Pity or Pardon the Fool?
Written: May 03 '01 (Updated May 04 '01)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Book offers insight from a point of view often not offered in true-crime genres
Cons: Full of editorial lapses. Rolling actually believes most of what he claims as fact.
The Bottom Line: I don't recommend bothering with the reading unless this particular case has a personal appeal to the reader.
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| martyfig's Full Review: Making of a Serial Killer: The Real Story of the G... |
How far can you render a fool's babbling? When does a fool become a madman, a danger, a genius?
The first book written about this man attempted to explain the causes of the Gainesville massacre. It set the stage for this following piece written by Sondra London and Danny Rolling. In the first book, The Gainesville Ripper, author Mary Ryzuk used several appendixes, interviews, transcripts from court proceedings and other sources that offered at least an air of authentication to a genre often riddled with hearsay.
She earned her doctorate in the arts and shows that she understands both the drama in telling the true crime genre as well as providing an extensive collection of biographical research. The basics in her book are underlined. The author shows how the killer became demented then eventually murdered and sexually mutilated several women and one man in the late 1980’s- early 1990’s.
However, in this book, The Making of a Serial Killer, we have the murderer’s own words with no other interviews, no supplements, very little testimony or referrals from doctors or friends. All we have is Rolling's simple words. Rolling was never formally educated, and at times his repetitive phrases and simplistic sentence structures are so annoying that you tend to wonder why his editor, also his fiancé (an apparently educated entrepreneur) didn’t take pity and at least try to help with the ghost writing.
In fact, Rolling uses such trite and ridiculously outdated phrases such as “Ah, but alas” so often, that at first you think he’s kidding around, playing with his own ignorance in a Dungeons and Dragons or Jethro Bodeen-like sort of way, but then you sadly realize that he isn’t. In fact, he is deadly serious. Intellectually, he appears to be not much older than fifteen years old. However, it is hard to keep up the pity game he provokes in the audience with such glib expressions as, “Damsel from afar” as well as his frightfully annoying habit of constantly switching back and forth from first person to third.
It could probably be stated that some of this highly annoying lyrical slandering are products of dementia, a lack of an education, and an editor that probably proofed the last drafts during a four cocktail luncheon.
The only things that truly stand out include the following: 1. He doesn’t really appear to be all that remorseful, even though he pleads several apologies. Somehow, the graphic sex exploitive fantasy/reality anecdotes make that very, very, very hard to believe even to the most bleeding of liberal hearts yearning for a sincere apology. 2. Indeed, it seems that the book as a whole was rather damning. Why he didn’t simply publish a sincere apology (if truly felt) along with a book of his drawings is beyond the grasp of his audience.
His drawings are fair and some kind of provocative if skulls and crossbones are favorite icons to the audience.
The only constructive message he gets across to the audience is this: If you are a father, show love to your son. Constant physical and mental abuse and neglect can lead to disaster.
Of course, that doesn’t explain why his brother turned out relatively normal. But I suppose that is another biography in the making. True Crime hack writers? There is a topic for you. Go for it.
Recommended:
No
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martyfig
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Location: The High Plains
Reviews written: 12
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