Fiend: The Shocking True Story Of America's Youngest Serial Killer

299 Pages·2000·2.04 MB·English

by  Harold Schechter

Acclaim for
HAROLD SCHECHTER,
“America’s principal chronicler of its greatest psychopathic killers”
(The Boston Book Review)
BESTIAL
The Savage Trail of a True American Monster
“Yet another essential addition to Schechter’s canon of serial murder history. . . .
Deserves to be read and pored over by the hard crime enthusiast as well as
devotees of social history.”
—The Boston Book Review
“Bestial spare[s] no graphic detail. . . . Reads like fast-paced fiction, complete
with action, plot twists, suspense, and eerie foreshadowing. . . . Provides chilling
insights into the motivations of a man who killed for killing’s sake.”
—Amazon.com
“[A] deftly written, unflinching account.”
—Journal Star (Peoria, IL)
DEPRAVED
The Shocking True Story of America’s First Serial Killer
“Must reading for crime buffs. Gruesome, awesome, compelling reporting.”
—Ann Rule, bestselling author of . . . And Never Let Her Go
“A meticulously researched, brilliantly detailed and above all riveting account of
Dr. H. H. Holmes, a nineteenth-century serial killer. . . . Schechter has done his
usual sterling job in resurrecting this amazing tale.”
—Caleb Carr, bestselling author of The Alienist
DERANGED
The Shocking True Story of America’s Most Fiendish Killer
“Reads like fiction but it’s chillingly real. . . . What Albert Fish did . . . would
chill the bones of Edgar Allan Poe.”
—The Philadelphia Inquirer
DEVIANT
The Shocking True Story of Ed Gein, the Original “Psycho”
“[A] grisly, wonderful book. . . . A scrupulously researched and complexly
sympathetic biography of the craziest killer in American history.”
—Film Quarterly
THE A TO Z ENCYCLOPEDIA OF SERIAL KILLERS
by Harold Schechter and David Everitt
“[A] grisly tome. . . . Schechter knows his subject matter.”
—Denver Rocky Mountain News
Praise for Harold Schechter’s masterful historical novel featuring Edgar
Allan Poe
NEVERMORE
“Caleb Carr and Tom Holland are going to have some competition for turf in the
land of historical literary crime fiction.”
—The Boston Book Review
“Authentic . . . engaging. . . . Schechter manages at once to be faithful to Poe’s
voice, and to poke gentle fun at it—to swing breezily between parody and
homage.”
—The Sun (Baltimore)
“A page-turner. . . . Deftly recreates 1830s Baltimore and brings Poe to life.”
—Richmond Times-Dispatch
“[A] tantalizing tale full of tongue twisters and terror. . . . A literary confection to
be read, discussed, and savored by lovers of puzzles and language, this is also a
first-rate mystery.”
—Booklist
“Schechter . . . recounts the legendary author’s brush with real-life homicide as
one of Poe’s own protagonists would—with morbid, scientific rapture . . . plenty
of suspense and nicely integrated background details.”
—Publishers Weekly
“Wonderful. . . . I highly recommend Nevermore. I had more fun with this book
than any I have read in a long time.”
—Denver Rocky Mountain News
“Schechter does a good job of recreating Poe’s phantasmagoric style.”
—San Antonio Express-News
“In this gripping, suspenseful thriller, Harold Schechter does a spendid job of
capturing the spirit of Edgar Allan Poe. I’m sure my late, great cousin would
have loved Nevermore.”
—Anne Poe Lehr
“Schechter’s entertaining premise is supported by rich period atmospherics and a
plot that keeps the finger of suspicion wandering until the very end.”
—The New York Times Book Review
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Contents
Epigraph
Prologue
Part 1: Dead Eye
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Part 2: The Boy-Killer
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Part 3: The Fiend
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Part 4: Eye for Eye
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
Chapter 33
Chapter 34
Chapter 35
Chapter 36
Chapter 37
Chapter 38
Chapter 39
Chapter 40
Chapter 41
Part 5: Buried
Chapter 42
Chapter 43
Chapter 44
Chapter 45
Chapter 46
Chapter 47
Chapter 48
Acknowledgments
Photographs
For my friends
Miklos, Lisa, Andrei, and Alex