Perfect Crimes

by Marvin J. Wolf

No such thing as PERFECT CRIMES? Witness this whirlwind tour of dirty deeds, sinister scandals, and cold-blooded murder--done in the name of love, money, madness, and more--from around the world or right next door. All of these notoriously wicked characters overlooked a fatal flaw that brought their almost perfect crimes to light.
THE LONE WOLF
Japanese jet-setter Kazuyoshi Miura had a talent for making money, a taste for lizard-skin boots, and a lust for leading trusting young women like lambs to slaughter....
CHOP CHOP MAN
Mild-mannered maniac Jeffrey Dahmer wined his male guests with drugged drinks, and then dined on them--but the remains of his victims would tell tales of terror and torture that would shock the world....
ONE-WAY TICKET
From the Hollywood Hills to the Swiss Alps, Thomas Devins wheeled and dealed, thrilled and killed, and led the law through a game of global hopscotch in which he was always one step ahead....
For these and many others, crime didn't quite pay off. But for true-crime aficionados, this all-new collection is a jackpot!

Genres: True Crime, Crime

336 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published May 31, 1995

About the author

The son of a junkman and a mad housewife (really--she spent half her adult life in mental hospitals), Wolf served 13 years on active duty with the US Army, including a 15-month combat tour in Vietnam. He has worked as a dishwasher, an encyclopedia salesman, a camera store clerk and as a photojournalist with worldwide credits. In 1983, when he regained sole custody of his only child, he put aside his successful career in photojournalism to become an author. A Los Angeles Times bestselling author, Wolf has three times been recognized by the American Society of Journalists and Authors for his professionalism. In 2001, Wolf took a nine-year detour through the movie and television business, an education in writing fiction. One of his screenplays, "Ladies Night," was produced and aired on the USA Network. He returned to writing books and launched a career in fiction in 2010. He lives with his adult daughter in Asheville, NC.

Reviews

[Catten · Rating 2 out of 5]

Okay, I admit that I was already a little skeptical about this book when I saw the authors' photos in the back. (They're shown in what they might think looks like pulp detective gear - him in a fedora and raincoat, her in a weird hat with face netting.) But the lure of "twelve tales of fiendish schemes that came off without a hitch - almost" got me and I bought it.

Unless you don't read much true crime, leave this one on the shelf - it's not very good.

The authors present a dozen cases, ranging from 1955 to 1991 (the book came out in '95), and feature crimes in which the perp nearly pulled off the perfect crime. I'm still trying to figure out why someone would write a book like this... I mean, isn't any crime technically perfect until the bad guy is caught?

Let me tell you about some of the cases they chose.

The Lone Wolf: Kazuyoshi Miura, a Japanese entrepreneur, decided to do away with his wife while on a shopping trip in Los Angeles, allowing him to collect on a substantial life insurance policy and return to his playboy single life. After an apparent street robbery ended with the wife shot and dying in a hospital, Miura's girlfriend disappeared. Her body was discovered in California. LA police and Japanese journalists put all the pieces together, and in 1994, Miura was found guilty of murder.

Chop Chop Man: This is the story of Jeffrey Dahmer. I'm not convinced Dahmer pulled off any perfect crimes; it was the ineptitude of the Milwaukee police that allowed him to get away with the 17 murders he eventually confessed to. There are several books out there about Dahmer that explore his case in detail.

Goodbye, Mr. Chips: When flight attendant Helle Crafts disappeared without a trace, her friends were worried that her husband, Richard, killed her. Crafts stated he last saw his wife on November 19, 1986. He filed a missing persons report, and later passed a polygraph and several police interviews. If a snowplow driver had not spotted someone down by the river one night running a woodchipper, Crafts might have pulled it off. Police found tiny fragments of bone, cloth, hair, and mail that were Helle's. Craft had rented the chipper from another town, killed his wife, froze her, cut her up, and ran her through the chipper. This is likely the "true story" that the Cohen brothers based Fargo on.

The stories are generally decent, but the writing isn't great - and you'd expect with two authors, it would be sharp. I know I'm not alone when I find a writer less credible because of typos or misrepresentations. It could be the fault of a copy editor somewhere, but I couldn't help rolling my eyes when I saw the word "pursuaded" twice on the same page.

You can find most of these cases in other books, and I recommend you pick those up instead.

[Tammy · Rating 3 out of 5]

The book consists of 12 true stories of someone who got away with a crime at first but was ultimately caught. Most of the crimes are murders though there is one fraud case and one theft. It's not a literary masterpiece by any means. The writing can be corny at times (I don't think they needed to explicitly say in EVERY story how something was almost the perfect crime), and there is nothing special about how the stories are retold. That being said the stories themselves are fairly interesting. The first one was probably my least favorite so don't give up on the book after only reading that one.

[Rabbi Ben · Rating 5 out of 5]

It's just not that easy to write an anthology where almost every story
keeps me turning the pages, This one did! I especially liked the one about the doctor who picked up a guy in a gay bar, murdered him in his office and then filled out a death certificate -- for one of his other patients!

Did I mention that these are all true stories?