Murder at 75 Birch

MURDER AT 75 BIRCH deals with the murder in 1986 of Betty Wolsieffer, the wife of Wilkes-Barre, PA, dentist Glen Wolsieffer. Glen claimed to have been the victim of an intruder in their home who knocked him out before murdering Betty, and he professed his deep love for his wife. But his stories quickly fell apart. His account of his struggle with an assailant in his house the night of the murder was soon seen as ridiculous, and if Glen loved his wife, he was not faithful to her. The reader learns that not only had Glen had a girlfriend for the past 7 years, but that within the year prior to the killing, he started a relationship with a second woman as well, effectively, at that point, cheating on both his wife and his first girlfriend. And Betty, who had learned about the first, if not the second, outside relationship was, according to her friends, planning on confronting Glen with an ultimatum about their marriage the night she was killed. Subplots abound as well. Richard T. Pienciak is a fine true crime writer. MURDER AT 75 BIRCH is well researched and well written. As in his other true crime books (MAMA'S BOY and DEADLY MASQUERADE) he writes intelligently for adults. Pienciak does not feel the need to dramatize his work excessively and he does not attempt to tell the reader what to think. He simply presents his research in a profesionally written manner allowing the reader to form his/her own conclusions. MURDER AT 75 BIRCH is formatted in typical true crime style, but Pienciak uses the device (also used in MAMA'S BOY with considerable success) which he calls "In His Own Words", short chapters in which Glen presents his own explanations of the events surrounding the murder. I like the device, but it is less successful in MURDER AT 75 BIRCH because Glen, other than his continued and patently false efforts to cast himself as misunderstood and innocent of anything more than cheating on his wife, has nothing interesting to say. I have rated this book 4 rather than 5 stars because of the sections dealing with Glen's trial. Pienciak himself states that the technical testimony in the trial was often confusing and numbingly boring. But he then details, in my opinion, too much of it in his narrative with the end result being that the book during those sequences becomes boring as well. This is a book that I think will appeal to any lover of the true crime genre who likes well researched and written stories. Pienciak does not appear to be particularly well known. I think he should be.