A Murder in Wellesley: The Inside Story of an Ivy-League Doctor’s Double Life, His Slain Wife, and the Trial That Gripped the Nation

by Tom Farmer, Commas Farmer, Marty Foley

On Halloween morning in 1999, Mabel Greineder was savagely murdered along a wooded trail in the well-heeled community of Wellesley, Massachusetts. As the shock following the brutal killing slowly subsided, the community was further shaken when the focus of the investigation turned to her husband, Dirk Greineder, a prominent physician and family man who was soon revealed to be leading a secret double life involving prostitutes, pornography, and trysts solicited through the Internet. A Murder in Wellesley takes the reader far beyond the headlines and national news coverage spawned by “May” Greineder’s killing and tells the untold story of the meticulous investigation led by Marty Foley, the lead State Police detective on the case, from the morning of the murder through Dirk Greineder’s ultimate conviction. Exhaustive interviews with key figures in the case, including many who have not talked publicly until now, contribute to an unprecedented behind-the-scenes account of how investigators methodically built their case against Greineder and how the sides taken by Dirk and May’s relatives aided the investigation but bitterly divided their families. A fascinating true-crime procedural that is also a deeply unsettling tale of the psychopath you thought you knew, of deceptions and double lives, and of families torn apart by an unthinkable crime. Culminating in one of the most dramatic courtroom spectacles in recent memory (aired nationally on Court TV), A Murder in Wellesley reveals the truth behind the murder that gripped a nation.

Genres: True Crime, Nonfiction, Mystery

328 pages, Hardcover

First published August 25, 2012

Reviews

[Christine · Rating 5 out of 5]

I am giving the book and the detectives/prosecution involved in bringing this criminal justice 5 stars. Many years ago I saw the authors at my town library and hearing the tale of the story I was only familiar with from sensationalized news reports was fascinating. Though it took many years for me to read the book, I found it fascinating to learn how the detectives painstakingly put the case together. The author was able to relay the conversations and details in an easy to understand read. The story itself is disturbing.

[Michelle · Rating 4 out of 5]

I don't generally read a lot of true crime but on a whim I had picked up this book describing a relatively local murder that took place in 1999 from the library before the shutdown and I still have it, for obvious reasons, and yesterday I decided to give it a go.

From the offing (i.e. the cover) they make it clear who the murderer is, so no mystery solving there. It's also very much told from the perspective of the prosecution side (the second credited co-authors, not listed above, was the main detective on the case), but I think in a pretty fair way - I do agree that the evidence was pretty overwhelming and that the case was proven beyond reasonable doubt, and mistakes made by the police and DA etc are freely admitted. There's also some rather distasteful scenes in which the police are laughing at such ribaldry as Viagra prescriptions, condoms, a nude photo (and using it to harass the young female detective on the case), which I'm not surprised by, but I'm also wondering if the authors knew it was distasteful when they included these details. (In general, the case/book are very sex-negative, including in attitudes towards sex workers.)

The only real mystery is why the doctor killed his wife and why his children kept on supporting him. While I see some reviews criticising the book for not going into this enough, I think that they did as much speculation as they could. In the absence of an actual confession and harassing a family grieving for the loss of both their parents for comment, there's not much more to do. We do have some thoughts from the niece, from a couple of jurors, and I think there's enough for us.

For me, personally, the key admission was by the son in his testimony about the family dynamic: "You had to be willing to be part of the family...As long as you signed up and you were there and you were emotionally involved, it was fine." That speaks to me to a psychological dynamic likely instituted by the father where you basically had to be on his side to be a member of the family. If his wife was no longer on board due to his adultery, she had to go rather than risk an embarrassing divorce. Any deviation by any of the kids would result in them being estranged from not only their father but also their other siblings, in the same way that their aunt and cousin were estranged for supporting the prosecution. What a price to pay!

Overall, I thought the book was all right - the case isn't super scintillating in and of itself. It could have been told a bit better (and checked for typos) but overall I was swept through to the very end.

