| Title | : | The Kill Jar: Obsession, Descent, and a Hunt for Detroit's Most Notorious Serial Killer |
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | |
| ISBN | : | 1507204027 |
| ISBN-10 | : | 9781507204023 |
| Language | : | English |
| Format Type | : | Hardcover |
| Number of Pages | : | 288 |
| Publication | : | First published August 14, 2018 |
With a foreword by Catherine Broad, sister of victim Timothy King.
Four children were abducted and murdered outside of Detroit during the winters of 1976 and 1977, their bodies eventually dumped in snow banks around the city. J. Reuben Appelman was six years old at the time the murders began and had evaded an abduction attempt during that same period, fueling a lifelong obsession with what became known as the Oakland County Child Killings.
Autopsies showed the victims to have been fed while in captivity, reportedly held with care. And yet, with equal care, their bodies had allegedly been groomed post-mortem, scrubbed-free of evidence that might link to a killer. There were few credible leads, and equally few credible suspects. That’s what the cops had passed down to the press, and that’s what the city of Detroit, and J. Reuben Appelman, had come to believe.
When the abductions mysteriously stopped, a task force operating on one of the largest manhunt budgets in history shut down without an arrest. Although no more murders occurred, Detroit and its environs remained haunted. The killer had, presumably, not been caught.
Eerily overlaid upon the author’s own decades-old history with violence, The Kill Jar tells the gripping story of J. Reuben Appelman’s ten-year investigation into buried leads, apparent police cover-ups of evidence, con-men, child pornography rings, and high-level corruption saturating Detroit’s most notorious serial killer case.
The Kill Jar: Obsession, Descent, and a Hunt for Detroit's Most Notorious Serial Killer Reviews
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The Kill Jar: Obsession, Descent, and the Hunt for Detroit’s most Notorious Serial Killer by J. Reuben Appelman is a 2018 Gallery Books publication.
“There was a serial killer out there, swiping kids from their footing like sweeping a few bugs into the kill jar in his garden, and there was nothing anybody could do but keep their doors locked and ride out the storm.”
The OCCK- or The Oakland County Child Killer- refers to a series of child murders in the late seventies in Detroit. To this day the killer has yet to be officially identified.
Serial killers were quite prolific in the seventies. I remember the huge headliners, like ‘Son of Sam’, the ‘Zodiac’, and Manson- to name a few. But, this case was not on my radar at all. Four children- two boys and two girls were murdered, which is horrible enough. But, it also appears that the investigators may have botched the investigation and then needed to cover their tracks.
For the author of this book, the case is intensely personal. He was nearly a kidnapping victim himself at one time. Under those conditions, it is easy to see how a case like this could worm its way under someone’s skin. An ordinary curiosity, or interest in a case could easily morph into a full- on obsession.
I’ve followed crime cases for years, reading every book penned on the subject, watching every documentary or crime show about it, reading any newspaper reports or articles on the case and so forth. But, I don’t think about these cases every waking moment of my life or attempt to solve the crime myself. I don’t contact the victim’s families, or blog about true crime, or contemplate writing a book on the subject. Maybe there is something about experiencing crime on a periphery that affects a person so deeply they feel compelled to prevent more crimes from taking place or feel a need to find closure or justice for those who didn’t survive, as a penance for their own.
Appelman is not the first person to become so obsessed with a cold case they upended their entire lives, lost perspective, and struggled to find normalcy. The obvious comparison would be to Michelle McNamara, whose obsession with the ‘Golden State Killer’ may have contributed to her untimely death.
While this ‘descent’, which is an incredibly apt word for it, by Appelman, and McNamara are hauntingly similar, and will draw inevitable parallels, I would caution you not to make comparisons.
I hate to dissect this book in a truly negative way, but at the end of the day, for all of Appelman’s immense sacrifices, only a small amount of new information was unearthed. The police did seem to withhold evidence from the victim’s family, and there were avenues they didn’t explore fully, evidence was 'lost', and in one instance a report with sensitive information, possibly naming a viable suspect was whited out. But, at the end of the day, much of what I read here was hearsay. There are some pretty far-flung conspiracy theories that would rival Oliver Stone’s JFK movie, but no proof that would stand up in a court of law. Sure, there were some moments when the effect was quite chilling and could make the hair stand up on the back of your neck.
