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The Shoemaker: Anatomy of a Psychotic
Two Men in the same body...One Joseph Kallinger was a superb craftsman, a sensitive poet, a devoted family man, and a human being who held all life sacred.The other Joseph Kallinger was a lover who needed images of bloody violence to maintain sexual potency, and a father who physically tortured his children, lived in abnormal intimacy with his daughter, and enlisted his 12-year-old son in a campaign of rape and murder that terrified millions.This is the true story of Joseph Kallinger- both of him...
432 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published January 1, 1983
About the author
Flora Rheta Schreiber
7 books687 followersFlora Rheta Schreiber (April 24, 1918 - November 3, 1988), an American journalist, was the author of the 1973 bestseller Sybil, the story of a woman (identified years later as Shirley Ardell Mason) who suffered from Dissociative Identity Disorder.
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December 21, 2009I grew up with these kids of Kallinger's. They would come visit from Kensington to their grandparents who lived down the street from us. So we would hang out in the summer. The oldest son S. K. tried to rape me and thank god my sister ran to the house and told my mom and she came running out with a baseball bat to chase him away. I always felt sorry for Joey because you knew he had a disability and was cute in his own way. I remeber him folding his ear into itself. When we were kids I always thought the family was strange and my mom didn't like me going there with the oldest daughter. She just didn't trust them with good reason.
I have had a hard time reading the book. I guess since I knew them it is a little harder. Not only that the extended family is perverted also. I had first hand experience with them too. I don't want to say anymore and probably shouldn't have said this.
I have had a hard time reading the book. I guess since I knew them it is a little harder. Not only that the extended family is perverted also. I had first hand experience with them too. I don't want to say anymore and probably shouldn't have said this.
January 31, 2013
What makes The Shoemaker, a “true crime” book about a series of murders in Pittsburgh, so disturbing is not that it details genital mutilation, child murder, and rape, but that you may find yourself sympathizing with the man behind those crimes.
It would be easy to depict Joseph Kallinger as a monster. Very easy. Torturing animals to death, abusing children, enlisting his twelve-year-old son as an accomplice for a series of brazen home invasions and sexual assaults, and murdering both children (his own and others) and women are just some of the crimes among the litany of abuses Kallinger committed. Flora Rheta Schreiber has achieved the nigh insurmountable task of portraying this man – someone who most people would see the death penalty as too good for – as someone deserving of our sympathy and pity.
How Schreiber does this is by chronicling not just Kallinger’s crimes, but his entire life, beginning from the point of his birth and tracing exactly how events in his childhood lead to Kallinger’s deranged mental state and the horrific crimes he committed later in life. Culled from years of interviews and research with Kallinger himself, Schreiber paints a horrifying picture of a lifetime of abuse after abuse. Abandoned as a child by his birth mother and adopted by unfeeling parents who resented him, Kallinger experienced his childhood as a rotary of physical, emotional, and sexual abuse. These abuses left their toll on Kallinger in the form of severe mental illness. Left untreated, Kallinger’s schizophrenia spiraled into mass delusions, hallucinations and obsessions.
Kallinger lived most of his adult life in an unrelenting surreal nightmare of hallucinations and delusions. Floating heads followed him around. God instructed him to commit global genocide. Castration and sexual inadequacy obsessed him, stemming from the sexual abuse he endured as a child. Even more chilling than Kallinger’s psychosis is that it remained unchecked; as a middle-class patriarch with wife and kids, Kallinger was a respected member of the community and had almost free reign to act upon his delusions. What commenced was Kallinger’s campaign to eradicate mankind, a series of horrific crimes which ran the gamut from sexual assault to castration to murder.
Rather than malign him as boogeyman or monster, Schreiber confronts Kallinger as a human being, a man who committed the most heinous of crimes, but also a man who was a victim of his own mental illness and the cruelty and ignorance of others. Much of The Shoemaker is an indictment of society and the institutions which failed Kallinger and implicitly hastened his decline – from child services dumping him with a poor foster family in his youth to the psychiatrists who dismissed his illness before any crimes had been committed to the court system which found Kallinger to be sane and sentenced him to prison. The Shoemaker is a book I never want to read again – the vitriol of Kallinger’s horrific sexual violence and deranged fantasies made me feel dirty – but it’s a powerful book nonetheless, one which forces us to examine the implications of our actions. Kallinger was not created in a vacuum nor was he a monster – all his crimes were the extension of his treatment throughout life.
