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The Woodchipper Murder
Even though the Newtown, Connecticut, police listed Helle Crafts' disappearance as a routine missing person case, Keith Mayo, a private investigator, knew the Danish-born mother of three hadn't skipped town nine days before Thanksgiving.. Rita Buonanno remembers the words "If anything happens to me don't think it was an accident." Helle Crafts was last seen on November 18, 1986.In the style of a brilliant detective novel, Arthur Herzog skillfully re-creates the hour-by-hour circumstantial details that inform this grisly true-crime narrative. We observe dispassionate Richard Crafts as he buys a truck with a pintle hook for towing heavy equipment, promised for delivery before November 18. A day later he reserves a Badger Brush Bandit woodchipper.
274 pages, Hardcover
First published October 1, 1989
11 people are currently reading
274 people want to read
About the author
Arthur Herzog III
34 books15 followersArthur Herzog III (April 6, 1927 – May 25, 2010) was an American novelist, non-fiction writer, and journalist, well known for his works of science fiction and true crime books. He was the son of songwriter Arthur Herzog, Jr..
His novels The Swarm and Orca have been made into films. His science fiction novel IQ 83 is being made into a film by Dreamworks.
Herzog was also the author of non-fiction books: The Church Trap is a critique of Protestant, Catholic, and Jewish church organization and institutions particularly in the U.S; 17 Days: The Katie Beers Story, is about the kidnapping and child sexual abuse of Katie Beers.
His novels The Swarm and Orca have been made into films. His science fiction novel IQ 83 is being made into a film by Dreamworks.
Herzog was also the author of non-fiction books: The Church Trap is a critique of Protestant, Catholic, and Jewish church organization and institutions particularly in the U.S; 17 Days: The Katie Beers Story, is about the kidnapping and child sexual abuse of Katie Beers.
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Displaying 1 - 26 of 26 reviews
April 29, 2020
I've read this book a number of times over the years; it's a fascinating study of a killer pilot who apparently has ice-water running through his veins. Also of interest is an almost comic sub-plot featuring various competing law enforcement agencies. The cops seem to spend almost as much time trying to make their LE rivals look bad as they do investigating the crime.
September 15, 2019
The first episode of Forensic Files is about the gruesome murder of Helle Crafts (and, yes, Fargo is based on it, too), so I knew exactly what this book was about when I saw it. It's not like Herzog is hiding his light under a bushel, here. It is perfectly competent true crime, without being much more than that, and Herzog for some reason published his book before Richard Crafts' second trial (the first one having ended in a hung jury because one juror seems to have been a spectacularly stupid man). The second trial resulted in the first murder conviction in Connecticut without an actual body. (They found bits of Helle Crafts: a tooth, a fingernail, some fragments of bone.)
Crafts will be eligible for parole in 2021, which was unimaginably far away in 1989, when The Woodchipper Murder was published. He will be 84.
Crafts will be eligible for parole in 2021, which was unimaginably far away in 1989, when The Woodchipper Murder was published. He will be 84.
January 26, 2016
A good, if utterly chilling, read. Leaves you scratching your head -- but wouldn't it be pretty questionable if you came away feeling as if you understood what made it all happen?
October 2, 2013
So I finally read this one.
Inner 5-year-old me does vaguely remember this case happening, but it's through a filter. Basically when you overhear your parents talk about some nut in town who killed his wife and fed her body through a wood chipper, it becomes an instant urban legend to a kid. I mean, it's too horrific to be real. But if you believe the CT state police, some members of the Newtown police, and Arthur Herzog, that's exactly what Richard Crafts did to his wife Helle a few days before Thanksgiving in 1986.
Despite my deep love of the Investigation Discovery channel, I think this is the first true crime novel I've ever read. The opens with Helle's friends, who initiated to the search, along with the obsessive private investigator she'd hired to follow her husband in preparation for a divorce as they retrace the last days of Helle's life and the first month of her disapperance. From there the focus shifts to the Newtown PD and their reluctance to open an investigation - they believed Helle had run off in a fit and would return sooner or later.
