Customer Reviews

The Stalking of Kristin: A Father Investigates the Murder of His Daughter

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

 

 

With heart-rending honesty, Lardner recounts the tragedy that turned his picture-perfect life into a horrendous nightmare. Lardner's daughter, an art student in Boston, was murdered by a disgruntled boyfriend who first stalked her and then shot her dead. The beginning of the book is great. The dad speaks with candor about his love for and his frustrations with his daughter from the time she was a young girl through her college years. She grew up in Chevy Chase, a suburb of Washington, D.C., a setting very familiar to me. The author had me laughing out loud and crying real tears before I was barely into the book at all yet. He reported on the details of his daughter's tragic death as well as the sad state of affairs in the United States which allows hardened criminals back on the streets to quickly become repeat offenders. Lardner recalls the story of murderer Michael Cartier's youth and the criminal record he accumulated during his short but turbulent life.

This is not a book for everyone due to it intense subject matter, but it was nonetheless quite engrossing to me. Good writing. Incredibly sad story. The story Lardner presents of Cartier, is quite frightening. It demonstrates the lengths to which a criminal's right's are protected by the United States criminal justice system versus the appalling lack of consideration given to a victim's right to safety and freedom from fear. What made the book all the more creepy was that, during the few weeks it took me to finish the book, a murder under similar circumstances occurred in a suburb of Washington, D.C. The March, 2000, Washington Post article which ran the news story ("Md. Man Gets Life Term in Girlfriend's Slaying" by Ruben Casteneda) ended by saying of the killer's girlfriend "A month before the shooting, she filed assault and kidnapping charges against him after he allegedly abducted her at knifepoint, but the arrest warrant was never served." Some things never change.

As a local police expert on stalking and stalking issues, such as domestic violence, I was extremely gratified to read George Lardner's book. As I read on, I found myself believing Kristen was my daughter, my girlfriend, or my best friend. I was as devastated as George was when she was killed, and as horrified as he to learn of how little victims are protected in the "real" world. You must read this book and recommend it or pass it on to your friends. Over 30% of women in America, and over 20% of men, will find themselves stalked at some time in their lives. It is good to know that you really must fend for yourself, and not rely on the police or the Courts to protect you. George Lardner's book should be a requirement for any poly-sci, criminal justice major, and for first-year law students. It is packed with statistics about how the system fails victims, and how society is endangered by our failure to imprison vilent criminal offenders.

I found this book thought-provoking and very interesting. It must have been exceptionally painful for George Lardner to dig this deeply into his daughter's murder, but also somewhat theraputic when he finished writing the book. THE STALKING OF KRISTIN will hit home especially to parents, since the worst nightmare of any parent is to see their child hurt, or even worse, killed. It also will appeal to women, as it discusses the difficulty we sometimes face when all we desire is justice. It caused me to think about our legal system today and how it fails us AND protects us everyday. Overall, I enjoyed this book, and I highly reccomend it...

'The Stalking of Kristen" is the sad tale of the cold -blooded murder of a female college student in Boston in May, 1992. The author is none other than her distraught father, a Washington Post reporter. SOK is deeply disturbing on several levels. Readers know from the outset that Kristen never had a chance. Further, the perpetrator commits suicide, so there is no prosecution. SOK is one-quarter paean by a grieving father for his departed daughter and one-quarter portrait of the troubled, unloved loser who was the murderer. Another quarter is the indictment of the authorities in eastern Massachusetts who failed to protect women like Kristen from dangerous stalkers, to seriously enforce orders of protection or even crack down on parole violators.. A final portion of SOK is a quasi research paper into stalkers and the troubles and tragedies they cause. These elements dilute the impact of SOK. With all due respect to the grief stricken author, SOK is too long. Mr. Lardner had a powerful tale to tell but could have done so far more briefly. The epilogue, bibliography and notes stretch over 90 pages! SOK is a powerful and worthwhile 5 star work, with one star deducted for its' unfortunately excessive length. This reviewer is guessing that many females, especially those in eastern Massachusetts, will add back the 5th star.

