Sebastian Junger's personal connection to Albert DeSalvo is a humdinger. How many writers have a picture of them as a baby with a serial killer smiling behind them? Even fewer, one assumes, grew up with parents who firmly believed that the serial killer claimed one of their neighbors as a victim but that another man was wrongly convicted of the crime. 
 The murder of Bessie Goldberg happened in the middle of the Boston Strangler killings and a black man, Roy Smith, was quickly identified as the chief suspect, captured and convicted. A few years later DeSalvo confessed to being the Boston Strangler. Questions about DeSalvo's guilt seemed to appear almost as soon as he confessed to the crimes so Junger has to first sift through the cases for and against DeSalvo as the Boston Strangler before he can tackle whether a) Smith was guilty of killing Goldberg and b) whether Goldberg was another of DeSalvo's victims. 
 Whether you ultimately agree with Junger about DeSalvo's or Smith's guilt or innocence is left up to the reader. Junger makes his case that DeSalvo was the strangler and that Smith was innocent but this book is not a harangue. He presents both sides and leads the reader through his analysis of the evidence. He confesses to a few doubts himself. 
 I'm not an aficionado of serial killers or books about them. Had this book been by anyone but Junger - who's Perfect Storm I enjoyed - I wouldn't have read it. This is not a True Crime book, Junger is less interested in what motivated DeSalvo and Smith than in the times that created them and the hysteria surrounding the crimes. He conjures up the horrors of discrimination in the South and it's more subtle but equally damaging equivalent in the North. He does a wonderful job of giving the reader a real feel for what life was like in early 60s Boston and Cambridge. 
 Once in a while Junger tries too hard, like when he retells the story of the Kennedy assassination. Yes, it's important that this occurred just as Smith's trial was going to the jury but let's face it, the facts and impact are well covered ground. He also makes some odd choices, like implying that Smith might have thought himself better off behind bars in the late 1960s than out in the turmoil of the racial conflicts. The oddest, for me, what the author's photograph. Normally I don't notice author photos but in this one Junger looks downright menacing, way, way more menacing than the pivotal picture of Albert DeSalvo smiling behind a 1 year old Junger. 
 I'm not entirely convinced that Bessie Goldberg was a Boston Strangler victim. Junger makes a good case that at least Smith could have had a better defense, whether he was innocent remains an open question for me. This is an enjoyable book, on the whole. Not Junger's best but readable and thoughtful.