A Death in Belmont

A Death in Belmont
Sebastian Junger

A compelling portrait of 1960s America that takes as its starting point the brutal events of 11 March 1963, the day on which the lives of three complete strangers – a black handyman, an Italian-American carpenter and a second-generation Jewish housewife – collided in the leafy Boston suburb of Belmont.These three people did not know one another, but, by the end of the day, the housewife had been raped and strangled, the handyman had been arrested on suspicion of being the notorious Boston Strangler, and the real Boston Strangler – carpenter Al DeSalvo – had returned home to his wife and children. It was not until two years later that DeSalvo admitted to the gruesomely violent murders of thirteen women. Also unwittingly drawn into the drama were one-year-old Sebastian Junger's own family, who posed for a photograph with DeSalvo the day after the Belmont strangling, at the completion of his work on their studio.Taking the chilling family snap as his inspiration, Junger explores the worlds of the three protagonists and, in so doing, creates a portrait of America in the 1960s that touches on the historic themes of the era: the assassination of JFK, the rise of the immigrants and the troubling race relations that prefigured the death of Martin Luther King.This new work by Sebastian Junger, the acclaimed author of ‘Perfect Storm’ and ‘Fire’, is as enlightening as it is haunting. Taking as its foundation the events that shocked a quiet community in 1963, ‘A Death in Belmont’ expands to encompass an entire nation at a time of extraordinary social turmoil.

SEBASTIAN JUNGER

A Death in Belmont

DEDICATION (#ulink_52d76e91-3c8a-5c3f-b7e2-dbbf45a7d77e)

FOR MY MOTHER, ELLEN SINCLAIR JUNGER

EPIGRAPH (#ulink_327f2a85-9e7c-59ac-a9d0-58034536f623)

And they said to the Prophet, “How may we stop our ears to the rant of the fool and yet show him charity?”

And he answered, “You show yourselves charity by opening wide your ears to him. The fool in the midst of his babble shall speak truths which the minds of the wise cannot perceive.”

—unattributed quote pinned to the office

wall of a Massachusetts appellate lawyer

CONTENTS

Cover (#u87d450ca-6657-548c-8604-e9ac764f3d56)

Title Page (#u7e94149a-67cc-5e35-841b-d4de402be0c2)

Dedication (#u321b4ac8-3b60-5c29-aa9d-4480bdf4dbef)

Epigraph (#ua1490246-4053-52d2-9657-1306c4fca25c)

A Note on Quotes (#ue3efaa10-cb17-54e9-aae9-7c8fed9039a8)

Part 1: The Murder (#u84d64814-e607-5943-9f9c-94dbca647b98)

One (#u5b37e462-48b0-5fc2-9c3c-466a922328a1)

Two (#u073b850b-8381-5831-8d82-f92c50c7c695)

Three (#u45210b39-27e8-595a-bb37-f22ca5907835)

Four (#uad55c65d-a1b8-5f3b-8f3c-32b7fae5a347)

Five (#udad93785-0b81-5f99-ac8c-a55c4e0d52ae)

Six (#u08ba53d3-8e6f-5acf-8f7a-a6ea8565fa6d)

Seven (#uc86448ac-0829-5106-87de-993a3f6ee3e9)

Eight (#ud63537d1-1b37-5342-bd02-4630bfed83b8)

Nine (#litres_trial_promo)

Ten (#litres_trial_promo)

Part 2: The Trial (#litres_trial_promo)

Eleven (#litres_trial_promo)

Twelve (#litres_trial_promo)

Thirteen (#litres_trial_promo)

Fourteen (#litres_trial_promo)

Fifteen (#litres_trial_promo)

Sixteen (#litres_trial_promo)

Seventeen (#litres_trial_promo)

Part 3: The Confessions (#litres_trial_promo)

Eighteen (#litres_trial_promo)

Nineteen (#litres_trial_promo)

Twenty (#litres_trial_promo)

Twenty-one (#litres_trial_promo)

Twenty-two (#litres_trial_promo)

Twenty-three (#litres_trial_promo)

Twenty-four (#litres_trial_promo)

Twenty-five (#litres_trial_promo)

Twenty-six (#litres_trial_promo)

Twenty-seven (#litres_trial_promo)

September 2005 (#litres_trial_promo)

Further Reading (#litres_trial_promo)

Acknowledgments (#litres_trial_promo)