Search for the Strangler: My Hunt for Boston's Most Notorious Killer

I enjoyed this book a lot. I liked learning about the Boston Strangler story and the theories surronding the killings. I also enjoyed Sherman's investigations. Great book!

I was surprised and disappointed to find that this was actually the same book that came out just last year from a university press when it was called, A ROSE FOR MARY, one of the very best books of the year, Did Warner Books think they had to spice up the cover so that people would know it was all about The Boston Strangler? Or maybe some were disappointed in the previous title, A ROSE FOR MARY, and they thought it was about ROSEMARY'S BABY. In any case I think it's a cheap shot when a paperback changes the name of the hardcover because there will be many, like me, who buys both books falling for the misleading new title and thinking it a new book. What's great about Casey Sherman's book is that, although he's a little fellow, he had this great determination to avenge the death of a woman who died before he was even born, his mom's sister Mary, who died in January 1964. Casey isn't a midget per se but he brings up his perceived lack of height several times in the book, leaving the reader feeling that this is indeed an issue in his life. He is a powerful writer and delivers a book filled with regret and rage, and the eerie silence of a family touched by crime. For in the Sullivan family there was a great loss, an empty space where once Mary had laughed and sang. He digs up a certain amount of DNA evidence that makes it seem as though, whatever else he was guilty of in his crazy life, Albert De Salvo certainly didn't kill Mary, even though he was implicated in her death. Casey Sherman analyzes the corrupt state of the police back in the 1960s and the ways in which pressure was put on top politicians to "bring in the killer" and it seems clear they didn't mind if they fried an innocent one, as long as the murders stopped. It was like JAWS in that, so many women were being killed in Boston, that tourism had come to a complete halt! Mary is smiling now that justice has been unearthed. Good for you, Casey. Warner Books, stop chiseling money out of the pockets of the citizenry!