But, it was all too vague and doing a little side digging of my own, I’m pretty sure we can figure out who the killer probably was, despite there being several other very viable candidates.
What really stands out about this book is the author’s memoir. Appelman is a very troubled soul. His depression is marked. It’s serious enough that I’d strongly suggest seeking professional help. The book leaned heavily on the author’s personal life, his struggles with his marriage, his moral temptations and weaknesses, and felt more like airing dirty laundry than an expose on how this case took over his life.
Occasionally, Appelman unnerved me and had me squirming in my seat. He’s a very tense person, dark, brooding and moody. I was concerned for him, but also for those close to him as he did seem to struggle with dark and violent thoughts and tendencies. I’m not sure if the case is the cause of his instability or if his obsession or ‘descent’ is actually a symptom of something far more serious.
I’m not being judgmental here, nor am I an expert on this type psychological compulsion. I felt bad for the guy, but he also made me feel very uncomfortable at times. I do hope he can find peace and balance so that he can be the father he wants so desperately to be.
But, if nothing else, this book shines a light on a forgotten cold case. I will definitely take a closer look at this case and seek out documentaries or further reading materials on the subject. -
4 chilling stars to The Kill Jar! ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️
A serial killer in the Detroit, Michigan area abducted and murdered four children in 1976 and 1977. The author was six-years-old when the murders occurred, and someone dressed as a security guard attempted to abduct him during that same timeframe. After, J. Reuben Appleman says he became obsessed with the Oakland County Murders.
The narrative reviews the available evidence in true crime fashion, and these sections were well-written and engaging, though of course, extremely difficult to read due to the content.
The abductions stopped without rhyme or reason, and the task force shut down without an arrest.
The author has a history with violence, and he details his past and how he was shaped by the early events in his life, including the attempted abduction by a possible serial killer. The author connects the crime to his own thoughts as he grew up and relays his own opinions. I found this an interesting added layer of honesty, but I also could see how it might be distracting, especially if you are looking for a straight-up true crime book.
My favorite aspects of The Kill Jar were the investigations into the murders. The details were laid out in an easy-to-follow format, and the author clearly had performed extensive research. Appelman covers the corruption and possible scandal and illustrates why these murders have proven difficult to solve.
While I am not sure the true crime genre is one I will visit regularly, The Kill Jar held me captive. I wished for an outcome (i.e., some kind of answers) for these families throughout reading, and I will continue to wish that for them now knowing the cases are still unsolved.
Thank you to Gallery Books for the complimentary ARC. All opinions are my own. The Kill Jar will be released on August 14, 2018.
My reviews can also be found on my blog:
www.jennifertarheelreader.com -
Having grown up in Oakland County, Michigan I first became interested in these murders after reading about them in other books. I was very eager to read this book which promised the results of the author’s ten-year investigation of buried leads and police cover-ups of evidence, con-men, child porn rings, and high-level corruption. It certainly delivered on that and on being also part memoir, as the author J. Reuben Appelman also grew up in Michigan, in the Detroit area and was intimately familiar with the areas he discusses in the book. He still has family there and made efforts to reconnect with them as he did his work on the case.
This book has a ton of great information about the cases, about the suspects, and about new suspects never heard of and what’s happened in the intervening years. Appelman connects the dots and lets you decide based on some rather shocking details. This is a must-read for anyone with an interest in the Oakland County Child Murders case of 1976 and 1977 or true crime fans. An advance digital copy was provided by NetGalley and author J. Reuben Appelman for my unbiased review.
Gallery Books
Publication: Aug 14, 2018
My Bookzone blog on Wordpress:
https://wordpress.com/post/bookblog20... -
1.5
Appelman spent 10 years of his life and $15,000 in Kickstarter funds on The Kill Jar and this miserable book is all he has to show for it. While he rhapsodizes over every childhood slight from his own life in melodramatic detail, he almost never goes beyond the surface of the murder cases. Not a single fact here can be traced back to his own research and couldn't be found for yourself on the internet. Most of the research cited was handed to him by families of the victim who've been waging their own uphill battle for justice for 25 years. Except for a Cliffs Notes rundown on what he's uncovered in the closing chapters, the facts of the OCCK case are brought up in the ways that best let him segue into stories of his own miserable life and compulsion to self-harm.
