Customer Reviews

A Passing Acquaintance

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

 

 

Diehard true crime fans will recognize author Joe Kozenczak as the same man who led the 1978 police investigation that resulted in the arrest of serial killer John Wayne Gacy. Because Kozenczak and his officers were so heavily involved in the case, I had hoped that this book might rival the definitive book on Gacy's crimes, "Killer Clown" by Gacy co-prosecutor Terry Sullivan. Alas, this book had so little additional information to relate that I sometimes questioned why it had been written at all.

Reading this book was like having a long case of deja vu because it so closely mirrors the organization of "Killer Clown." In fact it sort of reads like an abridged version of that book. Kozenczak and coauthor Henrikson chose to structure their narration just as Sullivan did -- chronologically -- but rather than filling in any gaps, they left out countless details while failing to add anything new to the grim tale. Given that Kozenczak's book was printed almost ten years after Sullivan's, the lack of any new insight or relevant information was a big disappointment to me.

The book is capably written but is otherwise unremarkable except for being conspicuously short on pages (192 in the hardback). However, I'm not being 100% fair when I say there wasn't any new information herein; Kozenczak does give details about the two psychics he consulted during the Gacy investigation, something which was (and remains) rather controversial. This book isn't a bad read and so it's worth an objective rating of 3 stars, but I can't help feeling that it could have been a lot better. Anyone who really wants to learn about the true horror of John Wayne Gacy's crimes should turn instead to Terry Sullivan's fine book on the case.