, Katrina proceeded to get herself quite intoxicated and ended up at Justin's family home along with two other of the gang members. In Justin's bedroom, she was taken and raped by Justin right in front of his buddies. He then stabbed her in the neck with a knife, beat her over the head with a heavy wrench, then finally cut her throat. Her body was never found.

It was not until six years later, when he was stopped for a bike riding violation by police and ran, that he was caught.....and even that was after a wild chase and a harrowing seven hour standoff.

So, where does Justin's mother fit in?

Beverlee Sue Merriman had her own ways. She did everything within her powers to protect her son, no matter what the consequences were to her. She made sure to keep in close contact with Justin's other skinhead gang buddies, to ensure that no one would "talk." She ended up doing her son more harm than she would ever imagine.

This case had grown cold by the time the police had finally gathered enough evidence to bring Justin to trial, where the jury concluded that he was to die by lethal injection at San Quentin Prison in California.

This is a very well written true crime book. Robert Scott, also the author of Rope Burns and Like Father, Like Son, has done an excellent job of laying out this story which occurs over an eight year time span. Fans of true crime will find this story of murder, along with all of the terrorizing used to keep the gang members silent, to be a very interesting read.


Product Description
Katrina Montgomery took a walk on the wild side with a brutal, speed-fuelled skinhead called Justin Merriman. After serving a sentence for assaulting a prison officer, he murdered Katrina while his friends looked on. Katrina's body was never found but Merriman eventually died by lethal injection.

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Review of Mother's Day (Hardcover)

I read this book years and years ago. It's still one of my favorite true crime books. I can't believe the horror the kids had to go through just to live in Teressa's twisted world and the scars it left on her children into adulthood. Upon reading it, I had nightmares for a while. This is the only book that has had that much of an impact on me, I still find it amazing. The author, I think, does a fantastic job with detailing scenery, dialogue, etc. It's a wonderful book. Too bad it's true...

Product Description
A MODERN MURDEROUS MEDEA...
In June of l985, while her teenage sons held their half-sister down, Theresa Cross beat her l9-year-old daughter Sheila unconscious and then stuffed her into a 2' X 2' storage locker. After three days, the knocking, kicking, and cries stopped. Theresa and her sons dumped the girl's body in the desolate High Sierras....
The summer before, Theresa had dug a bullet out of her daughter Suesan's chest with a paring knife. When Suesan failed to recover (without benefit of doctors or hospital), Theresa and her two sons drove the delirious girl to the mountains , doused her with gasoline, and set her on fire....
For nearly nine years, Theresa Cross Knorr got away with murder, until her youngest daughter, Terry Knorr Graves, finally found a cop who believed the incredible story of her two murdered sisters.
That story is all here, the shocking life of a woman whose violence, jealousy, rage, and domination led to a brutally heinous crime of ruthless ferocity.


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Review of Murder at Holy Cross (Berkley True Crime) (Paperback)

This is a very well written and very well researched book about a sordid crime that gripped South Florida. I followed the case closely when it first broke, so I found the book especially interesting. The author, a veteran true-crime journalist, did a remarkable job revealing never-before-disclosed details about the goings-on at Holy Cross. He delves deeply into the characters of the victim, a nun, her killer, and the clerics who lived and worked at Holy Cross. He also provides historical context, especially concerning the Catholic Church. True crime fans will find this book very compelling. It is a real page-turner and a terrific read.


Product Description
The truth behind an unholy crime-includes photos.

On March 25, 2001, the body of a Catholic nun- stabbed 92 times-was discovered at South Florida's Holy Cross Academy. Police captured her killer-a young apprentice monk. But the deeper the investigation got, the more sordid and disturbing the story became.

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