[Jill H. · Rating 3 out of 5]

A true crime novel about the murder of a doctor's wife in the well-heeled community of Wellesley, Massachusetts. May Greineder is savagely beaten and stabbed on a walking trail, accompanied by her husband, Dirk. Since the cover notes make no secret of the fact that the doctor was the perpetrator, I am not spoiling the book with that revelation. After ruling out the possibility that she was attacked by a stranger, the police begin to delve into the background of the marriage and the doctor's life in general. And what they find, shocks both the community and the family......the unsavory secret life of Dr. Dirk Greineder. The family is bitterly divided and his grown children are convinced of his innocence while other members become witnesses for the State. The murder became a national sensation as Court TV televised the complete trial.

This book goes behind the scenes as it follows the work of the police, the forensic experts, and the District Attorney to bring the murderer to justice. This is an interesting book but not outstanding.

[Robert Thacker · Rating 2 out of 5]

The title tells the tale, but the "why" is the mystery. Fascinating true story that fails to explore the psychology behind the crime, or its most fascinating aspect; the blind, unwavering support of the children for their father when he becomes a suspect in the killing of their mother. Authored by a Boston Herald reporter who covered the story and a Massachusetts State Policeman who investigated the murder, the book is haphazardly constructed, poorly written, and badly edited, generating very little suspense, mystery, or drama.

[Mary · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very good read.

[Jess · Rating 3 out of 5]

Three and a half stars. I'd actually give Marty Foley 5 big stars but the writing of Tom Farmer drives it down. The story here is fascinating and sad. Overall I'd recommend this book.

[waffles · Rating 4 out of 5]

Man, all these true crime books I've been reading have been hitting it out of the park lately. Another fantastic read. Beautifully written and had some surprising bits of humor (I especially liked the part where they found a nude of Greineder and hid it around the office, page 198 and 199 if you're curious. Also, the children being on their father's side?? That must have been some crazy brainwashing!)


Fascinating stuff.

[Heather · Rating 3 out of 5]

Excellent story, highly detailed, very interesting
Read a little more like a police report then a mystery thriller, because it’s a true story and not fiction. I really enjoyed it and the facts were so interesting. I learned an incredible amount about Police work, DNA, blood, etc. etc. so many interesting facts!

[Jill Crosby · Rating 4 out of 5]

I found this book to be gripping & thorough. It’s written by the lead investigator of this murder, and the reporter who covered the case and subsequent trial. Interesting peek into how experts are chosen, how evidence is handled, and how law enforcement crafts a case to take before a judge.

[Sharon Exley · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very well written, it was hard to put down. And despite all the technical explanations it was easy to understand. One of the best books I’ve read.

[Jeffrey Thurber · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent detective and police work by our men in blue!

[Deb · Rating 4 out of 5]

Pretty compelling narrative of the trial of a very bad person. Well done everyone involved in the conviction.

[Shell Martin · Rating 3 out of 5]

Everyone & their Grandmother thinks the Doctor is guilty so I am going to take a "devil's advocate" stance here because SOMETHING is missing from this investigation and this book made that uneasy feeling even more palpable. An aptly written book, but way too self-congratulatory. That annoyed me. My copy was signed by the author to a friend at the end of 2014. Maybe they felt the same as I did and that is why they re-sold or donated it so quickly.

Where is the motive for this Doctor? He had ZERO history of violence and yet people are so quick to believe that he could be the killer. I have a problem with that. It's incongruous to suddenly become a psychopath, it just doesn't happen. The wife was brutally killed. Overkill. A husband, no matter how much of a hornbag, would not and could not kill his wife IN PUBLIC so brutally with his kind of demeanor and temperament all of his life at 59 (even his wife's family, who understandably believe he killed his wife admitted they never had arguments with the Doctor for the 31 years the couple were married...bad behaviour has a history and leaves behind a slimy snail trail...it just doesn't pop up out of no where...for no reason). If he had wanted to kill his wife it would have been way less violent. Poison. Gun shot. Hit man. Not so viciously by his own hands. The doctor didn't have a girlfriend either. He just wanted sex (and was very willing to pay for it) and the few times he was trolling for partners he admitted he didn't want "relationships". He just wanted sex. No other women to be emotionally involved with, just sex. So he's gonna brutally kill his wife like an experienced serial killer on a holiday just to get his perv on? It doesn't float.

