historical murder.

Harold Schechter is known for his true crime books. I don't know much about them because true crime freaks me out. Since his latest, The Mad Sculptor took place in the 1930's, I figured enough time had passed, and I do like how Schechter writes a lot about the time period in general, not just about brutal murders. Mind you, I still haven't slept for days, but it was worth it.

In The Mad Sculptor, Schechter takes his all of his research and examines the New York tabloid press' escalating coverage of a series of murders in and around the Beckman Place neighborhood in the early 1930s Manhattan. It is the Easter Sunday Slayings of 1937 which included model Veronica "Ronnie" Gedeon, her mother Mary, and their tenant that shook the nation, sparked a manhunt, and is the basis of this crime book, making it the page-turner that you expect from Schechter.