A Venom in the Blood

by Eric van Hoffmann

Ex-library hardback copy. Bright clean dust jacket is encased in plastic. Plastic has some wear. Edges of the book encased in the plastic have edge wear. Text is perfect. Same day shipping.

Genres: True Crime, Nonfiction, Crime

Unknown Binding

First published July 25, 1990

Reviews

[♥ Marlene♥ · Rating 4 out of 5]

On Wednesday, September 27, 2006 I wrote:

This was the second book I read about this crazy couple.
Years ago I read Barri Flowers book, The Sex Slave Murders and I even wrote a review on amazon because the book pissed me off.
I did not like that one at all, cause the writer tried to let us think Charlene was just an innocent bystander.
But at the end he confessed he was in doubt about her innocence
This book shows Charlene as a willing participant which I think she was. Book is very graphic, but I didn't mind that.

[Chriss · Rating 4 out of 5]

It is never easy to identify yourself with a serial killer but at the same time you want to read about their escapades in an attempt to find some understanding on why they may have turned to such a life of violence. The story of a husband and wife serial killer team is most horrifying and not in the least something you can identify with. The brutality is full of rage and the sexual torture is something beyond belief. As a reader, I was just horrified at what these people did but at the same time, I wanted to remind myself that some element of society or nature creates these beings and turns them into monsters. So I'm not sure if reading this book educated me or sickened me in a way. Maybe a combination of both.

[SouthWestZippy · Rating 1 out of 5]

Taken from the jacket cover. "On September 13, 1978, two Mexican migrant workers crossed a drainage ditch in the rich open farmland southeast of Sacramento, California to examine what appeared to be a bundle of old clothes. They Discovered the partially clothed body of a young woman who had been beaten, sexually abused and shot in the back of the head. "
Gerald Gallego and Charlene Gallego kidnapped, raped and murdered ten young people in less than three years.
Book is so detailed about the horrific crime is it nauseating and I grew tired of reading it.

[Stephen · Rating 4 out of 5]

I've read a lot of true crime and I can safely say that these people are screwed up. More than most murderers. This book kept my attention just wondering what was coming next.
Since this book was written many years ago, you have to ignore some of the accusations in the last chapter about the Gallego family that was later found to be false and other people did those crimes. Other than that, the book is a good read for those who love true crime.

[Kimberly Connell · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very dark true-story (biographical fiction). Quite disturbing..not just the story mind you, but the myriad of typos as well as the last chapter that was rather unnecessary and a weak attempt at an update to the original facts of the book...

[Lenny · Rating 5 out of 5]

Crazy true life couple who kidnap girls rape them and kill them.

[Jay · Rating 3 out of 5]

A venom in the blood

In the early days of serial murder investigation serial killer teams were considered non existent but when one did come along they were considered very rare. More rare then they actually are. Obviously they didn't know about The Bender family, The Kelly family, Burke and Hare, or The bloody Harpes. This book was written before Paul and Karla aka Ken and Barbie from Canada, a married couple that raped, tortured, and killed teenage girls for fun. The author states he became fascinated by the Gallegos and decided to write this book because of a Gallego relative who knew his mother, both women were involved in the movie industry. The author also got interested in the Gallegos because they were the first married serial killer couple he had ever heard of.

The Gallegos were not a favorite case of mine, until I read this book.

This book is very rough. Very colorfully written and very well written. Sure to offend a modern audience. I would argue "if your easily offended, then why the F*CK are you reading true crime?!" Personally I found it entertaining and unique. It's very well done.

The book starts right off with the discovery of the first two victims. Both teenage girls found dumped in a muddy open field. Soon we get a well put together autospy report and some info about the job of one of the coroners. We also get some very colorful dialog from the burnout police detectives investigating the two murders.

After that we get into the bio of Gerald Gallego the husband who with his wife went on a killing spree to live out their shared fantasies together. Like the best of true crime we get great detail. Well put together narrative. We really get a sense of who the Gallegos are and why they did what they did and what part they both actively played. Just as good as another book about another serial killer couple Doug Clark and Carole Bundy. We get a great picture of who Gerald and Charlene were and what motivated them. With that we get the description with great detail of the planning before the first two murders, how they spotted them, how they lured them, and the murders them selves. Like many other serial killers it's amazing how brazen the victims were lured. They were literally kidnapped in broad day light in a crowded shopping mall and parking lot. People were literally everywhere in the summer heat. Charlene said "we did it because it was so easy." and she was right.

For Trivia I should mention the context. This all began in the summer of 1978 in Sacramento.
The east area rapist aka The original night stalker now revealed as Joseph James DeAngelo was raping and killing in Sacramento and beyond. He had been terrorizing Sacramento since 1976. Gun sales and gun owership were skyhigh, lots of alarm system installing, police and local residents were doing nightly routes around the town looking for him but they never did and he still was able to attack, although sometimes he took safer routes and went to a nearby county.
In January of 1978 serial killer Richard Chase was on his killing spree in Sacramento. He would break into the homes of women, shoot them in the head with a handgun and butcher the bodies, in some cases his murders involved men and children. in one case a baby. The police at the time didn't have enough man power to dedicate to Chase due to DeAngelo but Chase was still caught, very quickly and convicted and sentenced to death despite his obvious mental illness.

