Deadly Masquerade

This is an excellent telling of the bizarre lifestyle and murder trial of Joe Pikul. Joe and Diane Pikul lived in Manhattan with a second home in the Hamptons, and seemed to live a charmed upscale life. But below the surface were two unstable people determined to hurt each other. Both were recovering alcoholics, and their relationship was often stormy and abusive. Joe was also a closet transvestite and just found out he had AIDS. Diane, though she hired a divorce lawyer, loved her lifestyle and didn't want to give up the material comforts she had with Joe. She held evidence of Joe's cross-dressing as leverage to get as much out of him as possible. Joe was so determined that Diane not gain custody of their two children, that murdering her was preferable to losing custody. This true crime book doesn't get its intrigue on who killed Diane, but instead focuses on Joe's widely varying versions of what happened the night Diane was murdered, and his ability to continue to win battles for custody of his children. The murder trial was equally fascinating as yet again Joe had a new story. His attempts to manipulate the facts finally worked against him. This book was absorbing from beginning to end and I would highly recommend it.

Richard T. Pienciak's DEADLY MASQUERADE covers the story of the murder of Diane Pikul by her husband Joe Pikul; the police investigation of the crime; and Joe Pikul's trial. As portrayed by Pienciak, the Pikuls were wealthy and Joe, at least, was professionally successful. They were also apparently one of the most miserable couples imaginable. Diane Pikul was an insecure, social climbing, verbally abusive, alcoholic shrew. Joe was a controlling, physically abusive, alcoholic transvestite. Just this description of the two main players should cause lovers of the true crime genre to begin salivating uncontrollably. Pienciak is a thorough researcher and an excellent writer. DEADLY MASQUERADE is long, almost 500 pages, and I never found it boring nor did I begin skimming, which I do often when reading true crime. The book's sections on the investigation and subsequent trial of Joe Pikul are both quite extensive, and almost necessarily, since obviously the trial is the result of the investigation, some of the material is repeated in both sections. In the hands of a lesser writer this can become deadly, but Pienciak is so good, and clearly worked so hard on this book, that he successfully pulls it off. I was disappointed, though, that there was not more background on the Pikuls' early lives. I think that this kind of background, which allows the reader to understand what made a true crime book's subjects turn out the way they did, is the most intersting part of these books. While to be fair there is some background given on Diane's life before she hooked up with Joe, I would have preferred a lot more on her childhood. There is almost nothing on Joe, however. All we really learn about his life before Diane is that he was a driven personality, that he was physically abused by his father, and that he had an earlier unsuccessful marriage to a woman he remained in touch with. There is virtually no information about Joe's adult life before he married Diane, much less any description of his childhood and adolescence. However, despite the absence of biographical material DEADLY MASQUERADE is an excellent effort. Pienciak is a thoughful and intelligent writer who has done a fine job with what he did include and has crafted a book that is well worth reading.