When the Husband is the Suspect
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When the Husband Is the Suspect—From Sam Sheppard to Scott Peterson: the Public's Passion for Spousal Homicides provides a critical overview of several of the most famous homicidal husband cases of recent years by one of the most famous trial lawyers of Dierdre Root - Library Journal When a woman is found murdered, the husband or boyfriend is the automatic suspect, but when she goes missing, the police rarely consider it a crime until a certain amount of time passes. This fact concerns author Strong (A Bright Red Scream), who develops a profile of the "eraser" killer: men who kill in order to "erase" their wives and families in order to start anew (that women themselves may be eraser killers is barely acknowledged). Strong focuses on the Scott Peterson case, but she also covers 50 other cases, from murderer Chester Gillette in 1906 to killers of the present, ecompassing both the famous and the obscure. Since vital evidence can disappear from a crime scene while the matter is still considered a missing-persons case, Strong hopes that this new "eraser" profile will do for missing wives and children what "violent sexual predator" and Amber Alerts did for child abductions. Of course, some women do run away, die by accident or suicide, or are murdered by strangers. "Innocent until proven guilty" and the civil rights of suspects are of concern to Bailey (The Defense Never Rests), the controversial veteran criminal defense attorney. His book, written with journalist and fantasy novelist Rabe (Dragonlance), focuses on particular men, guilty and innocent, who found themselves in the public eye after the women in their lives vanished or were murdered. Bailey has sympathy for innocent men caught in the legal spotlight, but none for the guilty. His book summarizes 20 different notable cases of murdered women, from the crime through the trial. Focusing on such famous defendants as Sam Sheppard, O.J. Simpson, Scott Peterson, and Robert Blake, some of whom hedefended, Bailey offers his take on these crimes. His stories of both the innocent and the guilty remind readers that being a suspect doesn't make you a killer. Both books belong in public libraries; Strong's book is a good choice for academic libraries as well.
