Panic

Bloodlands collection

By: Harold Schechter

Narrated by: Steven Weber

Length: 1 hr and 36 mins

Publisher's summary

During the Depression, economic anxieties found an outlet in a series of child murders that triggered an irrational nationwide hysteria: pedophiliac psychopaths were overrunning the country.

As America was brought to rage and fury by the press and the FBI, lynch mobs took to the streets, reason gave way to doomsday scenarios, and one father was even driven to murder his three daughters to “save them” from a degenerate crime wave. A terrifying cautionary essay, Panic explores the combustible mix of unfounded fears, moral crusades, and the dangers of collective thinking.

Panic is part of Bloodlands, a chilling collection of short addictive 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.

©2018 Harold Schechter (P)2018 Brilliance Publishing, Inc., all rights reserved.

As much cultural history as true crime

Schecter recounts a series of child murders during the Great Depression and in doing so illustrates the media landscape and cultural attitudes that linked these stories together in the public imagination. An enlightening bit of history.

very good

very interesting , reading was good, listen to the end .would recommend to other consumer

So Sad

I didn't realize how early on these things started happening. I guess that just shows how bright my rose colored glasses are. It makes me sad. This was a hard one for me to hear. But it's definitely worth the read and the education. I fully recommend this book. I recommend the entire series set. They are very informative and educational. I wouldn't recommend it for all audiences though. This one especially.

Fake Media

Happy I found this story. I enjoyed how the media was portrayed as sensationalism is the only thing. Making stories up out of whole cloth, almost like a soap opera. The old time media of the day was an interesting reminder how little the media has changed. This story is a good one from a historical perspective. You will be glad you know about it. Panic that is.

Very Interesting Short Piece; Excellent Performanc

Very interesting and well researched piece on moral panic. The only criticism I have is that I think more time could have been spent developing and defining the topic of moral panic. I do understand, however, that the purpose of this "extended article" was to illuminate the topic by way of historical examples during the panic about sex crimes in the late 1930s.


The reader's voice and performance was excellent as well.

this was a hard one.

this was a hard one for me to go through. It is shocking to me that most of these guys didn't get the death penalty...

the book itself is very well done. ythe audiobook performance was top notch.

Child pedophilia

As much as we don’t want to hear about the disgusting minds of those who hurt children, it’s a must read. It’s surrounds us from early years and continues today. It’s detailed, but it’s the truth. Some of these reviews make it sound like you shouldn’t hear these things. How can we get more people to understand, if they don’t know? Smh, we all see it differently. True crime story.

Interesting

I'm not sure what to do with this, but it was more like a podcast than a book I would read. It lent itself to an audio listening. Creepy subject matter- truth is stranger than fiction.

Good Story but not as exciting

The voice acting is great.

Schechter delivers on the cringe side but didn't feel as exciting as a usual bloodlands tale

brilliant

very clever format to the story, and very well spoken performance. enjoyed all of the authors work