So while DeAngelo was breaking into homes, tying men, women, and or children up and raping the women or teenage girls and into the 3rd year of his rape spree causing terror in multiple communities in and around Sacramento the Gallegos were beginning their rape/murder spree.
In February of that year [days after Chase was caught] DeAngelo also shot and killed a couple walking their dog.

After the first two murders it details Gallego's depressing poverty striken childhood and more detail about his family especially his mother who absolutely helped shape his criminal behavior. Seems Gerald was always encouraged to be a scumbag from childhood and into adulthood.

The next two murders were also pretty brazen but also laughable and bizarre in terms of the actual abduction. From what I've seen a lot of people downplay Charlene's involvement but she appears to be worse then Karla Holmoka. In this book based on confessions from Charlene and so forth it seems like Charlene played a bigger role then most other male/female team killers.
I think Charlene and Gerald were in fact a perfect match.

I also suspect that confusion and cognitive dissonance about her own bisexuality also played a role when it came to Charlene's participation in the abduction, rape, and murders.

The story gets more and more bizarre and I argue that Gerald and Charlene are the most dysfunctional serial killer team ever.

Many people have downplayed Charlene's role in the rape and murders. In this book, she was no different then Gerald.

Gerald's life was nothing but constant reenforcement. Almost every single person in his life not only condoned but encouraged his criiminal behavior.

I should add another piece of trivia. After some long stalking for more victims Gerald decided to try a mall in Citrus Heights. Joseph DeAngelo had lived in Citrus Heights since at least 1983.

The author repeatedly states or implies that the police were imcomptent for not connecting the crimes or being aware of a serial killer at work, but as each one is described it makes perfect sense why they didn't. Multiple victims were buried and not found, they were also killed in different ways, and were committed in different states.

Towards the end though the book starts to go down hill. The author doesn't bring up Charlene's confessions including going to the crime scenes on video and detailing what happened. The strangulation are not detailed at all. One of the victims was strangled with fishing twine but that is never mentioned at all. The victim's families are not detailed at all. The investigators aren't really mentioned at all.

The best of true crime and how true crime should be, the "I was there" effect. I like the author's blunt wording and writing. It almost got a 4.

Ray Biondi was one of the main detectives on the case. He was also the main investigator in the Chase case as well. Although in the case of the Gallegos, they didn't connect the murders at all until much later. But at the same time Ray Biondi is never mentioned and of course Biondi thinks Charlene was not as willing as this author claims.

Also the author states all the inside information and Charlene's true involvement is based on confessions of what she said. It would appear that most of the downplaying of her is based on her official confessions, although in court Gerald did get her to give a glimpse of her being a willing accomplice. Seems a lot of people wanted her to be downplayed and overlooked several statements she made about it, but I am still skeptical of either side. This book portrays her as 100% willing and actively involved and Gerald during the trial did get a former jail house prisoner of Charlene to confess that Charlene was an "aggressive" lesbian who tried to fondle and rape her on several occasions. Basically said Charlene sexually harassed her the entire time. That seems to be another fact that is really downplayed by most people.

Another fact...during the trial Charlene mentions the 4th and 5th victims as "thinking it was a joke" yet in documentaries and so forth I've seen police investigators and so forth say they were taking it seriously and were raped. According to Charlene they thought it was all a joke and were not raped and she mentioned that during her testimony against her husband. According to the book based on what Charlene said they found those two murders a total let down. I have seen docushorts make mistakes before on cases where I absolutely know all the facts. So what ever.

All that leads me to think this book is probably on the right track. As opposed to "Charlene did it because Gerald made her do it and had nothing to do with the sexual assaults." I would just like it to be more definitive.

[John Dougall · Rating 4 out of 5]

The book is graphic in language and the description of the sexual depravity and murder that this couple performed during their crime spree.
At the time of the writing, this was the only husband/wife serial killer team on file with the FBI, and so adds relevance to the work.
I read real-life crime books off and on and I am always sickened by the fact that folks like this live amongst us. It brings reality to the saying, "Wrong place at the right time". It is stunning how few of these bad actors are caught and punished, and how in this case, both were caught but only one really punished, when it is apparent that they are both equally guilty.
This story is also real life evidence of how members of families can assume the roll of enablers, as I am sure much of the depravity in this story could have been prevented.
If you have the stomach for real life horror, read this book.
If this were a work of fiction, I would never have wasted my time reading it. I found it that depraved.