Our narrator is a repugnant narcissist who moans about his wife's affair while dedicating entire chapters to the TWO women he was pursuing every time he traveled to Oakland for research. He claims to care about his kids even as he details the elaborate murder/suicide fantasies he had when his marriage was falling apart. Like all good narcissists he seems completely unaware that readers might find this tacky, or that we may not find him endlessly fascinating.
The introduction by a victim's sister complains about the ghouls who used her brother's murder "as a ready-made outline for fiction books" which makes me think she never saw the finished product because Appelman has done the same thing and used it as a framework for a self-obsessed memoir, trading on the story of murdered and molested children to get people to read his noir memoir.
And if this were fiction, it would be a compelling read. But this isn't a pulp novel; the victims are real people, their families have been through the wringer, and this book is just one more injustice on an already insurmountable heap. -
When I was a kid, growing up with a bipolar alcoholic father, there were times I thought to myself, “you should write all this stuff down, other people would find it so interesting.” As I grew up, I realized how egocentric that kind of thinking is. The author of this book never made that realization. This book is half true crime story about a serial killer and half the moody, emo, diary entries of a 40 year old teenager who frankly eats too many hot dogs.
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I received a copy of this from Netgalley in exchange for a review.
CW: Child rape. Appelman weaves together a lot of threads in his quest to discover the identity of the Oakland County Child Killer, a lot of grotesque tentacles that curl out and then back in on themselves tangled with digressions into his abusive childhood, his adult relationship with his father, and his faltering marriage and relationship with his own children. Although he never solves the case conclusively, he builds a credible tale of a pedophile ring relying on kidnapped children for victims and corrupt cops willing to "lose" evidence to protect rich pedophiles. I didn't enjoy this book very much, not only because of the subject matter - Appelman veers all over his own narrative and chapters are arranged in a disjointed, almost dreamy fashion, seeming to almost mimic what I'd assume is the haphazard uncovering of clues in a police investigation. He's a great writer and this book is filled with rich, chewy phrasing that I'd be quoting if I could, but this was so muddled that I found it was a struggle to read & I was glad to be finished with it. -
Although a fast read, this was a hard read. The subject matter is tough and the enormity of what the writer uncovers is a lot to digest. I think it is an important read..
One that will stay with me for a long time. -
I think many will align this book with the recent popular true crime shows Serial, S Town, and Making of a Murderer. I don’t think they are wrong, but Appelman takes a much more personal and raw path in telling his story. His motivations whether altruistic or demon-driven are always on display as his own professed unbalance is juxtaposed with the corruption of the case. The Kill Jar is an addicting read, one that will have you Googling the case late at night to see the eyes of the suspects and to test your own theories.
Thank you to NetGalley, Gallery Books, Simon and Schuster, and J. Reuben Appelman for the advance copy for review.
Full review can be found here:
https://paulspicks.blog/2018/04/12/th...
Please check out all my reviews:
https://paulspicks.blog -
I really, really wanted to like this book, but I just could not. The topic was interesting, but I am not sure if, besides police corruption, it gave any new information about the case at hand. I looked up the case on google as I read, and the information in the book about the case was all the same information I could find on google. The hard part of this book was that the chapters didn't transition well. One chapter could be about the case and the next about a pedophile ring that may have had something about the case then the next would be about the authors relationship with his father and then there was a lot about girlfriends, his family, and self-harm. This book was very disjointed, although I understand how the families of the victims might have found some relief in this book as someone was once again talking about their deceased loved ones.
I didn't think the author wrote as well as he could have either. From one chapter to another there were so many open ended ideas and questions, and in the end nothing was resolved. For example, the author met up with an old girlfriend, Ellie, and at the end of the book, in his last meeting with her he sees that she looks tired and different, but he doesn't question her about her appearance, so why did he bring it up? He talks a lot about his infidelities and self harm, but it all seems to be about him, not the story he is telling about the victims of the killer. He leads the reader into a circular thought pattern, and nothing is resolved, or changed by his telling of this story.
I wish this had been more cohesive, and contained more information about the victims, as it seemed to focus on the pedophilia of the suspects and others who might have been involved in the coverup of the pedophile ring.