While The Shoemaker is powerful, its credibility as a “true crime” is questionable. Much of what makes The Shoemaker a compelling read also makes it really unreliable as a supposed true account. That The Shoemaker reads almost like a novel or straight-forward narrative, complete with hundreds of verbatim quotes and detailed descriptions from events in Kallinger’s youth, means that either Kallinger has an inhumanly picture-perfect memory or that Schreiber has fictionalized much of the account. There is simply no way Kallinger or any witness could remember whether bird were chirping that morning or what exactly some police officer said thirty years prior – Schreiber adds literary flourishes which have no place in a true account. Furthermore, Schreiber makes no pretensions of being impartial or unbiased – she is firmly in support of Kallinger as a complete victim in the whole affair, editorializing throughout the account as to his unfair treatment at the hands of various institutions. While the evidence does seem to point to both Kallinger’s insanity and mistreatment, Schreiber accepts everything Kallinger says wholesale, taking his word as objective truth on everything from his motivations to his childhood and so on. Even if Kallinger was truthful, this would be problematic, our memory being fallible and all, but if Kallinger was less than honest, The Shoemaker could quite possibly be the justifications and lies of a deranged murderer.
That’s not to say that The Shoemaker is without merit, only that it is ethically fraught and should be taken with a handful of salt. It still tells a powerful story, whether or not said story hews closer to fiction than truth.
It would be easy to depict Joseph Kallinger as a monster. Very easy. Torturing animals to death, abusing children, enlisting his twelve-year-old son as an accomplice for a series of brazen home invasions and sexual assaults, and murdering both children (his own and others) and women are just some of the crimes among the litany of abuses Kallinger committed. Flora Rheta Schreiber has achieved the nigh insurmountable task of portraying this man – someone who most people would see the death penalty as too good for – as someone deserving of our sympathy and pity.
How Schreiber does this is by chronicling not just Kallinger’s crimes, but his entire life, beginning from the point of his birth and tracing exactly how events in his childhood lead to Kallinger’s deranged mental state and the horrific crimes he committed later in life. Culled from years of interviews and research with Kallinger himself, Schreiber paints a horrifying picture of a lifetime of abuse after abuse. Abandoned as a child by his birth mother and adopted by unfeeling parents who resented him, Kallinger experienced his childhood as a rotary of physical, emotional, and sexual abuse. These abuses left their toll on Kallinger in the form of severe mental illness. Left untreated, Kallinger’s schizophrenia spiraled into mass delusions, hallucinations and obsessions.
Kallinger lived most of his adult life in an unrelenting surreal nightmare of hallucinations and delusions. Floating heads followed him around. God instructed him to commit global genocide. Castration and sexual inadequacy obsessed him, stemming from the sexual abuse he endured as a child. Even more chilling than Kallinger’s psychosis is that it remained unchecked; as a middle-class patriarch with wife and kids, Kallinger was a respected member of the community and had almost free reign to act upon his delusions. What commenced was Kallinger’s campaign to eradicate mankind, a series of horrific crimes which ran the gamut from sexual assault to castration to murder.
Rather than malign him as boogeyman or monster, Schreiber confronts Kallinger as a human being, a man who committed the most heinous of crimes, but also a man who was a victim of his own mental illness and the cruelty and ignorance of others. Much of The Shoemaker is an indictment of society and the institutions which failed Kallinger and implicitly hastened his decline – from child services dumping him with a poor foster family in his youth to the psychiatrists who dismissed his illness before any crimes had been committed to the court system which found Kallinger to be sane and sentenced him to prison. The Shoemaker is a book I never want to read again – the vitriol of Kallinger’s horrific sexual violence and deranged fantasies made me feel dirty – but it’s a powerful book nonetheless, one which forces us to examine the implications of our actions. Kallinger was not created in a vacuum nor was he a monster – all his crimes were the extension of his treatment throughout life.
