torchyblane's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
3.75
alytodd's review
3.0
Could have been about 100 pages shorter - was a bit dry, although meticulously researched.
realbooks4ever's review
4.0
At first I wanted to read BESTIAL: The Savage Trail Of a True American Monster, by Harold Schechter, because the summary said the serial murders occurred in San Francisco in 1926 (I didn’t know that was just the beginning!) and I’d never heard of these cases before. Schechter has written quite a few true crime books. This book was first published in 1998.
Schechter researched deeply to assemble the movements of Earle Leonard Nelson, a serial killer who claimed victims across the United States and into Canada. Although he was only convicted of two murders, his believed total is at least twenty-two over a sixteen month period.
Moving from place to place, Nelson preyed on landladies with rooms to rent. What he did to them was horrific.
One topic covered here is the question of just how insane was this man? He’d had a bad head injury in his early years (usually a bad sign). He’d been institutionalized in mental hospitals, which he was very good at escaping from. He walked around in tattered clothes and disappeared for days or even months. He used fake names. He most likely murdered almost two dozen people, yet he was the most personable, intelligent, loquacious man when inquiring about a room for rent.
The topic of the death penalty comes up as well. Earle Nelson was hung at the penitentiary where he was being held in Canada. Nine days later a woman and a man were executed by electric chair in the USA. This caused a lot of consternation in the newspapers of the day.
I was surprised to find out that four of the murders occurred in Portland, Oregon, where I currently reside. None of the Portland history books I’ve read have ever mentioned this. Guess I haven’t read the right books!
I highly recommend BESTIAL for true crime fans.
Schechter researched deeply to assemble the movements of Earle Leonard Nelson, a serial killer who claimed victims across the United States and into Canada. Although he was only convicted of two murders, his believed total is at least twenty-two over a sixteen month period.
Moving from place to place, Nelson preyed on landladies with rooms to rent. What he did to them was horrific.
One topic covered here is the question of just how insane was this man? He’d had a bad head injury in his early years (usually a bad sign). He’d been institutionalized in mental hospitals, which he was very good at escaping from. He walked around in tattered clothes and disappeared for days or even months. He used fake names. He most likely murdered almost two dozen people, yet he was the most personable, intelligent, loquacious man when inquiring about a room for rent.
Q: “Now then, Mrs. Fuller, doesn’t it just come down to this: he was jealous, and he was eccentric?”
A: “He was what?”
Q: “Eccentric—odd.”
A: “He was absolutely insane.”
From the cross-examination of Mary Fuller, his wife
The topic of the death penalty comes up as well. Earle Nelson was hung at the penitentiary where he was being held in Canada. Nine days later a woman and a man were executed by electric chair in the USA. This caused a lot of consternation in the newspapers of the day.
I was surprised to find out that four of the murders occurred in Portland, Oregon, where I currently reside. None of the Portland history books I’ve read have ever mentioned this. Guess I haven’t read the right books!
I highly recommend BESTIAL for true crime fans.
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