Appointment For Murder

by Susan Crain Bakos

Appointment with Murder

Genres: True Crime

286 pages, Hardcover

First published July 13, 1988

Reviews

[Bill reilly · Rating 4 out of 5]

The book begins ominously as a twenty five year-old woman leads her husband to a cave where he is shot by her employer, a dentist. No wonder I fear the tooth doctor. The mercury they breathe makes them crazy. The term “mad as a hatter” comes from the use of that chemical by hat makers. The following chapter introduces the gunman, Glennon Engleman, an Archie bunker type who raged against Jews and blacks, with frequent use of the “n” word to describe the African American citizens of St. Louis. The author jumps ahead four years to Sophie Berrera, The middle aged woman had filed a lawsuit against Dr. Engleman for $15,000 for unpaid lab fees. The suit ended abruptly with an explosion with Sophie’s body parts spread haphazardly as far as one hundred feet away; including an ear with the earring still attached. I can just imagine an evidence baggie displayed as peoples exhibit “A.” We first meet Engleman’s 3rd wife, Ruth, a former patient whose teeth were fixed, shortly before the doc did her on the office couch. At the time, he was still married to wife #2. The P.D. questioned Glennon and he complained about the dead woman’s ‘Jew lawyer” trying to bleed him dry. The Mo. Lawmen seemed unphased by the language; this could be 1930s Berlin. Ruth tells the police of previous murders by her ex. She had kept quiet because the good doctor had threatened to kill her. It only gets stranger with a murder from 1958. Doc’s first wife, also named Ruth (at this point, I need a scorecard) was divorced from him when her second husband was killed. At the time of the murder, Engleman was dining with his second wife, Eda. The widow collected $64,000; a nice piece of change in 1958. Another murder by explosion in 1963, and Eric Frey was #2 on Dr. Death’s list. This is a soap opera and it should be titled, “Beyond Belief.” $25,000 insurance money was paid to Frey’s widow after the explosion with the doc nearby with some cohorts. Wife #3 (Ruth #2) described further murders for insurance money. The police found it hard to believe that such a well respected dentist could be guilty of such atrocities. His racist views were fairly common within the white, Christian, good ‘ol boy community. Ruth (wife #3) wore a wire to her bedroom and enticed her ex to talk about his crimes. A sex romp is described in graphic detail; as even the cops were embarrassed. Ruth is not a modest woman of good manners. The doc only speaks cryptically, post coitus. Later on she meets him at a restaurant and he says enough for the police to arrest him. His co-conspirators ask for immunity. The star witness is the one who began the book, Carmen Miranda (not the Chiquita Banana woman with fruit on her head). She collected insurance money and stayed out of jail by testifying. It also turned out that Engleman was a lousy dentist. It gets much more complicated with a husband and wife shot to death in ’77, followed by their son in ’78. A $500,000 estate collected by the widow was the apparent motive. The trial portion isn’t all that dramatic, although the doc’s testimony is pretty funny. I will leave out the outcome. The reader must pay close attention, as the crimes involve so many bad people other than the dentist. One woman, Barbara, is even more vicious than Engleman. The grieving widow, whose husband and in-laws were killed, is evil personified. Her trial ends the book with F. Lee Bailey as her lawyer. The Barbara Boyle case is more compelling than the doc’s. I must give fair warning to those easily offended by sexually explicit language to avoid this book. A good editor would have toned it down. The XXX content is unnecessary, as this is true crime and not Penthouse forum.