Bully: Does Anyone Deserve to Die? : A True Story of High School Revenge [Hardcover]

Jim Schutze (Author)

Book Description

Relates the true story of a group of Florida teenagers who banded together to murder the high-school bully on the edge of the Everglades and explores their reactions--and those of their families--after they were caught.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Jim Schutze combines natural details about the sawgrass marshes and roaring alligators of the area south of Fort Lauderdale, Florida, with keen observations about the fantasy lives of teenagers hooked on surfing, steroids, and instant gratification, to paint a harrowing picture of seven suburban kids who slide all too easily into moral depravity. At the heart of his tale is a kind of love triangle: the "bully," his best friend Marty, and Marty's girlfriend, who fiercely desires to rescue Marty from a strangely destructive friendship with strong homosexual undertones. Schutze's account of the aftermath of the murder includes interesting details on how the police skillfully lured confessions from the kids involved. I found the writing to have a few inconsistencies, and I wished the author had provided more background about how he reconstructed the dialogue, but those are small reservations about an excellent book overall.

From Publishers Weekly

In 1993, seven young people from the Fort Lauderdale, Florida, area joined together to kill Bobby Kent, an acquaintance of them all. In the group were Marty Puccio, Bobby's lifelong friend; Lisa Connelly, a sullen and overweight girl obsessed with Marty, her first boyfriend; and Alice (Ali) Slay, a former teenage prostitute and Bobby's chief sexual partner. All seven were white and middle-class, described by one detective as "mall-rat wannabes," and all were indulged by their parents. Bobby was a latent homosexual and a sadist, the latter tendency increased by heavy use of steroids. He regularly beat Marty and Ali and delighted in teasing and abusing the mentally handicapped. The murder plot was hatched by Lisa, and Marty was one of the major participants, two of whom turned state's evidence. The other five were found guilty, with sentences ranging from death (Marty) to life (Lisa) and other long prison terms. Houston Chronicle staffer Schutze (Cauldron of Blood) has captured the mindset of the intellectually and emotionally shallow killers: far from feeling remorse or regret, without exception they admitted to feeling put upon, if not victimized, by the law and its agents. A chilling tale. Photos not seen by PW.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 289 pages
• Publisher: William Morrow & Co; 1st edition (March 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 068813517X
• ISBN-13: 978-0688135171
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.4 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (100 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #621,135 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

19 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Fascinating and disturbing story, strange narration., November 6, 2000

By 

Scott David Berwitz - See all my reviews

This review is from: Bully: A True Story Of High School Revenge (Mass Market Paperback)

I am sort of in the middle on this book. I find the story absolutely fascinating...apparently I am not the only one, they are filming a movie on it right now. But the actual narration and author comments seem a little off base to me.

Many times in the book, we read of the characters of the book as affluent, normal, high school kids. But in truth, the group described here is in no way representative of the typical high schooler, especially ten years ago. Prostitution rings, beating up retarded people, filming pornography, dropping out of school, and finally, immediately joining in on a casual murder--none of this is representative of the typical teenager.

At least from what is written in the book , the truth stands that these are kids joined together by the fact that they have rejected typical adolescence and have chosen to be bad kids. More than once, Bobby is seen as the one with the brightest future ahead of him simply because he didn't drop out of high school.

It's a sad, tragic story. All these questions run through your mind as you read it. How come murder came before any real attempt to confront? Why did Bobby beat up his best friend who he obviously cared about on a constant basis? The answers are hinted at but never really fully explored in this book. Another good question is how much of Marty's erratic behavior was Bobby's influence and how much was just him?

This is an interesting, compelling book. But it is not a story of high school revenge. When this murder took place, it had been quite a while since any of the people involved had been in high school. This is really a story of group of people who have seemed to go out of their way to make the worst decisions possible in shaping their lives...and taking others.

48 of 58 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Great Story . . . Not So Great Book, November 13, 2000

By 

Wayne Roache, Jr. - See all my reviews

This review is from: Bully: A True Story Of High School Revenge (Mass Market Paperback)

Ok, let me start out by saying, that the story in the book, "Bully", although very sad and disturbing, is very interesting, as far as true crime stories go. But, the book as written by the author is very flawed.

First of all, the book is VERY uneven, in several aspects.

Let's start with the title - "Bully: A True Story of High School Revenge". This title tends to imply that a ruthless bully finally gets what's coming to him. The actual narrative while exploring this concept seems to drift away from it. In other words, the story does not match the title. Bobby Kent is shown more as a victim, than the title would imply.

The first half of the book, covering the pre-murder days and the murder of Bobby is VERY detailed. It is detailed to the point that the details become hard to believe. The author, Jim Schutze, describes almost every situation down to the smallest detail and incident. He describes thoughts of the characters and describes motivations of said characters, as fact. Where did he get this information? Court documents, police reports, interviews with the killers? He never really says. It would be nice if he referenced, where particular information came from but he never does. The whole narrative is presented as fact, with no point of origin. I personally find it hard to believe that he found documentation of every fact presented, including thoughts Bobby Kent had just before his death. I may be wrong but I think that his imagination filled in the gaps.

On the other hand, the post-murder section of the book speeds by and at times is very sketchy. This transisition from a super detailed narrative to a narrative with big empty gaps is very disjolting. Only one of the trials, out of the 7 people convicted is covered in any amount of great detail. The rest are just brushed over rather quickly. I find this change as rather strange.

