Boston Tabloid
- Author Don Stradley
- Narrator Patrick Lawlor
- Publisher Blackstone Publishing
- Publish Date 20 December 2022
- Run Time 10 hours and 14 minutes
- Format Audio
- Genre Biography and non-fiction prose, True crime, True crime: serial killers and murderers.
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What to expect
The disappearance of a twenty-one-year-old woman from a Massachusetts suburb became one of the most discussed crimes of the twentieth century.
The discussion intensified when the public learned that Robin Benedict worked as a prostitute in Boston’s notorious red-light district, the “Combat Zone,” and was linked by a trail of blood to a famous professor from Tufts University. When Robin Benedict vanished, the investigation and media circus that gripped the city of Boston hadn’t been seen since the days of the Boston Strangler case.
On a Sunday morning in March 1983, a small-time pimp walked into a police station and claimed his girlfriend was missing. He said she had been on her way to visit a client named William Douglas. In the year that followed, the case drew in detectives, state troopers, scores of journalists, and even psychics. But Robin was never found.
Boston Tabloid reconstructs a grisly murder and explores one man’s bizarre obsession. In revisiting this legendary crime, Don Stradley consulted journalists involved in the media frenzy, prison authorities, arresting officers, and psychiatrists, all in an effort to unravel a most tangled story.
Why was the city, and the nation, swept up in this sordid tale? It remains a grim and fascinating moment in Boston’s history.
Critics Review
“An exceptionally well written, organized and presented study of a notorious homicide and the mysteries that surrounded it…A riveting read from cover to cover.”
“This thorough book includes some recent interviews, including a 2021 conversation with the state trooper first assigned to the case, and…is just one of the ways that Stradley weaves engrossing new details and dimensions into this account of a rather well-known true-crime story…The author convincingly argues that this event gave rise to the modern tabloid era.”
“With a brisk, newsreel-like manner, Patrick Lawlor delivers Stradley’s meticulous research…He judiciously uses tone, volume, pacing, and well-timed pauses to build each person’s voice.”
“This case was the subject of the 1986 television movie The High Price of Passion and Teresa Carpenter’s late ‘80s book, Missing Beauty. Well-researched and a page turner, this book fills in the void since those works…Ideal for true crime collections, especially for libraries in the New England region.”
“A true page-turner, it brings the reality of Boston’s underbelly to the forefront for perhaps the first time.”
“Boston Tabloid is everything a top-notch true-crime book should be and more.”
“Stradley’s restraint and interest in getting details right combine to elevate true crime writing to a level that turns it into something brand new.”
“Recounts the sordid but undeniably fascinating case…and how the shifting tides of public perception in the 1980s could turn a perpetrator into a victim.”
“In captivating prose that may just keep you up at night…Stradley exposes Boston’s seedy history in a way that reimagines true crime and contemporary American history.”
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