PUBLISHER: Warner, 1999GENRE: Nonfiction/Memoir/True Crime
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MY GRADE: A
FROM PUBLISHER: Eighteen-year-old Jason Moss was used to playing roles. As a boy, he perfected the art of fitting in with different crowds but never having one of his own. Then, partly to satisfy a college assignment, he turned to a new crowd: men who'd blazed their way into the American consciousness and now languished in prison. Men named Dahmer, Manson and Gacy.
Posing as an ideal friend - or perfect victim - Jason wrote letters to the infamous killers. While Moss corresponded with Charles Manson and Jeffrey Dahmer, none was more fascinating than the 'killer clown', John Wayne Gacy. Obsessed with his new pen pal. Gacy's letters became weekly phone calls and eventually, an invitation to his prison - a showdown Jason tells in nightmarish detail. With Gacy the clear master of his prison domain, the eighteen year-old was forced to look into the abyss and consider that he might become Gacy's last victim.
As Jason slips further and further into the underworld of Death Row convicts, his everyday world spins around him, becoming more and more surreal. Impossible to put down and brutally honest, The Last Victim stunningly mirrors our society's fascination with the most violent and depraved among us.
SUMMARY: Beginning in late 1993 through mid-1994, Jason, aged 18 and 19 at the time (born 2/1975) wrote to four serial killers: John Wayne Gacy, Charles Manson, Jeffrey Dahmer, and Richard Ramirez. You can see a photo of him with John here.
Dahmer- He got several replies from Jeffrey. Jeffrey asked him for a shirtless photo of him once and said he was interested in a 'serious relationship' with him.
Ramirez- Jason pretended to be into Satanism. Richard wanted Jason to send him hardcore 'Asian bondage magazines'.
Manson- Jason communicated with him briefly but stopped because he made no sense most of the time. Some of Charles' replies were written on the backs of letters he'd received from others.
Gacy- Jason thought it would be best to try and identify with John so he thought he'd act 'sexually confused' when writing to him. He also pretended to have been molested and have a bully for a father. John wanted Jason to start an incestuous relationship with his younger brother Jarrod, so Jason faked one. In one of his letters to Jason he told him his penis was 7" long and had a 'mushroom head' and said it was the perfect size. John talked about masturbation a lot in his letters.
John somehow paid to fly Jason to Illinois to visit him for three days and paid for his hotel. It was arranged by some guy (nephew?). When Jason went to the prison to visit him, he was taken into a room with a handcuffed (in front) John. No guards were around and the security camera was pointed away from them. John tried to kiss Jason, then masturbated and tried to have sex with him. He gave him a pair of bikini underwear and asked him to wear them the next day, but he didn't wear them. The next day when he visited John, John told him he was going to rape him and 'piss' on his face while Jason lays on the floor. He tried to get him to lean over a chair so he could have sex with him. That whole experience made him cry right in front of John. He didn't go back the next day for visit number 3.
Jason had a normal/average childhood. His mother worked in a casino, his father at a department store. He argued a lot with his mother and said she was controlling. It bothered him that they had true crime in common. She'd monitor his activities and wouldn't let him or his brother watch violence on television yet left graphic true crime books laying around. Said his parents were 'volatile and unpredictable' but didn't give examples of it.
The co-author said Jason was 'haunted'.
In college Jason was a straight-A student, chief justice of the student government, and president of the psychology honors society.
Dahmer- He got several replies from Jeffrey. Jeffrey asked him for a shirtless photo of him once and said he was interested in a 'serious relationship' with him.
Ramirez- Jason pretended to be into Satanism. Richard wanted Jason to send him hardcore 'Asian bondage magazines'.
Manson- Jason communicated with him briefly but stopped because he made no sense most of the time. Some of Charles' replies were written on the backs of letters he'd received from others.
Gacy- Jason thought it would be best to try and identify with John so he thought he'd act 'sexually confused' when writing to him. He also pretended to have been molested and have a bully for a father. John wanted Jason to start an incestuous relationship with his younger brother Jarrod, so Jason faked one. In one of his letters to Jason he told him his penis was 7" long and had a 'mushroom head' and said it was the perfect size. John talked about masturbation a lot in his letters.
John somehow paid to fly Jason to Illinois to visit him for three days and paid for his hotel. It was arranged by some guy (nephew?). When Jason went to the prison to visit him, he was taken into a room with a handcuffed (in front) John. No guards were around and the security camera was pointed away from them. John tried to kiss Jason, then masturbated and tried to have sex with him. He gave him a pair of bikini underwear and asked him to wear them the next day, but he didn't wear them. The next day when he visited John, John told him he was going to rape him and 'piss' on his face while Jason lays on the floor. He tried to get him to lean over a chair so he could have sex with him. That whole experience made him cry right in front of John. He didn't go back the next day for visit number 3.
Jason had a normal/average childhood. His mother worked in a casino, his father at a department store. He argued a lot with his mother and said she was controlling. It bothered him that they had true crime in common. She'd monitor his activities and wouldn't let him or his brother watch violence on television yet left graphic true crime books laying around. Said his parents were 'volatile and unpredictable' but didn't give examples of it.
The co-author said Jason was 'haunted'.
In college Jason was a straight-A student, chief justice of the student government, and president of the psychology honors society.
MY THOUGHTS: The book kept a steady pace and was never boring to me. I don't see Jason as having an ego or being a 'brat' like some reviewers have said. In fact, I don't understand any of the negative reviews, negative meaning less than four stars. Knowing that he killed himself in 2006 I went into this book being more interested in him than the killers.
