This disturbing book unearths the tale behind the 1964 murders of three teenage girls by Charles Schmid, a regular cruiser along Tucson, Arizona's glittery strip. Featuring detailed accounts of the murders based on interviews with Schmid and his friends, the book also contains accounts of events which led to the murders, and of his trials. Photos. Line drawings, maps.
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Described by the Sydney Morning Herald as "the quintessential L.A. noir writer," John Gilmore has been acclaimed internationally for his hard-boiled true crime books, his Hollywood memoirs and his biting, literary fiction. He is considered one of today's most controversial American authors, with a following that spans the globe from Tokyo, Paris and London, to his native Hollywood where he was friends with the likes of Marilyn Monroe and James Dean. He traveled the road to fame in many guises before turning to writing: kid magician, painter, poet, actor in films, TV, and the New York stage, then screen-writer, B-movie director into a "bang 'em out alive," nine-day novelist. "Few like to look back at how they kept the pot boiling," Gilmore says. "For me it was an education--a turning point from frantic to be a movie star, to just letting the dog out of the cage."
After heading the writing program at Antioch's west coast university, Gilmore traveled and lectured extensively while creating an indelible mark in crime literature with Severed: The True Story of the Black Dahlia, described by Colin Wilson as "The best book on the Black Dahlia--in fact, the only readable book." After years of "being on the road," as he puts it, three times married, three times divorced and now single, he resides in the Hollywood Hills, expanding his body of work with a "lengthy, peculiar" novel, plus another unusual exploration into true-crime.
After heading the writing program at Antioch's west coast university, Gilmore traveled and lectured extensively while creating an indelible mark in crime literature with Severed: The True Story of the Black Dahlia, described by Colin Wilson as "The best book on the Black Dahlia--in fact, the only readable book." After years of "being on the road," as he puts it, three times married, three times divorced and now single, he resides in the Hollywood Hills, expanding his body of work with a "lengthy, peculiar" novel, plus another unusual exploration into true-crime.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
John Waters Eat Your Heart Out! (SCRAM magazine),
By A Customer
This review is from: Cold-Blooded: The Saga of Charles Schmid, the Notorious "Pied Piper of Tucson" (True Crime Series) (Paperback)
COLD-BLOODED by John Gilmore is a fascinating study of the 60's suburban nightmare. "Smitty" was a charismatic rich kid perpetually surrounded with adoring underlings. They didn't seem to mind his peculiar appearance (heavy Man-Tan makeup, a ghoulishly enlarged beauty mark, lace-backed boots stuffed with trash, so he'd look, uhm, taller) or his oft-confessed propensity for murder. These kids spent their time hanging out, racing cars, listening to rock and roll, and swinging. Probably they all would have grown up to become our parents had not Schmid felt compelled to pull a Leopold and Loeb on a neighborhood girl. Later he repeated the trick on a persistent ex- and her baby sister, his best buddy finked to the cops, and this so-called "pied piper" got shipped off to the big house, where he was himself murdered. Gilmore got in good with many of the key players, and lets them speak as length about their world: it's a strikingly amoral and enticing place. In his letters and speech Schmid comes across as a brainy baby nihilist; it's a shock to see his illiterate scrawl reproduced. On the down side, this oversized format with its dull twin columns is hard to read, the trial coverage is confusing, and characters sometimes get lost in the tedium of the layout. But Gilmore had great material to work with, and aficionados of juvenile delinqueny and youth culture will certainly want to seek this out. This book is a job well done, and fits right up there on the shelf with the Classics of True Crime.
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A GREAT BOOK! AN AMERICAN CRIME CLASSIC!,
By A Customer
This review is from: Cold-Blooded: The Saga of Charles Schmid, the Notorious "Pied Piper of Tucson" (True Crime Series) (Paperback)
This is one of the more profound true-crime books I have read. A gripping, hair-raising tale of the life and thrill-killings of odd-ball Charles "Smitty" Schmid, of Tucson, Arizona, back in the pre-pot days of the mid 1960's. These people swelter in the desert, run amok and raise all holy hell. Author John Gilmore paints a painstakingly accurate picture of life in those Sixties times. It is a sad, stunning, brutal, and amazing tale. A knock-out book you will read more than once.
0 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
great book,
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This review is from: Cold-Blooded: The Saga of Charles Schmid, the Notorious "Pied Piper of Tucson" (True Crime Series) (Paperback)
I didnt actually read this book, it was a present for my mom. She has scoured the bookstores for this title..but after finally finding it on amazon she said it was well worth the wait. I will probably read it!
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