Murder in the Synagogue

by T.V. LoCicero

On Lincoln’s birthday, 1966, a young man stood on the bimah of a multi-million dollar synagogue in suburban Detroit and, confronting his audience of 700 with the Colt .32 revolver he would soon use to commit murder and suicide, he announced:

“This congregation is a travesty and an abomination. It has made a mockery by its phoniness and hypocrisy of the beauty and spirit of Judaism. It is composed of people who on the whole make me ashamed to say that I’m a Jew. For the most part it is composed of men, women and children who care for nothing except their vain, egotistical selves. With this act I protest a humanly horrifying and hence unacceptable situation.”

This true crime book is a precise and harrowing account of the assassination of Rabbi Morris Adler by 23-year-old Richard Wishnetsky, a Phi Beta Kappa scholar at the University of Michigan and a Woodrow Wilson Fellow bound for the Divinity School at the University of Chicago. A troubled intellectual seeker, Wishnetsky knew Rabbi Adler one of the nation’s most prominent and venerated religious leaders, yet he settled on this learned and charismatic man as the appropriate target of his deepest rage.

Genres: Nonfiction, True Crime, Mystery

381 pages, Hardcover

First published July 2, 2012

About the author

T.V. LoCicero has been writing both fiction and non-fiction across five decades. Several of his books have been named Awesome Indies.



He's the author of the true crime books Murder in the Synagogue (Prentice-Hall), on the assassination of Rabbi Morris Adler, and Squelched: The Suppression of Murder in the Synagogue. His novels include the coming-of-age story Sicilian Quilt, the romance When A Pretty Woman Smiles, and the crime thrillers Babytrick, The Car Bomb and Admission of Guilt (The detroit im dyin Trilogy), and The Obsession and The Disappearance (the first two books in The Truth Beauty Trilogy). His collection of short fiction and non-fiction, Coming Up Short , includes stories and essays he has published in various periodicals, including Commentary, Ms. and The University Review, and in the hard-cover collections Best Magazine Articles, The Norton Reader and The Third Coast.

About what he calls his “checkered past,” LoCicero says:

“At one time or another I've found work as an industrial spy; a producer of concert videos for Rolling Stone's greatest singer of all time; one of the few male contributors to Gloria Steinem's Ms. Magazine; a writer of an appellate brief for those convicted in one of Detroit's most sensational drug trials; the author of a true crime book that garnered a bigger advance than a top ten best-selling American novel; a project coordinator/fundraiser for a humanities council; a small business owner; the writer/producer/director of numerous long-form documentaries; a golf course clerk; a college instructor who taught courses in advanced composition, music and poetry appreciation, introduction to philosophy, remedial English, and American Literature--all in the same term; a ghostwriter; a maker of corporate/industrial videos; a member of a highway surveying crew; a speechwriter for auto executives; a TV producer of live event specials; an editorial writer; the creator of 15-second corporate promos for the PBS series Nature; and a novelist.

“There is a sense in which that last occupation was the reason for all the others. Almost anyone who's ever tried to make ends meet as a novelist knows what I'm talking about.”

Reviews

[Elyse Walters · Rating 5 out of 5]

Rabbi Morris Adler had just finished his sermon and returned to his seat on the bimah.
He sat down next to a young 13 year old boy who was celebrating his Bar Mitzvah
during this service. The cantor started singing the Kaddish, when Richard Wishnetsky
moved in front of the bimah -raised a gun-and fired a bulletin into the ceiling of the Sanctuary. He then yelled for the young Bar Mitzvah boy and two Cantors to return to their seats and get off the Bimah. They all hesitated until Rabbi Adler said,
"You had better do you what he says. This boy is sick."

Richard climbed the pupit at the center of the bimah and turned to face the congregation of over 700 people including his own mother father and sister. The rabbi remained in his seat just a few feet away. Richard and folded a piece of paper, grab the microphone, and read a statement to the congregation: ( all this was being taped - from the same tape recorder with the Rabbi's sermon). People all over the country later listen to Wishnetsky speak just minutes before he fired a bullet into the Rabbi.