I watched an A&E documentary about the case several "facts" presented in the documentary were contrary to the book, despite, the author being interviewed in the documentary. One can also find the same discrepancies in old newspaper accounts of the case. I tend to believe the A&E documentary and newspaper articles over the book.

There are even certain minor facts within the book itself, which disagree with each other. For example, the cars which were driven to the murder site change within a few pages of each other. Since there is no explaination or even acknowledgement of this, one must assume that it was an error that slipped past the editors but it is rather obvious to the reader.

Another problem, that I personally have with "Bully" is its grim view of teenagers in 1993 South Florida. Schutze makes these dropout underachievers seem like the norm. I grew up and currently live in Hollywood, FL, the city that Bobby Kent and Marty Puccio lived in. I am around the same age, as most of the characters in the book. I can state for a fact that 1993 South Florida was not, as bad as Schutze portrays. YES, there is and was drug use. Yes, gangs exist. Yes, there was that prostitution ring. Yes, the murder did happen. But all of these (and other) things he describes, were not the norm. Schutze acts like this was the way of life for South Florida teenagers in 1993. These kids were dropouts from society. They were NOT "normal" kids, as Schulz tries to convince the reader. This may seem petty but being a teenager from Hollywood in this time period, I take offense for this bizarre version of teenage life being presented, in the way it is.

Ok, here is another thing. There is not one single picture of Bobby Kent (the victim), in the whole book. There is one picture of Bobby's corpse lying face down (and very hacked up) in a swamp. THAT'S IT! A reader can read the whole book and never have any idea what Bobby looked like. The whole book is about his murder and we have no idea what he looks like. I have never read a true life crime book before, that has pictures yet does not have a single living picture of the victim. Yet, on the A&E documenatry, there are several pictures of Bobby, in life. So they do exist but for some odd reason, Schutze doesn't (or maybe couldn't) include them. Heck, even the pictures of the killers are only police mugshots, not normal pictures (and yes they did have many "normal" pictures on the A&E documentary).

At the end of the book, Schutze tries to place a kind of blame on the killers' parents for somehow being at fault for what happened. EXCUSE ME, Mr. Schutze, I need to check but I am pretty sure that all of the killers except one were over the age of 18, at the time of the murder. They were (almost) all legally adults. How it is the parents fault is beyond me.

Also, "Bully" really needs an update section. 3 of the 7 convicted killers have been released and almost all of the sentences, including Marty Puccio's death sentence have been reduced on appeal.

So read the book, if you like. Just beware of its many faults. "Bully" might very well be more fiction than fact.

30 of 36 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars When middle class kids cross the line, they dive deep, June 22, 2005

By 

Schtinky "Schtinky" (California) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Bully: A True Story Of High School Revenge (Mass Market Paperback)

After having watched the movie, and given it a five star rating, I picked the book up off my shelf, blew the dust off of it, and read it. It did not disappoint.

Bully is the true tale of a group of middle class kids who live in Hollywood Florida. They decide that one of their peers, Bobby Kent, has pushed them around long enough. Bobby Kent and Marty Puccio were best friends since grade school, even though Bobby beat Marty up quite frequently.

One day, while working at the deli in the Publix market, the boys meet Lisa Connelly and Ali Willis. Lisa can hardly believe it when the boys ask them to meet up at North Beach with them for some surfing. As Lisa stares at Marty, she sees the hunks that adorn her adolescent room's walls, pictures of gorgeous and desirable men. Lisa is homely and plump, and until now has only dreamed of having a boyfriend like Marty.

For Ali, a very pretty, messed up, and spoiled girl, the meeting was just a quick fling with Bobby Kent. She didn't like him very well. Lisa continues to date Marty, though both Marty and Bobby physically and verbally abuse her, calling her Fatty and Shamu. When Lisa discovers she is pregnant, she gets her cousin Derek Dzvirko to drive her to Marty's house. Marty slaps Lisa around and mild mannered Derek intervenes, taking Lisa away. Lisa becomes convinced that Marty would treat her differently if Bobby were out of the picture.

And so begins the plotting, Lisa first convincing Marty, then bringing in Ali and her friends, Donny and Heather. After one foiled attempt at Bobby, the kids decide they need someone to help, so they enlist a friend of a friend who told them he was a Mafia hitman. Derek Kaufman still lived with his parents on the fringes of Weston, and though he had trouble with the law, was not a hitman or even in a street gang. Nonetheless, he convinces the kids that he's the real deal, and they take him in with them on their plan to kill Bobby Kent.

Jim Schutze does an excellent job of really bringing out the kid's personalities and quirks of character. The story reads like fiction, and I found myself having to remember that all of this was real, that these were events that really took place. Of course, as a caution, I am going to tell you that included in the pictures is a very grisly photo of the murder scene with the body still present. That brings the story back into focus pretty darn quick.

It's quite scary to realize that these were not gang kids or ghetto kids, they were mall-rats and surfers and pretty little girls. Some had been in minor scrapes with the law, most of them used drugs, and one had been involved in a teenage prostitution ring, but there were still kids you wouldn't expect to murder someone.

Even scarier is the way these kids convinced themselves that they did nothing wrong, not to mention the parent's complete lack of acknowledgement that their own little child could have been involved in something so horrid.

I highly recommend both the book and the movie, though with the book you will get more insight and much more courtroom information. The book is well written, the movie well cast and following the book closely on the key elements. Although I saw the movie first and then read the book, if you enjoy one you should enjoy the other, no matter the order in which you taste them. Enjoy!