The book has two important focuses: the Crafts's relationship and Dr. Lee's investigation. The confrontation between Richard, a man clearly prone to violent outbursts, and Helle seemed inevitable once you learned more about their life behind closed doors - Helle went so far as to warn several of her friends that should she disappear, they should know something happened to her. But without Dr. Henry Lee and his team of forensics experts, there's no way Richard Crafts would have been caught. And from his cold and indifferent attitude throughout the investigation, you could tell he knew it too.
It's definitely worth a read if you're interested in town history, true crime, or forensic studies.
Inner 5-year-old me does vaguely remember this case happening, but it's through a filter. Basically when you overhear your parents talk about some nut in town who killed his wife and fed her body through a wood chipper, it becomes an instant urban legend to a kid. I mean, it's too horrific to be real. But if you believe the CT state police, some members of the Newtown police, and Arthur Herzog, that's exactly what Richard Crafts did to his wife Helle a few days before Thanksgiving in 1986.
Despite my deep love of the Investigation Discovery channel, I think this is the first true crime novel I've ever read. The opens with Helle's friends, who initiated to the search, along with the obsessive private investigator she'd hired to follow her husband in preparation for a divorce as they retrace the last days of Helle's life and the first month of her disapperance. From there the focus shifts to the Newtown PD and their reluctance to open an investigation - they believed Helle had run off in a fit and would return sooner or later.
The book has two important focuses: the Crafts's relationship and Dr. Lee's investigation. The confrontation between Richard, a man clearly prone to violent outbursts, and Helle seemed inevitable once you learned more about their life behind closed doors - Helle went so far as to warn several of her friends that should she disappear, they should know something happened to her. But without Dr. Henry Lee and his team of forensics experts, there's no way Richard Crafts would have been caught. And from his cold and indifferent attitude throughout the investigation, you could tell he knew it too.
It's definitely worth a read if you're interested in town history, true crime, or forensic studies.
October 28, 2016
Not a very well written description of the events of the Woodchipper Murders. Boring and rather uninteresting.
March 2, 2019
A good book. It has a lot of details including the infighting between 2 law enforcement agencies that make it an interesting read.
September 29, 2018
What can I say about a book based on true facts that went so deep into the facts that it leaves the reader feeling confused. There were so many different people to keep track of in the different police departments, state police, forensics people, lawyers, the Crafts friends and families..... The writer even went as far as to tell his readers about past cases of each of the lawyers, police officers, forensic people to make it even more overwhelming by all the details. As a result, I was unable to keep track of who was who, so I decided that I needed to just concentrate on the other aspects of the true facts in the story.
Written in 1989 and why the devil am I reading it 29 years later? Well, book club and one of the "girls" read it when she was 11 years old. Yikes! She wanted to revisit it and decided we needed to too. I'm not sure I remember this story taking place in November 1986 Connecticut, but the movie "Fargo" was based on it with the woodchipper (never saw the movie) and there have been a few TV shows (that I also don't watch) based on various facts from the story.
Spoiler Alerts:
The husband, Richard Crafts is a pilot, works as a police officer on the side, and cuts wood for extra money. But he's not the ideal husband, he's beats up his wife, doesn't have a loving relationship with his wife or 3 children, and has many affairs on the side. Helle is a flight attendant, very sociable, well liked and dotes on her children. She has warned her friends to be aware something could happen to her (I forgot the exact wording). She decides she's had enough and starts the process of divorce, but he finds out and he wants to no part of it; he doesn't want to pay the alimony. So what better way than to kill his wife. He freezes her body, cuts up her limbs and puts them through the woodchipper along the side of a road, and tells everyone that he has no idea where she went. He was a cold blooded murderer because he never held any remorse. He carried on as normal with every day life until he was arrested. Even throughout the trials, he denied every killing his wife.
The story ends Crafts being acquitted due to one of the jury people being very unfit to serve. The new trial was to begin in July. It's up to the reader to do their own research to find out what ends up happening to him; was he sentenced or was he turned free? So that's what I did. He was sentenced to 50 years, he's up for parole in 2021, in 4 years time. He'll be 84 years old. I can't imagine them letting him out. I hope he rots in jail!
