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A Death in Belmont (P.S.)
by: Sebastian Junger

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Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours Binding: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 364.1523097444
EAN: 9780060742690
ISBN: 0060742690
Label: Harper Perennial
Manufacturer: Harper Perennial
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 304
Publication Date: April 01, 2007
Publisher: Harper Perennial
Release Date: April 03, 2007
Studio: Harper Perennial
Sales Rank: 97130

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Editorial Review:

Product Description:

In the spring of 1963, the quiet suburb of Belmont, Massachusetts, is rocked by a shocking murder that fits the pattern of the infamous Boston Strangler, still at large. Hoping for a break in the case, the police arrest Roy Smith, a black ex-con whom the victim hired to clean her house. Smith is hastily convicted of the murder, but the Strangler's terror continues. And through it all, one man escapes the scrutiny of the police: a carpenter working at the time at the Belmont home of young Sebastian Junger and his parents—a man named Albert

From the acclaimed author of A Perfect Storm comes a powerful chronicle of three lives that collide in the vortex of one of America's most controversial serial murder cases.

Amazon.com Review:
Imagine how strange and frightening it would be to see a picture of yourself, not quite a year old, with your mother and two men, one of whom is a confessed serial killer. This is what happened to Sebastian Junger, and only a small part of what he recounts in A Death in Belmont.

The quiet suburb of Belmont, Massacuusetts, is in the grip of fear. The Boston Strangler murders have taken place nearby, and now there is another shocking sex crime, right in Belmont. The victim is Bessie Goldberg, a middle-aged woman who had hired a cleaning man to help out around the house on that fall day in 1963. He is a black man named Roy Smith. He did the appointed chores, collected his money and left a receipt on the kitchen table. Neighbors will say that he looked furtive when he walked down the street, that he was in a hurry, that he stopped to buy cigarettes, that he looked over his shoulder. They didn't see a black man in Belmont very often, so, of course, they noticed him. So the story went, and on these slender threads, and his own checkered history, Roy Smith is convicted of the Belmont murder and sent to prison.

On the day of the murder, Albert DeSalvo, an Italian-American handyman, is also in Belmont, working as a carpenter in the Junger home, where the picture is taken. Two years after his work for the Jungers, he confesses in vivid detail to the crimes of which the Boston Strangler is accused, and sent to prison, where he is stabbed to death by an inmate. But he never confesses to the Bessie Goldberg murder. Could he have left the Junger home, committed the murder a few blocks away and calmly returned to finish his day's work? Could Roy Smith really have been the guilty party, even though his sentence was commuted after De Salvo confessed?

In the grand tradition of his bestselling The Perfect Storm, Junger tells a terrific story, lining up all the elements, asking all the pertinent questions, digging into the backgrounds of both men, retelling his mother's very strange encounter with Albert when she is home alone with Sebastian. He then asks the larger questions: Was Roy Smith convicted summarily because he was black? Was Albert De Salvo really the Boston Strangler?

Junger cannot answer all the questions, as no one can. Without DNA, there is no way to be certain of which of the two men might have committed the rape and murder of Bessie Goldberg, or if neither of them is guilty. While it is frustrating not to know for sure, the story is fascinating, reads like a tautly plotted mystery thriller, and Junger's close connection is downright creepy. --Valerie Ryan

Customer Reviews

Average Rating: out of 5 stars

Rating:

- Did the Boston Strangler kill 14 people?
I have read Junger's two other books, and I think this book is a good thou average read. Since I am no lawyer, I didn't get hung up on whether juries deem a person innocent or guilty. There were also a few typos in this book. However, I get Junger's focus which is a black man was tried and found guilty on a murder that could have been committed by the Boston Strangler. Junger does a good job of recreating the atmosphere of 1963 America. America was unjust in the South, but also racially motivated in a liberal area such as Boston. Everybody identified the black man walking down the street in Belmont. Nobody placed blame on a young white man walking around asking people if they wanted their house painted. This is the point Junger was trying to make.

As for the book itself, ... Read More

Rating:

- inaccurate and manipulative

As a friend and neighbor of the Goldberg family it was with trepidation I began reading Sebastian Junger's account of a crime that affected me deeply. I remember very well the circumstances regarding the murder of my classmate's mother.
Surprisingly, the overwhelming evidence against Roy Smith, the convicted murderer, is almost completely omitted from Junger's version. The fact that the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court upheld Smith's conviction is also missing from this poorly researched book. I was disappointed when I realized that Junger misrepresented the truth in order to tie his picture of himself with Albert DeSalvo to the murder of my friend's mother

Rating:

- Not The Perfect Book
If this book had not been authored by Sebastian Junger, it wouldn't have been published. What should have been a magazine article at most becomes a boring and drawn-out affair with an implausible ending.

Rating:

- Interesting yet too long
This story was interesting. Although he is not old enough to actually remember any of the events, he draws in a very personal aspect to the crime in the title. The story of the man wrongly accused is heartbreaking but typical of the time. S. Junger takes too long however to make some of his points. No doubt the story is intriguing, but some superfluous wording could have definitely made it more enjoyable.

Rating:

- Could not put it down.
I could not put the book down, I was mesmerized from start to finish. How this man who wrote a famous and great tragic story was himself a part of such a larger-than-life infamous time frame and proximity. I highly recommend this story.

Books : A Death in Belmont (P.S.)