Murder in Marblehead: Who Killed Beryl Atherton

by Harry Christensen, Richard Santeusanio

For over forty years, on the anniversary of the night of the most brutal unsolved murder in his town’s history, Harry Christensen has returned to the scene of the crime, hoping the psychotic killer might also. He parks across from the small, clapboard house where mild-mannered, unmarried, and well-liked elementary school teacher Beryl Atherton was brutally murdered on a stormy night in 1950, causing the townspeople of Harry’s New England town of Marblehead, Massachusetts to plummet into a state of fear and shock in the days following the murder. Who would be next, everyone asked? Why Beryl? Who would be compelled to violently kill this woman who seemed to have no enemies?
Lifetime resident and local attorney Harry Christensen has never stopped asking that question, and over the past four decades has gone to great lengths to find the identity of the murderer, turning over every stone covering up the killer’s tracks, gathering and studying all the data from town, state and federal criminal investigations, and interviewing numerous townspeople, outsiders, and suspects.
Here, for the first time, is the collection of all the obtainable the autopsy, the detailed murder scene, the background of the victim, the history of the town, relevant photographs, the potentially knowledgeable or involved townspeople, and the countless clues gathered over seventy years.
In conclusion, co-authors Harry Christensen and Richard Santeusanio have submitted three theories of their own, and also invited readers to join the investigation, to go through the research, to ask their own questions, and to submit their theories as to the identity of the killer. Help them solve this!

252 pages, Kindle Edition

Published November 3, 2022

Reviews

[Reader]

I thought the book Murder in Marblehead was a very interesting book since my ancestors had founded Marblehead, my last name is very well known to the town so I’m good with getting around to hear peoples stories. Reading this book made me feel like a detective as I actually dealt with a cold case, especially since the authors worked hard and gathered such valuable information it gave me an actual grasp on something to read. However, since this case goes unsolved it's a bit harder to get an answer to who it was and based on the time and age there wasn’t any video footage to whom had done it. The whole idea of the book gave me a good understanding of how the Authors strive to find out the decades old mystery. If you aspire to go into the forensic sciences field I recommend reading this book because typical crime and murder books give you easy answers which isn't how it really is in the actual world, those books may be challenging however most can 100% give out the ending to whom had done it. Im impressed with the work they put into this especially with drawn photos of the crime scene and other valuable properties to this case. I never expected this case to reappear again due to lack of crime in the town and the older generations forgetting or not relying on this decades old case to come back to life.

[Emily]

The first half is rather gripping. I was intrigued by the case, although frustrated by the state lab and the local police at the time for not going back to interview two suspects and later overlooking evidence. There are some typos and one minor factual goof.

The second half is perplexing. It presents all the evidence, well and good, and then it gives a long historical background for the town and historical setting for the 1950s. Not certain this is necessary.

Still and all, it is a quick read and worthwhile.

[Kathy Maher]

The book has facts but they needed some help with editing- there were some mistakes with names, dates and it repeated itself a lot. I would not be able to guess who killed Beryl by reading this without taking many liberties - there are just too many questions.

[Jamie Yomtov]

The story within the book is interesting, and I liked hearing the various theories. The grammar and how it was written wasn’t great.

[Jenn]

I read a lot of mysteries and live in that area so could not put this down. I have 2 pages of thoughts and notes to discuss on their website now. Very curious to see how everyone else feels about the suspects and which one seems most likely.