While The Shoemaker is powerful, its credibility as a “true crime” is questionable. Much of what makes The Shoemaker a compelling read also makes it really unreliable as a supposed true account. That The Shoemaker reads almost like a novel or straight-forward narrative, complete with hundreds of verbatim quotes and detailed descriptions from events in Kallinger’s youth, means that either Kallinger has an inhumanly picture-perfect memory or that Schreiber has fictionalized much of the account. There is simply no way Kallinger or any witness could remember whether bird were chirping that morning or what exactly some police officer said thirty years prior – Schreiber adds literary flourishes which have no place in a true account. Furthermore, Schreiber makes no pretensions of being impartial or unbiased – she is firmly in support of Kallinger as a complete victim in the whole affair, editorializing throughout the account as to his unfair treatment at the hands of various institutions. While the evidence does seem to point to both Kallinger’s insanity and mistreatment, Schreiber accepts everything Kallinger says wholesale, taking his word as objective truth on everything from his motivations to his childhood and so on. Even if Kallinger was truthful, this would be problematic, our memory being fallible and all, but if Kallinger was less than honest, The Shoemaker could quite possibly be the justifications and lies of a deranged murderer.
That’s not to say that The Shoemaker is without merit, only that it is ethically fraught and should be taken with a handful of salt. It still tells a powerful story, whether or not said story hews closer to fiction than truth.
October 24, 2012
I absolutely love true crime novels and I am never offended by a book being too graphic or disturbing. However, I positively hated this book. I work in the mental health field and couldnt stand the fact that the author had excuse after excuse for why Joseph Kallinger did what he did. I'm sorry but someone calling your penis small or insignificant does not cause psychosis and mass murder. Give me a break. Ok, off my soapbox now :) case in point I hated this book.
September 19, 2009
Wow! Sometimes real life is harder to explain than fiction. This book is a true story about a '70's serial killer. His cohort in crime was his 12-year-old son. It's written by his psychiatrist, who also wrote the book "Sybil." It's very interesting. It's written in flashback style and then the psychiatrist tells why and what he really did. All of his crimes were committed during schizophrenic episodes. Some of the content is quite difficult because some, not all, of the crimes were committed against children. The story line also analyzes the concept of nature vs. nurture. An excellent read for people interested in psychology and the human psyche.
January 23, 2016
An amazing study of how an author can totally fail to grasp the real import of the story she's telling. She says over and over that this poor man is psychotic and needs treatment, not prison -- but she also makes crystal clear in telling us about his crimes that the subject, Joe Kallinger, only killed, burgled and raped when he was totally lucid. He may have descended into psychosis between times, to be sure, but he apparently wasn't dangerous then!!!
Did Not Finish
November 20, 2015Here I am, DNFing another book. This is the second time I have tried to read this book. This was disappointing on multiple levels, but I think I am biased because this is written by the same woman who wrote Sybil and I've heard that a lot of her research was skewed/improperly collected in that case. Also, Schreiber is very obviously a psychoanalytical (particularly psychosexual) theorist in her work, which is a fairly outdated theory in mental health (but understandable because of the time in which the book was printed).
The book drug on and on about the beginning of Joe Kallinger's life. I am very aware of how important it is to discuss that part of his life, but it was so painstakingly mundane. I felt like every single thing that Joe did was somehow affecting his psyche and I became aware of how ridiculous it sounded about halfway through the book (yes, halfway through the book and we haven't even started to read about the actual crimes he committed, just the life experiences that made him this way). Like I said, I'm aware that life experiences shape people and their minds. I guess I am just frustrated because I felt like there was a psychological reasoning behind every action. Joe liked to bowl? It's because Joe's parents didn't love him! Joe wanted to drink tea? It's because his parents never let him play outside! Joe was sad once? It's because he was adopted! (FYI, his adopted parents were absolutely terrible and I get why he might have had some issues because of their behavior.) Also, she mentioned Joe's feelings about his penis like 5000 times and explained that he was very conflicted about sexuality and his penis and this somehow helped him to become a serial killer? It's all very nurture and not a whole lot of nature. I do not recommend.
