PURCHASE: link
BOOK IMAGES: link
MY GRADE: A
FROM PUBLISHER: In March 1989 a group of teenage boys lured a retarded girl into a basement in Glen Ridge, New Jersey, and gang-raped her. Glen Ridge was the kind of peaceful, affluent suburb many Americans dream about. The rapists were its most popular high school athletes. And although rumors of the crime quickly spread through the town, weeks passed before anyone saw fit to report it to the police.
What made these boys capable of brutalizing a girl that some of them had known since childhood? Why did so many of their elders deny the rape and rally around its perpetrators? To solve this riddle, the Edgar award-winning author Bernard Lefkowitz conducted years of research and more than two hundred interviews. The result is not just a wrenching story of crime and punishment, but a hauntingly nuanced portrait of America's jock culture and the hidden world of unrestrained adolescent sexuality.
MY THOUGHTS: This was very good and well-researched, but the author was long-winded at times when it came to details about the town's history. I feel it was a bit disjointed too. "Leslie Faber", a pseudonym, was born in 1971 in Canada and was adopted as a baby by a New Jersey couple. Like Leslie, most of the defendants were seniors in high school.
While the males involved in the "rape" are without a doubt scumbags, I don't believe "Leslie" was raped. She was definitely taken advantage of by males she thought were her friends, whom she's known most of her life. From what I understand of her she doesn't like to upset people and will say whatever she feels they want to hear. 1 1/2 years before this rape, at age 16 her IQ was tested at 49-51, the level of a second or third-grader. It was frustrating reading about her testimony because of how often she changed her story but I understand why she did it-she didn't want the guys to get in trouble and still thought they were her friends, though they never were to begin with. All they ever did was pick on her.
I'd say Kevin's the most disturbed one out of the bunch. He'd take his penis out and masturbate in class in front of people and teachers even saw him with his hand down his pants masturbating and they did nothing at all. According to this he's a registered sex offender in Florida as of 2011.
Second most disturbed one is Chris Archer, who was a junior in high school in 1989. He's described as having pale blue eyes and light brown hair. He'd call Leslie at home sometimes in high school and tell her he was "jerking off." He'd call sometimes to ask her to meet him at a nearby neighborhood botanical garden that had two sheds on the property. She'd meet him there occasionally and later said they "fool around" there. Exactly what that entailed wasn't mentioned. Leslie being on the level of a second or third-grader is what makes Chris' actions disturbing.
Aside from the case itself, the most disturbing thing that's happened, that we know of, is that in 2005, Richie Corcoran shot his estranged wife and her boyfriend, then shot himself. He died and they survived.
The author died in 2014 so there's no asking him for updates on any of the people.
I've uploaded images from the book here.
Reading material:
This person claims that this case never existed in the first place.
You can read a brief article from 1994 here.
Read an excerpt of the book here.
