Genealogy of a Murder : Four Generations, Three Families, One Fateful Night
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- $19.99
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- $19.99
Publisher Description
Independence Day weekend, 1960: a young cop is murdered, shocking his close-knit community in Stamford, Connecticut. The killer remains at large, his identity still unknown. But on a beach not far away, a young Army doctor, on vacation from his post at a research lab in a maximum-security prison, faces a chilling realization. He knows who the shooter is. In fact, the man-a prisoner out on parole-had called him only days before. By helping his former charge and trainee, the doctor, a believer in second chances, may have inadvertently helped set the murder into motion. And with that one phone call, may have sealed a policeman's fate.
Alvin Tarlov, David Troy, and Joseph DeSalvo were all born of the Great Depression, all with grandparents who'd left different homelands for the same American Dream. How did one become a doctor, one a cop, and one a convict? In Genealogy of a Murder, journalist Lisa Belkin traces the paths of each of these three men-one of them her stepfather. Her canvas is large, spanning the first half of the twentieth century: immigration, the struggles of the working class, prison reform, medical experiments, politics and war, the nature/nurture debate, epigenetics, the infamous Leopold and Loeb case, and the history of motorcycle racing. It is also intimate: a look into the workings of the mind and heart.
APPLE BOOKS REVIEW
This riveting true-crime tale isn’t a whodunit—it’s all about the why. Decades ago, journalist Lisa Belkin (author of the riveting public-housing story Show Me a Hero) was told a story by her stepfather, Dr. Alvin Tarlov: When he was a young researcher running a drug trial in an Illinois jail in the 1950s, he wrote a recommendation of parole for an industrious prisoner assisting his work. Not long after his release, that ex-con, Joseph DeSalvo, murdered a policeman, David Troy, outside a Connecticut bar. Rather than reconstruct the murder and investigation, Belkin goes back several generations, starting with the stories of the three men’s immigrant grandparents. Her remarkable research reveals how dysfunctional families, psychological baggage, and sheer chance led to Troy’s murder. The compassion Belkin shows for everyone in these families is evident throughout, which makes theories about crime, rehabilitation, and recidivism feel deeply personal. Erin Bennett’s enthusiastic narration captures the energy and emotion of this fascinating narrative. Anyone who’s interested in family histories or looking for a gripping true-crime story should listen to Genealogy of a Murder.