In with the Devil: A Fallen Hero, a Serial Killer, and a Dangerous Bargain for Redemption in Obsessed with True Crime

Nov 02, 2022 Esme rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: memoir, books-i-read-in-2022

I found this to be a mediocre story. The best parts were the chapters that focused on James Keene’s interactions with Larry Hall, but that was a limited portion of the book. There was the usual, not all that compelling, discussion of the personalities and careers of the law enforcement personnel and the attorneys (and judges) that were working the case. I realized after I bought this book that it had been reissued under another title because it had been made into a miniseries. The book was origi I found this to be a mediocre story. The best parts were the chapters that focused on James Keene’s interactions with Larry Hall, but that was a limited portion of the book. There was the usual, not all that compelling, discussion of the personalities and careers of the law enforcement personnel and the attorneys (and judges) that were working the case. I realized after I bought this book that it had been reissued under another title because it had been made into a miniseries. The book was originally published in 2010. I guess that explains the dated language he used like “convict” and “prostitute.” One of the things the author could have done for this reissue was to update that pejorative language.

I also took issue with how he characterized the victims of Gacy as “rootless young men” and Bundy’s as “attractive young women who were also volunteers.” I checked his sources in the back to see where he had come up with this assessment and there was no source cited. Gacy’s victims were not “rootless.” They were hand-working young men who were promised work by a deceitful Gacy. They had families. Robert Piest was missed immediately after he was abducted. His mother was literally waiting for him. As for the Bundy “volunteer” characterization, it was Ann Rule who was a fellow volunteer on the crisis hotline who wrote “The Stranger Beside Me.” He didn’t murder anyone he met through his political work or any other volunteer work he did. (I suppose we could also deconstruct his choice of the adjective “attractive” to describe Bundy’s victims, as though their looks was their sole defining attribute not the fact that most of them were college students or in a few cases barely teenagers.) This just struck me as lazy research. The sign of an author who didn’t really know what he was talking about. The author cites no books on either Bundy or Gacy in his bibliography. The sources he did cite I found questionable as many were “summary” books that contain short chapters about multiple serial killers and cannot possibly explore the complexities of their cases well enough to be a reputable source for another book.

There was also a puzzling line that I still can’t quite figure out. In chapter 2 he writes, “The Miami, who once dominated their namesake state of Indiana called the river…” His he implying that the Miami’s namesake is the word “Indian?” I don’t know how else to interpret that line. I suppose if I was reading this book for an English class, I would go find the book he cited as his source, but as it is, I think he comes off as being clumsy and culturally insensitive.

And, this is petty, but he mentions Frances Slocum early in the book. A white woman captured as a child who elected to remain with the Miami tribe even after family members tried to intervene. Later in the book as Frances Slocum’s name appears on several roads and parks and such, and is relevant to the search for victims’ bodies, the author reminds the reader that this was Frances Slocum, the white woman who elected to remain with the Miami. Yeah. I know that. I remember from when you told us the first time. Huge pet peeve of mine when the writer thinks his readers aren’t paying attention.

Finally the big payoff that you are expecting never comes. They don’t find the missing girl’s body. James Keene sees a map that has dots all over it, presumably burial locations, and the birds that Hall is carving that he’s going to have his twin brother deliver to “watch over the bodies” but then Keene’s dragged off to solitary and the map and the birds are presumably destroyed by Hall.
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May 20, 2011 Esme rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: memoir

I think this could have been a better book if it had been fictionalized a bit. If it were ever made into a movie, it would be a great one. As it was written the characters really didn't grab me all that much. Still an enjoyable book. ...more

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