Synopses & Reviews
I was a greedy, ravenous individual, determined to rise from the bottom to the top . . . It wasn't me --Jack Unterweger's final words to his jury Serial killers rarely travel internationally. So in the early 1990s, when detectives from the Los Angeles Police Department began to find bodies of women strangled with their own bras, it didn't occur to them at first to make a connection with the bodies being uncovered in the woods outside of Vienna, Austria. The LAPD waited for the killer to strike again. Meanwhile, in Austria, the police followed what few clues they had. The case intrigued many reporters, but few as keenly as Jack Unterweger, a local celebrity. He cut a striking figure, this little man in expensive white suits. His expertise on Vienna's criminal underworld was hard-earned. He had been sentenced to life in jail as a young man. But while incarcerated, he began to write--and his work earned him the glowing attention of the literary elite. The intelligentsia lobbied for his release and by 1990, Jack was free again. He continued writing, nurturing his career as a journalist. But though he now traveled in the highest circles, he had a secret life. He was killing again, and in the greatest of ironies, reporting on the very crimes he had committed. With unprecedented access to Jack's diaries and letters, John Leake peels back the layers of deception to reveal the life and crimes of Jack Unterweger, and in unnerving detail, exposes the thrilling twists--both in the United States and Europe--that led to Jack's capture and Austria's trial of the century.
Review
Unterwegers vicious killing spree comes alive in horrifying detail.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Synopsis
Prolific author, playwright, bon vivant of the literary set, Hollywood insider. Everybody loved and trusted Jack Unterweger. Unfortunately, eleven women saw a different side to the charmed celebrity: a cold-blooded serial killer whose gift for manipulation was genius pure and evil.
While serving a life sentence for the murder of a young girl, Jack Unterweger wrote seven books, saw his critically acclaimed autobiography made into a film, and became a cause celebre among influential Austrian literati who successfully campaigned for his release. Riding high on the fame, he arrived in Los Angeles where he nurtured his career as a journalist. Then, one by one, Hollywood prostitutes started turning up dead. Unterweger covered the story. There was a reason why his reporting of the crimes seemed so vivid.
With unprecedented access to Unterweger s private papers, John Leake peels back the layers of deception to reveal the alarming story of an international celebrity and reviled serial killer and a lifetime of shocking twists no Hollywood screenwriter could have invented.
INCLUDES PHOTOGRAPHS"
Synopsis
With unprecedented access to Jack Unterwegers diaries and letters, Leake peels back the layers of deception to reveal the life and crimes of this international serial killer. In unnerving detail, Leake exposes the thrilling twists that led to Jacks capture and Austrias trial of the century.
Synopsis
True crime thats too wild even for fiction.( PHILADELPHIA INQUIRER)
Synopsis
With unprecedented access to the diaries and letters of author Jack Unterweger, Leake peels back the layers of deception to reveal the life and crimes of this international serial killer. Includes photos.
Synopsis
True crime that s too wild even for fiction. ( PHILADELPHIA INQUIRER)