The book drug on and on about the beginning of Joe Kallinger's life. I am very aware of how important it is to discuss that part of his life, but it was so painstakingly mundane. I felt like every single thing that Joe did was somehow affecting his psyche and I became aware of how ridiculous it sounded about halfway through the book (yes, halfway through the book and we haven't even started to read about the actual crimes he committed, just the life experiences that made him this way). Like I said, I'm aware that life experiences shape people and their minds. I guess I am just frustrated because I felt like there was a psychological reasoning behind every action. Joe liked to bowl? It's because Joe's parents didn't love him! Joe wanted to drink tea? It's because his parents never let him play outside! Joe was sad once? It's because he was adopted! (FYI, his adopted parents were absolutely terrible and I get why he might have had some issues because of their behavior.) Also, she mentioned Joe's feelings about his penis like 5000 times and explained that he was very conflicted about sexuality and his penis and this somehow helped him to become a serial killer? It's all very nurture and not a whole lot of nature. I do not recommend.
November 3, 2025
A masterclass in how NOT to write about a subject like this. Pretty bold of the author to claim this book is an “anatomy of a psychotic” as the majority of it is a graphic description of Joe Kallinger’s crimes and hallucinations that feel sleazy and exploitative. The discussion focused on his psyche is surface-level at best. At one point in the book, Flora discusses a chief psychologist’s testimony in which he highlights the contradiction between the content of Joe’s “thinking patterns” and the rational way he’s able to present them. This would have been an interesting observation to explore, but instead, the reader is flooded with redundant, explicit detail of Joe’s psychotic breaks. It’s clear the author has a lot of empathy for Joe and the inclusion of his poems in the first appendix makes me feel like she has more empathy for Joe than his victims. Good god I hated this and I couldn’t wait for it to end.
January 31, 2012
I really struggled throughout this book. The way it was written was very confusing and many times information was repeated. Very interesting story and it was obvious the author was sympathetic toward the "mistreatment" of Joe. Research was also clearly done with great interest and care, however, there was not much said from other sources other than Joe himself . I was appalled that he didn't get the medical attention he so clearly needed and felt, as did the author, had this happened when opportunity existed, the crimes would not have happened. Very sad.
February 28, 2010
You must have a strong stomach for this one. Every time I read it this man's sickness clings to me for weeks like a greasy slime that won't wash off. Only one ready required to remember him forever but I often need to revisit just to make sure it really happened.
October 9, 2022
Unbelievable!!! One of the most horrific books of true crime I’ve ever read.
January 17, 2024
If I learned anything from this book, it's the stark realization that comprehending the entirety of a crime is a tough pursuit. While the American justice system has made some strides since the 1970s concerning mental illness, there are still grievances, reminiscent of issues spurred in the prison of "Orange is the New Black."
I started "The Shoemaker" in mid-2019 after listening to The Last Podcast on the Left's episode about Joseph Kallinger, the subject of the novel, who ran crime sprees in the early-to-mid-1970s that resulted in murders. (The author, Flora Rheta Schreiber, took six years of interviewing him - ultimately becoming his friend - to write this book). Then, one winter night I was by myself, and the hallucinations described by Kallinger himself were too intense for me, prompting a three year hiatus. Resuming the book last week, not alone in the house, I was able to continue the riveting story. By the conclusion, I was tearing up, as I finally understood the torment Joseph went through in his childhood that essentially planted the roots of his psychosis & schizophrenia (and that no one helped him, even when they had the chance). Flora Rheta Schreiber paints the tragic picture of a broken man failed by both justice and medical systems.
I started "The Shoemaker" in mid-2019 after listening to The Last Podcast on the Left's episode about Joseph Kallinger, the subject of the novel, who ran crime sprees in the early-to-mid-1970s that resulted in murders. (The author, Flora Rheta Schreiber, took six years of interviewing him - ultimately becoming his friend - to write this book). Then, one winter night I was by myself, and the hallucinations described by Kallinger himself were too intense for me, prompting a three year hiatus. Resuming the book last week, not alone in the house, I was able to continue the riveting story. By the conclusion, I was tearing up, as I finally understood the torment Joseph went through in his childhood that essentially planted the roots of his psychosis & schizophrenia (and that no one helped him, even when they had the chance). Flora Rheta Schreiber paints the tragic picture of a broken man failed by both justice and medical systems.
