The Professor and the Prostitute: And Other True Tales of Murder and Madness

by Linda Wolfe

Ten accounts exploring the psychological forces that drive affluent people to destroy themselves and others focus on a New England professor's obsession with a prostitute, the drug-related deaths of twin gynecologists, and other cases

Genres: True Crime, Nonfiction, Short Stories, Crime

228 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1989

About the author

Linda Wolfe is an award-winning journalist and novelist. Among her many books are the novel "Private Practices" and the nonfiction books "Wasted: The Preppie Murder," "The Professor and the Prostitute," and "The Murder of Dr. Chapman." A longtime contributing editor at New York magazine, Wolfe's articles and personal essays have also appeared in The New York Times, Vanity Fair, Playboy, and many other publications. Her short fiction has appeared in the Southwest Review and other literary journals. Learn more at www.LindaWolfe.com.

Reviews

[teleri]

"Crime has been greatly on the increase among the lower classes [but] what strikes me as the strangest thing is that in the higher classes, too, crime is increasing proportionately. In one place one hears of a student's robbing the mail on the high road; in another place people of good social position forge false banknotes; in Moscow of late a whole gang has been captures who used to forge lottery tickets, and one of the ringleaders was a lecturer in universal history; then our secretary was murdered from some obscure motive of gain.... How are we to explain this demoralization of the civilized part of our society?" - Fyodor Dostoyevsky. Crime and Punishment.

Now, there are nine short stories in this book that all revolve around murder and it was a nice short story for me to read so I was hoping for something great, and sure, some chapters were good but I'm giving the overall book one star because the author came across as transphobic and I don't want anything to do with that, so although I could go into heavy detail about the previous stories, I'm going to just talk about the problematicness of how the author wrote 'The Transsexual, the bartender, and the surburban princess.'

Firstly, she mentions how she wrote these stories at the time they happened in her introduction, which could explain (excuse the eye roll) the transphobic mess of this story, but is it so hard to reread over your story and remove the wrong pronouns? Take the stick out of your ass and realise that not everyone has the blessing of being born the right gender. During this whole chapter, I couldn't help but read it as if she had a tone of disgust in her voice. With the others, she seemed very sympathetic towards the victims, but with this case, she didn't seem nearly as kind and it was disgusting.

She would often write she/he when referring to Diana pre-op, and it didn't make sense if someone tells you they're transgender, you use they're prepared pronouns even when talking about the previous gender. "She was called John." "She was the son her dad always wanted." You don't use "She/He was called John." "She/He was the son the dad always wanted." It's cruel. I really feel like the author should take a look at her writing and realise her mistakes and edit them or remove this chapter from the book.

[Fishface]

A variety of interesting cases covered by crime reporter Linda Wolfe. Insightful despite the brevity of each case presentation. This book includes the only non-fiction version I'm aware of, of the lives and deaths of Cyril and Stewart Marcus, the twin gynecologists in the David Cronenberg biopic "Dead Ringers."

[gremlinkitten]

The stories are interesting, but the author's tendency to put herself into the text was off-putting and an annoyance. I found her pretentious and didn't appreciate how she seemed to think herself an expert in psychology. I'm not saying she might not be correct in certain cases, but the way she presented her "diagnoses" made it sound like those were the concrete conclusions. I have my doubts. Very dated and uninspired, with, surprisingly, many typos.

[Neil Pierson]

This book, written in 1986, is almost an artifact. In the early 80s, some authors became interested in telling true crime stories using stylistic devices usually applied in novels. These included a narrative story line, character development, re-created dialogue and unvoiced thoughts and motivations. But the stories in this book don't venture very far in that direction. They are mostly factual recountings of situations that struck the author as unexpected and strange.

The author went looking for the answer to the question, what makes a "normal" person snap and commit some completely uncharacteristic crime? She asks the principals and peripherals, but the answers here are familiar ones: Maybe the person only seemed "normal"; maybe it was some flammable combination of a personality weakness, parenting style, and a situation that became an accelerant.

As the police in the stories might say, "Move along. There's nothing to see here."

[Nancy]

This is a book that doesn't quite stand the test of time. Yes, it's a true crime book, but it also includes stories about people who have turned to drugs or had a psychotic break. The last story in the book was a manslaughter case about a guy who killed a man because he dented his car (not your typical true crime case that is usually profiled--this story wouldn't even make the front page news). Depression is referred to as Hysteria and the author refers to people given electroshock treatment for it, not Prozac. Also the author stereotypes the LGBTQ population as "histrionic." The first story in the book is about a deadly relationship between a professor and a prostitute and is, in my opinion, the best story of the bunch. Ditch the rest.

[Amy]

Really well done interesting cases.

