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50 States of Crime

Recently--as I've noted--the NYT listed all fifty states, and then paired a true-crime classic with each of the states. I remain obsessed with this list. A few additional notes:

*California is truly a star. The Times chose "American Heiress"--a wonderful Jeffrey Toobin story about Patty Hearst. Can't go wrong with that. (Great crime writing should have an aura of mystery--so it's as if you're looking at the Mona Lisa, wondering, exactly what is happening here? The unsolved mystery in "American Heiress": to what extent, if any, did Hearst really "convert" to the evil side, the side of her captors?)

Fine, fine, fine. But I'd like to point out that Toobin's "The Run of His Life"--another California saga, a story of OJ Simpson, and one of the most gripping books I've ever read--could *also* win the California crime crown. Additionally, "I'll Be Gone in the Dark" would work: That's the recent tale of the Golden State Killer.

And what about "Manson"? And "The Road to Jonestown" (given that Jones spent a part of his early career in California)? And one of the Black Dahlia chronicles? "Helter Skelter"? "Zodiac"? Wow, California. Wow.

*Note the New York title. Curiously, the NYT chose not to focus on New York City. (It would be easy enough to focus on New York City. Think of "The Preppie Murder," "Cropsey," Kitty Genovese, Robert Durst, and so on.)

For NYS, the NYT went with "Lost Girls." Read this book. It's among the greats. I've talked about it before. It's the story of various ambitious women in tough circumstances--e.g. poor women from Buffalo--who chose to become "Craig's List prostitutes." All ended up murdered--perhaps on a beach, on Long Island. (Some killers stalk the powerless, because they figure few powerful people will come looking after a poor woman, and notably a poor *minority* woman, ends up dead.)

You get to know the women so well. You get to know their families--not a shock, the families are troubled and compelling--and you *sort of* get to know the shadowy killer, who never removes his mask. He is tantalizing. He places cell-phone calls to the sibling of one of his victims. All we know about those calls? They seemed to come from midtown Manhattan--a jungle, if ever there were a jungle. Good luck trying to find *anything* small and evasive in midtown Manhattan.

*Titles of interest. "Columbine" kept me breathless--for pages and pages. "The Good Nurse," about psychopathy in New Jersey, is a winner. "Devil's Knot," a story set in Arkansas, has haunted me for weeks. I'm considering reading "Homicide" and "Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil." Stay tuned!

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/07/26/books/50-states-of-true-crime.html
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