"This congregation," Richard read in a clear and self processed voice,
"is a travesty and an abomination. It has made a mockery by at phoniness and hypocrisy at the beauty and spirit and Judaism. It is composed of people…" He stopped as he noticed a member of the congregation moving toward him."OFF" he shouted. The Rabbi motion and the man away. "Go back down", you said quietly. I know this boy."

"It is composed of people," continued Richard,"who on the whole make me ashamed
to say that I am a Jew. For the most part…". Here his audience began to stir and said firmly, "Everybody quiet. It is composed of men, women and children who care for nothing except their vain, egotistical selves. With this act I protest a humanly horrifying and hence unacceptable situation."

As for the next part... I'll leave out the graphic details....It was a shocking day...
February, 12, 1966. Congregation Shaarey Zedek, Detroit.

Author T. V. LoCicero interviewed hundreds of people who knew Rabbi Adler and Richard Wishnetsky
Towards the beginning of the book - The personality profile painted of Richard is one with an extroverted personality, a guy who participates in camp sports programs, a guy with Academic success, friendly and generous.
Then it didn't take long until another girl found him to be an "unhappy person, defensive about his ideas and attitudes. She thought he was a bit naïve to the realities of human nature, genuine in his sincerity but too self-centered to open his eyes to others".
With so many viewpoints about Richard --from many people who knew him - we begin to see some cracks... but might we not in everyone if we looked hard enough asking hundreds of people? Fact is ... it's still hard to predict which person - with a similar background....( pressures - etc.), is going to come loose at the seams to commit murder. This was such a fascinating non-fiction book ---( it almost read like fiction...I only wish it were).

T. V. LoCicero does a tremendous job taking us through the growing years.. from Richards interest in AZA...to literature and Philosophy, travel, hitchhiking, time spent in Israel, and in telling this 'entire' story. He draws us into his life -beliefs, values, and struggles. Nothing seems left out. I can't imagine any author - any person doing a more complete job. We 'do' begin to understand this man--and his gradual decline into severe mental illness. So sad - so shocking it had to be for all the people most directly
connected - either by being in the Synagogue that day...or being the family or friends of either one of these men.

I didn't go into the details of the Rabbi himself -but he was only 59 when he died... 20 thousand people attended his funeral. Thousands more listened to services over loud speakers. He was one of Detroit's prime proponent of ecumenical spirit in our country. -- and a leader in efforts to bring forth labor management peace and sound relations between industry and trade unions. He was born in Russia - came to the United States when he was 7. An outstanding citizen - a prolific writer and lecturer. Any man who draws the numbers he did at his funeral - speaks for itself. He was loved by many and made a great difference in the world.

What's so sad to me ... Is that, it seems that no matter how much we learn about one 'sick' man, about his mental state, and what might have made him break, it is still not like learning a preventative skill to STOP the next potential 'sick man'. We keep trying to learn - and I think we do see patterns - and have some amounts of understanding...but as how to really prevent a man like Richard Wishnetsky doing what he did...there are no easy answers.

However, a HUGE Thank You to T.V. LoCicero! An outstanding accomplishment with this book.

[Stacey B · Rating 5 out of 5]

Review to come.
I had no idea that a book was written on this story.
My friend's father was the Cantor at the time who was standing on the bimah as well.

[Fishface · Rating 5 out of 5]

A really good, powerful, if not exactly uplifting, read. Tracks the progress of a theologically-minded college student as he goes irretrievably off the rails, until he finally does something terrible. The author pulls off an astounding feat, taking you pretty much along the philosophical twists and turns this young man went through, without losing you or putting you to sleep. This is an important piece of Detroit history that should not be forgotten.

[Judie · Rating 4 out of 5]

