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  • Panic

  • Bloodlands collection
  • Written by: Harold Schechter
  • Narrated by: Steven Weber
  • Length: 1 hr and 36 mins
  • 4.0 out of 5 stars (16 ratings)

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Panic

Written by: Harold Schechter
Narrated by: Steven Weber
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Publisher's Summary

During the Depression, economic anxieties found an outlet in a series of child murders that triggered an irrational nationwide hysteria: pedophiliac psychopaths were overrunning the country.

As America was brought to rage and fury by the press and the FBI, lynch mobs took to the streets, reason gave way to doomsday scenarios, and one father was even driven to murder his three daughters to “save them” from a degenerate crime wave. A terrifying cautionary essay, Panic explores the combustible mix of unfounded fears, moral crusades, and the dangers of collective thinking.

Panic is part of Bloodlands, a chilling collection of short addictive historical narratives from bestselling true-crime master Harold Schechter. Spanning a century in our nation’s murderous past, Schechter resurrects nearly forgotten tales of madmen and thrill-killers that dominated the most sensational headlines of their day.
©2018 Harold Schechter (P)2018 Brilliance Publishing, Inc., all rights reserved.
Essays United States Serial Killers True Crime
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Profile Image for Langer MD

A Nice Installment in the Series

Harold Schechter's 'Bloodlands' series of historical American True Crime is admittedly pretty sensationalist. Each episode deals with macabre slayings that captured the public's imagination in their time but have largely become forgotten.
'Panic' is no different. Schechter relates the chronicles of four pedophilic abduction/murders in Depression-era America and the public outrage and fear appended to them. The narratives are understandably superficial (researching early 20th century crimes must be a nightmare), but Schechter does an impressive job relating the bare-bones details of crimes and touches on the public fascination/kneejerk fear after the shocking - no different 100 years ago than it is today.

Steven Weber was a brilliant choice as reader for these offerings. He reads a little too slowly with this one (consume it at 1.10X), but otherwise reads with his typical remarkable professionalism.

I wonder if these one-off episodes were intended to be chapters in a larger Anthology, but regardless, they're worth your time. This one merits 8 stars out of 10. I got all six installments for free as part of the 'Plus' initiative - and thank Audible for the opportunity. Fans of True Crime who enjoy thought-provoking fare (but don't particularly care if it feels mildly incomplete) shouldn't hesitate to give these a listen.

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