This book is an account of the stalking and murder of an art-punk college girl in Boston by her ex-boyfriend, a troubled young man who was the product of a sadly dysfunctional upbringing and had, prior to the murder, abused at least one other girlfriend in addition to animals. The book was written by the father of the victim, who also happens to be a Pulitzer-Prize-winning journalist for the Washington Post. I admire the fact that her father had the strength to write this book, and that he did a pretty good job researching and telling a detailed story, including the details of the killer's upbringing that make him seem, in some ways, sympathetic even while you can tell that the author, like any good father, would like to see the guy drawn and quartered for killing his child. Having said that, there are still some flaws with the book, although it's very good in parts.

The best parts of this book deal with the controlling and eventually violent behavior of the stalker towards his victim and his previous girlfriend. He initially comes across as a sweet, sensitive fellow but quickly starts to show signs of excessive jealousy and control before finally exploding into violence when the girls don't go along with his every wish. This should be required reading for women, especially young women who, like Kristin, may be away from their family support network for the first time in their lives and too inclined to be "nice" to such abusers, giving them the benefit of the doubt, excusing their behavior at first, or simply not knowing how to deal with it. The proper response is to get yourself out of the situation as soon as possible, even if that means physically leaving an area, giving up a job or school at least for a little while, and seeking support from your family or from other friends (the stalking of the former girlfriend appears to have stopped the minute she got a tough new boyfriend). Yes, it's unfair that a victim of abuse would have to give up important parts of her own life, and it can be hard to admit to your parents that you did get in over your head through no fault of your own and you need to come home for a while. But, you'd be alive, and that's the important thing. Trying to stand up to a stalker and do the "right" things, such as seek a restraining order, usually accomplishes nothing, unfortunately.

On the minus side, because this book was written by a father, not an impartial observer, he spends a lot of time going into great journalistic detail about what a great, fun, independent person his daughter was - either not realizing or glossing over the fact that a number of the stories he tells indicate that she was prone to heedless and sometimes dangerous behavior. While still in high school, she accidentally mishandles a firearm causing it to discharge in the family home (fortunately, no one is injured), sneaks across town to date a significantly older punk promoter, and attends teenage parties where it seems likely that underage kids are drinking and partying hard (and another girl makes a serious suicide attempt in a bathroom). In college, she has a fake ID, hangs out at punk bars and loans her abusive boyfriend valuable jewelry (that she has made in class and needs back for grading, and that he loses) and a large sum of money (that she is trying to get him to pay back when she is killed). I am in no way suggesting that Kristin deserved or brought on what happened to her - she didn't, no victim does - and it's true that many kids with her background (i.e. fairly well-off, well-educated and from a nice part of Washington, DC) have done a lot of the same things. She also hid a lot of her behavior from her parents, sometimes with the complicity of older and supposedly more "responsible" siblings. However, her father either doesn't seem to realize or doesn't acknowledge that he is showing his daughter to be a little less than responsible and perhaps lacking in the maturity or experience that a parent (not a sibling acting in loco parentis) would have brought to bear.

Following Kristin's death, her father the author also goes into a long journalistic analysis of how the police department failed to keep his daughter safe from her abuser, and how the stalker himself was a monster partly created by the social welfare system, and how improvement is needed. Again, this is well researched and the author does a pretty good job of keeping his "journalist" hat on and not letting himself slide too far into the biased role of "angry parent" that one would expect given the circumstances. Some of his criticism is very valid - for example, his chastisement of the court system's insensitivity towards victims by putting the abuser in open court near the victims in a caged cell from which he can yell abuse and threats at them. But at times he fails to get at the real problem, namely that restraining orders and court processes are largely incapable of dealing with violent stalkers. The police recognize this - for instance, one cop suggests that the abused former girlfriend of the stalker, Rose, get one of her brothers to beat up on her abuser in order to stop the behavior. The book seems to pooh-pooh this as insensitive, but then goes on to show that Rose's abuse did indeed stop the minute she got another strong male (a new boyfriend) to confront her abuser and tell him to stop bothering Rose. I wish the author had brought out some of these issues a little better, particularly because, as a journalist, he was likely quite familiar with the failings of police departments and other city services even before his daughter was killed. However, given that the book was written a number of years ago and more knowledge about stalking has come to light since, and that the author is the victim's father who was unwillingly (to say the least) thrust into this subject, he can't be faulted too much. Readers should just be aware that there are probably better books out there on how to deal with stalkers should you unfortunately attract one.