It’s all too common nowadays: Someone uses a gun and kills a roomful of first graders or people at a restaurant or former coworkers. Often, the killer either commits suicide or is killed by the police. One of the first question people ask is “Why did he do it?”
In MURDER IN THE SYNAGOGUE, T. V. LoCicero attempts to answer that question for at least one case. On February 12, 1966, the 700 people attending Shabbat morning services at Congregation Shaarey Zedek in Detroit, Michigan, watched in horror as their rabbi, Morris Adler, was shot by a twenty three-year-old man who then shot himself after delivering a short speech about his complaints..
Rabbi Adler was one of the most prominent rabbis in the United States at that time and was very involved in interfaith and interracial activities. The book provides biographical and philosophical information about him, what he was trying to accomplish, and what concerned him.
Wishnetsky’s family had been members of the synagogue for many years and he knew the rabbi quite well. His parents and younger sisters were among the congregants that day. One of his sisters had the honor of reading one of the passages after the Torah reading. There were also guests of the family of the boy becoming a bar mitzvah that day and visitorsfrom other religious groups.
Richard Wishnetsky’s brilliance had been recognized while he was still a high school student where he was an overachiever and involved in many activities. At the University of Michigan, he made Phi Beta Kappa when he was a junior and graduated with honors. After graduating, he received a Woodrow Wilson Fellowship to help him continue his studies in graduate school. His main interest was philosophy and he wanted to become a teacher and help his students.
After the shooting, T. V. LoCicero, who was not Jewish and did not know any of the people involved, set about learning as much as he could about Wishnetsky. Facts about the rabbi were much easier to come by. He interviewed scores of Wishnetsky’s friends from high school, camp, college, and other areas (many of whom did not want him to use their real names) as well as many of his teachers, professors, and coworkers. Some of their opinions differed as they saw different aspects of his personality and actions.
What he found was a thread that comes unraveled as time goes by. Some of Wishnetsky’s characteristics that were present while he was still in high school became distorted. His brilliance, on which he had relied to take him anywhere he wanted to go, wasn’t working as well as his college years continued. He became more fixed in his ideas, more opinionated, and more violent, primarily vocally. Some of his actions would be classified as stalking today.
By the time he started graduate school, a few people were beginning to recognize that he had a mental illness Through their recollections, the reader can watch the disease progress. Today, many his illness would probably have been recognized earlier and he would have received better psychological help. He went to several psychologists but did not cooperate. He was institutionalized for a short period. When he began talking about killing a famous person and committing suicide, people did not know what to do with the information.
The Epilogue is an analysis of the sixties, including the election and assassination of President Kennedy, the Civil Rights movement, and the Vietnam war. It was a time of social upheaval, confusion and change. As I write this, near the end of November 2016, the US and the world are trying to come to terms with this year’s US elections, both the primaries and the general election. Much of the comments are as true today as they were when the book was written in 1970.
The book is not what is commonly called “an easy read.” It is a detailed study, almost like a clinical case study, and therefore does have a little repetition. To get some insight into how mental illness can affect an individual and those around him, MURDER IN THE SYNAGOGUE is an excellent choice.

[Teresa Collins · Rating 4 out of 5]

I finished Murder in the Synagogue several days ago and I'm still at a bit of a loss at how to review it. It is fascinating, intimidating, heartbreaking, and frustrating all at the same time. The book is the story of the murder of Rabbi Morris Adler by Richard Wishnestsky and Richard's immediate suicide. When these events took place I was a young 14 year old girl, more concerned with Herman's Hermits and the Beatles than what was going on in the world around me. Yet Mr LoCicero's writing easily brought that time back to me to a certain extent. What he couldn't bring back to me or fully explain, was exactly why Richard Wishnetsky committed the acts he did. I don't think anyone could ever fully explain that except Richard himself and I'm not sure his explanation would make sense.

What Mr LoCicero has done is fully explore the world in which Richard lived; the external and internal infuences that helped make Richard who he was. And who he was, was a very brilliant, very self-absorbed, very sick young man. This is a very in-depth study of the years leading up to the murder/suicide at Congregation Sharrey Zedek and at times I almost felt like I was reading a text book. In order to try and understand Richard it is necessary to understand his world of sociology, philosophy, all levels of higher education. And while at times, the subject matter became very intimidating for me, I couldn't put it down. The underlying basic story of the slow but sure disintegration of the mind of this young man became fascinating. Mr LoCicero tells the story with such a compassionate tone for all of those involved. At the same time, he doesn't hesitate to point out where potential errors in judgement and action occurred. All of this with a matter of fact tone and no pointing of blame or harsh criticism. Neither does he sugar-coat the actions or character of Rabbi Adler, who was a highly respected and much loved member of his community. No one is perfect and Rabbi Adler's flaws are presented, once again, matter of factly and without judgement.