Some of the behaviour of the Doctor (who everyone thought was a tic weird but not psycho weird...) sealed his doom and makes him look very complicit, but in aggregate, this case doesn't connect all the dots at face value. How good was the blood spatter forensics? The Doctor claimed to have tried to have moved his moribund wife but couldn't. There was a pool of her blood in the middle of the trail (she was dragged off path...) so he couldn't have gotten some blood on his sneakers (they were just dots...) that way (by walking near it in the rush to get to her prone body) in lieu of splatter from the actual kill? As a Doctor he claimed to have taken her pulse yet strangely had no blood on his hands...but to take a pulse, one usually uses fingers, not the whole hand. Still, I admit no blood on his hands is way too hard to easily dismiss, especially since gloves had been discarded in the area. Then again, no one believed the Doctor and his wife had bloody noses at the same time that fateful AM and yet he was able to prove it with a towel that had both their blood & DNA on it. He claims he was separated from his wife for only 10 minutes (their dog had pulled him back to the area where he had left his wife alive...the dog must have heard something humans could not...) and if he had killed her, wouldn't he have stayed away longer and waited for someone else to find her? He didn't have enough time to do all he was supposed to do as the killer...he had called the cops by 8:59 AM and why would he toss all the evidence so close to the kill? That is so stupid the dog wouldn't even do it. Also, if he killed his wife, he would have prolly driven to the police station in lieu of calling them via his car phone (it was 1999) in the parking lot. To discard the evidence (not at the scene!!!) or give him more time. The time allotment doesn't work the way LE explained how it worked.

So why would he kill his wife if she had just recently discovered his pervy tom-catting and porno interest? If she did know, why did she continue to walk with him and do everything with him? She would have never gone on that walk that morning if she had known her husband was getting his sex on with whores and other perverts.

Especially since her death fit the profile of two other older people getting murdered in Massachusetts public parks in Norfolk County (starting 12/1/1998-10/31/1999). All towns started with "W". Walpole, Westwood and Wellesley. Someone is in the hoosegow for one of those murders and it was a DNA discovery that helped lock him up but I think something bigger and more strange happened here. Everyone thinks the doctor killed his wife but every one so easily dismisses a sound motive and how and why the Doctor supposedly set out to kill his docile wife in such a brutal and chance-y way. It makes no sense and I am not comfortable swallowing the conventional wisdom like most are too quick to. LE here were only interested in ONE suspect too and this book proves that. Not so fast, Perry Mason! Too many questions left unanswered and things too easily accepted that really ought not be. It's troubling...

[Eileen Sullivan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Thanks Kathy Devey for sharing this book with me; I’ll pas it onto Sharon to read too. (But Billy may just have to read it next as the McDermott’s grew up next to him on Brinton Road in Brookline and Jill McDermott is the Wellesley Detective on her first murder case). This real crime story takes place in the town where I grew up-Wellesley, MA. I remember all the press this story received back in 1999, as it was about a prominent doctor and his wife who appeared on the surface to have a perfect family life. This book details the murder of Mabel Greineder, which started with a call to the police from her husband at Morses Pond (a place I know well). The authors document the twists and turns of trying to solve this case, from the first phone call to the last days in the courtroom. They also include narratives about the families involved and the viewpoints of how to solve the mystery. This was a good read as I felt part of the process from beginning to end, but it was disturbing to hear all about the second life the husband led.

[Gail · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a very different type of book for me to read and I found myself getting more and more involved as I got into the story. I admit that I went into this assuming Dirk was innocent. I didn't really know a lot about the inside story except what was in the news. But after reading this book, I felt like part of the jury. The clean hands did it for me. I found it quite impossible to be in so much blood and claim he didn't wash his hands yet no blood appeared to be on his hands. I feel that he is guilty and happy that this case was solved.