March 28, 2016
Everything I expected, and less, from the discredited author of "Sybil".......IMHO, the book was sold by the word, and none of the income went into professional research. There is much theorizing, temporizing, subjective theories, and plenty of outright nonsense, but little in the way of an even vaguely interesting story. I'm not sure I would read this if it were the only book on an 8-hour flight, it's that poorly written, again, in my humble opinion.
July 24, 2015
What an insane, weird story...
Many parts were unintentionally hysterical, while others were just...majorly fucked up. This book definitely opened my eyes as to what paranoid schizophrenics have to live with on a daily basis and also to what can happen when it goes unrecognized and/or untreated.
Also: Major props to John Waters for reccomending it.
Many parts were unintentionally hysterical, while others were just...majorly fucked up. This book definitely opened my eyes as to what paranoid schizophrenics have to live with on a daily basis and also to what can happen when it goes unrecognized and/or untreated.
Also: Major props to John Waters for reccomending it.
August 28, 2022
I hurt my eyes rolling them so much & so hard at Kallinger & the author. They were both so full of shit; it was a relief when I got to the last page.
February 26, 2026
Trashy, exploitative, and, worst of all, really quite dull. Author Flora Rheta Schreiber is keen to emphasise her psychiatric credentials at every turn, but she comes across as a real armchair Freudian here. Joseph Kallinger's criminal actions were surely influenced by childhood trauma and psychological damage, but to imply that he was without blame for the killings and acts of torture that he carried out due to his condition is absurd and tasteless.
September 10, 2021
This is rough to rate. maybe 3? maybe 4? joe kallinger is a tragic figure, but i'm really not confident we got the whole truth of his story from this book. it was slow going at times - and jiminy crickets, i am never reading about someone so obsessed with their penis ever again.
October 3, 2019
I read this book about... 15 years ago. I was a teenager. I read it in it's entirety only once, but I went back to it multiple times. Just glimpses, glossing over the real horror of it all. I think of it often. I work in a library that does not own a copy of it, not that I would recommend it to many of these fragile conservatives that frequent my library. I know I still have the old paperback on the bookshelf somewhere. Strangely, if I had to purge my book collection, well this would never leave me. I have pride in my book. I don't know why. This is my genre, I wish I could find another book that has influenced me as much as this one has, fiction or not.
It's descriptive and vile, and I strongly recommend it.
I would have given it 5 stars but it is really a bit long, and like other reviews, there is some repetition. Sometimes repetition is necessary, sometimes they really need to drill a concept into your brain, no matter how insignificant it seems to you. These things weren't insignificant to Kallinger. (edit: I did give it 5 stars because no book is perfect but man, to me it was a 5 star)
I don't even remember where I found this book. Garage sale? Book sale? The trash? Did it just materialize? Whoooo knows.
It's descriptive and vile, and I strongly recommend it.
I would have given it 5 stars but it is really a bit long, and like other reviews, there is some repetition. Sometimes repetition is necessary, sometimes they really need to drill a concept into your brain, no matter how insignificant it seems to you. These things weren't insignificant to Kallinger. (edit: I did give it 5 stars because no book is perfect but man, to me it was a 5 star)
I don't even remember where I found this book. Garage sale? Book sale? The trash? Did it just materialize? Whoooo knows.
June 4, 2020
If you are looking for an account of Joseph Kallinger's 'excursions' around Philly in the 1970s, you have come to the wrong place. Schreiber's text reads like a textbook; she attempts to reconstruct Joe's life from an early age to see where his psychotic behavior emerged, and what caused it. Endless pages of psychobabble, replete with footnotes and so forth. Overall, a very sympathetic account of a guy how killed his own child and terrorized many before brought down by the law. This was my bathroom reader for a while, and that is about the best place for it.
May 10, 2014
This book was dreadfully boring to me, which is probably a feat considering how graphic the murders are and it being about a serial killer. I feel bad saying that since the book is written about an actual homicidal crazy man that kills at least three people.
I've tried many times to get past the 3/4 mark of the book but it's just not happening. I'd skip this and move on to Psycho or Exquisite Corpse if you want a serial killer/gratuitous violence type of book.