This was not a great, or even a good book, it was too hard to read and left the author with nothing to look into or wonder about as it is a case which will most likely never be solved. So what was the purpose of writing this book? -
This book is not my normal read but growing up in Michigan and still living in Michigan I just had to get my hands on it! This book was a dark story but beautifully written grabbing my attention with every word, about the four unsolved Oakland county children killings. The brutal killings took place between 1976-1977. I learned a lot about the alleged cover up of the case due to the wealthy high profile suspects, as well as horrible things about Michigan’s own pedophile ring which involved well known metro Detroit men! The author involved his own childhood growing up in Detroit and his difficult relationships and demons. The author who was six years old at the time of the murders tells his story of how he was almost kidnapped as someone dressed as a security guard while stealing candy from a local story. What is odd and what feeds the authors obsession is that the abductions stopped without any rhyme or reason and that there hasn’t been any arrests and the task force was shut down as well. The other side of the book is how the author has a history of violence and how his father who was a violent man shaped his childhood and his future with having difficulty’s in relationships and second guessing how he’s raising his own children. The kill jar held my attention win every word and I was truly hoping for a breakthrough in the case and finding the man who did this! I give this five stars and will recommend this book to family and friends .
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It is so difficult to rate a book where the content is so deeply disturbing. I struggled between 2 and 3 stars and even though I can’t say I enjoyed the experience of reading it, the author did do in-depth research and did a fine job at telling the story, although I thought at times he could have used a more delicate hand to describe some of the things that happened. I’m sure it was very hard to immerse himself in the research of this case and that is apparent by the toll it seemed to take on him when he seemed to already be struggling with depression. I think it was brave for him to tell his story as well and I hope he has gotten help to deal with it. As far as the story of the OOCK, there are so many roads to go down and I thought the author did a good job of tying it all together when there is no definitive answer. I hope that with advances in DNA and with people continuing to research the case, one day the families will have answers.
Be warned, this book would be VERY triggering for sexual assault. -
The Kill Jar is two completely different stories clumsily mashed together: one of murder, pedophilia, and police corruption, and the other of a sad but not particularly memorable man and his various failed relationships. Every time I found myself caught up in the drama of the Oakland County Child Killings case, I was abruptly jerked out of it by more authorial intrusion. (Now I'm visiting an ex-girlfriend. Now I'm taking my kids to a ball game. Now I'm having lunch with my dad.) It's the same issue that ruined
The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks for me--the person telling a fascinating story felt compelled to put themselves into it. It smacks of narcissism and honestly, if I were the family of any of the victims, I would feel pretty disrespected.
(I received this book for free through a Goodreads giveaway.) -
This was such a tough book to read. One of the victims, Tim King, was a friend and classmate, and his kidnapping and ultimate murder has haunted me for all of these years. I have followed this case since the internet made info accessible. This book, however, revealed a lot I did not know...all of it just horrifying. The author’s story interspersed is also tough to read...The whole thing was intense! It’s well-written though, and I recommend it...just be prepared.
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The information about the OCCK case in this book takes up about 50 pages. The other 200+ pages are about the author's personal crisis, which sounds like it sucks. But, my dude, this is the stuff you take up with your therapist, not publish as true crime.
Also, bonus use of women exclusively as manic pixie dream girls or described as objects throughout. -
Paranoid and lazy tripe. I'm going to go over some beefs I have with this "true crime" book:
1) Stop assuming things, Reuben. You should be developing evidence and making connections, not assuming things. I've lost track of how many times he just tells us to assume critical things.
2) You claim to have an eyewitness (Sebastian) who can identify the kidnapper of one victim, who is a police officer. To confirm his story, you talk to a friend of yours who thinks there is a reporter and who thinks that reporter has partially confirmed his story. This is presented as a reason to believe Sebastian. This is the laziest damn thing I've ever seen. Go confirm it yourself, it should be easy to track the 5 or 6 supposed fake suicides (and yet they don't kill the one actual eyewitness, just the people he told about what he saw) and then show the witness photos of the cops until you have ID'd the killer. Congratulations, you just nailed the OKCC. Instead... nothing.
3) You have a third guy, Adam Starchild, who you think may have faked his death. Instead of going down to the place where his business is supposed to be located, you Google Map it.
