Blind Passion: A True Story of Seduction, Obsession, and Murder

by John Glatt

The Beauty
She was a gorgeous swimsuit model. He was a charming Greek sailor. They met on a cruise in November of 1997 and soon thereafter began a clandestine love affair. Little more than a year later, thirty-one-year-old Julie Scully left her millionaire ex-husband and three-year-old daughter behind, and moved to Greece to be with twenty-four-year-old George Skiadopoulos.

The Beast
But there was trouble in paradise. Julie, tired of Skiadopoulos' jealous and controlling nature, and badly missing her young daughter, decided to return to the States. Skiadopoulos wouldn't have it. When she told him of her plans to leave-and take her $600,000 divorce settlement back with her- Skiadopoulos took Julie to a remote area and strangled her to death. Then, to cover up his deed, her burned her lifeless body and tried to stuff the charred corpse into a suitcase. When it wouldn't fit, Skiadopoulos delivered the final blow-he chopped off her head and tossed it into the Aegean Sea.

The Brutal Murder
ow, find out the stunning inside story on a murder case that made national headlines, as acclaimed true crime writer John Glatt lays bare a shocking story of greed, betrayal, and...

Genres: True Crime, Nonfiction, Crime

264 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published June 29, 2000

About the author

English-born John Glatt is the author of Golden Boy Lost and Found, Secrets in the Cellar, Playing with Fire, and many other bestselling books of true crime. He has more than 30 years of experience as an investigative journalist in England and America. Glatt left school at 16 and worked a variety of jobs—including tea boy and messenger—before joining a small weekly newspaper. He freelanced at several English newspapers, then in 1981 moved to New York, where he joined the staff for News Limited and freelanced for publications including Newsweek and the New York Post. His first book, a biography of Bill Graham, was published in 1981, and he published For I Have Sinned, his first book of true crime, in 1998. He has appeared on television and radio programs all over the world, including ABC- 20/20Dateline NBC, Fox News, Current Affair, BBC World, and A&E Biography. He and his wife Gail divide their time between New York City, the Catskill Mountains and London.

http://us.macmillan.com/author/johnglatt

Reviews

[Jenn · Rating 3 out of 5]

This one was a hard one for me. I know you are supposed to feel bad for the victim. It’s never a good thing when murder is involved. But I really didn’t like Julie. She left her husband, cheated on him, and left her child behind. I don’t know what she was looking for when she had everything anyone could possibly want. In a nutshell, I really didn’t like her. But to end up beheaded and murdered in a foreign country is what no on ever deserves. And as for George - he’s an evil evil man who needs to rot in jail forever. I hope Greek prisons are terrible places.

[Mary Atchison · Rating 4 out of 5]

It was a tough one to get through. I had a hard time relating to Julia because I just couldn’t see how any mother could leave her child for a man. She didn’t deserve what happened to her, but I feel like she let her emotions overrule her common sense.

[Bill reilly · Rating 5 out of 5]

Julie Scully was a beautiful, adventurous young woman who was raised by an alcoholic Navajo mother and father who had occasional custody of the wayward girl
She first married at seventeen, but grew bored with her husband moved on to another man, Tim Nist, a man eleven years her senior. She became a bikini model for a New Jersey newspaper, appearing multiple times in order to boost circulation.
Julie married Tim and they ran a successful landscaping company together. After a daughter was born, the new mother was bored and soon returned to her partying ways. Cocaine and alcohol relieved her boredom.
The unhappy couple believed that a cruise would rekindle their marriage. This would turn out to be a fatal mistake.
George Skiadopoulos worked on the cruise ship and spotted Julie and introduced himself to the troubled housewife. Tim was not suspicious of the balding Greek accented man with bad teeth. He should have been.
Julie and George became lovers and she received a large divorce settlement. The couple then made their way to Greece to live happily ever after. Unfortunately, the bride-to-be discovered a hot tempered future husband.
As George lost his Svengali like control over Julie, the woman's bad choices in life would come to a tragic end. The victim evokes little sympathy, as she had abandoned her three-year-old daughter in order to be with her lover.
A fine Roman Catholic funeral ends this intriguing book, an excellent read.

[♥ Marlene♥ · Rating 4 out of 5]

Apparently I did not write a review but I do remember I really liked this book. I see i did not even register it back then on bookcrossing which probably means I read it before I registered there which means...I registered there on last day of the year 2003 so this was one of the earlier books when I just started reading English.

Interesting is it not. (Yawn) lol

I probably sold it and now wish I had not.

[J.H. Moncrieff · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a tricky one to rate, and I have to say I do not envy John Glatt at all. The victim in this story comes across quite poorly. In this book, at least, she was an alcoholic, self-centred woman who dumped her daughter and doting husband--the quintessential "nice guy"--to follow a much younger man to Greece. She even had sex with this man while on a cruise with her husband, a cruise that her husband had of course paid for.

Even though her actions were selfish and inconsiderate, bordering on cruel, of course Julie Scully didn't deserve to die, especially in the horrific way she did. No one does. And it's a shame her family and friends turned their backs on her when she needed them most.

I think the author did the best he could with the material, but it's uncomfortable to read a book about a brutal murder where it feels like the underlying message to the victim is, "I told you so!" Definitely a cautionary tale about leaving someone who truly loves you for someone who promises passion and excitement.

[Ronnie Cramer · Rating 3 out of 5]

Another good book by the always reliable John Glatt. This one is about a Native-American beauty queen who was murdered and decapitated by a Greek sailor. SPOILER AHEAD: I read this book when it first came out in 2000 and just finished reading it again. I'm sorry to say that the killer (originally sentenced to 'life' imprisonment) was released after serving only eight years and has been enjoying his freedom for the past decade.

[Oridisi · Rating 5 out of 5]

This story was so sad

[Christy · Rating 3 out of 5]

I picked this book after a good friend told me about it. I also enjoy true crime books. This is a story based on real events. Julie was a beautiful, swimsuit model. George was a Greek a sailor on the the ship that Julie and her husbad were cruise guests during November 1997. And so it began - a clandestine love affair between George and Julie. A little more than a year a later, Julie left her millionaire husband Tim Nist & their daughter to be with George. Their plans were to marry and live in Greece happily ever after.... happily ever after. However, once there Julie became unhappy, she did not care for the culture and way of life, she missed her family and friends, most esp her little girl. When she told George of her plans to leave and take her money w/ her, he became enraged and violently killed her - and then disposed of her body in 2 different locations.

[Fishface · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a good read, but in a lot of ways just a run-of-the-mill TC story. Unfortunately, I learned almost everything just by glancing through the photo section which made a lot of the reading unnecessary. It was a very sad story and I wish we could have learned more about the long-term effects on Tim and Katie...But the book went to press too soon.

[Wyatt Flett · Rating 3 out of 5]

The life of the victim and the true crime are connected transitionally, which could also make for a biographical book. She was selfish and troublesome at some times in her life but that doesn't justify her gruesome demise.

[Ruby · Rating 2 out of 5]

wasn't as good as some of his other books.

[Cindy Boss · Rating 5 out of 5]

great read onto the next book from this author