Winter of Frozen Dreams

by Karl Harter

Blowing the lid off of one of Wisconsin's most shocking murder cases, a candid account of the Barbara Hoffman case reveals how this massage parlor prostitute manipulated two men and then murdered them for their money. Reprint.

Genres: True Crime, Nonfiction, Biography

337 pages, Paperback

First published October 1, 1990

Reviews

[Nicole Bunge · Rating 2 out of 5]

I found this, strangely, because someone made a comment about one of the local 'massage parlors' on facebook: The Rising Sun. (Which, like the Geisha House, is still in business.) It was a 'yeah, you ever hear about that lady that worked there who murdered two clients?'

I've lived in Madison since 2000 and even with the film of the same name starring Thora Birch making the rounds of festivals back in 2009, I never heard about this case.

Anyway, the book doesn't stand up that well as a true-crime non-fiction book. It's more of a 'fictionalization based on true events.' Because there is no way 10 years after the event everyone remembered what they were eating and if flies were in the room when they were watching tv, or if their boots got soaked through with snow. It comes off as pulp dramatization, and doesn't contain a lot of fact-based writing about secondary and tertiary characters in their own words. It's a lot of made up 'could have been their thoughts' but other than the author's word that these things came up in interviews... is kinda boring conjecture.
It didn't help that there are WAY too many made up sex scenes that read like something out of a playboy fantasy - complete with money shots.
(I think a lot of that is criticism because I'm a trained journalist, and you don't 'make up' what people MIGHT have been thinking or feeling just for drama's sake. Maybe it's because I've read a number of decent true-crime books, I don't know.)

But as this is the only written account of an admittedly confusing and circumstantial set of (maybe) murders and it's easy to criticize the police procedures that happened in the 1970s when fingerprints and hair samples were about the only provable evidence, and they were utterly absent in the case. There was no CSI units, no poison experts, no DNA evidence (just blood type). There was no internet!

So in a way, it's a book of its time. Worth it if you live in Madison and want to know the sordid past, or want to see how convoluted legal wrangling can get. But not really satisfying or terribly well written.

[Kathryn · Rating 1 out of 5]

Tells the tale of the most infamous Madison, WI murder case. In the 1970s Barbara Hoffman, a bright university student turned massage parlor sex worker, manipulated two men and then murdered them for their money. However, Harter manages to make this story tedious, and hardly touches on the drama filled trial - which was the first televised trial un the U.S. Additionally, the sex scenes read like the fantasies of an adolescent boy.

[Koren · Rating 3 out of 5]

The murder takes place in 1977. The book was written in 1990. The murderer is Barbara Hoffman, a message parlor therapist who murders two of her clients. While the book is based on a true story, at times it reads like fiction and at times it seems more like erotica. There is a lot of detail to the story that seems embellished, such as thoughts of the murdered man and at times he will preface a sentence by saying 'they must have been thinking …. It was interesting to learn about the seamy side of the massage therapy business.

[Jan Martinson · Rating 3 out of 5]

Hard to read, but interesting. It was a murder in my home town when I was at the University of Wisconsin. I don’t remember this murder, nor trial! I do remember several of the locations cited. 1978-79-80. Spoiler: Barbara Hoffman is still alive and in prison in Fond du Lac, Wisconsin.

[Mary · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5 stars. I thought the author embellished an awful lot, which made it seem too fictionalized. I remember the trial in the summer of 1980, since it was televised, and my co workers & I would discuss it during our 4p-9p shift. The real mystery involves Barbara Hoffman's family, and why they did not attend her trial, other than to offer perjured testimony. I was not clear if the ending was the author's guess at what happened or if this really happened or what. Telephone records! Wisconsin Bell! Kohl's grocery store! Old days.

[Cynthia · Rating 2 out of 5]

Way too wordy! The author must love to see his words in print. Also, he took extraordinary liberty in recreating scenes and dialogue. If I had been one of the individuals mentioned in this book, and had read what he thought I said and did, I would have sued him.

Barbara Hoffman is a very frightening woman.

[Kelly Michiels-Weldon · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fascinating story. The author did a good job keeping the mystery, and I enjoyed reading about Madison.