I've tried many times to get past the 3/4 mark of the book but it's just not happening. I'd skip this and move on to Psycho or Exquisite Corpse if you want a serial killer/gratuitous violence type of book.
Read
November 14, 2008Kalinger survived a hellish childhood and was truly mad by the time he reached adulthood. It was painful to read and I empathized with him despite his brutal crimes against family and strangers.
My father's optometry office was in Kensington where Herbert Kalinger lived.
My father's optometry office was in Kensington where Herbert Kalinger lived.
July 21, 2013
I was able to read this before the victims' family made the author edit the book. I did my final paper in Abnormal Psychology on this book.
It is hard to read, it is graphic and disturbing but it is an excellent book.
It is hard to read, it is graphic and disturbing but it is an excellent book.
November 8, 2013
Fascinating psychological profile but book dragged on - way too long and repetitive ...
August 7, 2016
The Kallinger's were a very strange family. Even their looks were odd. One day father and son decide to go looking for people to kill. The story was chilling. A must read for the true crime fan.
June 17, 2022
I read this book over 30 years ago and its still on my mind. I found it insightful and it really made an impact on my views on mentally ill
July 21, 2021
I originally came to this book via Schreiber's earlier book Sybil, which in turn I heard about from another book on multiple personality disorder (DID), The Minds of Billy Milligan, by Daniel Keyes. However while the earlier works were somewhat hopeful in tone, even when they dealt with matters of serious crime and domestic violence, Schreiber's book is very bleak.
The Shoemaker is about a seriously disturbed man, Joseph Kallinger, who was convicted of several murders and was serving out a sentence of life without parole when Schreiber interviewed him for this book. The murders are extremely brutal and disturbing. Moreover, whereas with Milligan and Sybil I could understand the "method to their madness" and the mechanism by which their disorders worked, it was harder to get such a picture for Kallinger.
Kallinger seems to be driven by some kind of a demonic vision that he interprets as commanding him to murder all humans in the "Massacre of Mankind." However, the vision seems intermittent and not really tied to any rhyme or reason. He will get a vision to kill someone, and then it will go away, without a clear reason. This turns out to be at least a mildly good thing, as the lives of several victims are spared when the vision leaves Kallinger.
Another theme that is repeated but not fully explained is the frequent reference to "hairy deltas", the pubic hair of Kallinger's female victims and intended victims. Hairy deltas seemed to play a significant role in Kallinger's murderous fantasies when he got the visions. When one rape victim gets undressed, it becomes clear that, like many other 1970's women, she has a full triangle of hair between her legs. This strongly fuels Kallinger's visions, and he has clear visions of both raping and killing her. But just at the crucial moment the visions go away.
So this was an interesting and disturbing read, but it would have been better if some of these themes had been better explored. Schreiber's earlier book Sybil is probably a bit stronger.
The Shoemaker is about a seriously disturbed man, Joseph Kallinger, who was convicted of several murders and was serving out a sentence of life without parole when Schreiber interviewed him for this book. The murders are extremely brutal and disturbing. Moreover, whereas with Milligan and Sybil I could understand the "method to their madness" and the mechanism by which their disorders worked, it was harder to get such a picture for Kallinger.
Kallinger seems to be driven by some kind of a demonic vision that he interprets as commanding him to murder all humans in the "Massacre of Mankind." However, the vision seems intermittent and not really tied to any rhyme or reason. He will get a vision to kill someone, and then it will go away, without a clear reason. This turns out to be at least a mildly good thing, as the lives of several victims are spared when the vision leaves Kallinger.
Another theme that is repeated but not fully explained is the frequent reference to "hairy deltas", the pubic hair of Kallinger's female victims and intended victims. Hairy deltas seemed to play a significant role in Kallinger's murderous fantasies when he got the visions. When one rape victim gets undressed, it becomes clear that, like many other 1970's women, she has a full triangle of hair between her legs. This strongly fuels Kallinger's visions, and he has clear visions of both raping and killing her. But just at the crucial moment the visions go away.
So this was an interesting and disturbing read, but it would have been better if some of these themes had been better explored. Schreiber's earlier book Sybil is probably a bit stronger.
July 28, 2019
"Last Podcast on the Left" did several shows about Kallinger. They recommended this book. Intrigued, I thought I'd check it out.
