A Death in Belmont

I love Junger's approach--he asks the right questions, examines the answers and the story that emerges, I believe, is as close to the objective truth as you can get. Just how complex and uncertain life is is revealed.

Because of some negative reviews I had read, I was not overly anxious to read this book. However, since I had read so much on the Boston Strangler case but had never heard of Roy Smith, I decided to give it a try, and am so glad I did! This book was truly fascinating. It is not so much a book about the Boston Strangler killings because it really only gives a brief and basic description of those murders. Rather, it is about one killing - that of Bessie Goldberg - and possible suspects in her murder: Roy Smith, a black handyman who had worked at her house that day and Albert DeSalvo, the self-confessed Boston Strangler. Although the author seems to lean strongly toward Roy Smith's innocence, he still sets forth every detail in the case against Smith. He also gives all the facts that would make DeSalvo the real killer. Basically, Junger puts forth every possible motive for both men and allows the reader to make up his own mind, if he can. At the end of the book, I also pretty much believed that Roy Smith was innocent. His supposed motive for the crime (theft of $15) would perhaps explain a "routine" murder of Mrs. Goldberg to avoid being caught. It would not, however, explain why someone like Roy Smith, a basically day-to-day laborer working mainly to support his drinking habit, would kill someone in the same manner as the Boston Strangler, particularly the grotesque sexual display of the body after death. It is obvious that the authorities, having so many unsolved murders on their hands, were anxious to clear up at least one killing and felt they "had their man", despite the fact that 12 very similar murders would remain unsolved by convicting Roy Smith, who could not have committed the other 12 because most of that time he had been in jail. It is also not totally clear whether or not Albert DeSalvo was, in fact, the Boston Strangler. The facts in the book strongly suggest he was exactly the type of person to commit that sort of crime but there remains the (slight) possibility his confession was a ploy to obtain money from book and movie rights. Even though Smith certainly seems innocent of this crime, and even though the author obviously leans that way, the author is still fair in recording every detail, even those that might point to Smith's guilt. One sticky question for me was that if someone besides Smith killed Bessie Goldberg, they had the incredible luck of showing up at her house during the very short period of time between when Smith left and Mr. Goldberg arrived home. This would seem to be an incredible coincidence, but of course that's what "coincidence" means. The story of both men ends very poignantly with Smith's death on the very eve of his freedom. In addition to the enigma of the crime, the author also includes fascinating details about Mississippi, where Smith grew up, and the horrifying and dehumanizing underbelly of the Massachusetts city where DeSalvo was raised. I very much enjoyed this book, and will now

Sebastian Junger's personal narrative takes place in and around Belmont, MA during the infamous Boston Strangler murders. The fact that the words 'Boston Strangler' does not appear anywhere in the title is an early warning that Junger's aim is not sensationalsim but subtlety. The reader spends the majority of his or her time looking over the shoulders of Junger's mother, the investigating task force and the two men who became the prime suspects. This indirect method allows Junger to introduce the racial tension, corruption and interpersonal relationships that led to the untimely deaths of both DeSalvo and Smith, or did they? There is never any true conclusion made by the author, which might be too nebulous for some if the desire is to see the murders in cold blood. Junger lays out the evidence linked to both men in a matter-of-a-fact way, yet this starkness underscores the fact that no one ever truly knew who did it. The murders are the key to bringing all of the discrete lives; his mother, Smith's friends, DeSalvo's co-workers and many more into a unified narrative. He goes off the beaten path more once, and while this can be distracting at times, it does set the tone of the environment well. Boston was a nation of immigrants and while Junger never stated it outright, there were lines drawn in the sand. But the primary conflicts are not just in race but in class. Junger does an excellant job exploring the 'comfortable' lives of his parents, who became the example of those who were able to support themselves. At the same time he introduces the poorer members of the community, who like DeSalvo and Smith, lived on the fringes of accepted society. The odd jobs of DeSalvo and Smith, drifting from house to house in search of work, became a metaphor for the disconnection that the poor experienced from the present society. The "haves" and "have-nots" are such polar opposites that only a murder could possibly bring them together. Thus the understated title becomes a loaded gun. Is his narrative just about a death in Belmont or is there much more at stake?

I've been seeing a lot of the coverage for A Death in Belmont, and decided to get a copy after watching him on Anderson Cooper. I read it in one sitting -- I could not put it down! The story really gets at what suburban culture in the early '60s was like -- with racial tensions at their peak and the JFK assassination on the too-near horizon. One thing Mr. Junger said on TV (and in the book) struck me as true -- that the reader is in the position of juror in this book. He presents all the evidence, and we're the ones who ultimately have to get at the heart of the mystery of who killed Bessie Goldberg. This book is a MUST READ. It's like an intellectual version of CSI -- much more gripping (and scary) than anything I've read all year.

When I first picked up this book I thought I'd be reading a run of the mill murder mystery...your basic who-dun-it. It's a who-dun-it all right (it reads as a first rate thriller) but somehow it is also much and much more: crime story, a meditation on justice, on truth (legal and otherwise), race and memory. A Murder in Belmont is the kind of great read that keeps you up late and then after you're down stays in your head. I can't help but think that someday it will be looked back upon as another In Cold Blood, a genre shattering masterpiece.