Written in 1989 and why the devil am I reading it 29 years later? Well, book club and one of the "girls" read it when she was 11 years old. Yikes! She wanted to revisit it and decided we needed to too. I'm not sure I remember this story taking place in November 1986 Connecticut, but the movie "Fargo" was based on it with the woodchipper (never saw the movie) and there have been a few TV shows (that I also don't watch) based on various facts from the story.
Spoiler Alerts:
The husband, Richard Crafts is a pilot, works as a police officer on the side, and cuts wood for extra money. But he's not the ideal husband, he's beats up his wife, doesn't have a loving relationship with his wife or 3 children, and has many affairs on the side. Helle is a flight attendant, very sociable, well liked and dotes on her children. She has warned her friends to be aware something could happen to her (I forgot the exact wording). She decides she's had enough and starts the process of divorce, but he finds out and he wants to no part of it; he doesn't want to pay the alimony. So what better way than to kill his wife. He freezes her body, cuts up her limbs and puts them through the woodchipper along the side of a road, and tells everyone that he has no idea where she went. He was a cold blooded murderer because he never held any remorse. He carried on as normal with every day life until he was arrested. Even throughout the trials, he denied every killing his wife.
The story ends Crafts being acquitted due to one of the jury people being very unfit to serve. The new trial was to begin in July. It's up to the reader to do their own research to find out what ends up happening to him; was he sentenced or was he turned free? So that's what I did. He was sentenced to 50 years, he's up for parole in 2021, in 4 years time. He'll be 84 years old. I can't imagine them letting him out. I hope he rots in jail!
January 20, 2025
(cracks fingers) ok so, the book starts off interesting, exploring the case and giving us some suspense. Once you get to the chapter about the evidence, you simply are reading a list of things that happened with nothing interesting even remotely in sight. Make people intrigued, make it flow, but no. I skipped a few pages, which i never do!, because a chapter or two simply listed things at me.
Then, once you are through the somehow boring fire swamp, you get to the actual trials which ARE indeed interesting, however, they are way too short and are rushed through. So the boring stuff takes forever and the stuff you want to read is barely there. This is a story with a lot of facets and could have been explored much better but I think the book needed an editor and the author needed the guidance. Worth a read...maybe. If you feel ok with skipping through a bit.
Then, once you are through the somehow boring fire swamp, you get to the actual trials which ARE indeed interesting, however, they are way too short and are rushed through. So the boring stuff takes forever and the stuff you want to read is barely there. This is a story with a lot of facets and could have been explored much better but I think the book needed an editor and the author needed the guidance. Worth a read...maybe. If you feel ok with skipping through a bit.
November 1, 2024
Owned since early high school, finally got around to reading thanks to a pull from my Dune Sandworm TBR Bucket. Facts of the case were interesting, but rounded down because so much of the actual writing was mind-numbingly boring. I'd love to listen to a podcast or watch the Forensic Files episode about it.
November 11, 2025
2.75. rounded to 3
Sometimes i feel like i’m presented with too much information on a too specific detail that leaves me confused. Nonetheless, this was crazy and sinister. It was an interesting read for a true crime junkie (but first time reading a true crime book) like me.
Sometimes i feel like i’m presented with too much information on a too specific detail that leaves me confused. Nonetheless, this was crazy and sinister. It was an interesting read for a true crime junkie (but first time reading a true crime book) like me.
June 6, 2021
Sinister and wretched.
August 27, 2022
why wouldn't you wait until you have a verdict before writing a book. ending on a mistrial? really?
October 15, 2022
way too dry and boring
August 20, 2023
It’s written like a case file, kind of bland. But the story was fascinating-and inspiration for the movie Fargo!
June 8, 2021
In 1986 Helle Crafts disappeared. “The Woodchipper Murder” is the story of what friends, a Private Investigator, some Law Enforcement and a Prosecutor think happened.
This is a true story, from multiple points of view, of the investigation of this disappearance. From comments Halle herself made to friends, they believed her husband had killed her. The Private Investigator looking into the incident also came to believe Richard had done it. Convincing the local Newtown, Connecticut police was another matter. Richard was an Eastern Airlines Pilot and part-time policeman who had multiple stories about where Helle had gone.