Murder in the Synagogue is not a book you pick up for a light, escapist read, but it is well worth the time needed to fully understand, as much as possible, this story and the people involved. This is the third of Mr LoCicero's books I have read and he has not disappointed me yet.

[Leigh Clemons · Rating 3 out of 5]

I am not a big fan of true crime books. I find most of them to err on the side of sensationalism, and the authors tend to exhibit a good deal of bias in presenting "the facts" of the case that is off-putting. However, I found LoCicero's recounting of the circumstances surrounding this 1966 murder/suicide to be fairly balanced and objective. He refrained from making overt pronouncements until the epilogue, which allowed the reader to digest the information presented and come to his/her own conclusions about the case. Most of the research seems to be based upon interviews and discussions with individuals, bracketed by the writings of the victim. As someone trained in scholarly research, I would have liked to have seen more hard data to help round out the hearsay and memory. In the text itself, I found some of the verb tense shifting from present to past and back--sometimes in the same sentence referring to the same person--to be a bit confusing. Also, was every young woman in Michigan in the 1960's "perky" and attractive? (I will state, though, that the book was published in 1970, so the gender-biased language reflects the spirit of the time.) All in all, I found the narrative compelling. I am interested now to read the account concerning the squelching of the manuscript.

[Deb Novack · Rating 4 out of 5]

After reading this book I can not understand why the publishers tried to suppress the sales on this story. It is factual and truthful. This tells the story of a young man's descent into mental illness, it also tells what happens when no one in his family does nothing until it is to late. I have sympathy for both his family and the family of Rabbi Adler.

I also am going to read Squelched: The Suppression of Murder in the Synagogue.

[Vanda Bromwich · Rating 3 out of 5]

A very interesting book giving an insight into the Jewish way of life and the importance of education to the Jews. It tells the true story of the murder of a Jewish Rabbi by a very bright young Jewish man whose insanity caused him to shoot the rabbi before turning the gun on himself.

[Christoph Fischer · Rating 5 out of 5]

"Murder in the Synagogue" by T.V. LoCicero is a meticulously researched work of non fiction about an act of terror/ violence in a synagogue in 1966, on the day of Abraham Lincoln's birthday in June.
LoCicero tells with descriptive accuracy and astonishing objectivity the life of the perpetrator Richard Wishnetsky, a 23 year old Jewish man, by using eye witness accounts and explaining the socio-cultural, religious, ethnic and personal background of Wishnetsky and his generation.
It was this section that I personally enjoyed the most, myself, like LoCicero, a gentile writer about Jewish themes. I was impressed with the knowledge and deep understanding of the complexities and multitudes of Jewish life, particularly at that time and going back to Wishnetsky's family roots.
We witness a seemingly happy and content, socially acceptable man gradually slip into a less conformist eccentric man with a thirst for meaning. We also get to hear about his psychological state from a medical perspective and are offered some names and conditions, such as despression and schizophrenia that might characterise Wishnetsky.
LoCicero also shows the life and work of the Rabbi, present in the Synagogue on that fateful day, the man that ultimately gets shot by Wishnetsky before the latter kills himself.
Only in the epilogue does LoCicero give his own personal interpretation of the mad action in the Synagogue. Despite the earlier objectivity I felt as if I had a true understanding of the man and his troubles, as far as that is possible to achieve with a murderer. The conflicts and the general background of Wishnetsky are not offered as an excuse but they paint a great picture.
Having read this book in the week where a mindless act of terror is dominating the media has probably added to the impact the book had on me.

[Dan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Reading a book like this is something that is difficult to describe. There's no fiction involved, it's a relatively straightforward reporting of the life and death of a tormented young man and the man, truly more of a symbol, he killed in a murder suicide. I have a vague recollection of this event - I was 8 years old at the time and it happened in a neighboring community - mostly I recall news reports and discussion at our local temple - not with any detail, just that it happened. The book is well written and completely drew me into the principal's life story. It's tempting to say that in this day and age such a thing could never happen because we know so much more about mental illness and treatment, and what to look for, and that no one would make the same excuses for his behavior now that they did then. But, we so recently had Sandy Hook, and various school shootings by fellow students - all of whom the killers had shown signs of mental illness only to have it excused or ignored by family, friends, and "the system".