[Slagle Rock · Rating 2 out of 5]

Trashy but a page turner. As noted in some of the other comments, the author's fly-on-the-wall telling of this tale of a reprehensible husband and wife murder team seems highly suspect. I've read a number of true crime novels and must say, this one doesn't seem so well researched. A good book makes you feel like an expert on a subject when you are finished. This one, not so much. But I was entertained by the hard-boiled narrative style of the author and I once I started approaching the book as a story based on true events, rather than a serious journalistic study, it all started to work. True, I got a little tired hearing about the twisted sex life of the couple and they really were rather one-note characters in terms of having no redeeming qualities. But whatever, this is a book about down-and-outers living senseless lives and can be enjoyed for that reason alone.

[Rita · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good book, written well about killers that probably not a lot of people know about unless you lived in the Sacramento CA area. They say that most of the time when you have a team of killers that they would not do it on their own but the combination of the two brings it out in them. Like the Hillside Stranglers. I don't think she would have been a killer if she hadn't met him. But it makes you wonder, how can someone who has so much going for them in their life turn to a life of abuse, poor and murder.

[Marina Gaston · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book read like a documentary/dramatization of the shocking and depraved behavior of a dysfunctional, abusive, raping, and murderous couple. The narration is fast paced and realistic and definitely meant for the adult reader. The author offers an insight into the probable sequence of events and the relationship dynamics of the two murderers and also a commentary on the justice system failures. This book was hard to read and hard to put down. Horrible and fascinating.

[PaperbacksandTiffanyLamps · Rating 4 out of 5]

An absolutely horrifying, brutal, and disturbing read. But an excellently researched true crime novel.

[Shannon Dean · Rating 2 out of 5]

I don’t normally write reviews, but this book was an infuriating tell. I am a true crime reader, but the way this author writes has no compassion for the victims. Would not recommend.

[Tom Schulte · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is an amazingly detailed telling of the horrible "sex slave" torture murderer couple Gerald and Charlene Gallego. They turned on each other after conviction and their crimes apparently had no witnesses or survivors. I am unclear how the author has all the details he does on the crimes - this is Bob Woodward fly-on-the-wall detail - but, the author said he diligently researched the work and coaxed interviews out of many reluctant family and associates. Also, I did some looking, and found no extensive rebuttal to the author's detailed litany of sadistic abuses perpetrated by these true ogres picking up runaways and unattended teens from parking lots, etc.

Unfortunately, the book skims over in an epilogue a murderous scheme that was Gallego relatives Hunt and Thompson's plot to carry out copycat crimes while Gerald was in jail, let alone many nefarious schemes by Gerald's sordid mother that apparently led to her own assassination. That epilogue should be amplified into a book itself. Apparently, that has been done. So, now I need to read it: Justice Waits: The Uc Davis Sweetheart Murders.

Nevada took him and paid the cost to prosecute him even after he received the death penalty in California because they thought they would actually execute him. Both trials happened in 1984. However, Gerald Gallego died of rectal cancer on July 18, 2002 at the Nevada prison system's medical center. Charlene Gallego was released from prison in Nevada in July 1997. She is probably still out there.

[S. Wilson · Rating 5 out of 5]

I've been reading true crime novels since I was in my early teens, and this is the first one that ever prompted me to lock the doors to my house when I finally finished it late one night.

What makes this such a powerful book is that the author doesn't sensationalize or over dramatize the story behind these two killers like some authors due (Like Ann Rule, who could start her own Harlequin Romance True Crime spin off series), but pro trays it in the overly plain and mundane way in which these brutal sex torture killers operated. He also doesn't sooth the reader with assurances about the great Boys in Blue being our only saviors from such evil people, but portrays them as the overworked and self-concerned government workers that don't even bother trying to solve the string of young poor white trash girl murders until the husband and wife team accidentally kill the son and daughter of wealthy families with enough influence to whip things into action.

This is an extremely dark and scary book. Not only because these people actually existed and carried out these crimes, but because the only thing that stopped them was their own incompetence.

[Michael · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good narrative of a husband-wife serial team who rape and murdered 10 known victims, mostly adolescent runaways. The interesting aspect of this case is it strays from the conventional serial team dynamic, with both individuals sometimes assuming the dominant role. In the end, the female was able to lie and cry her way to a plea bargin and out of the well deserved gas chamber. Personal history provides good example that some people just can't be rehabilitated and the refusal of the justice system to acknowledge this.

[Karen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Super creepy book....now I love true crime stories but with all the infamous serial killers I've read about, this couple goes beyond depravity & made my stomach churn with the things they did; some of it was so difficult to read because it seemed so far fetched what they did, it just seemed unreal that two people could exist and actually think that they weren't fully aware of what they were doing? (or were they?)
Kudos to Eric van Hoffmann for being able to write this story....difficult to read, can't imagine how difficult it was to write...

[S · Rating 1 out of 5]

Yeah, this was pretty darn bad. The information was incomplete, and the author was trying to be Joseph Wambaugh. His personal opinions, which are incredibly negative about everything, are intrusive and unwanted. Words are used repetitively, and annoyingly. Read through to the end to see if it could get any worse. The answer was Yes.

[Joyce · Rating 2 out of 5]

for class!

[Denise · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great writing. Doesn't feel like I'm reading a college textbook. This book and it's accounts still haunt me.