It’s a very intricate story that kept one’s interest to the end. This is the first Arthur Herzog story I have read. I found myself sometimes confused by the timeline. The many people involved were hard to keep straight. Instead of an index the book should have had a list of the characters and their position in the story. True crime readers will love this book.
This is a true story, from multiple points of view, of the investigation of this disappearance. From comments Halle herself made to friends, they believed her husband had killed her. The Private Investigator looking into the incident also came to believe Richard had done it. Convincing the local Newtown, Connecticut police was another matter. Richard was an Eastern Airlines Pilot and part-time policeman who had multiple stories about where Helle had gone.
It’s a very intricate story that kept one’s interest to the end. This is the first Arthur Herzog story I have read. I found myself sometimes confused by the timeline. The many people involved were hard to keep straight. Instead of an index the book should have had a list of the characters and their position in the story. True crime readers will love this book.
August 7, 2016
This was interesting only because I live in Connecticut and I remember when this case happened in the late 1980s. There are a lot of details in this book revolving around the state and local police, so for me at times, it was difficult to remember which officer(s) the author was referring to. It also jumped back and forth a bit in time as the amount of people involved from Helle's friends and family to the private investigator's work to the police involvement on the same dates...so again, as a reader, you had to really stay on top of when events occurred.
Whenever I read books like this, I always wish the author had maps detailing places so you can get a perspective of where things occurred.
A good read.
Also: this is the case up until the first trial, not the second trial.
Whenever I read books like this, I always wish the author had maps detailing places so you can get a perspective of where things occurred.
A good read.
Also: this is the case up until the first trial, not the second trial.
September 3, 2009
I was familiar with this crime before I ever opened the cover but wanted a much more detailed account. While the crime itself was very graphic which I appreciated, the book as a whole bored me somewhat. In going to great lengths to name every jurisdiction, judge etc. as well as their complete roles and opinions the writer had me confused trying to remember which character belonged to which troop or presinct. There were also a couple of times when I wanted to abandon the book becuse the writer hopped all over the place. At best it was something to occupy me when I had nothing else to do but I would not recommend it as great reading.
June 6, 2016
The main reason I gave this book such a low rating is that it was published prior to a court decision on the case (the book ended with the mistrial of the first trial).
I also did not think that it was very well written. It had a lot of run-on sentences making it difficult to read. And there being so many characters from the different departments/cities/jurisdictions that the author would go back and forth between (while providing descriptions of indivduals) that a listing of the cast of characters at the beginning of a book, or more pictures of those involved in the case, would have been extremely helpful to refer back to when needed.
I also did not think that it was very well written. It had a lot of run-on sentences making it difficult to read. And there being so many characters from the different departments/cities/jurisdictions that the author would go back and forth between (while providing descriptions of indivduals) that a listing of the cast of characters at the beginning of a book, or more pictures of those involved in the case, would have been extremely helpful to refer back to when needed.
February 11, 2012
Morose, moody Eastern Airlines pilot circa 1988, puts recalcitrant wife through rented wood chipper, denies wrongdoing. Clumsily written, but you keep chipping away to see if he'll be chewed up and spit out by the criminal justice system.
May 17, 2015
Ew! This book was so scary, to think that a man could hurt his wife like this and kill her in such a nasty way... ugh! But I enjoyed this true crime experience and its detailed, factual writing.
June 4, 2007
This non-fiction story took place in the town where I grew up. I really would only recommend it if you, too, grew up or lived in Newtown, CT.
September 25, 2007
An interesting read... I haven't been able to look at a woodchipper the same again.
February 12, 2010
Educational: You first have to freeze the body before you chip it up.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
May 12, 2011
Before the film "Fargo" with a woodchipper scene, there was a true case in which a husband murdered and disposed of his wife's body. Chilling!
April 13, 2012
Not the best book, but a fascinating subject. My full review can be found on my blog: http://notmytypee.blogspot.com/2012/0...
April 18, 2017
I read this book after seeing it profiled on the investigation discovery channel. Reading it was grisly. This man really wanted to get rid of his wife. But s it often happens, he thought he was smarter than the cops. He made a lot of little mistakes that led to his capture and arrest. Sadly this book was based on a true story
Displaying 1 - 26 of 26 reviews