[Elliot Ratzman · Rating 5 out of 5]

A lost, and suppressed!, classic. This is a page-turning time-capsule: a portrait of a mentally disturbed 23-year-old who murders his rabbi and himself in front of a large Detroit-area congregation one Shabbat morning in 1966. More than a detailed description of a descent into madness, it’s also a fascinating account of an aspiring intellectual held enthralled by a network of conservative scholars of natural law philosophy. There is an appreciative account of the life, work, and community of the victim—Rabbi Morris Adler—a giant figure in Michigan and in the national Jewish scene. The murderer was Richard Wishnetsky, a brilliant boy emerging from a happy cohort of ambitious young Jews attending UM. The “incel” Wishnetsky’s peculiarities and perfectionism give way to serious mental health issues and disruptive behavior. In his manic attempt both to please and to be recognized as great, he befriends a young English professor—Joyce Carol Oates!—who later writes a short story based on him.

[Mark · Rating 5 out of 5]

There is a certain kind of moral and intellectual grandiosity which has in many respects been the salient characteristic of the culture of the American republic since its founding, This tendency has given us everyone from Patrick Henry, the Virginia slave owner who famously said, in speech in March, 1775, “…give me liberty or give me death,” to Joel Osteen, the wealthy televangelist who professes Christianity, but lives as did the greediest Roman emperors. One might also include the shrill, self-righteous and arguably infantile rhetoric of a 1960s radical like Bernadine Dorhn. For thoughtful people, there is little appeal in any of this. But moral and intellectual grandiosity are undeniably a thread in the fabric of our national culture here in the United States.

Clinical mental illnesses, it presumably goes without saying, are a tragedy for both their sufferers and the families and loved ones of those sufferers. Certain of these illnesses, like paranoid schizophrenia or bipolar disorder, often afflict those dealing with them with a similar sort of intellectual and moral grandiosity as well. Psychotic delusions often afflict mentally ill persons with misconceived or misplaced notions of personal greatness, uniqueness, and even superiority to others.

Both of these issues—a sense of moral and intellectual grandiosity, and clinical mental illness—intersected in the sad and short life of Richard Wishnetsky. On February 12, 1966, Richard rose from his seat among the congregants of Temple Shaarey Zedek in Detroit, Michigan, and shot Rabbi Morris Adler, its leader. Richard then turned his gun on himself. He died four days later at the age of 23; Rabbi Adler died 27 days later, several days short of his sixtieth birthday.

Rabbi Adler was of national prominence in the Jewish Community, and his death, and its manner, occasioned national remark. A little less than four months after Rabbi Adler was shot, a Detroit writer by the name of T.V. LoCicero published an article in the intellectual journal Commentary on the event and its aftermath.

Later, Mr. LoCicero expanded his article into a book called Murder in the Synagogue (with its obvious allusion to T.S. Eliot’s Murder in the Cathedral) which chronicles Richard Wishnetsky’s life in painstaking detail. Mr. LoCicero brings the same perspicacity and sympathy one finds in his fictions as he tracks Richard’s life from his birth up to the day he murdered Rabbi Adler.

Richard (as Mr. LoCicero calls him, thereby humanizing him and accentuating the tragedy of this story, as well as supplying a stylistic affectation to which I have helped myself) took up, as an undergraduate at the University of Michigan, topics in social, political, and ethical philosophy. He quickly proved himself a star student in the field: he was elected to Phi Beta Kappa, graduated in the top one percent of his class, and was awarded a Woodrow Wilson Fellowship for graduate study—which remains a considerable distinction for scholars. A couple of Ivy League schools accepted him, as did the University of Chicago.

For some reason, though, Richard opted to attend The University of Detroit, a second- tier institution when held up in comparison to the other universities that accepted him. This choice baffled a number of people in Richard’s life, not the least of whom were various of his academic advisors. Moreover, at first, Richard was disallowed from using his Wilson Fellowship money at the University of Detroit, though later he secured permission to do so.

