Customer Reviews

A Criminal Injustice: A True Crime, a False Confession, and the Fight to Free Marty Tankleff

5 star:		(12)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

Got the book on New Year's Eve. Finished it last night at 1:30 am. Over the four days, I took breaks in between for meals and a New Year's Eve party and sleep. Other than that, I could not do anything else but read it. It's compelling, astonishing, riveting. Every thinking person on Long Island should know how a young boy's 17 years were stolen away and how the real murderers of Arlene and Seymour Tankleff just got away with it. Wow.

I just finished reading this book over the weekend and thought it was well-written and answered some of the lingering questions I had about the case. The majority of the book deals with the original trial and the events leading up to the murders, the history of the Suffolk County Homicide Squad, and the appeals. The last third consists of what happened when Jay Salpeter took over the case.

What I found most interesting was Arlene Tankleff had become a very active partner in her husband's business interests and was putting pressure on her husband to collect on Jerry Steuerman's enormous debt, and also things weren't going well with Seymour's business interests so there was a renewed sense of urgency on Seymour's end to collect on the debt. Among one of the more interesting interviews was with Frank Olivetto, a doctor who was at the poker game, and Myron Fox, Seymour Tankleff's attorney. The surviving relatives do not paint Marty as a perfect child, they do concede that he was very spoiled, but was always close with his parents and not capable of killing them.

In the section regarding the trial something jumped out from Norman Rein's testimony that is very telling. He states that in one point in the interrogation room that Tankleff suddenly went into "stream of consciousness" talking about his family. This is more consistent with someone who is in shock, not the business like demeanor described by James McCready. The author also does a good job describing what the rationale was amongst the jurors, and based on interviews with the few jurors who spoke to the media, they completely disregarded much of the physical evidence or misinterpreted it, so it's easy to see why they reached a guilty verdict

**Note to any potential buyers: I would read the review from David Kirshner with a huge grain of salt. The the article he wrote is debunked in the book as nothing more than two friends horsing around. As a matter of fact the father of the friend in question, Chris Pellegrino, wound up hiring an attorney because James McCready wouldn't leave his son alone, and was trying to pressure the boy into saying he felt threatened.

This book is more than just an absorbing murder mystery and crime drama. It is the cautionary tale that tells all good people how a system, sworn to protect us, breaks down, makes mistakes and then refuses to admit the sad truth. It is the reason we loathe politicians, including District Attorneys, whose careers and their next election is more important than integrity and courage. Justice delayed is justice denied and with the freedom that came to Marty Tankleff, thanks to Jay Salpeter and a dedicated platoon of lawyers, justice finally came to a deserving soul. But it remains denied to the Tankleffs who were murdered, the Tankleff family, the people of Suffolk County and State of NY but most of all, the real murderers who will one day spend the rest of their lives behind prison walls. Read this book. It will make you a more vigilant citizen.

A Criminal Injustice is the most exciting, intelligent, compelling, well-written true crime book I've ever read (and I've read a lot of them). I don't know how they did it but the authors, Richard Firstman and Jay Salpeter, have somehow streamlined a complex case of murder, a coerced confession and unjust incarceration into a real page-turner. It doesn't matter that you may know how it ends, there are details here and major developments that still come as a surprise. It has all the elements of a great novel but is, of course, stranger than fiction. Can't wait to see the movie!

As a resident of Port Jefferson I have been following Marty's case since Sept. 6 1988. At long last this book tells the entire world what we have all known for 21 years. I could not put the book down. The injustice of this case was brought to life by the authors. It made me ashamed to be a resident of Suffolk County. Excellent reading for anyone interested in the criminal justice system and how it does and doesnot work.

This book is simply a magnificent tour de force. I was riveted from the beginning. It was hard to put down, and reads beautifully. It is as good as Firstman's other book which I highly recommend.

After reading this book, there is no doubt in my mind that Marty is innocent and was railroaded from the outset. The awful travesty is that the real killers of Marty's parents are free and left unprosecuted. Where is the justice for them? If the case had been properly investigated from day one, it is likely that the real killers would have been caught. The cumulative evidence against Creedon, Harris, Kent, et al., is as strong as the evidence which is marshaled every day in a multitude of homicide trials across the nation. It is certainly stronger than the flimsy evidence against Marty himself. If you eliminate Marty's false confession, there is no evidence against Marty. None of the crime scene evidence can be linked to Marty. I wonder if Marty was not killed so that he could serve as a convenient scapegoat for the real killers. If he had been killed, then the focus would have fallen on Steuerman from the start.

This book should be read by all those who have blind faith in our criminal justice system. And then they should hope and pray that they never have to face what Marty had to face.

Thoroughly enjoyed this book! At the time of the murders, my husband was best friends with Dan Hayes who was Seymour Tankleff's business partner in a workout gym located in East Setauket, NY. Due to personal observation of Marty lifting weights in the gym, my husband knew that he lacked the strength which was required to commit the murders. Throughout the trial and all the years that Marty spent in jail, my spouse always voiced his opinion that Arlene Tankleff could have kicked Marty's butt, and why would he want to kill his mother, since he absolutely adored her. Unfortunately, due to corruption throughout the entire Suffolk County legal system and political gain, Marty Tankleff became a human piñata.

As for David Kirschner PhD author of Adoption: Uncharted Waters one star (Hate It) review of this book, he must have not liked what he read on page 576 pertaining to the NYS Attorney General's investigation of the previously overlooked forensic evidence, since it pokes a big hole in his book regarding his theory that Marty suffers from Adopted Child Syndrome.

I have followed this story throughout the years. I am originally from Long Island, I moved away just a month before the murders, and Marty is just a couple months older than my baby brother, Although I have never known any of the people involved I do know the area and have always been interested.

I never believed that he was guilty and could never understand the guilty verdict. Reading this book just made me even more positive he was innocent. As a fast reader I normally would have finished this book in 1 day. It took me 4 - because I had to put it down at times just to calm myself down. I was in tears a couple times, my husband kept telling me not to read it if it upset me - but I had to finish, and am glad I read the book. It was a great book, completely interesting and heartbreaking.

I cannot understand how ANYONE could read this and not believe in his innocence. This was a barely 17 year old boy. The "confession" was ridiculous, as was the entire so-called investigation. There were just too many things that did not add up. The partner NEVER even being questioned proves that those in charge did not care that they were putting an innocent boy in prison.

It's unbelieveable to know that this kind of false confessions go on in the justice system and it's legal! How can these detectives and interrogators live with themselves knowing what they have done to these innocent people?

This book is well written, very informative and helps readers to see how Marty couldn't have killed his parents.....couldn't put it down, worth reading