Customer Reviews

Blind Passion: A True Story of Seduction, Obsession, and Murder (St. Martin's True Crime Library)

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Blind Passion by John Glatt is fun to read. This book is about Julie, but it starts out with the life of Julia, her mother. By the time you get to Julie, you can see what makes her tick and why she would run off for a romantic adventure in a foreign country. She leaves behind a life with a husband who worked his way up, and a 3 year old daughter. I agree with the boyfriend's mother in Greece, who voices the traditional Greek idea that a mother who abandons her child to live with a man is beneath contempt. On the other hand, what happens to the victim here is even more beneath contempt! This is an interesting book about a crime committed in January of 1999.

This was a really good book short and to the point... It was really sad what happened to Julie but at some point you would have to think that she had lost her mind doing what she did giving her life up in the states most of all leaving her child...I think Julie was living in a total fantasy world and when she realized the reality of what she did she wanted to go home and than This mental case lost his mind...George was definetly in it for the fantasy of love and most definetly for her money but I do believe that he did think that if he couldnt have her no one could syndrome...We shouldnt say he was a loser yet ( although he sure is now)because he was only 23 years old but i think he just got to accustomed to having julie take care of him and the thought of her leaving put him over the edge...Must read book, Very sad...

This is the sad and pathetic story of a beautiful, fun loving, young woman, wife, and mother, who went away with her husband on a cruise ship and met the man with whom she would have an affair and for whom she would divorce her husband. Little did she know that her affair would end in her murder at her lover's hands.

Julie Scully seemed to have everything a woman would want. She had a doting husband, a beautiful home, enough money to spend as she pleased, a beautiful daughter, and many friends. She was also beautiful and a popular swimsuit model for a local New Jersey newspaper. A reader's favorite, Julie loved being a minor celebrity.

After the birth of her daughter, Katie, this vivacious party girl suffered from post-partum depression. Her marriage on the rocks, she turned to cocaine. In an effort to save her marriage, however, she suggested that she and her husband, Tim, take a Caribbean cruise together. It was aboard that cruise ship that Julie would meet George Skiadopoulos, a not particularly attractive Greek sailor six years her junior. Their mutual attraction would set Julie on the path to perdition.

Julie began an affair with George while still married. Cuckolding Tim, Julie carried on a trans-Atlantic love affair with George that would see her eventually divorce Tim. She and George planned to get married and, leaving three year old Katie behind with Tim, Julie moved to Greece to be with her lover and, with the large cash settlement from her divorce, hoped to marry and live happily ever after with him.

Unfortunately for her, there would be no happy ending, as there were things about George that she did not know. By the time she realized that he had some serious issues, it was too late, as death was already knocking at her door. This shallow, self absorbed woman would meet an unenviable and gruesome death.

This is a well written and fairly absorbing true crime novel. It focuses on the dynamics of Julie's relationships but lacks some depth, mainly because the emotionally immature victim seemed to be so one dimensional. Readers may feel sorry for Julie in the abstract but do not come away feeling that they knew what made her tick. She is an enigma in death, as she was in life. This is the one weakness of the book. Still, true crime fans should find this book to be a worthwhile read.

If this book seems short, it is only because Glatt, unlike so many true crime authors, does not go into agonizing and repetitive detail about the trial. Instead, he guides the reader through the interesting parts of the story, i.e. the history that explains why glamour puss Julie Scully risked everything for the ugly little Greek sailor who killed her. The book does an excellent job of describing the dysfunctional family dynamics that helped form Julie's personality. I guess my only complaint is that I would have liked to have known a little more about her murderer.

I could not put down this book. Watching beautiful but somewhat emotionally immature Julie ruin, and ultimatelly lose, her life, is heartbreaking, but strangely fascinating. Glatt does a great job of setting up the murder by profiling the victim's parents, and her difficult childhood. The background information makes it easier to understand how such a beautiful woman who seemingly had everything [handsome successful husband; lovely home; adorable baby] would chuck it all for a not too attractive and impoverised Greek cruise line worker. Well, not 100% easy to understand.

While reading, I felt like screaming at the victim: don't go with him. What, are you crazy? But, of course, if you read the book description, you know exactly how the story will end. Knowing does not make the read any less gripping, which is the sign of a good writer.

This book is a one nighter! Fast reading and to the point! I found it to be very sad... and strange that Julie..who had it all...could leave her family and the American Dream for George...who definitely was after her money. I really enjoyed this book!

