“[A] strange and compelling tale… [Scoundrel] is a psychologically fascinating must-read for true-crime buffs.
Scoundrel
Paperback
- ISBN
- 9780062899774
- Publisher
- Ecco
- Publication Date
- Feb, 07 2023
Clothbound
- ISBN
- 9780062899767
- Publisher
- Ecco
- Publication Date
- Feb, 22 2022
Ebook
- ISBN
- 9780062899798
- Publisher
- Ecco
- Publication Date
- Feb, 22 2022
Clothbound
- ISBN
- 9780735272767
- Publisher
- Knopf Canada
Ebook
- ISBN
- 9780735272781
- Publisher
- Knopf Canada
- Publication Date
- Feb, 22 2022
From the author of The Real Lolita and editor of Unspeakable Acts, the astonishing story of a murderer who conned the people around him—including conservative thinker William F. Buckley—into helping set him free
In the 1960s, Edgar Smith, on New Jersey’s death row for the murder of teenager Victoria Zielinski, struck up a correspondence with William F. Buckley, the founder of National Review. Buckley, who refused to believe that a man who supported the conservative movement could have committed such a heinous crime, began to advocate not only for Smith’s life to be spared but also for his sentence to be overturned.
So begins a bizarre and tragic tale of mid-century America. Sarah Weinman’s Scoundrel leads us through the twists of fate and fortune that brought Smith to freedom, book deals, fame, and eventually to attempting murder again. In Smith, Weinman has uncovered a psychopath who slipped his way into public acclaim and acceptance before crashing down to earth once again.
From the people Smith deceived—Buckley, the book editor who published his work, friends from back home, and the women who loved him—to Americans who were willing to buy into his lies, Weinman explores who in our world is accorded innocence, and how the public becomes complicit in the stories we tell one another.
Scoundrel shows, with clear eyes and sympathy for all those who entered Smith’s orbit, how and why he was able to manipulate, obfuscate, and make a mockery of both well-meaning people and the American criminal justice system. It tells a forgotten part of American history at the nexus of justice, prison reform, and civil rights, and exposes how one man’s ill-conceived plan to set another man free came at the great expense of Edgar Smith’s victims.
Praise for Scoundrel
“Wholly compelling reading from an author well versed in the true-crime genre.
“In this mesmerizing account, Weinman does a masterly job resurrecting a stranger-than-fiction chapter in American criminal justice…. [An] instant classic.
“Enthralling…. The book is a must-read for true crime fans, but it will appeal to nonfiction readers across genres for its thrilling blend of crime, media, and politics in mid-century America…. An immediately absorbing story.
“Sarah Weinman has taken a minor footnote in American history—conservative icon William F. Buckley’s strange friendship with (and advocacy for) a convicted murderer—and spun a breathtaking narrative about the criminal justice system, betrayal, and our culture of celebrity. Brilliantly reported and immensely readable, Scoundrel is a smart social commentary with all the twisted pleasures of a psychological thriller. I defy you to put it down.
“In the court of public opinion, a woman who devotes herself to freeing an imprisoned murderer, only to regret unleashing a sociopath on society, is often judged a victim of her own desperation as much as a man’s manipulation, but what about the eminent public intellectual who uses his platform to do the same thing? Sarah Weinman defies the genre of true crime in this extraordinary book about a cause célèbre gone terribly wrong.
“Scoundrel is a thoroughly mesmerizing work of true crime and American history, and Sarah Weinman leaves no stone unturned in this extraordinary story of empathy, betrayal, celebrity, and the criminal justice system.
“Meticulously researched, Scoundrel paints a portrait of a criminal adept at targeting people…who he could win over—but whose violent instincts eventually led to his downfall.”
“Weinman lays it all out with page-turning propulsion: a master of the true crime genre coming into her own.
““Exhaustively reported and compassionately told, Scoundrel shows how the justice system is easily manipulated, and how often it fails vulnerable women. . . . Scoundrel proves once again that Weinman is a modern master of the genre. . . . One of our finest true crime writers.”
“_
Weinman, rightly acclaimed for The Real Lolita again examines the misogyny inherent in true-crime culture, then and now.
“Weinman diligently and chronologically recreates the judicial proceedings, literary lunches, letter exchanges, prison visits, stays of execution and romances . . . that led from incarceration to exoneration and back again. Her research is meticulous and extensive. . . . Scoundrel is about who receives the benefit of our doubt and the privileges that attend that trust, whether or not it is warranted.
“A hard-boiled true-crime narrative, detailed and careful. . . . Excels at being an in-depth exploration of how outside influence and support can affect the criminal justice system’s slow-moving cogs, as well as the narrative of a con artist who managed to hurt a great deal of people.
“A riveting chronicle. . . . [Weinman has] marked a territory of the intersection of true crime and literary fiction [. . . and] is able to tell the story in vivid detail.
“In compelling detail… Scoundrel keeps its sharp eye fixed on the appeal’s mystery.
“Powerful… An unsettling, and enthralling, reading experience, and an important one. Its analysis of a fundamental failure of the legal system leaves the reader with two persistent and pressing questions: What is the true nature of justice and just who benefits from the benefit of the doubt?
“A portrait of a master of manipulation and the havoc left in his wake.