For playing up this Ahab like obsession about finding the killer, the author sure is lazy, sloppy, and incoherent. Like most conspiracy theories, the bad guys are both omniscient and menacing and yet incompetent and passive, depending on the author's needs. I don't know how any of his claims about anything can be taken at face value and the book seems determined to make it difficult to follow up claims with no index, no citations, anonymous sources for the most critical claims, no photos of critical documents or crime scenes. I'm asked to take the forensic opinions of a screenwriter at face value. I'd really like some backup from actual experts before I start concluding that the main suspect was murdered by parties unknown. The same parties, presumably, who up till then had been doing everything in their power to protect him.
He feels that this cabal of 70 year old pedophiles is hacking his computer, but he doesn't ever check up on that, in another instance of the author's odd decision making process, even though malware like that would detectable and possibly provide leads. He doesn't even change computers, as far as he tells us. I'm not sure what is going on here, but it feels more like Million Little Pieces situation than it does a True Crime novel. At best it's a book that proves why journalists are important. The bits about his life and emotional issues mask the reality that despite years of work, he didn't actually come up with much.
Pretty much hate-finished this one. The real mystery of The Kill Jar is whether it is sloppy nonfiction or bad fiction. -
This is really hard for me to review. There are a lot of suggestions for who the killer or killers was or were, but no definitive answer. I found some of the book confusing with the repetitive forays into the author's childhood and more unanswered questions. I am still confused even after finishing. Not one of my favorite true crime reads.
*Thank you to NetGalley, the author, and the publisher for allowing me to read an advanced copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. -
This is a typical (and I do not like to being mean) nowadays kind of true crime book and I hate them. True crime books where the writer assert themselves into their stories. So far most of the books like that are not ones I appreciate.
Yes I get that writing about something that has really happened means tons and tons of research but to me those are still the best books. Just finished a true crime book written by Paul Williams which is not an oldie (2015) but is good. So thankfully there is hope there are some good true crime authors around but it is a struggle to find them.
Thankfully for this author there are tons of people who do like his book.I am not one of them. -
The Kill Jar by J. Reuben Appelman A true crime story of four children who were abducted and murdered outside of Detroit during 1976-1977 in the winter month and dumped around the city. Two boys and two girls had been murdered, before murdering the children he would take them to his home for many days then killing each one at his leisure carefully washing each one with cleaning fluid. And placing each one around the city, the Detroit killer never had sex with any of them it was all about power. I thought the book was really good in the details of each murder, the author was six years old and himself was almost abducted by The Detroit Serial Killer
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If you want to read a book that seamlessly combines true crime with the author's own demons, I'd suggest Michelle McNamara's "I'll Be Gone in the Dark." Unfortunately, "The Kill Jar" suffers from a confusing structure and a lack of clear connections between the crime that Appelman is investigating and his own story. The premise for the book is actually really interesting: four children within the same county were kidnapped and murdered in the '70s (spurring the nickname the Oakland County Child Killer). Appelman was almost abducted himself around the same time and believes he could have been one of the victims if he hadn't escaped. Because of this near-brush with death, Appelman had always felt a connection to the killings and had an invested interest in discovering the killer's identity. This all sounds really intriguing, but the execution just didn't work. Appelman never offers clear details surrounding the crimes (just a sprinkling of information here and there) and his focus on his own personal trauma (mostly about his abusive father) just didn't seem to gel. It also felt frustrating that the exact identity of the killer (killers?) has never been definitively answered (although McNamara's didn't either and that ending still felt satisfying). I wanted to be enmeshed in this story, but the structure was so confusing that I couldn't seem to hold onto any of the details. And instead of being transfixed by Appelman's own story, I felt frustrated by the feeling that he was almost inserting himself into the action unnaturally. A definite disappointment.
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While not a large book and potentially a fast read, the subject matter is very emotionally challenging. I couldn't sit and read this for long periods of time, it was too overwhelming. The horrific things that happened in Detroit and the cover-ups was terrifying. My heart goes out to all the victims. My biggest issue was how the book jumped around, so I sometimes struggled with keeping people straight. The author also alludes to his dad being a bad father, but doesn't go into if he was abusive also or non existant or what, so that was a little confusing also. I did like it, as mush as one can with this subject matter, it was just a tough read.
