Blind Fury: The Shocking True Story of Eugene Stano

by Anna Flowers

Here is the shocking true story of Gerald Eugene Stano--one of America's most prolific serial killers. Written by retired investigative journalist Anna Flowers, and based upon ten years of exhaustive research, Blind Fury is the first true crime account of the gruesome career and twisted psyche of this killer. Includes chilling excerpts from Stano's confession. 12 pages of never-before-published photos.

Genres: True Crime

320 pages, Paperback

First published June 1, 1993

Reviews

[Annette Hill · Rating 1 out of 5]

One of Stano's victims was my best friend from when I was 2 years old until he killed her while she was on her Senior Trip to Daytona Beach. Her name was Ramona Neal. I don't know how accurate this book is about Stano, but the information about Mona's life is completely made up and at times the things that the author says about her just made me want to scream! Things like Mona was in her bedroom, sitting in her bean bag chair talking on the phone...Mona was raised in a 2 bedroom home with 8 siblings. They had just converted a small porch into a bedroom as a graduation type gift for her that year. There was no bean bag chair and like many families back then, only one phone in the house and it was in the dining area. There were other inaccuracies until it was really hard to know what was the truth and what was complete fiction. It just really made me sad all over again. I miss Mona every day, still...

[Fishface · Rating 2 out of 5]

This just didn't hold my attention. I didn't even finish it. It does cover the basics of the case and offers some crime-scene photos of the victims as the police found them, in situ.

[Ronnie Cramer · Rating 2 out of 5]

An interesting case, but the book is written in a novelistic style with loads of re-created dialogue (and thoughts!). The author mentions in passing the fact that the subject shot and killed his wife's horse (details? motivation? reactions? consequences?), then loads the rest of the book with surmised/imagined and completely superfluous details. Much of the book is devoted to events that took place in the courtroom.

[Crystal M · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book was written in 1993. It covers the case of serial killer Gerald Stano. I’ve read a lot of serial killer books but never heard of him. He killed about 40 women in an 8 year period in the 70’s. His MO was to pick women up who were prostitutes, hitch hiking, etc. once in his car he would demand sex from them weather they refused or obliged he would begin slapping them, beating them, strangling them, stabbing them, shooting them, which ever he felt like but he had propensity for strangling them until unconscious, letting them regain consciousness stabbing them some, strangling them into unconsciousness again, waiting for them to come to and repeating this sometimes for hours until they died. He would dump their bodies in random locations, stage them in obscene poses with their clothing pulled up or down leaving them exposed. I would also consider him a necrophile based on some of the things he did to them postmortem. He was caught because he took a prostitute to a hotel and attacked her, she escaped and he was apprehended. He initially took a plea deal for some of the murders for a life sentence. Once in prison he realized that prisoners on death row got more privileges such as radios, TVs, bigger cells etc and then began confessing to other murders in order to get a death sentence. He got a death sentence and immediately had lawyers going through the appeals process which spanned more than 11 years, 4 death warrants and 4 stays of execution. The book finishes before the last appeal is done being processed so it’s a cliff hanger as to what happens and if he finally gets executed. I looked it up and he was executed in 1998.

[Jennifer · Rating 2 out of 5]

As far as true-crime books go, this one started off pretty well. The trick, however to this genre of book is to keep the reader equally engrossed in the courtroom/legal technicality stage of the book. Sorry to say, I lost interest while trying to keep up with the courtroom details, however detailed they were.

[Amy · Rating 1 out of 5]

It's pretty much well known that this book is a farce. Details were fed to Stano to tie up unclosed murders and this book was written by someone related to the investigation and conviction.