Richard’s institutional choices are the first indication, in Mr. LoCicero’s narrative, that he might not have been thinking rationally as he neared his college graduation. As the book progresses, the reader is exposed to a young man, evidently, in the thrall of Neoplatonism, particularly the kind of political and moral certainty and superiority of Plato’s philosopher-king, as well as in the throes of a nascent clinical mental illness. Mr. LoCicero examines the minutia of Richard’s life, particularly in the crucial period leading up to that fateful and fatal February day. At times the detail seems excruciating but that’s because it’s supposed to be: formally speaking, we are guided through the events, and their oddly contrasted tedium and excitement (much like Richard’s apparent emotional state at the time), of the last years, then days, of Richard’s life. In retrospect, there is nary a wasted word in this narrative.

All of that detail is paid for with Mr. LoCicero’s elegant epilogue. He wisely invokes W.H. Auden’s “Age of Anxiety” to help his readers understand the objective state of the world in Richard’s lifetime, and the effect it too may have had on Richard’s mental state. We see Richard’s fragmented self as a reflection of the fragmented world; indeed, Richard’s disintegration augurs poorly for the integration of the world. The superb epilogue to Murder in the Synagogue is therefore very much of its time—the malaise that afflicted a not entirely blameless American culture and society in the 1960s and 1970s and found its expression in the life and acts of Richard Wishnetsky.

[Leib Mitchell · Rating 5 out of 5]

Book Review
"Murder in the Synagogue"
T.V. LoCicero
5/5 stars
"The Coming Out Story that wasn't; James Holmes of 1966"
*******

Of the book:

-381 pages of prose

Structure:

(I)Early Life {71 pps};
(II)Undergraduate / philosophical formation {82 pps};
(III) Beginning of Mental Breakdown {102 pps};
(IV) Involuntary mental hospitalization, final descent, shooting and aftermath {110 pps}.
(V) Epilogue {16 pps}
-Each part is broken into chapters that are, on average, about 9 pages each
-Medium paced read, fairly easy.
*******
QUOTE (Eric Hoffer): "The Orthodox Jew is less frustrated than the emancipated Jew. The segregated Negro in the South is less frustrated than the nonsegregated Negro in the North..... within a minority bent on assimilation, the least and most successful (economically and culturally) are likely to be more frustrated than those in between. "

QUOTE (Arthur Golden): "Autobiography, if there really is such a thing, is like asking a rabbit to tell us what he looks like hopping through the grasses of the field. How would he know? If we want to hear about the field on the other hand, no one is in a better circumstance to tell us"

In that way, in addition to being one of the most thorough books that I've ever read (as a portrait of somebody who has non-Hollywood type mental illness), it's a stellar example of investigative journalism--although it has no references.

This book is ostensibly about the murder of A Rabbi by one of his parishioners, but by now is serves best as a snapshot of a time that is long past. (The 1950ish-1966 Jewish Detroit.)

What a quaint little world it was!

Secondarily, it can serve as the characterization of a frustrated individual (in the Hofferian sense) and someone dealing with psychiatric issues-- and that is time-independent. Essentially, this shooter was the James Holmes (2012 Aurora, Colorado shooter) of 1966: James Holmes attempted graduate school and found that he was a legend only in his own mind; Richard Wishnetsky submitted a pretentious honors thesis and was promptly "put in his place" (p. 143) and (p.194) "after continuing success throughout his academic career, he suddenly found himself in a situation where he was no longer the best, no longer clearly superior to the others in the group at the University of Detroit."

And that seems to be what precipitated both of their downward spirals. (It's just that James Holmes didn't do the taxpayers the favor of eating a bullet.)

Wishnetsky also appears to have been sexually frustrated: (p.98)- "....he had asked the girl to go to bed with him. The girl had replied very firmly that she would rather he kill her first."

Similarly: After all the smoke and dust cleared, it turned out that James Holmes was a prolific whoremonger--going through all the trouble of posting reviews about his "encounters." And that would not have been the case if he was skilled enough to convince women to share their Tender Bits with him.

What do we learn?

1. Most of the Detroit Jewish people were secular / Eastern European. And this has been the case for a very long time. And, Believe it or not, the center of gravity for Jewish to trade used to actually be in the city proper.