The book is an exhaustive and exhausting account of Kallinger's life. The details are so ornate as to be ridiculous. At one point Schreiber names psychiatrists that treated Kallinger in a particular hospital. There's a foot note explaining that, after those psychiatrists left the hospital, they were replaced by other psychiatrists, who she then names. Why tell us this?
Instead of focusing on key events, Schreiber often buries in the interesting in mountains of mundane events.
She also talks, near the end about her relationship with Kallinger and how he sees her as a mother figure. She gives the impression that this is endearing and not creepy. This might be a case of "I'm a journalist and my subject is going to read this book so I can't explicitly state what I feel." All the same, Schreiber seems so much on Kallinger's side of issues that she comes across as biased and even a little naive.
If I hadn't already listed to a podcast about this man's life, I think the book would have been far more interesting. In a way, I felt like I was rereading a book, not reading it for the first time.
Kallinger is an amazing personality, and his delusions are fascinating and creepy. "Charlie" -- a floating head with no nose or mouth -- delivering orders is chilling.
Is this book worth reading? Yes and no. I'd actually suggest that you listen to The Last Podcast on the Left episodes instead. They cover much of the same material and in a far more entertaining way.
The book is an exhaustive and exhausting account of Kallinger's life. The details are so ornate as to be ridiculous. At one point Schreiber names psychiatrists that treated Kallinger in a particular hospital. There's a foot note explaining that, after those psychiatrists left the hospital, they were replaced by other psychiatrists, who she then names. Why tell us this?
Instead of focusing on key events, Schreiber often buries in the interesting in mountains of mundane events.
She also talks, near the end about her relationship with Kallinger and how he sees her as a mother figure. She gives the impression that this is endearing and not creepy. This might be a case of "I'm a journalist and my subject is going to read this book so I can't explicitly state what I feel." All the same, Schreiber seems so much on Kallinger's side of issues that she comes across as biased and even a little naive.
If I hadn't already listed to a podcast about this man's life, I think the book would have been far more interesting. In a way, I felt like I was rereading a book, not reading it for the first time.
Kallinger is an amazing personality, and his delusions are fascinating and creepy. "Charlie" -- a floating head with no nose or mouth -- delivering orders is chilling.
Is this book worth reading? Yes and no. I'd actually suggest that you listen to The Last Podcast on the Left episodes instead. They cover much of the same material and in a far more entertaining way.
May 27, 2023
I read this book back in the 90s as if in a fever dream/nightmare. File as: truth is stranger than fiction...I have come to question the authors "facts" though in the years after her history came to light about writing SYBIL.
I remember this as being a horror story of epic proportions. And 20 years after my first read I found another copy and started a re-read to try and make sense of it all.Did I just imagine the part about him making tiny shoes for string of pet hamsters that he then tried to mind control!?
Nope! This time though I came to a screeching halt at the point where Kallinger dug the pit in the basement of the neighboring abandoned house and started ranting at his demons ...and when he enlisted his teen-aged son to accompany him on his crime spree things got truly icky and I just could not go on with it...I truly wondered how anyone could.
I remember from my first reading finding the narrative further along when he is in prison particularly fascinating but I couldnt bring myself to get there through the crimes part in the middle of the book. It was just too sad and horrible.
Now I have 2 copies of this disgusting and fascinating book that I dont really want in the house! ha
I remember this as being a horror story of epic proportions. And 20 years after my first read I found another copy and started a re-read to try and make sense of it all.Did I just imagine the part about him making tiny shoes for string of pet hamsters that he then tried to mind control!?
Nope! This time though I came to a screeching halt at the point where Kallinger dug the pit in the basement of the neighboring abandoned house and started ranting at his demons ...and when he enlisted his teen-aged son to accompany him on his crime spree things got truly icky and I just could not go on with it...I truly wondered how anyone could.
I remember from my first reading finding the narrative further along when he is in prison particularly fascinating but I couldnt bring myself to get there through the crimes part in the middle of the book. It was just too sad and horrible.
Now I have 2 copies of this disgusting and fascinating book that I dont really want in the house! ha
March 21, 2025
This book has a superficial quality, as if sensationalized. There is a strange pathos paired up with a strange critical bent.
