- Hardcover: 224 pages
- Publisher: Routledge; First Edition. Hardback. Dust Jacket. edition (April 1988)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 041500280X
- ISBN-13: 978-0415002806
- Product Dimensions: 21.8 x 14.4 x 2.6 cm
- Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (1 customer review)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 263,431 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Product Description
Product Description
The story of a vicious psychopath.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
As an American, I knew of Neville Heath, but had only a cursory knowledge of his crimes and I approached this volume with some hesitancy. Admittedly, I've had greater exposure to books that deal with the more lurid crimes that are generally committed in America (although the crimes of Ian Brady and Fred West certainly are as repulsive and horrifying as those of Dahmer or Manson). At the risk of sounding jingoistic and shallow, I feared this might be a moralistic, dry-as-dust parable about a prosaic British killer, the interminable judicial process that followed his crimes, and his ultimate punishment and expiation. It was surprising indeed to find that Mr. Selwyn has written a perceptive, cogent study of a charming but savage psychopath who might well be seen as the archetype of Ted Bundy or his modern-age counterparts. I found myself wondering as I read this whether Heath, if his 2 murders had gone undetected, would have become as prolific a murderer as someone like Bundy ultimately became. Certainly, the 2 men shared some essential qualities. Like Bundy, Heath was handsome and charming, an engaging conversationalist, an inventive storyteller, a petty thief and pathological liar. If a movie were made of Heath's life, one could see a young Roger Moore or Richard Burton playing the title role. Still, underneath the alluring exterior that he presented to the world, lurked a monstrous, perverted cipher and it is this dichotomy between reality and perception that makes this story so fascinating. Mr. Selwyn points out that Heath's first killing may have been a mistake; a mutually agreed upon sexual act that got out of hand. No such excuse can be made for his 2nd murder- the slaughter of Miss Marshall was an animalistic atrocity without precedent. No sympathy is generated for Mr. Heath- even those who oppose the death penalty, as I do, will concede that his fate was richly deserved- and no facile explanations are given about what may have contributed to his murderous hatred of women. Mr. Selwyn eschews the sensationalism that seems endemic to the True Crime genre and his book is a sobering, reflective account of a crime that seemed to be, in the 1940's, an anomalous act of evil but has come to represent, with the passing of the years, a scourge of our modern age. Heath's story is as relevant today as it was a half century ago.
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