The Misbegotten Son

Jack Olsen is an incredibly talented crime writer. This book is no different from his other books. He presents facts and renders no judgements. It's up to the reader to place judgement.

Books that involve the murder of vulnerable women and children are horrific and sad. The kids suffered agonizing deaths. They lost their futures. The subsequent pain Shawcross caused in the community and families of the children echoed across generations in Watertown. He should not have been released from prison, but with little legal recourse, the judge had no choice in his sentencing.

I'm a little proud of Binghamton, NY. I grew up near the town, although I wasn't living in the area when any of the narrative took place. Shawcross was run out of show more Binghamton/Delphi quickly by citizens and the press. Olsen's description of Binghamton was a bit overly nice though. It wasn't as neat and prosperous as he describes. It suffered from the same industrial decay as the rest of upstate NY from the 1970s onward.

The women he preyed upon in Rochester were vulnerable. They were victims of poverty, drug abuse and the streets of a dying small city at the end of a manufacturing heyday. Then they were the victims of Shawcross' bottomless rage and hatred of women. Their fates were sealed by societal attitudes in which they were seen as something less than human. They were the victims of laws and lawkeepers that keep them anonymous and hidden.

Every one of those women has a name and a story and Olsen puts them front and center. He interviews one woman who got away.

He also interviews the other victims from Shawcross' life - His many wives. I was appalled by the last two, Clara and Rose. It was hard for me to feel sympathy for them. The measure of delusional thinking and denial in which they had to engage is astounding.

The psychological bits about Shawcross were interesting. I'm interested in what further DNA testing would show up in his psychiatric profile, but the case is old, he is long dead and I doubt his lineage will be tested.

I haven't read a good true crime book for quite a while. I'm glad I picked this one up. show less

There is an amazing amount of details and research, including interviews around the life and crimes of Arthur Shawcross. First as a fiendish, murderous pederast, Act I of Shawcross' miserable life ends with him in jail. Act II finds him paroled and unable to live without being hounded out of community after community to end up in Rochester and accelerate his crimes to high frequency prostitute killings. I go back and forth on capital punishment. But, if someone cannot be successfully reintroduced, it would seem execution or life without parole (execution by default) is better. The final Act is the eventual downfall and capture with exploration of the "bad chemicals" (Shawcross is XYY and has off the chart kryptopyrroluria. These genetic show more predispositions to sociopathic behavior combined w/the homicidal triad: bed wetting, arson, and cruelty to animals. Did he (we?) have a chance? show less

Re-read. A weird and interesting serial killer. He changed his M.O. from murdering children to killing prostitutes in Rochester, New York. Olsen was my favorite true crime writer, mainly because he just listens and lets everybody – Shawcross, his ex-wives, the victim’s family – tell their story, which is much more chilling than any dramatic prose could be. Everybody in this book is damaged. Here’s the mother of one of the child victims: “I go out to his car and my drunken husband was sittin’ in the backseat, so I knew they’d schemed something up. They drove me to Jack’s grave, and there was a lovely statue of Jesus and the Virgin Mary! They said they took it from a cemetery in Pennsylvania.”
“A few weeks later, show more somebody stole it. I never heard of such a rotten thing in my life.” show less