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2.5 - This is not really a true crime story, more of a dark memoir with a series of real child murders used as set dressing. Pretty callous. There’s also a good deal of unnecessary repetition of information, which is sloppy. Dark and sad, as expected of a book on such a topic, but not for the expected reasons.
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This book melds true crime with memoir and does so with surprising deftness. The author grew up in Detroit and was about the age of the children kidnapped and killed by the OCCK. Going back to Detroit to research the book brings out a lot of conflicted feelings about the violence in his past and in his life and delving into how that, along with the rigors of his research, affects him makes for a true crime book unlike any other I've read. If you go in expecting a straight journalistic take, you may be disappointed (but make no mistake, the journalism is good too), but if you want an exploration of how those crimes insinuated themselves into the lives of so many for so long, you'll be treated with a book of depth and care.
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If you’d like to read the narcissistic ramblings of a man who did nearly no research about the topic of this book and whose money would have been better spent on therapy…have at it.
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In brief: A history of the Oakland County Child Killer serial murders. An analysis of the webs of crime and corruption in the Detroit area in the late 1970s. A memoir of obsession, family, and failed marriages. A portrait in snapshots.
Thoughts: This. Was. Wonderful. If by wonderful, you mean creepy and disturbing and compelling and liminal and lovely.
I think this might be a true crime to equal I’ll Be Gone in the Dark, at least for me. It’s got that same fragmentation and self-analysis and exploration of the era, but in the case of The Kill Jar, it’s a whole lot darker. Appelman has personal demons he’s trying to excise, goes more intensely into his obsession with the case than McNamara does, and holy hell was Detroit not a safe place to be a kid in the 1970s.
I really liked the way Appelman told the story, to be honest. It’s intensely non-linear, poetic without being pretentious, and captures people and places in key moments. Here is the guy who ran a “summer camp” for boys. Here is the night I learned my wife was cheating. Here is what the police didn’t report about the bodies. Here is the day someone tried to abduct me. Here is the final day of a victim. Here is a mysterious “suicide”.
The non-linearity makes it a little hard to follow at times, it’s true, but it builds a sense of growing horror at the web of everything, from the ways the victims and suspects were potentially connected, to the possible motives for a police cover-up, to the multiple child porn rings operating at the time, to the victims’ families fight for justice, to Appelman’s own childhood (and adulthood) and what that might reveal about the mind of the killer. It’s almost haunting the way it all ties together and I’ve got my shoulders up just remembering it to write this.
But it’s not just about the OCCK case and the other crimes detailed in the book. This book is very much also a memoir, not only of Appelman’s research into the case, but also him trying to reconnect with his father, exes, and other family, to make sense of his own past and flaws, and to come to terms with himself all while he’s delving into police records and microfiche and visiting crime scenes. That’s about as compelling and disturbing as the rest of the book because Appelman is not a well man, not by any stretch.
In a way, this book is as much about flaws and brokenness and corruption and a lack of answers as it is about the child murders and Appelman’s life. We’re never going to know what really happened. We’re never going to know if there was a cover-up. Like the victims’ families and Appelman himself, we’ve just got to become comfortable with uncertainty, with not knowing key truths, with dealing with the darker sides of the world. The whole reading experience is profoundly liminal, in so many ways, and I think it’s going to stick with me a while.
To bear in mind: This story is very concerned with pedophilia, so if anything surrounding that topic is going to trigger you, this might not be the book for you. There is also discussion of possible police corruption, corruption in general, domestic abuse, depression, anxiety, and alcoholism. Oh, and serial killers, for obvious reasons.
9/10 -
Content warning: uh, literally everything? Holy crap. Pedophilia, rape, child rape, child abuse, child murder, self-harm, uh... everything.
The admittedly overly flippant way I reviewed this by text to my friends was, "Too much bullshit about the author’s own demons, which, like, fine, I get what you’re going for, but I don’t know you and I don’t care, just tell me more about the crazy interwoven pedophilia ring and the child murders :-D."
As far as the true crimey parts go, it was great. I picked up this book after hearing it recommended on Bookriot's For Real podcast with MANY MANY caveats about how it was a good read IF and ONLY IF you were in the mood to stomach something extremely dark and crazy disturbing. So I bought it on a whim on Kindle and starting reading the same day, and boy, I was expecting to be SCANDALIZED and clutch my pearls and READER, I DID. It's extremely dark, as promised! That part was juicy and good.
