The Pied Piper – Harold Schechter

Published: 28 June 2018
Publisher: Amazone Original Stories
Pages: 69
Series: Bloodlands #3
Format Read: Audible
Duration: 1h 6 mins

Blurp:

With makeup and an affected Elvis pout, Tucson’s Charlie Schmid was a crude parody of a bad-boy heartthrob. In 1964, he still had a hold on girls who’d follow him anywhere. He murdered three of them.

It was the dawn of the free-love movement—perfect for a magnetic madman who’d also foreshadow its end a few years later in the malignant charisma of Charles Manson. The inspiration for a classic story by Joyce Carol Oates, Schmid, the most bizarre serial killer of any era, was the epitome of a narcissist flattered into believing he could get away with murder.

The Pied Piper is part of Bloodlands, a chilling collection of short page-turning historical narratives from bestselling true-crime master Harold Schechter. Spanning a century in our nation’s murderous past, Schechter resurrects nearly forgotten tales of madmen and thrill-killers that dominated the most sensational headlines of their day.

Thoughts:

Confession time… I downloaded this at 6 in the morning a few days before I got on my way to work, seeing as I knew I was going to finish an audio book fairly soon half way through my shift. I thought this was the actual story/ poem by Robert Browning. To my surprize there was a serial killer named not after the poem, but a song that was a major hit during the time that “Smitty” was out and about. What song you ask? Stay tuned for next week’s Metal Monday…

This was just a very short documentry about the events around the serial killer that was active during the early 60’s. I do not have much more to say about it apart from that I learned something new partial to my idiotic mistake of taking this to be the classical poem. Have a laugh with me why don’t you…

All jokes aside though, this guy had a serious few screws loose as well as evil intentions towards people. This is no light harted novel and deals with some pretty gruesome events that I took very seriously as soon as I found out it was not what I originally sought after. I told Milou this was a little creepy but a good read if you are into true crime books. I am fine with taking these on from time to time. I also got educated on some more American history for which I am grateful. Macabre though it may be, America has some of the worst serial killers out there according to my knowledge. If it is within my power I may someday try documentise a South African killer or two if people would be interested in reading about that… I gave Pied Piper a 3 out of 5, it gripped me from the start and the narrator did a pretty decent job in keeping my mind focused on the narritive.

Thats all for now.