summary: THE TRAGEDY OF TRUE CRIME [AI bk rev]

The selection reviews John J. Lennon’s first book, The Tragedy of True Crime: Four Guilty Men and the Stories That Define Us. Lennon is a successful journalist currently serving the 24th year of a 28-years-to-life sentence for murder, drug sales, and gun possession.

Core Thesis and Critique of True Crime

Rejection of Simplistic Narratives: Lennon argues that America’s true-crime obsession relies on a “good-versus-evil binary” that is “lazy storytelling” and an “inaccurate depiction of why violence occurs.”

Restoring Complexity: The book’s ambition is to restore complexity to his own story and those of the men around him, demonstrating that their lives after the crime are “just as fascinating, and important, as those that were spiraling before it.”

The Problem of Spectacle: Lennon recounts watching a true-crime show re-enact his own crime, realizing the media turns personal suffering into spectacle, focusing on lurid details rather than the pain caused or the subsequent evolution of the offender.

Profiles of Incarcerated Subjects

The book combines Lennon’s personal history (shooting a man in 2001) with rich, non-sensational profiles of three other men with whom he served time:

Robert Chambers (“the Preppy Killer”): Strangled Jennifer Levin in 1986; Lennon reports on the nuance of his character, including his efforts to connect with hearing-impaired inmates.

Milton E. Jones: Took part in the fatal stabbings of two Buffalo priests at age 17 in 1987; he is now pursuing a master’s degree in theology despite a mental illness.

Michael Shane Hale: Kidnapped and dismembered his Brooklyn lover in 1995; Lennon traces his path from an abused child to an unmoored young man, showing how he became the middle-aged man who now works as a re-entry facilitator in prison.

The author of the review, Pamela Colloff, admits she initially “balked” at the suggestion of a tender side to Chambers, illustrating the difficulty the public has in letting go of the satisfying two-dimensional villain stereotype.

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