Customer Reviews

A Wolf in Sheep's Clothing: The Search for a Child Killer (Great Lakes Books)

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

 

 

I first read about this case in Robert Keppel's "The Riverman", a book which primarily dealt with the Green River Killer and had extensive interviews with Ted Bundy. But about 14 pages of Riverman also focused on this case, and it fascinated me. So I ordered Wolf In Sheep's Clothing with high hopes. Unfortunately, among Wolf's 229 pages I don't think I learned a single important bit of info that I had not already seen in Keppel's book.

This is probably not the author's fault, as the killer was never caught- but this was frustrating reading. Much of the book's narrative is fictionalized dialogue, as if this were a screenplay for a movie. I'm sure the dialogue and feel of the book must be inspired by interviews with the police, so it is not without validity. But do we really need passages like this "Stunned with sleep, Tobin swatted in the general direction of the telephone on the nigthstand. The red numerals of the clock radio bore like lasers into his bleary eyes....After two more swats, the groggy police chief managed to get the phone to his ear."? Or when McIntyre recreates a police brainstorming classroom session that he likely was not present at, does he need to inform us that "Somebody coughed."? Passages like this serve as a jarring reminder that much of this book is padded with fiction. That would be ok if this were a movie, but when reading a book I don't want such distractions.

On the plus side, you can read about the investigation of a couple red herrings and someone who was briefly considered a suspect, but it's just not interesting. And for a case so lacking in detail, the book could have at least included photos. If the author omitted victim photos out of respect for the families, I understand. But I would have appreciated photos of the sites where the bodies were found, or even a photo of the cops. Anything. I mean, the wanted poster and the dry reading just isn't enough to chew on.

If you are interested in this case, I instead highly recommend you check out Keppel's book. It covers this case much more efficiently.

This is a true-crime book detailing the 1976 Sarpy County, Michigan, murders of 16-year-old Cynthia Cadieux, 14-year-old Sheila Srock, 12-year-old Mark Stebbins, 14-year-old Jane Allen, 12-year-old Jill Robinson, 10-year-old Kristine Mihelich, and 11-year old Timothy King.

Although the text is thorough, and told from the investigators' point of view, the book generally lacks detail, and has no photographs, nor any commentary by the victim's families. And in a rather startling ommission, it completely fails to mention the media's moniker for the unknown killer, "The Babysitter", so named because of the extraordinary care he lavished upon his victims, feeding, bathing, and even manicuring them before killing them. On the whole I found this book to be rather dry reading. Even so, this is certainly a thorough and detailed treatment of "The Babysitter" and his victims -- and possibly the ONLY one, for I have seen no other. It easily earns the 4-star rating I have given it, and in my opinion is well worth the asking price.

A final word of warning to the potential reader, however: since these crimes are *unsolved* even to the present day (March 1999), the book does leaves you hanging -- which is, of course, no fault of author's.

I remember going to school with Mark Stebbins (the first victim of the child killer) in Ferndale, Michigan, and I also remember the hysteria, confusion, and panic that surrounded the case from the point of view of a child. Thus, I approached the book by McIntyre of the Oakland County child killer with great anticipation. However, I must state my dissapointment with the outcome. In agreement with another reviewer, the book would have benefited from some photographs (there must be some!). What is more, the dialogue sequences came across as contrived and amateurish. The first two murders, especially that of Stebbins, were glossed over. Why, when the first identifiable murder of a killing sequence is usually committed close to the killer's home turf? The high point of the book is reached in the discussion of the King abduction. The most maddening thing, however, is to be left hanging over the disposition of the potential informant "Allen," who seemed to know something privileged about the case. It may not have been that much, but it was the best lead at the time. The undercover debacle in the Gay bar in which "Allen" was to appear was the end of it, and the reader is left to wonder again as to what happened, and why the informant could not be identified given the numerous clues as to his identity. In my estimation, the defintive book on this case has yet to be written. With the passage of a quarter-century, it is high time before it enters the deep-freeze as a footnote of history.

For those of us who lived through the HORRORS described in this book,it is a reminder of the terror that gripped our communities. The book captures what it was like for me to grow up during that time. It also captures the frustrations of the Police Officers who worked the case at the time-and still do over 20 years later.

NO research was done before writing this book. Don't buy it,, it is a waste of time and money, you can find much more on the internet.