Anglers and hunters all have stories about “the one that got away.” So do serial killers. Fred Rosen tells some of these stories in THERE BUT FOR THE GRACE OF GOD: SURVIVORS OF THE 20TH CENTURY’S MOST INFAMOUS SERIAL KILLERS.

Seven survivors of Derrick Todd Lee, Dennis Rader, Bobby Joe Long, Ted Bundy, Richard Speck, Jeffrey Dahmer and David Berkowitz are profiled in this 304-page book. I’m sure Rosen pitched good intentions to his publisher, but the book falls flat with me for many reasons.

I found the work to have a lot of unnecessary fluff and filler. Rosen devotes a good chunk of alphabet discussing the interstate highway system as it relates to a serial killer’s ability to move quickly and increase his kill zone. Point taken, but there’s no need to discuss how Eisenhower envisioned and commissioned it after seeing the German Autobahn. I suspect this material is either leftovers or duplication from his book THE HISTORICAL ATLAS OF AMERICAN CRIME, which is described as “how geography, population shift, and new methods of commerce, transportation, and weapons technology have impacted crime from 1592 to the present.”

Similarly, in telling Corazon Amurao’s story of surviving the heinous Speck, Rosen rightly describes her as a Filipino nurse exchange student. He then gives a detailed history of Filipino nursing care in the United States.

Rosen is overly critical of law enforcement, particularly on the “Son of Sam” case and doesn’t seem to appreciate how complicated cases like these can be to crack. Berkowitz claimed a victim on Jan. 30, 1977, in the area of the Continental Theater. More than two months later, Berkowitz struck again in the same area. Rosen blasts police by saying it is “unclear why police, knowing that some criminals actually do return to the scene of the crime,” had not flooded the area with uniformed police.

He also refers to police as a bunch of “outclassed boobs.” A big break came in the Berkowitz case when citizen Cecilia Davis reported seeing a man shortly after a shooting return to a parked card, remove a parking ticket from the windshield and drive off in a huff.

“Unlike the NYPD, Cecilia Davis could add. Putting two and two together, she figured the guy was the Son of Sam,” Rosen writes, whereas it is more likely that Davis was simply reporting suspicious behavior, rather than knowing she’d be providing the tip that would lead police to their man. Backtracking through the parking ticket records eventually led to Berkowitz’s arrest.

If you can believe it, Rosen is even critical of some of the victims who were felled by Dennis Rader. He blames several victims of BTK for their own demise. In describing Shirley Vian’s attack, he writes, “The problem, really, and the reason why Vian did not survive, was that she was not ready to kill her attacker, let alone resist. At any point, as Rader marched her through the house when she was not covered with the revolver, she could have resisted him, picked up a glass bowl, for example, and smashed it into Rader’s face. Even if she were shot, she would have done some damage.”

He has the same criticism of BTK victim Nancy Fox: “Inside Fox’s bathroom was the means to save her life if she chose it – the bathroom mirror. Broken, it could easily been used to slash his throat.” Rosen probably would assert that rape victims get what they deserve when they are scantily dressed.

Another example of his lack of respect for crime victims is his acknowledgement of how Amurao has made it clear for many years of her unwillingness to grant interviews or speak to the media. He then details his extensive, yet unsuccessful search for her for the purposes of interviewing her for his book.

Many of the details in the BTK section were – albeit not critical to the main facts of the case – simply wrong. He refers to the police chief during BTK’s killing spree as Richard Amnion. The chief’s last name is LaMunyon. He describes Dillons as a restaurant when it is, in fact, a multi-store grocery chain. He describes Nancy Fox as working for Halberd’s instead of Helzberg’s Jewelry. I’m being petty, but the sloppiness makes me wonder how much time and effort he actually put into the work.

His attempts to be jocular come across instead as crass. In describing Ted Bundy’s M.O., he says Bundy would surprise victims in their sleep “and then kill ‘em on the spot, or drag ‘em out and do the deed elsewhere.” He details what investigators found in Jeffrey Dahmer’s apartment this way: “Detectives found a human penis in a stockpot, but no recipe.” This kind of familiar language doesn’t really seem appropriate for the subject matter.

True crime fans would be well-served to let this book be the one that gets away. –Ken Davis

Buy it at Amazon.