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The Dark Fountain
A Novel of Horror ... by noted crime historian Jay Robert Nash ... based on the true mass murders of serial killer "Reverend" Earle Leonard Nelson.
298 pages, Hardcover
First published May 3, 1988
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
February 5, 2016
Nash takes on the story of serial landlady strangler and Bible-thumper, Earle Leonard Nelson. He really fills out the story nicely for you and gives you a flavor of the times the people lived in. Very well done.
January 7, 2019
Novelized true crime story of serial killer Earle Leonard Nelson who conducted his twisted reign of terror in the 1920s. Suffering a head injury as a child and raised by a religious fanatic, Nelson's principal targets were landladies; he would rent a room and almost immediately murder them, stealing their jewelry and oh yeah, engage in necrophilia. His known crimes occurred in a relatively brief span and ranged over the midwestern/western US and Canada.
Nash's book portrays the diligence and frustration of a fictional detective who begins pursuing Leonard in San Francisco and finally to Winnipeg, Canada, where Leonard is finally caught. The detective seeks to employ relatively unknown and mostly unused scientific methods to identify and track Leonard. The detective alienates his bosses and colleagues due to his tenacity and scientific approach. Adding to his woes are his fiancée's family, who do not like the idea of their daughter marrying a policeman.
This is a pursuit story, of course, and Nash does an excellent job of maintaining the tension and the two principal characters are well drawn. There is a fair amount of interior monologue provided for Leonard, but this is not overdone. I was surprised that the book was this good, having read some of Nash's sloppy and somewhat disreputable non-fiction efforts.
People cashing checks want us to believe that criminal profiling is a modern and highly reliable crime solving technique (somebody actually takes credit for inventing this "science"), but the efforts of the detective in Nash's 1982 book show that trying to understand and identify a criminal based upon their behavioral peculiarities was very likely a technique that could be employed by anyone pursuing a serial criminal (in any era) if the detective chooses to look carefully at the evidence. What seems very realistic in this book and so-called real life is that this character / behavioral analysis can go only so far. Leonard is captured because he commits a blunder that neither he nor his captors could possibly foresee.
In sum, a very enjoyable page turner and an interesting look at the law enforcement culture of the times.
Nash's book portrays the diligence and frustration of a fictional detective who begins pursuing Leonard in San Francisco and finally to Winnipeg, Canada, where Leonard is finally caught. The detective seeks to employ relatively unknown and mostly unused scientific methods to identify and track Leonard. The detective alienates his bosses and colleagues due to his tenacity and scientific approach. Adding to his woes are his fiancée's family, who do not like the idea of their daughter marrying a policeman.
This is a pursuit story, of course, and Nash does an excellent job of maintaining the tension and the two principal characters are well drawn. There is a fair amount of interior monologue provided for Leonard, but this is not overdone. I was surprised that the book was this good, having read some of Nash's sloppy and somewhat disreputable non-fiction efforts.
People cashing checks want us to believe that criminal profiling is a modern and highly reliable crime solving technique (somebody actually takes credit for inventing this "science"), but the efforts of the detective in Nash's 1982 book show that trying to understand and identify a criminal based upon their behavioral peculiarities was very likely a technique that could be employed by anyone pursuing a serial criminal (in any era) if the detective chooses to look carefully at the evidence. What seems very realistic in this book and so-called real life is that this character / behavioral analysis can go only so far. Leonard is captured because he commits a blunder that neither he nor his captors could possibly foresee.
In sum, a very enjoyable page turner and an interesting look at the law enforcement culture of the times.
July 7, 2026
Very well written crime novel.
JRN sets you in Industrial Revolution era San Fransicso where a sadistic killer is brutally murdering boarding house landlords.
If you're into noir, model-Ts, and homicidal maniacs I recommend a read.
JRN sets you in Industrial Revolution era San Fransicso where a sadistic killer is brutally murdering boarding house landlords.
If you're into noir, model-Ts, and homicidal maniacs I recommend a read.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews