A Butcher’s Dozen
By: Lori Lamothe
Tags: Books, True Crime, Books And Authors, Culture, Book Review

A Butcher’s Dozen

Photo courtesy of Sylvain White

In Unspeakable Acts, editor Sarah Weinman brings together 13 previously published long-form pieces that relate in some way to true crime. The first section of the book consists of four straight narrative features, the second examines how true crime and culture intersect, and the final section considers “broader issues of criminal justice and society.” At the end of the anthology, Weinman recommends various books, articles and podcasts to true crime enthusiasts.

As someone relatively new to the true crime genre, I found this anthology a good place to start. Or at least to go on “starting” (I didn’t listen to Serial until two years after it came out, but I’m catching up, one podcast at a time). I also would suggest it to readers who want to think about true crime in a deeper way that seeks to contextualize the craze.

However, be aware this is not the usual true crime compilation— if you’re looking for straight narratives similar to what Ann Rule writes, I would recommend another book.

The first school shooting (it’s not what you think)

The first four pieces are well written classic true crime stories I’d heard about but wasn’t familiar with in any real sense. I enjoyed all of them, especially Pamela Colloff’s “The Reckoning,” which concerns a pregnant student victim of the 1966 sniper attack at the University of Texas. Not only does the article chronicle the impact the shooting had on Claire Wilson over the course of decades, but it traces cultural shifts as well.

Now shootings are a way of life, but Claire has to actually visit the University library and track down a copy of Life magazine to convince herself the shooting was real. Nobody talked about such tragedies back then. Better to simply move forward as if nothing had happened. At least that’s what the conventional wisdom was back in 1967 when Claire was struggling to come to terms with her trauma and her grief.

The Slender Man murder

It was the second section of the book I liked best, however. Alex Mar’s piece, “Out Came the Girls” had an almost hypnotic power over me. I read it then finished the book, then went back and read it again.

This may be in part because I’d never heard of “Slender Man” and had no idea that this cult figure led two 12-year-old girls to repeatedly stab their friend in 2014 (on a side note, the fact that my daughter is fully familiar with “Slender Man” and has even played the video game would likely come as no surprise to Mar).

What made the article was Mar’s insightful analysis of the case as a way to think about the adolescent female mind. She ties the Slender Man stabbing to a decades-old murder case in New Zealand that involved novelist Anne Perry (formerly the teenager Juliet Hulme) and her best friend.

She then goes further — exploring links to the Salem Witch Trials, Carl Jung and Grimm’s fairy tales — in an attempt to understand the blurred line between imagination and reality that sometimes occurs with young girls.

Wait. Ted Bundy *wasn’t* a psychopath.

In a related vein, Sarah Marshall’s “The End of Evil,” reconsiders Ted Bundy’s “psychopath” diagnosis and in doing so forces readers to reconsider the term in its entirety. I didn’t agree with Marshall, but the piece forced me to rethink much about Bundy and his role in American culture.

Photo courtesy of Netflix

The same can be said for Alice Bolin’s “The Ethical Dilemma of Highbrow True Crime.” Agree or disagree, Bolin raises real questions about the roots of the current true crime phenomenon, as well as its consequences. The other two articles, including Weinman’s, also held my interest.

Unfortunately, the third section of the book didn’t wholly work for me. I did love Jason Fagone’s “What Bullets Do to Bodies,” but the other articles didn’t seem to fit with the anthology as a whole. Or maybe the collection just got too broad for me at this point.

Is blood spatter analysis “junk science”?

I also took issue with the article on blood spatter analysis, which I found myself in disagreement within key places. Yes, forensics have fallen far short of the goal but to dismiss it as “junk science” strikes me as too easy a conclusion.

Fingerprint and DNA analysis have also resulted in wrongful convictions, particularly after they were first discovered, but we don’t categorize them as “junk science” that has no place in a courtroom. With advances in computer science, physicists are making real progress but this prospect is mostly unexplored in the article.

Still, it’s well researched and gives a sense of the background of the field. The list of recommended reading/listening at the end of the book was also helpful, particularly because of my lack of knowledge of the genre.

I’m only a newbie true-crime aficionado, but I do read lots of anthologies. My rule of thumb is that if I find two or three pieces I really like, I consider the book well worth my time. So I recommend Unspeakable Acts, especially if you’re looking for a more meta experience re the genre.

Much thanks to Harper Collins and Netgalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

If you liked this review, you might also be interested in this fictional mystery inspired by the Clutter murders:

Lori Lamothe is the author of three poetry collections, Trace Elements, Kirlian Effect and Happily. Her reviews have appeared in Mostly Fiction, Curled Up with a Good Book, Daily Muse Reviews and elsewhere.