2. There has been grade inflation at universities, but the caliber of scholarship in those times was inconceivable compared to today. 50 and 60 hours of study time allotted weekly. Senior theses all over the place. Oral exams of senior theses, etc ...

3. Shaarey Tzedek (Conservative) of Detroit once upon a Time had 1,300 children just between the age of 6 to 13. And, it was once upon a time a member of the Detroit Council of Orthodox Rabbis.

It's long forgotten, but at one time Masorti Judaism was thought to be the wave of the future.

4. There were a lot more mental hospitals then than now: after 1991, John Engler shut all the mental hospitals.

Second order thoughts:

1.What I see in the very long characterization of this young man who ultimately did what he did: he didn't realize that he was frustrated until he went off to University to be with academic idiots and then they pointed out to him that he was.

This story has been told a million times before...... How many black people have I met before that grew up in mixed neighborhoods and lived with/dated white people that didn't discover that they were "angry" and "depressed" until some idiot academic pointed out to him that he was?

So, we have the combustible mixture that turned out to be the subject of this book, and but for academia it could well have been otherwise.

2. In some ways, this is a book about medical/psychiatric technology.

As I read in the past, it is amazing how many psychiatric disorders have just ceased to exist. There is lots of Freudian psychology quoted in here (p.274) where diagnoses rely on defense mechanisms.

And just "latent homosexuality" all over the place.

Schizophrenia used to be the catch all diagnosis for everything that was not otherwise specified (p.272). Then, there is the term "borderline schizophrenia," and a quick search shows the most recently published paper on this topic to be in 1979.

3. The cautious assertion is that: Wishnetsky may have been dealing with sexual orientation issues.

The first reason is that there was all of this emotional anguish and hesitation about his going out and getting laid. Meanwhile, the men who really want women will go out and find what they can get in a matter of fact way.

The second reason is that: the tropes about the behavior of people who are "latently homosexual" are too obvious to need elaboration. Wishnetsky had some complaints about Berkeley-SanFrancisco. (p.102) "Mental disturbance, rampant homosexuality, and the carelessness of people living only for the moment."

But, why would that bother someone anymore than some guy who preferred brunettes over blondes?

The less cautious assertion is that: Little Rich was GGGAAAYYY.

And this topic came up OVER AND OVER in the course of the book.

His mentoring professor (p.168): "Mr Wishnetsky, you wouldn't know the first thing about masculinity."

Friend Marty Sharpe (p.209) "Though they never talked directly about the possibilities of homosexuality, Marty thought that Richard was "coming close to the classical Greek conception of bisexuality.'"

But for an environment for him to explore his sexuality (let's say some bath houses in California or DC or some number of cruisy parks/ gay bars away from his family), all of this could have been otherwise.

Steven Lewis (p.310): ".... yet the conversations suggested to Bill that Richard was frightened of homosexual tendencies in himself. He had been down to a gay bar on Woodward a number of times he said, 'just to observe of course."" (Um, ok...)

Harv Steiner (p.313): "He boasted on occasion that he had 'screwed' this or that girl, but was entirely unconvincing. "In fact, I thought he might be a virgin," says Harv. "I also thought he had homosexual tendencies: Richard always wanted to get real close to you and even speak softly in your ear and had his arm around you at times. And he could show a venomous hatred of women."

(p.341): "He mentioned that he had no likelihood of going into the draft since he qualified for exemptions on a number of counts - - including having been in a mental institution and something about homosexuality."

(p.344): "Tina finally handled the matter with Richard herself, calling him a 'fa**ot' and a 'queer' and accusing him of trying to destroy her marriage with his homosexual designs on Steven."

3. "Mr. Wishnetsky" was obviously also dealing with mental issues, and that is because:

-To a (wo)man I have NEVER seen a Jewish person who considered converting to ANY type of Christianity absent severe mental problems. (And, the subject of this biography was considering that- p.114.)

-The "love of his life" (p.114) was a girl who was frankly psychotic, and she had to be institutionalized and dropped out of school after they broke up. (She was in therapy before she met him and in therapy after he was done with her.) Like attracts like.

-Later (p.147, 293) he decided that he was a prophet

-(p.167) "When a male in the class referred to him casually as 'Rich,' he interrupted to explain sternly, 'It's "Mr. Wishnetsky" to you.'"