Schreiber seems to have an agenda: she seems to want to prove that psychiatric diagnoses are based on previous events, and she seems obsessed with subconscious. Kind of like a mouthpiece for Freud.
At the same time, she seems to harbor hatred for Germans: somehow, Kallinger's German background is a requisite part of his violence. There is also a lot of gratuitous violence which seems as if contrived to sell more books and comes off as a cheap writing approach.
Which is it? Is Kallinger 'bad' because of subconscious, Freud/Jungish previous experiences?
Or is Kallinger 'bad' because he is of German descent?
Either way, Schreiber's agenda interferes with telling this story well. She has injected herself as writer into this book in a way that makes me constantly aware of her presence rather than allowing the story to come through. Schreiber has an obvious bias against Germans which I couldn't avoid noticing before I even got to the end of the book.
There is tons of better true crime out there than this book, most of which does not include racism against German-Americans.
Schreiber seems to have an agenda: she seems to want to prove that psychiatric diagnoses are based on previous events, and she seems obsessed with subconscious. Kind of like a mouthpiece for Freud.
At the same time, she seems to harbor hatred for Germans: somehow, Kallinger's German background is a requisite part of his violence. There is also a lot of gratuitous violence which seems as if contrived to sell more books and comes off as a cheap writing approach.
Which is it? Is Kallinger 'bad' because of subconscious, Freud/Jungish previous experiences?
Or is Kallinger 'bad' because he is of German descent?
Either way, Schreiber's agenda interferes with telling this story well. She has injected herself as writer into this book in a way that makes me constantly aware of her presence rather than allowing the story to come through. Schreiber has an obvious bias against Germans which I couldn't avoid noticing before I even got to the end of the book.
There is tons of better true crime out there than this book, most of which does not include racism against German-Americans.
Read
February 27, 2023"The Tampaxes could mess up my plan for global massacre"
- A man who was very serious about making shoes for hamsters and also murder.
If you are looking up reviews you are probably already know what this book is about, so no need to introduce you to the story. If you are looking for opinion as to is it worth a read, honestly I have no idea.
Besides being a product of it's time with few outdated ideas, the controversial author is teaming up with the very unreliable-subject and the mix comes off odd. While I can't deny that this guy obviously had issues, but it feels like Flora was not very interested in questioning his side of the story even when it was very "fishy". She addresses some of it in the end, briefly, witch coincidentally is probably most interesting part of last third of the book, but your mileage might vary.
Also, if you are looking to read it online, you can do so absolutely free at the archive.org...for better or for worse.
- A man who was very serious about making shoes for hamsters and also murder.
If you are looking up reviews you are probably already know what this book is about, so no need to introduce you to the story. If you are looking for opinion as to is it worth a read, honestly I have no idea.
Besides being a product of it's time with few outdated ideas, the controversial author is teaming up with the very unreliable-subject and the mix comes off odd. While I can't deny that this guy obviously had issues, but it feels like Flora was not very interested in questioning his side of the story even when it was very "fishy". She addresses some of it in the end, briefly, witch coincidentally is probably most interesting part of last third of the book, but your mileage might vary.
Also, if you are looking to read it online, you can do so absolutely free at the archive.org...for better or for worse.
Read
August 19, 2021One morning at age 7, I was walking up 100 block of Sterner St near Front Street, I just happen to drop orange peels on the side walk of Joe's Shoe store. The next thing I remember was seeing Joe Kallinger carrying a leather strap in one hand and a stool in the other, within seconds Joe hung me on the metal grate that covered his window. Thank God someone was walking down Front Street and looked down Sterner St. and seen me just hanging there and was able to remove the leather strap around my neck.
The only reason Joe was caught was he made one big mistake, He killed a nurse in NJ. Philadelphia Police protected Joe cause he polished and repaired their shoes, made belts and holster for them, One thing I can say about Joe, He was the best shoe repair man in Philadelphia.
The only reason Joe was caught was he made one big mistake, He killed a nurse in NJ. Philadelphia Police protected Joe cause he polished and repaired their shoes, made belts and holster for them, One thing I can say about Joe, He was the best shoe repair man in Philadelphia.
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