[Reeny · Rating 4 out of 5]

This story is local to me, so I immediately enjoy that. I know where places are- Martin Foley lives one town over from me. Very relatable. I don't love courtroom stories and that's where the book fell a little flat for me (personally). I expected it to be a little more dramatic. It seemed like I was reading a police report at times, not a book. Still worth a read if you like true crime from the investigative point if view, or if you are a local.

[Acweezer17 · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book..... just really didn't need to be written or read, in my opinion. It was just uninteresting. I read it because it's local to me, but other than that it was just a generic write-up about a murder trial. There were no twists and turns. Well-written, I guess, and that's fine, I just felt like it was boring and there was nothing interesting specifically about the trial. The man was in a sexless marriage and used the internet to satisfy that need, EVERYONE FREAK OUT.

[Linwig · Rating 3 out of 5]

Made me not want to walk in the woods with my husband! But seriously, this is a retelling of the story we all know from the point of view of the lead detective on the case. There are a lot of interesting details about how the evidence was gathered and evaluated. It's a sad story that left me wondering why that Monster felt the need to kill his poor wife who, no doubt, was taken completely by surprise. It was a brutal crime comitted by a heartless coward.

[Laura · Rating 4 out of 5]

A lot of the reason this book was of interest to me was because I grew up in Wellesley (although all I remember about the murder was that kids weren't allowed to go trick or treating near Morses Pond that year). The authors did a good job of presenting the facts in an organized and readable manner. They definitely didn't present things very neutrally, which I think could bother some people, but overall I thought the book was informative and worth reading.

[Charlie Newfell · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting, albeit disturbing book. Written in a very factual basis, almost like the old Dragnet series! What I found most intriguing was how a real murder case is investigated, solved, tried and convicted. This isn't Law and Order, or even the Harry Bosch series that I love. A real crime, and the true story of it without the Hollywood twists.

[Gretje · Rating 4 out of 5]

Compelling read, especially since this a local story for me. I love a book that I can't put down. I just wish the author had refrained from so much editorializing. Yes, it was a nasty crime, but his frequent use of adjectives such as "gruesome," "horrible," "sinister," etc., actually made the narrative less effective.

[Ronnie Cramer · Rating 2 out of 5]

The solution to this murder 'mystery' seems quite obvious from the start, and the book just sort of grinds its' way to the conclusion without offering much insight. Most interesting is watching the relatives on one side of the family (the ones who cooperated in the book project, naturally), coming around to recognize the guilt of the perpetrator.

[Maureen · Rating 1 out of 5]

I read this book because I know some of the characters (peripherally). The writing is horrendous--constant use of the passive voice-- but I stuck with it anyway. I suggest reading a synopsis of the trial in a back issue of People Magazine instead of this book.

[Judy Hall · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was very well written. It is not always easy to achieve that balance of providing factual commentary and providing exciting prose and these authors managed it. I was thoroughly involved and I knew who did it. I was very impressed.

[Leslie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Couldn't put it down! Mediocre writing and chopped up story kept me from giving it 4 stars. But fascinating mechanics of the investigation--co-author was lead detective. If you were in the Boston area at the time of the widely-publicized trial, you might want to read it.

[cheryl kell · Rating 5 out of 5]

A TRUE CRIME GEM!

A TRUE CRIME GEM!

Thoroughly enjoyed this book. Unlike many other true crime books, the courtroom testimony was also very interesting. This is one for my library. Will definitely read again sometime. Great job.

[Ginny · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting to read everything that went on during the investigation.

[Liz Golden · Rating 1 out of 5]

I hate this book. I couldn't even finish it. Maybe it would have been interesting if it wasn't so repetitive

[Taylor · Rating 2 out of 5]

I didn't finish reading this. It was too slow for me. Probably a good story, I need something a bit faster though.

[Holle Forbes · Rating 4 out of 5]

Even though I was familiar with this case, I thoroughly enjoyed the book. Not an intellectual quest, but a good read.