In 1949, things like this just didn't happen: A quiet New Jersey resident took a morning walk with a 9 mm Luger pistol. In twelve minutes he murdered thirteen neighbours...and then went back to bed.
Howard Unruh went from obscurity to infamy overnight. Even after his obsessive diaries were discovered-a catalogue of simmering rage, petty grievances, and sexual repression-the anomalous crime seemed incomprehensible. Succeeding decades would confirm that Unruh's "Walk of Death" was just the beginning. The prototype for the modern mass murderer, he would usher in a new age of violence in America.
Rampage 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.
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[Howard Unruh's senior yearbook photo from Woodrow Wilson High School in Camden, New Jersey, shows a clean-cut, dorky-looking kid with round, wire-framed glasses; a long, skinny neck extending out of a stiff white shirt collar; an exceptionally, almost freakishly high forehead; and a haircut - close shaved around the sides with thick, dark waves piled on top - that makes him appear to be wearing a shiny, black tam o'shanter] ***(Amazon Original Stories, 28 June 2018, ebook, 84 pages, Prime Reading)
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Rampage is another compelling true crime short. Rampage made my skin crawl more so than any other narrative in the Bloodlands Collection. I was unsettled by Howard's actions, how calm and unfazed he is, shooting up his neighbourhood, going back to bed, surrendering to the police and calmly making his 60+ page confession, detailing with precision, every step e took and decision he made that fateful day. There's something so disturbing and unsettling about his lack of emotion.