You will not be able to put this book down. Blind Passion is the perfect title for the life of Julie Scully, a half Native American incredibly sexy woman, who was many things in life. First she was a daughter. She grew up very fast, and matured quickly into a woman, starting at age 11. She first then began to realize the power that her natural good loooks, and flirtacious personality had upon men. It was also then that she discovered alcohol. Then she was a mother. She was the consumate "Party-Girl", who never made curfew, always drank too much, and was never without the good times, or the many boyfriends. Julie loved a good party, as much as she loved good looking guys, and pretty soon, she found herself young, still beautiful and a little pregnant. She married way too young, and divorced quickly. Then she became a fashion model. She posed for very sexy pictures for a local newspaper, and became a bit of a local celebrity. Her contacts led her to meeting her second husband, a stable entrepeneur, and soon she was married yet again, getting rich fast, and becoming bored with her gorgeous child,lavish lifestyle, and her millionaire husband. It seems that Julie was not happy, unless she was partying, and her complacent hubby did not seem to mind her still being a flirt, and continuing to hit the club scene after the vows were exchanged. Julie Scully seemed to have it all. But she was still unhappy, as the passion seemed to subside with her husband. So on a cruise that was meant to bring a little spark back into their troubled marriage, Julie instead flirts with a deckhand aboard the ship. 24 year old George Skidapoulous, a skinny, particularly bland looking balding young man was the object of her lust?!..After the cruise was over, Julie managed to give her phone number to the little Greek man, and he called her home!? and Tim Scully even found a picture of Skidapoulous, barechested, in Julie's possession, and does nothing!!! (I'm sorry, at that point, as Julie's husband, I would have told "loverboy" not to ever call back if he valued his job on the cruise ship, and torn up the picture. AND, I would have given Julie the divorce she so craved, unless she decided to start acting like a married 32 yr old woman, instead of a lovestruck teenager.) But Tim does nothing, not even when Julie wants to go on the exact cruise 3 weeks later...The story turns into a bloody tragedy, in which there was no bright side, only ugly darkness. Any couple out there, who is having marital problems should read this, as it exposes the danger of flirting with others inside a relationship, and shows that sometimes stability should be chosen over life in the fast lane. I'm sure if Julie had it all to do over again, she would have never taken that damn cruise, been a good wife to Tim, and chosen stability.

I was blown away by the sensitivity of the author for his subject. I could not stop reading this account of this very sensitive housewife and the brutality in which she was killed by her Greek much younger lover. It is a very good read and I actually plan to read it again.

You will not be able to put this book down. Blind Passion is the perfect title for the life of Julie Scully, a half Native American incredibly sexy woman, who was many things in life. First she was a daughter. She grew up very fast, and matured quickly into a woman, starting at age 11. She first then began to realize the power that her natural good loooks, and flirtacious personality had upon men. It was also then that she discovered alcohol. Then she was a mother. She was the consumate "Party-Girl", who never made curfew, always drank too much, and was never without the good times, or the many boyfriends. Julie loved a good party, as much as she loved good looking guys, and pretty soon, she found herself young, still beautiful and a little pregnant. She married way too young, and divorced quickly. Then she became a fashion model. She posed for very sexy pictures for a local newspaper, and became a bit of a local celebrity. Her contacts led her to meeting her second husband, a stable entrepeneur, and soon she was married yet again, getting rich fast, and becoming bored with her gorgeous child,lavish lifestyle, and her millionaire husband. It seems that Julie was not happy, unless she was partying, and her complacent hubby did not seem to mind her still being a flirt, and continuing to hit the club scene after the vows were exchanged. Julie Scully seemed to have it all. But she was still unhappy, as the passion seemed to subside with her husband. So on a cruise that was meant to bring a little spark back into their troubled marriage, Julie instead flirts with a deckhand aboard the ship. 24 year old George Skidapoulous, a skinny, particularly bland looking balding young man was the object of her lust?!..After the cruise was over, Julie managed to give her phone number to the little Greek man, and he called her home!? and Tim Scully even found a picture of Skidapoulous, barechested, in Julie's possession, and does nothing!!! (I'm sorry, at that point, as Julie's husband, I would have told "loverboy" not to ever call back if he valued his job on the cruise ship, and torn up the picture. AND, I would have given Julie the divorce she so craved, unless she decided to start acting like a married 32 yr old woman, instead of a lovestruck teenager.) But Tim does nothing, not even when Julie wants to go on the exact cruise 3 weeks later. He begins to see the light, when Julie "innocently" wants to go to the ship's disco with her "freind" George, and a couple of other girls. It goes strictly downhill from there, as the ridiculous looking George is only to happy to be the object of desire to this stunning American woman. The sex is passionate, and seems to revitalize the constantly depressed Julie, and she goes through with the divorce, and makes plans to move to Greece!? She soon finds out why America is so beautiful, how much she really loves her too often neglected daughter, and how much she had it made with her loving millionaire husband. It slowly, and then all too sudden hits her, that she had it all, and lost it to move to a strange country where she knew no one, nor the language, and to be with a stupid looking, dirt poor [guy], whom she incredibly had to buy a hair transplant for! The story turns into a bloody tragedy, in which there was no bright side, only ugly darkness. Any couple out there, who is having marital problems should read this, as it exposes the danger of flirting with others inside a relationship, and shows that sometimes stability should be chosen over life in the fast lane. I'm sure if Julie had it all to do over again, she would have never taken that damn cruise, been a good wife to Tim, and chosen stability.

Good book...but it would've been alot better if John Glatt also focused on the troubled life of Skiadopoulos, prior to his relationship with Julie.

As for the curent status of Skiadopoulos, last year his life sentence was dropped to 23 years. And could be eligable for parole in only 7 years! Could you believe that?