The disappearance of a twenty-one-year-old woman from a Massachusetts suburb became one of the most discussed crimes of the twentieth century.
The discussion intensified when the public learned that Robin Benedict worked as a prostitute in Boston’s notorious red-light district, the “Combat Zone,” and was linked by a trail of blood to a famous professor from Tufts University. When Robin Benedict vanished, the investigation and media circus that gripped the city of Boston hadn’t been seen since the days of the Boston Strangler case.
On a Sunday morning in March 1983, a small-time pimp walked into a police station and claimed his girlfriend was missing. He said she had been on her way to visit a client named William Douglas. In the year that followed, the case drew in detectives, state troopers, scores of journalists, and even psychics. But Robin was never found.
Boston Tabloid reconstructs a grisly murder and explores one man’s bizarre obsession. In revisiting this legendary crime, Don Stradley consulted journalists involved in the media frenzy, prison authorities, arresting officers, and psychiatrists, all in an effort to unravel a most tangled story. Why was the city, and the nation, swept up in this sordid tale? It remains a grim and fascinating moment in Boston’s history.
The battle between Marvelous Marvin Hagler and Thomas Hearns is remembered as one of the greatest fights of all time. But in the months before the two finally collided on April 15, 1985, there was a feeling in the air that boxing was in trouble.
With Hagler-Hearns looking like boxing's last hurrah, promoter Bob Arum embarked on one the most audacious publicity campaigns in history, hyping the bout until the entire country was captivated. Could Arum possibly get a memorable fight out of these two moody, unpredictable warriors?
The Hagler-Hearns fight is now part of history, but The War explores the factors behind the event, and how it helped establish what many feel was boxing's greatest era. No book, not even George Kimball's classic, Four Kings, has focused solely on this legendary fight involving two of those 'Four Kings' that boxing fans have revered for their skills and willingness to take on challenges that many fighters do not take in today's boxing landscape.
With additional commentary from many who were there, Stradley shows the unlikely path taken by two fighters searching for greatness. When the fight was over, however, each learned that fame inflicted its own kind of damage.
Within the dark pages of Berserk: The Shocking Life and Death of Edwin Valero, author Don Stradley uncovers the gritty details of the undefeated (27-0, 27 KO), troubled, boxer Edwin Valero.
Edwin Valero's life was like a rocket shot into a wall. With a perfect knockout record in twenty-seven fights, the demonic Venezuelan boxer, known as 'El Inca' and 'El Dinamita,' seemed destined for a clash with all-time great Manny Pacquiao. But the Fates had other ideas.
Fueled by cocaine and booze and paranoia, Valero blazed into a mania that derailed his career in the ring and resulted in the brutal death of his young wife Jennifer-and soon afterward, his own. In chilling detail, Don Stradley captures one of the darkest and most sensational boxing stories in recent memory, which, until now, has never been fully told.
Filled with firsthand accounts from the men who trained Valero and the reporters who covered him, as well as insights from psychologists and forensic experts, Berserk is a hell-ride of a book.