[M · Rating 4 out of 5]

One semester shy of a bachelor’s degree and a promising career in science or medicine, a beautiful, quiet University of Wisconsin biochemistry major with a 3.9 GPA and a tested IQ of 145 drops out, becoming entangled in a lurid underworld of drugs and prostitution that author Karl Harter portrays vividly along with the trial that sends Barbara Hoffman to prison for a murder the prosecution later discovers she probably didn’t commit.

Fans of Rider Haggard’s novel She will recognize in Hoffman the archetypal femme fatale: intelligent, manipulative, and deadly. Whether she’s a psychopath or--like her engineer father--an unfortunate stranger to emotion, is among the tantalizing questions Harter artfully puts to the reader yet leaves unanswered. Like the tease at which Hoffman is reportedly an accomplished practitioner, Winter of Frozen Dreams is replete with thrills yet leaves the reader ultimately unsatisfied. The book is an invitation to dissect a life inexplicably derailed, an incisive mind unaccountably gone wrong. One can only hope Barbara Hoffman will write a memoir.

[Carol Palmer · Rating 5 out of 5]

This true crime book was about 2 murders that were committed back in the late 1970's. Although I was a young adult at the time, I do not remember ever hearing about this crime, so everything in the book was new to me. Although the events were rather complicated and convoluted, the author did an excellent job of relaying the facts in a logical, easy to understand manner. He also did a good job of making the story interesting. I enjoyed it, and I would recommend it to others who enjoy true crime novels.

[Susan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting story. But the central character has never granted an interview, so it's hard to get a handle on her. The best part of a true crime story is some attempt to elucidate the "why." If you're looking for an explanation, you won't find one. The writing is also more florid than it needs to be (sweat popping out like translucent kernels of corn?). I borrowed this and kind of glad I didn't buy it.

[Karen C · Rating 3 out of 5]

I liked the book. I like true crime and am always fascinated by what people will do. But I wish the author hadn't been so vulgar in his descriptions. I do not feel it was necessary and found it offensive.

[Ronnie Cramer · Rating 3 out of 5]

An interesting chronicle of a 1970s double murder case in Madison, Wisconsin. The accused met her victims while working in various massage parlors, so there's no escaping the seamier elements here--but the language and descriptions might be off-putting to some readers.

[Kathy B · Rating 4 out of 5]

Because I live in Madison, I greatly enjoyed this book with its local references and persona. I didn't find it as dry as other readers did; I think it is hard to make nonfiction poetic and flowery :).

[Robin D · Rating 3 out of 5]

True crime story with a healing helping of sex and drugs. Read like a pulp novel from a drugstore. Great quick and trashy read. Interesting story that they are currently turning into a movie.

[Kim · Rating 5 out of 5]

just started reading it. sounds like it will be a good book to read. was a interesting book

[Kimme · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was very informative. It was so finely detailed that it read very much as a text book. It reminded me of a Truman Capote book. Very dry.

[Jeanine · Rating 4 out of 5]

Well written and researched.. My only complaint would how graphic the sex acts are portrayed.. Unnecessary.

[Colin Garrow · Rating 3 out of 5]

When a man turns up at a police station on Christmas Day saying he has buried a corpse, police are led to a naked body dumped in a frozen snowbank. Claiming that he and his fiancé, Barbara Hoffman, discovered the stranger in her apartment, Jerry Davies insists they know nothing about the dead man. However, when police begin their investigation, they uncover a tale of deception, insurance fraud and cyanide poisoning.

In any true-crime story, we expect certain things: references to police reports, official documents and personal letters, as well as actual evidence that backs up the author’s point of view. This is not one of those books. In a note at the beginning of the paperback version, Karl Harter says this book is the result of ‘extensive research and scores of interviews’. He also records how he has ‘dramatically emphasised’ some scenes. Well, that is certainly true, for Harter ignores the usual set-up and instead goes off at a tangent at regular intervals, imagining what certain people are thinking about, looking at, or doing with their hands. He also spends a lot of time relating intimate details of Hoffman’s sexual encounters, which seems inappropriate at the very least.

Maybe I’m just being picky but reading about real events is only interesting when we are given the facts rather than imagined scenarios. In ‘Winter of Frozen Dreams’ I’m left with the feeling that the author’s writing style would have worked better in a novel. Of course, this is only my opinion and I may well be doing him a disservice, and to be fair, the last section of the book which details the eventual court case, is positively riveting. But all in all, this is an interesting and thought-provoking case that could have been expressed far more effectively.

