As someone in their teens when this murder happened, I recall how strange, shocking and frightening it was even to people in states far distant from Illinois. Contra to another recent reviewer, I found the writing especially lucid and well crafted, besides being a product of outstanding research.
In similar books, it is often necessary for me to make notes to help identify names as they are be introduced, then returned to pages or chapters later without any reminder of who they were -- not so in this case. When there are as many figures involved in as complex a recounting as this one, I find it helpful when the writer refreshes the reader's memory as to who the individuals are, which this writer did.
I also think the author put the most credible theory forward concerning the perpetrator. But I would modify it somewhat.
One detail that failed to satisfy me was that, as the author pointed out, it was pretty certain the killer had to have had some familiarity with the layout of the house -- and this seemed to practically eliminate the author's (and my own) suspect, as there was nothing to indicate the person had ever been in the Percy home or would have been connected socially in any way with the Percy family.
A second factor that continued to bother me was the motive the author gives -- it just did not seem sufficient to explain why that person would have chosen to target Valerie Percy, much less in the particularly brutal and sexualized manner that he did (ie, stabbing her in both breasts). There was no rape this book recounts, however, the killer had been surprised by Mrs. Percy while bending over the victim; there might have been a rape planned.
I personally resolved these contradictions for myself by going a step beyond the killer to the larger political framework. There was a far-right extremist group, the group being described in available books, one written by the daughter of a prominent member.
As this book states on page 17, the group had a vitriolic hatred for Charles Percy, a compassionate moderate centrist and highly popular rising star. They saw Percy as a threat to a future conservative Presidential candidacy. This group certainly had much money behind it as well as vitriol and the politics of fear. Such a group theoretically could well have orchestrated the killing. Whether it was intended that Valerie -- a campaign manager for her father -- be the victim or otherwise -- that someone was acting with a strongly motivated agenda specifically against Percy and hoped to derail his political future seems probable.
Our suspect had indeed grown up in Percy's neighborhood but by 1966 had married, become a father, and had moved from Illinois to California, besides being under restraining order not to visit his parents who continued to live in the same North Shore suburb of Chicago. It's a stretch to imagine him traveling halfway across the country just to let loose his demons on Valerie Percy, no evidence linking the two to even a prior casual encounter. The only likely knowledge Valerie had of him would have been through the news accounts of his arrests.
It would be logical as a choice for "hit man" to use a parolee, escapee from mental institutions, a known sociopath with long and sordid criminal history, jobless and dependent on financial handouts from others. Such a person would have absolutely no credibility, should he be captured.
Learning the layout of the home would involve more planning and subtlety than would fit the modus of a sociopath acting on impulse; that would have been carried out by persons capable of long-term deception and methodology.
At any rate -- and without anymore spoilers -- I read the book in one sitting and believe those who remember this shocking murder will find it interesting. I think most will find the writing, although detailed, flowing and easy to follow. I counted two, maybe three misspellings, certainly nothing worth a complaint.
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![Sympathy Vote: a Reinvestigation of the Valerie Percy Murder by [Glenn Wall]](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41ZWsZ1GS9L._SY346_.jpg)
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Susan Joiner
Very Close to Home
Reviewed in Canada on February 25, 2015Verified Purchase