-(p.173) Constantly writing notes and letters to HIMSELF, talking about the generation and breakdown of modern society and the necessity for a complete revamping.

And these are just some of the earlier highlights, given that the last half of the book was his slow motion complete breakdown.

4. Could anyone have expected that the situation would have ended well?

a. His experience at University would have been bad enough, but: We have a young man with no direction moving back and forth between Conservative Judaism (and Haredism, which /attracts/ creates an even higher fraction of nutballs).

5. I think this is also a story of parents not knowing when to let a child go. They could have put him in a psychiatric hospital and left him there (remember that this was way back in the '60s when people could live full-time in mental health facilities); They had two other daughters and they could have mentally buried him and focused on the other children. But, they did not, and the situation was what it was.

6. Mordecai Richer has written (in his book "Barney's Version") that "life is absurd and nobody truly ever understands anybody."

And I would have to second the motion after reading through all of the accounts of these many many people that saw Wishnetsky in a different way from one another. (Forgive me for not including page numbers, but the characterization changed so much throughout the book that I would not have known that I was looking for Jekyll and Hyde from the beginning.)

-Elementary school teachers said that he was not particularly bright.
-College instructors said that he was brilliant.
-Interviews from when he was a camp counselor said that he was well received by his charges and conscientious.
-Roommates said that he was well exercised and muscular. (In spite of this, he couldn't get laid at a women's prison with a stack of pardons.)
-All of the academics in his later life said that he was pretentious. Most of the other people in his life saw him as unstable.

*******
Minor quibbles:

1. There's not one single picture of any person in this book, North such things as would have been interesting. Such as an autopsy report, or police reports/notes.

2. The book could have been finished in 250 pages. As it was, this went on for 381, and it was really overwrought with detail.

Brilliant quotes:

(p.128): ".. civilizations move in cycles of growth and decline; there appears to be no sociospiritual progress from civilization to civilization. The human condition must always remain the human condition..... When a civilization reaches a crisis it is because a theological point has been openly disputed; there's always a religious crisis first, followed by an institutional crisis and eventually the internal destruction of the civilization by its own members."

(p.206): "....neurotic states often arise from existential frustration, a conflict of values, or the lack of a sense of meaning, purpose, and freedom in one's life........ One should not search for an abstract meaning of life. Everyone has his own specific vocation or mission in life; everyone must carry out a concrete assignment that demands fulfillment."

Other tidbits:

1. The penname of Joyce Smith is Joyce Carol Oates.

2. "The Pawnbroker," 1965 film

Verdict: Recommended

Vocabulary:

praecox (=early onset)
Letter of transmittal
lambretta (car)

[Sara · Rating 3 out of 5]

He seemed to almost justify the killers' actions, especially in the epilogue. He was not "criminally insane" at the time of the murder- he knew exactly what he was doing. Yes, he had serious mental health issues. No, thats not an excuse

[Csimplot Simplot · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent book!!!

[Patricia · Rating 3 out of 5]

On 12 February 1966 Richard Wishnetsty shot Rabbi Morris Adler in a Detroit synagogue before shooting himself. The synagogue was filled with 700 people so the "who" and '"how" questions were answered but the "why" question remained. Why did an intelligent, well educated 23 year old Jewish man shoot a well-known rabbi and then commit suicide?

T. V. LoCicero searched for an answer and interviewed countless people who knew Richard-- classmates, friends, teachers, doctors, and professors. A bright, troubled young man caught in a downward spiral emerges. An interesting story was obscured with too many interviews and long quotations from books Richard liked or from his own writing.

Proof-reading problems: the letter "B" is often used where a letter "H" was intended.

[Lloyd S. Paley · Rating 2 out of 5]

Cluttered

As a contemporary and neighbor of RW, I would have liked the author to have revealed the names of those involved in his life. Pseudonyms have diminished the author's credibility.

[Awesome Indies Book Awards · Rating 4 out of 5]

AIBA Book of the Day: 29 November, 2021: 125/41699

Awesome Indies Book Awards is pleased to include MURDER IN THE SYNAGOGUE by T. V. LOCICERO in the library of Awesome Indies' Badge of Approval recipients.