What can I father do when his daughter has already perished from the hands of a brutal murderer? Fight the ghost of someone who's long gone? Fight the parents of this ghost? No. He must fight the system that failed him, that failed countless others and that if it isn't changed would continue to fail until one day you and I find ourselves in the same inescapable situation - loosing our children due to the negligence of those who are getting paid to protect us.

This is a truly sad book. It recounts the story of a young college girl in Boston, who falls in love with a man only to find out that he is an abuser and a control freak. Over the course of the story, the reader finds out what it truly means to mess up a boy, as one follows the failure of his family to build a safe and loving atmosphere for him and as the justice system allows him, now an abuser, to go free again and again he commits his final crime, taking the life of another in particularly bone chilling matter.

This book should be a reminder of what we can expect if we don't pay attention to the misfortunes we hear about on TV, or the stories we hear from our neighbors and family members. In my opinion, every father and mother should read this story and make up their minds on how to communicate openly with their children, how to foresee outcomes of deadly relationships well in advance. True, the system fails us often, but we, as parents, can fail our children more often when we make the mistake of distancing ourselves too much, when we assume that growing up is the same as getting old. This story should remind us of when our children need us the most.

- by Simon Cleveland

THE STALKING OF KRISTIN is journalist George Lardner Jr.'s Pulitzer Prize winning expose of the murder of his 21 year old art student daughter at the hands of Michael Cartier, a lifelong offender, aged 22, who had a rap sheet three pages long and a history of extremely violent domestic abuse.

Kristin and "Castleneck" Cartier first met in January 1992; they dated only a few short weeks before Cartier physically attacked her. In April, Kristin was granted a restraining order. In May, she was dead.

Lardner is unsparing in his denunciation of the criminal justice system, a system which allowed Cartier to roam free despite his repetitious record of violence. At the time of the murder, Cartier was wanted for a parole violation; the law knew where he was, but did nothing to enforce its own strictures.

Nothing in Kristin's upper-middle-class background indicated that her life would end at Cartier's hand. She was an educated feminist from a socially stable, financially secure background. Like many artists, she was attracted to the extreme: hence the relationship with Cartier, which was both brief and violent. Like most people of her background, she believed the law would protect her; tragically, she was wrong.

Cartier was a troubled human being, who, despite numerous chances, either could not or would not conform his behavior. Shortly after killing Kristin he killed himself.

The System is an overburdened behemoth, content to creak along, and showing almost no regard for the offenders it processes or their victims. This is particularly true with women. Kristin's death led to desperately-needed changes in Massachusetts law which made it harder for violators like Cartier to escape justice by the mere expedient of crossing the street into another jurisdiction.

The reader has to wonder whether the fact that Kristin was a single white female with a journalist father impacted Massachusetts' decision to reform its' laws. The answer seems to be a loud yes. Still, necessary changes were made, too late for Kristin, and too late for many. Whether they have had an impact since then is an open question.

THE STALKING OF KRISTIN is a tragic tale of the failure of our culture to protect its most valuable assets---its children.

This was one of the best true crime stories that I have ever read. It was very difficult to read b/c the whole time I was reading it I had to keep reminding myself that Kristen's father was the author. How frightening yet therapeutic it must have been for him and I can only imagine. An incredible examination of the criminal justice system and the injustices commited against women!

How a Father really got the job don