The true story of mentally ill Claudia Elaine Yasko, in Central Ohio, in the 1970s-80s. Photographs of pesons, places and events. The detective in charge of the case said: "Before I go to my grave, I'd like to know how Claudia knew the crime scene, and what really happened that night." (The night of three murders)
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Book Description
Editorial Reviews
From Library Journal
Claudia Yasko, 26, confessed to a triple homicide in 1978three of ten Ohio murders attributed to the ".22 caliber" killers. Her confession was false and she was unknown by the two men later convicted of the crimes. Yasko, an attractive but mentally ill young woman, sought out Keyes to help tell her story. For, while no one believed her capable of murder, how did she happen to know so much about the crime scene? Keyes, who wrote about a multiple-personality criminal in The Minds of Billy Milligan ( LJ 10/1/81), spent two years unlocking Yasko's repressed memory and separating fantasy from reality. While not quite as intriguing as Billy Milligan , this is a masterfully told, absorbing story. Recommended for true crime and popular psychology collections. Gregor A. Preston, Univ. of California Lib., Davis
Copyright 1986 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 1986 Reed Business Information, Inc.
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More About the Author
Daniel Keyes was born in Brooklyn, New York, and received his B.A. and M.A. degrees from Brooklyn College. He has worked as a merchant seaman, fiction editor, high school teacher, and university professor. The author of eight books, he lives in Boca Raton, Florida.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Not Bad, Could Have Been Better,
This review is from: Unveiling Claudia (Mass Market Paperback)
In UNVEILING CLAUDIA author Daniel Keyes tells the story of Claudia Yasko, a beautiful but emotionally troubled young woman who falsely confesses to having been present during a triple murder. Yasko, who is presented as suffering from latent schizophrenia, appears to have had psychological problems since childhood, which, when combined with considerable drug use as a young adult, became considerably more severe as she got older. The first part of the book tells of Claudia's confession to the police which included some minute details which could have been known only by someone who had been at the scene of the killings. Claudia is arrested but subsequently released from jail with the charges dropped as other information is developed which leads to the arrests and convictions of two brothers for these as well as other murders. After her arrest and during the time she spent in jail Claudia exhibited great difficulty in distinguishing reality from fantasy. She often retreated mentally to scenarios in which she became an actress playing a role in a film about whatever difficulties she may have found herself in. Some time after the murder cases were disposed of, Claudia came to the author Keyes asking him to write a book about the case and her life. Keyes spent over two years trying to "unveil" Claudia, that is to try to understand her mental processes and, specifically to try to determine how, if she were not present during the murders, she came to possess the detailed knowledge she had of the crime scene. The process was extremely difficult for Keyes due to Claudia's tenuous grasp of reality. And the difficulty was greatly increased as Claudia compulsively lied to Keyes, even when she was aware of the truth, because, as far as I can tell, that is just the way she is. Eventually, though, Claudia provided Keyes with a scenario which explained her knowledge of the details in question without her having been present at the actual crime. And Keyes accepted this scenario. UNVEILING CLAUDIA is fast paced, well written, and interesting to read. Keyes clearly has done a lot of research, both in his interviews with Claudia and his cross checking with other people involved either centrally or periphally, and all of these interviews are recorded in the book, creating a feeling of thoroughness. Ultimately though, despite the positives I have noted, UNVELING CLAUDIA, fell short for me. The main goal of the book seems to have been to crack the riddle of explaining Claudia's intimate knowledge of the crime scene without her having been there, and Keyes eventually accepts a scenario which does that. However, by then Claudia has provided Keyes with many other stories and then recanted them as Keyes' further research found them to be unlikely. The story he finally accepts, while it may be true, does not really seem to me to be any more likely than the others. In other words there is really no reason to believe any of Claudia's explanations. I had hoped and expected that the major focus of UNVEILING CLAUDIA would Claudia's personality and psychology and that the culmination of the book would be an in depth analysis of her diagnosis at the time the book was written and of the events in her past which caused her to be what she became. But, while her psychological condition is by no means ignored and in fact is the main reason for the book having been written, there is very little about her childhood or her upbringing, and certainly no final analysis of her condition. The book ends with Keyes' finally accepting a possible explanation for the riddle of Claudia's crime scene knowledge, and that's it. In short, what I feel could have been a more important -"bigger"- book ends in an unfortunately small and anti-climactic manner. UNVEILING CLAUDIA is hardly a bad book, but it could have been better. Three stars.
3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
another "true" story based on an unreliable account,
This review is from: Unveiling Claudia: A True Story of Serial Murder (Hardcover)
i read this after being similarly disappointed by Keyes "The Minds of Billy Milligan" (i read them because i loved "Flowers for Algernon" also by Keyes). both "non-fiction" works are based on the accounts of people who have been diagnosed as mentally ill, and both accounts i feel are unreliable. in this book you learn that Claudia made up a story for police partially giving them what they wanted to hear. i believe she did the same thing for Keyes here. there is no way of knowing when she is telling the truth and when she is lying and there is no reason to believe that any more than half of what she says is true. at times she says she doesn't remember anything and at other times she gives conflicting information in great detail. either way, luckily the real killers were caught and spent the rest of their lives behind bars.
5 of 20 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Great,
By A Customer
This review is from: Unveiling Claudia: A True Story of Serial Murder (Hardcover)
Daniel Keyes has done it again. Another great book he has done. Riveting like all the others.
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