Fallen Son

Charlie Cohen, born on December 6, 1964 appeared to have a good life mapped out for him. Desperately wanted by his older parents and doted on from birth, Charlie appeared to have all of his needs met.Charlie began exhibiting bizarre behavior during his high school years in the late 1980s. He would wear weird costumes, dance in the hallways and called himself Super Fly. He became increasingly antagonistic at home and after several unsuccessful attempts at college, Charlie drifted into drugs and crime. He became quite a traveler. At one point during this period, he was busted in Arizona; he made yet another unsuccessful attempt at college and was back on the streets. Indulged by his desperate parents, he was allowed to table college and pursue a goal to be a punk rock star. This lasted a short period as his band mates were more impressed with his technical equipment than with him. Wanted by dealers and the law alike, Charlie fled constantly. Resentful of his indulgent, yet strict about rules and education parents, Charlie murdered them in the early 1990s. He fled across country from Delaware to California where he steals a car after disposing of the family car he stole; kills an older man who agreed to let him spend a night in his apartment; drifts eastward to Louisiana where he lives on the street where drugs and prostitution are major parts of his life. From there he travels northeastward to New York City where a security guard befriends him and lets him move in with her and her son.Charlie's odessey finally comes to an end. By the mid-1990s when Choo-Choo Charlie's train comes to a grinding halt, he is extradited and faced legal charges for his crimes.This is a very sad story of how deeply twisted a person had become.

I grew up with Charlie Cohen, and we were best friends; he lived a block from me, and I spent a great deal of time at his house and with his parents. It was a shock to hear he had killed them and gone on the run, and I spent about 4 hours meeting with the author as he researched this book. I was quite impressed; overall, he was quite accurate in his depiction of the Charlie that I knew (but boy, did he change!). I do not read a great deal of true crime, but naturally I couldn't resist reading this. It's well-written, not over-sensationalist writing about a real tragedy.

I was most impressed with this book. I am an avid reader, especially of true crime and mystery. Good true crime books are hard to find, and rarer still are those where the author allows me to "decide for myself." This story is presented in an understandable, yet exciting way, and by the end of the book I felt that I had peaked inside the lives of the perpetrator and the victims. Mr. Walsh obviously knew the people, took the time to gather facts, and used his remarkable talent to give readers a great story.

I decided to read this book because it is about a Delaware man, Charles Cohen, who was in the prison Toastmasters program I sponsor. I found this book to be very intense. I was compelled to continue reading it, yet I didn't like what I was reading about. I knew and heard of several people mentioned in the book . . . Delaware is a small state. This book also mentioned that Charles had an aunt with the same uncommon last name as mine. I sat next to Charles one evening and asked him if that were true. He said, "Yes" and he asked if we were somehow related. We aren't. That was the last time I saw him, since while we were sitting there that night in the chapel, the largest prison-break in the history of Delaware was in progress in the same prison we were sitting in. Charles was transferred to another facility the next day. I highly recommend this book if you want to be kept on the edge of your seat...unfortunately the story is true.