I'll Be Watching You

M.W. Phelps has created a masterpiece in this must read. He has taken the road less traveled and he has gone where few writers dare to tred. Directly into the dark and devious mind of a lust serial killer. In his upclose and personal interviews with Ned Snelgrove, he has been privy to, and played the power control mind game, that comes with the turf of trying to sort out fact from fiction when communicating with an extremely manipulative and intelligent serial killer. John Kelly President of S.T.A.L.K., Inc (SYSTEM TO APPREHEND SERIAL KILLERS)

Once you start this book you can not put it down. This is an excellent book by an excellent writer. This is an example of how all true crime books should be written. Look out Ann Rule you've got some competetion!!!

M. William Phelps stays true to his writing. This book kept me interested and I look forward to his next.

M. William Phelps continues to spin true horror stories with intense and precise decorum. Mr. Phelps has a way of not only telling a story, but his style will engross you from one page to the next. I like that the books he writes are not only fact driven, but his own research and interviews goes beyond the headlines. If you are looking for a "page turner", look no further than "I'll Be Watching You", a fascinating look into the mind of a lost soul that even the Devil himself rejected. What Mr. Phelps has accomplished with this book is amazing. He crawls into the depths of a killers mind and exposes him as not only as pure evil, but also as someone who could be living right next door to any of us. Read this book, it will change the way you look at that creep down the street or in your office. They are among us and that is the scary part.

Let's face it, Ned Snelgrove, aspired to be his hero, Ted Bundy, but he never got that famous like his hero. He was already in prison in New Jersey for murder and got off on good behavior after nearly killing a second woman. The author does an excellent job in explaining and detailing the lives of his victims, Mary Ellen, Karen, and Carmen as well as their families who suffered needlessly through the trauma of Ned's terror. For a young man who had a solid education and graduated from Rutgers University (my alma mater), he became a killer and rapist in New Jersey and his home state of Connecticut. Unfortunately, his last victim, Carmen, would catch him in his notorious lies. Of course, he did it. Carmen was seen leaving with him and nobody bought his story that he just dropped her off in the opposite direction of her apartment. Still, I am only three quarters through and it's an easy read with about 100 short chapters broken down into parts. There is no question that Ned is guilty of the murders of his college girlfriend, Karen Osmun, or Carmen, a beloved sister, mother, daughter, and grandmother. Her granddaughter died after her murder. Ned never amounted to be the serial killer with the likes of Ted Bundy, JEffrey Dahmer, or JOhn Wayne Gacy. Unlike them, he was much more sloppy, inefficient, and incompetent. He probably did not realize that Bundy was also a necrophiliac. He dumped Carmen's body in Rhode Island where she was found by Mr. Mareck, who knows personally what it is like to lose a loved one. His sister was murdered in the terrorist explosion of Pan Am 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland on December 21, 1988. He knows personally what it is like to lose a family member and not be able to find her. He found Carmen much to his own horror. The author paints a solid portrait of a crazed, brilliant sociopath criminal as well as the victims whose lives he claimed. Mary Ellen, the divorced mother and grandmother, survived but barely from her attack in 1987 while Carmen and Karen did not. Ned's crimes also took Karen's mother prematurely while Carmen's estranged husband in Puerto Rico died of a broken heart over her disappearance only two weeks after she was missing. Carmen would have never missed her daughter's baby shower or her birthday. Carmen was a fun loving woman who was vibrant and tried to overcome her hardship like her weakness for alcoholism. Karen had a promising future with a new boyfriend who treated her much better than Ned. She was killed right before Christmas in 1983. Her sister, Barbara, was pregnant and she would never get the chance to Aunt Karen. Phelps points these facts out about the loss of the victims. I thought the trial part was the least interesting part of the book because it becomes as always redundant and repetitive about Ned's lies and the facts about his guilt.