[Bill reilly]

The first story is of a medical school professor, William Douglas, who, at the age forty, met a twenty year-old prostitute named Robin Benedict. The well respected father of three had grown bored of his frumpy wife and sought out adventures with hookers of the Combat Zone in Boston. Robin provided both companionship and sex at $100 per hour. The smitten prof spent $18,000 on the young lady, emptying his savings account. He also embezzled $67,000 from Tufts University, which was given to Benedict. After bleeding him dry of money, the gold digger demanded a few thousand more for good measure. Worn out Willie finally imploded, ending Robin's life with a hammer. Wolfe had little sympathy for the happy hooker and neither do I.
The second story is good but too brief. David Keeler was berated by his mom and dad for his bad behavior and so he emptied a shotgun into them. As a youthful offender in Texas, he was treated at a mental facility and released at eighteen. He then collected his share of the family's $1.2 million estate.
Cyril and Stewart Marcus were twin gynecologists who were found dead in their apartment in Manhattan in 1975. Stewart had high levels of Nembutol in his system and his brother starved himself to death. A disturbing film based loosely on the case was released in 1988.
The next is the case of Gerard Coury, a young man who was supposedly chased by a mob and died in the Big Apple. The author investigated and it turned out that Gerard had been homeless and depressed for quite a while before his death.
On the surface, Irene Schwartz had the perfect life with a loving husband and two well behaved kiddies who lived a life of luxury on the east side of Manhattan. For no apparent reason, mommy purchased a shotgun and blew away the children and herself. Wolfe investigated the tragedy and discovered that Irene suffered from severe depression and had undergone electro shock therapy. Hey, it worked on the Jack Nicholson character in "Cuckoo's Nest."
The Hudson River washes up one hundred or so bodies a year is the opening line in the next story. I live in Westchester County and have been both fishing and swimming at the great river but fortunately, I never encountered a corpse. John/Diane Delia was one of those bodies found floating and this is the strangest case in the book. Wolfe journeyed into a series of gay clubs to interview people who knew the victim, a transexual Diana Ross impersonator. Her bullet ridden body led to an unusual trial.
Dr. Margaret Kilcoyne vanished on Nantucket Island in 1980 and has never been found. Other than her clothing on shore, it is an unsolved mystery and a frustrating one at that.
A road rage case is next as a man's Ferrari is dented by an old Chevy wagon in the SoHo neighborhood of Manhattan. The luxury car owner was extremely unhappy and shot the other man dead in the street. This is Wolfe's funniest tale.
The final chapter concerns a professor at NYU manufacturing illicit drugs with the assistance of his students. Overall, Wolfe has again given us a great read.

[Cris Gill]

This is not a 5 star book

I tried to give this a 3 star rating and received an error. Ditto on 2, 1, and 4 stars. The book is okay but it's not a very thoughtful thing just a recitation of facts with some psychological incite. I am now dubious of the Goodreads rating system.

[Darby]

Very curious and well written, save for the trans politics which of course are not up to date. I feel like the reveals and twists were well-timed, and that she had a pretty good grasp of pacing despite one of the stories being almost 10x as long as the others

[Diane]

There are several interesting stories, but I shouldn't have read the book at this stage of my life.

[Carol Palmer]

Interesting in a sordid sort of way.

[deborah eden perfidio]

It Was ok I liked the stories the language is dated in a few but the stories themselves are so riveting

[Donna Humble]

An assortment of True Crime stories that differ from each other. It's an interesting book with each case highlighted in a condensed format.

[Pamela Schneider]

A very interesting read and I learned a lot

It does not take long for humans to get involved in bad projects. Their reason seems hampered by delusions of grandeur.

[Penny]

People do not simply decide to commit murder, or disappear, or engage in illegal activity out of nowhere. Through each stories analysis of cases, you learn that people instead usually have something that has been just not QUITE right with them for years. The stories in the book are pure madness. Some of the stories I wish were a bit longer. I would read something from this author again definitely!!

[Ronnie Cramer]

The author has chosen a good assortment of interesting cases, but she injects herself into the stories at every opportunity; a style I find distracting. Also, she speculates constantly regarding motivations, etc., when a little more research might have removed the need for conjecture. One example (out of MANY): "Women doctors...may be at even higher risk for self-destruction than their male colleagues." Why not look into it? If the numbers support this theory, cite them.

[Meaghan]

Meh

While I love a true crime story, I don't enjoy when an author uses his or her opinion on the story as reasons why a person would commit a crime, or why a victim choose that lifestyle. It was also outdated and I feel like it was so even in the 80s.

[Juicy_Groot]

A good,quick read.

[Patty]

I am always fascinated by the endless ways in which humans are flawed. This book is a bit pulpy, but it fit the "Shades of depravity" bill.

[John Deltuvia]

The author seems to have a problem understanding that knives work quite as well as guns, and guns do not just force an upstanding citizen to cock them while aiming at another person.

[Shandygirl]

The crimes are interesting but she doesn't really add much insight. DNF.

[Jenna]

Eh - wasn’t worth the $7 at the used book cart at Strand.

[mary harvey]

Just ok

The stories just didn't click with me except for the first one. Most of them seemed unbelievable but then so is true life.