I still probably would have only given four stars if it had just been that part, because I had a hard time following who everyone was. I'm not incompetent and I read a lot, so I'm pretty sure that's because the author could have done a noticeably better job of reminding the reader who is who when he goes many chapters between references to a given suspect.
What drags this down for me, really, is the author's insistence on interweaving his own story in with the true crime stuff. I get what he's going for, because he grew up in the area and had a traumatic childhood and isn't fully healed (will never maybe be fully healed from that), and one person's healing is as un-guaranteed as a community's is after a rash of child murders, (as just one literary way of connecting the two parts). But in practice: dude, I don't know you. I'm sorry you're mad at your dad, but I don't know him either, and frankly I don't care. Tell me more about the sordid and appalling child sex ring you uncovered, not that it's 3am and you're considering self-harm.
Also, it is *completely* within the author's purview to reveal as much or as little of themselves as they choose in such an instance, but the fact that he spends solidly 40% of the book expressing his anguish about his childhood and his dad's actions and then explicitly says at the end that he chose not to say what his dad actually did is frustrating. In general, it's hard to empathize with this particular random dude I don't know when I also don't know what his trauma was, and in particular, this book is FILLED with *extremely graphic details about horrifying crimes*. To whine about your own trauma and then refuse to go into the gory details is understandable, but frustrating. This is not the book for your memoir, put that in another book that I can choose to read or not. I chose to read this one about child killings, kthnxbye. -
The Kill Jar: Obsession, Descent, and a Hunt for Detroit's Most Notorious Serial Killer was an enthralling book. I hate to admit it, but I enjoy a true crime story and this totally fit the bill. Well-written as part memoir, part true crime investigation, and part love story to a long lost Detroit, the book is a culmination of the author’s ten year obsession with one heck of a story.
During the late 1970s, when child abductions seemed to be epidemic, Detroit had four child abduction-murders that were never solved. The author has spent ten years researching and obsessing over this set of murders, partly because of his proximity in age growing up in Detroit.
The author sets his gritty story against his own violent childhood, a once vibrant Detroit, and quite possibly, his own narrow escape as a victim of abduction. He describes the dead end leads, dirty cops, pedophlia clubs, autopsy coverups, lots of “suicides," families of privilege who covered up for their children who needed help, as well as incorrect information dispersed to the public. It’s a sad, gritty tale, that leads us to some incomplete conclusions that the killings stopped when a couple of suspects were incarcerated or died. There is never a true conclusion, but we have an idea after the author puts many pieces of a puzzle together for us. Most, importantly, the author seems to heal from his own past and becomes a better father and man by addressing some of his own demons from his childhood during his researching this book.
I loved this book and devoured it in two days camping in a beautiful lakeside site. It’s a solid five star book and highly recommend it to those who love true crime stories.
Thank you to the publisher and #NetGalley for a pre-publication ebook in exchange for an honest review. -
2.75 stars
This book is full of short chapters, which make the text and ideas choppy and somewhat confusing. The story Appelman presents is a combination of his personal life (ranging from present to childhood memories) and the murders.
I truly felt like Appelman wanted to give the reader a glimpse of feeling and emotion he felt by describing his daily life during the time period when he is researching the OCCK murders of the 1970's in Detroit, Michigan. It appears what he attempts to do, is take the reader on the journey with him. Many times all I could picture was one of those cheesy detective mysteries where the detective narrators what you watch him do.
What I liked about this book:
- I knew nothing of the OCCK murders and Appelman provides a lot of information - he never gives absolute answers but instead allows the reader to think and reason on their own as to what may have happened
- Appelman does some research on the pedophile sex rings in the area at the time and provides a lot of information of how they worked
What I didn't like about this book:
- NO REFERENCES! WHAT IS WITH THIS LATELY??
- Appelman's personal life is sometimes so distracting I had to search back in the text to remind myself who the suspect or person he switches back to discuss, actually is. A run down on who the cast of characters were would have been helpful
- Appelman leaves way too many loose ends - mostly to do with his personal life.. such as .. What dirt did he find out about his father? What in the heck happened to his mother?
I noticed that Appelman will be involved in a documentary on these Murders. I am interested to see it, hoping it might provide more details than is in the book.
