A Death in Belmont: The Boston Strangler, Murder, and Racial Justice―An Acclaimed True Crime Story from 1963 (P.S.)

A Death in BelmontJunger, Sebastian (2009-05-30). A Death in Belmont. W. W. Norton & Company. Kindle Edition.Reviewed by Kurt C. Schuett and posted publicly on Great Britain's #1 Horror Site, Ginger Nuts of HorrorSebastian Junger performs a rear-naked chokehold, also known as a “blood choke,” on his readers by restricting the vital fluid to their brains in A Death in Belmont. But instead of pinching his readers’ carotid arteries, he squeezes their emotional, moral, and psychological veins in this deeply descriptive, and disturbing, work of narrative nonfiction.The series of murders highlighted in and around the City of Boston in the 60s, earmarked by increasingly dramatic staged sexual assaults and post-rape humiliations, serves as the book’s catalyst. Most readers will be shocked to discover the perverse arrangement of victims as the killer’s blueprint maintains consistency through ninety percent of the killings. One of this book’s strengths is its descriptive fact checking; Junger and his editors at W.W. Norton spared no expense in regard to their collective and expansive foot-noted road map of the Boston Strangler saga. The story’s rich treasury of details is somewhat reminiscent of Caputo’s In Cold Blood. Even as the aforesaid is a strength per my opinion, some may consider the vastness of Junger’s details a caveat. I hope not because any story firmly entrenched in the workings of the judicial system needs to be both comprehensive and meticulous in scope and sequence, especially in regard to a storyline like the Boston Strangler that has so many loopholes (pun intended).Some might consider the 1960s a hiccup of recurrent racial tensions, extreme socio-economic diversity, and religious and/or personal belief system disparity, all of which have plagued the United States since its inception, but let’s call it what it really was—life. Coupled with the backdrop of civil rights activism in the 1960s, this book highlights both the struggles of poor minority and immigrant neighborhoods, which in turn serves as a foil to well-to-do communities like Belmont, Massachusetts. Mr. Junger not only gives his readers an interesting history lesson, but he shares a unique family life stamp as one of the potential perps, Al DeSalvo, actually spent time at his childhood home, serving as a handyman to a contracting crew building a studio for his mother. Junger juxtaposes the aforementioned with a detailed account of the arrest of Roy Smith, an African-American who was arrested, tried, and convicted for the murder and rape of Bessie Goldberg, a fellow resident of the affluent Boston suburb. The story revolves around Smith and DeSalvo, both jailed as one maintains his innocence as the Boston Strangler while the other, ironically, strives to achieve the ghastly distinction.The only reservations I would extend concerning A Death in Belmont revolve around its editing. Any close reader will undoubtedly discover a handful of flagrant typos and awkward phrasing. Examples include commonplace misspellings (e.g. “thir” for their), redundancy (e.g. “so Giacoppo waited until his shift was over to drive over to 93…”), comma usage (e.g. failing to provide a comma in compound sentences: “He told Coughlin to go up the front stairs of the building and he pulled his gun and went up the back stairs.”), and apostrophe usage (e.g. plural-possessive mistake: “had to sleep under other peoples’ houses to…”) just to name a few. I can say after tweeting about a couple of the editing mistakes W.W. Norton replied via social media that they would update the files, which was admirable. But let’s call a spade a spade—these editing mistakes should have been caught long before this book ever went to both print and e-book, especially considering the reverence and devotion many readers hold toward the publishing giant W.W. Norton and Company.But getting back to better things. There is nothing Punch and Judy about this novel—it’s an intellectual and serious read, and the storyline demands one’s attention. Plus, Junger gives several powerful maxims throughout the piece. Hands down, one of my favorite quotes in the book states:“In some ways there is nothing less relevant than an old murder case. The reason it is important is this: Here is a group of people who have gathered to judge— and possibly execute— a fellow citizen. It’s the highest calling there is, the very thing that separates us from social anarchy, and it has to be done well.”Undoubtedly, this quote is an analogy for life and everything that can and should govern it. Old murder cases are cold, both literally and figuratively, and whenever a story keeps you talking about it in small circles with friends and pondering the “what ifs” while lying in bed, it’s worth a go. A cross between Helter Skelter and In Cold Blood, the terrifying reality of bad things sometimes happening to good people makes Junger’s A Death in Belmont a relevant read in 2015.4 out of 5 cigars

