Customer Reviews

All His Father's Sins

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I should have been forewarned by the title and name of the co-author (Lt. Ray Biondi). I said when I started that Biondi's stuff is ghosted. After I got into the book, I decided that Biondi may really have put pen to page. This book reads altogether too much like an official police report and falls into the "trap,"of too many "true crime" stories. It is a major story that is poorly presented.

This chilling 218-page true crime book is fast-paced, well-written, and shocking. One probably could read it in one sitting. Although the murdering couple featured in this book lived in Sacramento in the late 1970s and early 1980s (only 45 minutes from where I grew up around the same time), I had never heard of them or their crimes until I found this book. That is surprising because their crime spree was coldly calculated and incredibly gruesome. Lt. Ray Biondi, who investigated a fraction of their crimes (they had murdered 10 people in several states), tells their deadly tale mostly from the point of view of accomplice Charlene Williams. Charlene went along with and assisted her boyfriend/husband's sordid fantasies of kidnap, rape and murder so she could remain her macho man's main girl. What is scary about this story is how easily Charlene led the young girls to their doom. Biondi includes information on the investigation (other suspects, evidence, etc.), but not as much as I anticipated. Only ten pages is devoted to the trials. One interesting part of the author's story was how Biondi rushed through the bureaucratic maze of San Quentin to send Gerald Gallego to trial in Nevada before the California Supreme Court issued a stay of release (only to have Gallego claim they were kidnapping HIM). I do not buy the idea that Gallego's murdering skills were passed down from his father (if that is what the author means by the title). His father was executed for killing a police officer. Biondi includes a few quotes from Gallego's father regarding the murder. Although they probably shared the same misogynist views, Gerald Gallego seemed to develop a style a murder all his own. Gallego's father was on death row before Gerald turned ten and, according to the book, Gerald did not even know of his father's execution until years after the fact. The book includes a middle section of photos and has a brief epilogue updating the story to 1997.

I liked the book....I read this book years ago when I first moved to Oregon...I just want to say, that I thought the book was kept very interesting....Maybe I'm bias to Ray Lt. Biondi..but I happen to know him...he's a very good writer when it comes to this book. I know the case....he's also a great Deputy Sheriff. I was working at the Sheriff's Dept. when all this happened....but I've told people about the book...I got them to read the book and they also liked it...He kept the facts good..he kept it interesting to the point where you couldn't put the book down...Everyone I know who has read the book agrees with me...