The Mad Sculptor by Harold Schechter
| The Mad Sculptor by Harold Schechter | |
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| Category: True Crime | |
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Reviewer: Sam Tyler
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| Summary: The Mad Sculptor' is a True Crime book that not only explores a horrific triple murder in 1930s New York, but also tries to understand why the press of the era where so sensational and how psychiatrists became more prevalent in law. | |
| Buy? Maybe | Borrow? Yes |
| Pages: 304 | Date: February 2014 |
| Publisher: Head of Zeus | |
| External links: Author's website | |
| ISBN: 9781781851364 | |
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The modern proliferation of TV channels has not filled our screens with copious amounts of quality television that we can't find time to watch, but instead has given us countless channels we cannot be bothered to see. Some of these channels are packed to the gills with True Crime Documentaries that go into lurid detail about murders, kidnappings and other unsavoury business. ‘The Mad Sculptor’ by Harold Schechter is a True Crime novel, but is it a well-researched slice of nonfiction, or another avenue to glorify crime for those fans of TV Crime?
The very nature of True Crime reporting means that someone is profiting from the unfortunate circumstances of another and that is certainly the case once again with ‘The Mad Sculptor’. However, there are ways to go about how you portray crimes such as murder and in ‘Sculptor’, Schechter sets a good balance; educational and well informed, but still entertaining. The book centres on the case of Bob Irwin who murdered three people in a New York flat in the 1930s. However, this is a book that is about more than just this - Schechter investigates; why the case was so popular, the tabloid press of the time and the quality of psychiatrist care.
In the first 50 pages of so of ‘Sculptor’, Schechter explores the background of the case by running over a couple of earlier murders that happened near the same location as Irwin’s madness. At this point the book could have fallen into sensationalism as Schechter lists murder after murder after murder. Like the tabloid press of the era, Schechter seems hungry to rattle through sensational cases of the day. However, rather than being the style of the book, this section is justified in creating a sense of place. Why did Irwin capture the American public’s imagination so much?
It is the elements that explore US culture that I found the most interesting. The sort of claptrap that the main tabloid press came out with in the 30s would embarrass our modern equivalents who seem mild in comparison. Irwin played with the press, but so did the lawyers, police, suspects, witnesses and many others. It feels at times that this murder was a game to be talked about over the water cooler, rather than a tragic act that left three people dead.
Once Schechter introduces us to Irwin, the pace of the book begins to slow and more details emerge of what made Irwin the man he became. A distressing childhood and congenital syphilis are only two of the reasons that Irwin was a broken man. Eventually the book becomes an exploration into the attitude to the Insanity Plea in 30s America; will Irwin be executed or sent to an asylum? As a reader you can generate your own opinion of what should have happened to him through Schechter’s analysis.
It is this analysis that makes Schechter’s book memorable; he has obviously trawled the papers and interviews of the time to back up his writing. However, at no point does Schechter allow the book to slip into academic musing, this is a book to entertain the reader first. At times, Schechter himself is a little lurid, mimicking the tabloid press of the past. With books under his belt with names such as ‘Bestial’, ‘Depraved’ and ‘Deranged’, this is an author who it would seem is not shy to sensationalise murder. This sits a little uneasy with me, but in the case of ‘The Mad Sculptor’ the vast majority of tacky detail is in keeping with the history of the time. Some people may be a little off put by the vivid detail, but this remains a superior slice of non-fiction that entertains and educates in equal measure.
If this book appeals then we can also recommend A Very British Murder: the Story of a National Obsession by Lucy Worsley and Capital Crimes: Seven centuries of London life and murder by Max Decharne.
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