A DEATH IN BELMONT is a departure from A PERFECT STORM. This is more investigative journalism than anything. The set-up has to do with the murder of Bessie Goldberg, a sixtyish housewife who lived in Belmont, an upper-middle class suburb of Boston. The principal suspect was a black man, Roy Smith. At first, the investigators thought he may be the Boston Strangler. Ironically, the real Boston Strangler, Albert DeSalvo, was working as a carpenter's assistant building an artist's studio only a few blocks away. The artist was Sebastian Junger's mother. Junger alternates between Smith's plight and the Boston Strangler story. Much of the Strangler information is old hat for me as I had previously read THE BOSTON STRANGLER by Gerold Frank. There are a few nuggets of new information, such as the fact that DeSalvo sold drugs in prison. Junger contends that DeSalvo never confessed to the Bessie Goldberg murder because a black man was tried and convicted for the murder and that at Walpole, where DeSalvo was serving his sentence, a race war was going on, and if he confessed his life wouldn't have been worth the proverbial plug nickel. The biographical information on both Smith and DeSalvo was engrossing. Junger took us to Roy Smith's hometown, Oxford, Mississippi. Smith's father was a preacher, but Roy would have been condemned to a life as a sharecropper if he had not migrated north. Oxford, the home of William Faulkner, is a fascinating little town. Junger portrayal of the Jitney Jungle, a chain grocery store, is especially interesting. They sold canned pork brain, hog testicles and ears and jowls, and packages simply labeled "meat." Junger also describes Klan atrocities where black men were burned alive for insulting a white woman. Smith would later insist that he knew better than to "mess with a white woman." Junger also shows us DeSalvo's upbringing in Chelsea, Massachusetts. His father was a brutal wife-beater who brought prostitutes back to the DeSalvo apartment. Albert began his criminal career as a shoplifter, moving on to B&E, finally becoming the Green Bandit who coaxed his way into women's apartment by measuring their dimensions. He would later serve time on rape convictions. Junger goes into elaborate detail concerning the contention that DeSalvo was really not the Boston Strangler, that he confessed because he thought he'd make a fortune from a book and a movie deal; he went so far as to hire F. Lee Baily as his lawyer. Junger never does come to any firm conclusions about the matter. Some contend that DeSalvo never went further than seduction and that the rape charges were attempts by the housewives he seduced to rationalize their behavior. Prison rehabilitated Smith. Prior to his conviction, he was an alcoholic who spent time during the day cleaning houses to make enough money to get drunk that night. At Norfolk, a medium-security facility, he became a cook, ultimately being put in charge of over a hundred men. Junger can't make up his mind whether Smith was guilty or not, but the parole board seemed to think he was a model prisoner. Unreliable witnesses, including Roy Smith, seemed to have complicated the investigation. For instance, Smith said he had just a little over two dollars when he arrived at the Goldberg residence. He also said that he left at ten to four in the afternoon and that Bessie was still alive. Several witnesses testified that they had seen him leaving the neighborhood at just a little after three. Goldberg's husband said he left Bessie fifteen dollars that morning. Smith was to be paid six, yet investigators were able to verify that Smith spent something like fifteen dollars that night. It seems to be that if he was wrong about the time, he could have been wrong about the amount of money he had. The man was an alcoholic after all. If you aren't familiar with the Boston Strangler case, you'll probably like this book. Even if you are, the Roy Smith material is arresting enough to keep you turning pages. I'll give it between a three and four, and I'm leaning toward four.

This a book about a death in Belmont. Someone dies in this book in a place called Belmont. It’s a book.

Good book very interesting don't read at night though coz you will have nightmares