Saint of Circumstance: The Untold Story Behind the Alex Kelly Rape Case, Growing up Rich and Out of Control

by Sheila Weller

Explores the case of Alex Kelly, a Darien, Connecticut man convicted of rape in 1997 after evading the law for more than ten years

Genres: True Crime, Nonfiction

320 pages, Hardcover

First published November 4, 1997

About the author

Sheila Weller is a bestselling author and award-winning magazine journalist specializing in women’s lives, social issues, cultural history, and feminist investigative.

Her seventh book, The News Sorority: Diane Sawyer, Katie Couric, Christiane Amanpour – and the Triumph of Women in TV News, will be a major release from Penguin-Random House on September 30, 2014.

Her sixth book was the critically acclaimed Girls Like Us: Carole King, Joni Mitchell, Carly Simon -- And The Journey of a Generation (2008). A New York Times Bestseller for 8 weeks, it is featured in numerous Women’s Studies programs at major universities, was chosen as one of the Best Books of 2008 by Library Journal, The Christian Science Monitor, Amazon.com, and Tina Brown’s DailyBeast. Girls Like Us is in active development as a motion picture with Sony.

Her 2003 family memoir Dancing At Ciro’s “makes a substantial contribution to American social history,” said The Washington Post.

Her four previous books (including the #2 New York Times bestseller Raging Heart) were well-regarded, news-breaking nonfiction accounts of high profile crimes against women and their social and legal implications.

She is a writer for Vanity Fair, has been Senior Contributing Editor of Glamour since 2002, is a former Contributing Editor to New York, a reviewer for The New York Times Book Review, and has written and writes for numerous other magazines for many years.

She has won nine major magazine awards between 1994 and 2012:

She won a record six Newswomen’s Club of New York Front Page Awards.

She won two Exceptional Merit in Media Awards from The National Women’s Political Caucus.

She was one of three winners, for her body of work, for Magazine Feature Writing on a Variety of Subjects in the 2005 National Headliners Award.

She is married to esteemed history writer John Kelly (The Graves Are Walking, about the Irish Famine, and The Great Mortality, about the Black Death).

She lives in New York City and in Berkshire County, Massachusetts.

Reviews

[David Ward · Rating 3 out of 5]

Saint of Circumstance: The Untold Story of the Alex Kelley Rape Case: Growing Up Rich and Out of Control by Sheila Weller (Pocket Books 1997) (364.1532) (3455).

I read this book by mistake. The book's title created my confusion; “Saint of Circumstance” is the name of a Grateful Dead song, and I mistakenly assumed that this book was about the band. If only I had read the subtitle, I would have realized my error.

This is not a book about music. This is from the “true crime” genre, which I could not be less interested in reading. I read this one anyway.

Alex Kelley was a serial rapist as a teen. Facing trial, he bolted for Europe. Supported by his parents, he partied and skiied for eight years. He came home and was tried, convicted, and imprisoned.

And the purpose of retelling this story in book form was...what, exactly?

I feel soiled for having read this one.

My rating: 7/10, finished 8/27/20 (3455).

[Michele]

Smithy
Look Up For Yes
Full Circle
Saint of Circumstance

[Pam Koenig · Rating 4 out of 5]

Shows what happens when parents fail to make their children pay for their mistakes. Seems like this happened in a town where young men & women were allowed to run wild without any supervision. Parents failed in many aspects to make their sons & daughters into responsible citizens. Bad behavior was praised and rewarded without any regard for others. Those with money bought their children out of any brushes with the law, they raised people without consciences who felt they were the only ones who mattered. They favored some children over others and took no responsibility for the damage done to other family members and the general public. Instead of holding a child to higher standards, they praised bad behavior and brushed things under the rug. Kelly was a spoiled brat whose parents indulged to the extreme, he was never made to face responsibility while his older brother seemed to be the family whipping boy. Some of these adults should never been allowed to raise a dog, much less a child.

[BRNTerri · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent book. I first learned of Alex Kelly by watching A&E's American Justice episode "Rape in Connecticut: The Alex Kelly Story" in 1999. Dominick Dunn's Court TV series "Power, Privilege and Justice" did an episode of this in 2003. ID's "Vanity Fair Confidential" did a terrible episode of this story in 2017 titled "The Fugitive Son."

[Stephanie · Rating 1 out of 5]

Not sure if I hated the book or the person. Either way, it creeped me out but didn't really resonate as this isn't anyone with whom I am remotely acquainted, unlike lots of other creepy murderers I've read about over the years as I indulge my embarrassingly hidden guilty pleasure: true crime. GOOd true crime is mesmerizing. This was crap.

[Lenny · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good description of Alex Kelley and the party town in Conn. where he was brought up in.

[Scott Gundaker]

Amazing what lengths people will go to to remain anonymous. 🙋🏼‍♂️ ❤ 📖 📚