More book controversy
Well, you heard about the Boston Strangler...
Best-selling author Sebastian Junger (A Perfect Storm) is running into some flak over his new book, A Death in Belmont, which posits that confessed Boston Strangler Albert DeSalvo, alleged killer of 13 women and rapist of many more, was the real killer of one of his childhood neighbors, Bessie Goldberg. A black day laborer, Roy Smith, who was in the Goldberg house that day in 1963, was convicted of the murder. Reviews of Junger's book say he tells a good story, and then of course there's that picture: his mother holding baby Sebastian while DeSalvo, a familiar figure in the neighborhood, standing in the background.
According to Publisher's Weekly, Leah Goldberg, daughter of the victim, issued a statement attacking the book's premise and saying Smith was indeed the murderer. She called the book "inaccurate." Now Junger and his publisher, Norton, have issued a strong statement defending the three years of research the author conducted and that the manuscript was "rigorously fact checked."
I tend to go with Junger on this one, and not because I had dinner in his bar, Half King, in New York City a few weeks ago (it was okay). As a reporter myself, I know how hard it is to challenge conventional wisdom. Even if you have the facts solidly on your side, conventional wisdom is hard to kill. I don't doubt that Leah Goldberg believes the old explanation. Would it be easy to acknowledge that an innocent man spent years in prison by mistake?
DeSalvo, of course, isn't around to comment. He was murdered in prison in 1974. His life sentence was not based on the murders he confessed to, for which he was never tried.