[Burt · Rating 4 out of 5]

My local library offered a digital copy of Winter of Frozen Dreams through Hoopla. It had been on my reading list for a long time, so I checked it out. I thought that it was a great page turner - I finished it in under 24 hours.

The book focuses on two murders in Madison, Wisconsin, in 1977 and 1978. The assailant was Barbara Hoffman an intellectually-gifted woman who had dropped out of the University of Wisconsin. Hoffman had become a "masseuse" in some of Madison's massage parlors. The men she was accused of killing had met Hoffman through her job.

You would never believe this could happen if it weren't true. Winter of Frozen Dreams held my attention to the last page.

[Quanita · Rating 5 out of 5]

Two men are dead. The circumstances so bizarre they read like fiction authored by a writer that has had one too many. But this is a true story. One woman working in the sex trade can turn men into puppets. This book allows you to look inside the "massage parlors", see a "masseuse" manipulate lonely men to do the unthinkable, and remain aloof during the investigation and trial. Everyone that Barbara Hoffman touched was changed forever, but she remains a mystery.

[Jeff · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a very interesting book. Probably helped that I was born and raised only 60 miles from where the crime took place, Madison, Wi, and that my son attended college there, although not during this time period.

It was one of those books that I couldn't wait to return to. Well written and easy to follow. This is an older book, 1990. I'm not sure how I missed it when it came out, but I'll glad I found it now. True Crime readers should read this book.

[Paul · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm fascinated by all abnormal psychological types, and psychopaths are the most mysterious of all.
Why do they do the stuff they do? How can they never suspect they will be caught? This book plumbs the story of a brilliant, icy woman who poisoned two men that she had taken out huge life insurance policies on. It's amazing to me how she ever thought she would get by with it.

An excellent and compelling book.

[Mike Huberty · Rating 3 out of 5]

Sad story of a lonely hearts killer in Madison, Wisconsin. Good descriptions of the college town in the late 1970s and it is fairly well written. Some of the words seem like they’re ripped out of thesaurus for no reason. The e-book has a ton of errors as well.

That being said, it’s a fascinating true crime case and the very ending is a shocker. If you are interested in the city of Madison, or from there, then you will really enjoy it.

[Michelle Bacon · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book started out slow and seemed very fictitious in its telling. I pushed through because I was curious if it would get better. This is why abandoning a book that is awful from the start is not something I do.

The latter part of this book gets very interesting with the details of the courtroom interrogation of witnesses and details not previously mentioned.

it's poorly written, but the ending is worth the agony of the beginning.

[Mary · Rating 3 out of 5]

An interesting book, I'd like to know the "end of the story" as it is stated Hoffman says she didn't do this. It's always fun to read books mentioning the area you live in. I must have been under a rock during these years, because I knew nothing of this story at all.
The language was a little uncomfortable, I would not read it again....

[Lee · Rating 3 out of 5]

I’ve always enjoyed true crime books and this story of Barbara Hoffman is an interesting one; however, I find fault with some of the words the author chose to use. I consider myself to have a pretty decent vocabulary but words like polemicist and rodomontade make me think he pulled out his thesaurus now and then to select the most uncommon words possible.

[Jamie · Rating 3 out of 5]

I thought this was okay. It was a murder case I’d never heard of previously and it was interesting to start, but it quickly crumbled under the weight of too many characters, too much detail and a confusing storyline. The story was long and drawn out; the courtroom drama was told nearly witness by witness - though the book does contain actual photos from the crime scenes 😮

[Sherry Lynn Wood · Rating 2 out of 5]

I found this story very compelling and so hard to believe that a woman could commit these horrible crimes. I was very disappointed in the repetitiveness of the writing and the overall flow of the book. If I had to read tortoiseshell glasses one more time I would have screamed. So many typos and grammar mistakes.

[Laura · Rating 5 out of 5]

Amazing Reporting

This book mixes factual detail with suspense and psychological twists that would make a great movie. The final chapter offers a theory that could not have been predicted. I loved this book!

[Lorie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Reads

like an old school gum shoe detective novel at first. I wasn't sure I'd even chosen a true crime novel, but then everything became clear. It struck me as unusual, but I think that was due to the time frame in which it was written. Interesting, but not riveting.