Handsome Brute The True Story of a Ladykiller eBook Sean O'Connor
Download As PDF : Handsome Brute The True Story of a Ladykiller eBook Sean O'Connor 
Handsome Bruteexplores the facts of a once-renowned, now little-remembered British murder case, the killings of the charming, but deadly ex-RAF playboy Neville Heath.
Since the 1940s, Heath has generally been dismissed as a sadistic sex-killer - the preserve of sensational Murder Anthologies - and little else. But the story behind the tabloid headlines reveals itself to be complex and ambiguous, provoking unsettling questions that echo across the decades to the present day.
Handsome Bruteis both an examination of the age of austerity, and a real-life
thriller as shocking and provocative as American Psycho or The Killer Inside Me, exploring the perspectives of the women in Heath's life - his wife, his mother, his lovers - and his victims. This collage of experiences from the women who knew him intimately probes the schism at the heart of his fascinating, chilling personality.
Handsome Brute The True Story of a Ladykiller eBook Sean O'Connor
This is true crime writing of the highest calibre. Deeply researched and crisply written, Handsome Brute grips from the first page.Neville Heath murdered two women in England in 1946, the second while on the run from the police for the first crime. O'Connor's outstanding achievement is to transport the reader back to the time of the crimes, so richly does he capture the period and the social and moral changes wrought by the Second World War.
He researches the background of the killer, his victims and the senior detective in charge of the case to the extent that the reader feels as if he has known the people in person. You feel as if you are inhabiting the life Heath led: London's bars, drinking clubs and hotels. Equally well, the author places you in Bournemouth as it is beginning the transformation from wartime camp back to popular tourist destination.
He restores humanity to the victims and the killer by carefully recreating their lives, drawing on original records and refusing to accept the exaggeration and inaccuracies of many of the contemporary newspapers' and books' accounts of the case.
He acutely questions why Heath became a killer and how his wartime experiences and return to civilian life may have affected him. He exposes the inadequacy of the trial in addressing these questions.
Only start reading this thought-provoking, moving book if you know you can set everything else aside until you have finished it.
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Handsome Brute The True Story of a Ladykiller eBook Sean O'Connor Reviews
Charismatic ladies' man, killer, fantasist, liar, cheat and thief. Heath was all those things and more. This fascinating book attempts to put Heath into the context of his times and to understand how he might have been affected by his experiences in World War II as a fighter pilot living with constant danger and the knowledge that each day could be his last.
Heath committed two violent and sadistic murders of women within the space of a few weeks and many people since have tried to understand his motivations for the crimes. But he was not a stranger to crime. He had a string of petty thefts and frauds behind him and apart from time spent in Borstal he almost always managed to receive only minor punishments for his crimes. He lived under an assumed name for a time in South Africa and married there too as well as serving in both the South African Air force and the RAF.
This book shows that Heath behaved well if everything went his way but as soon as things got difficult he would disappear. He was plausible in his excuses and explanations for his petty crimes and could often talk his way out of trouble if push came to shove. He was a pathological liar and an expert at putting the best possible construction on anything he did.
Was he insane? Should he have been incarcerated in Broadmoor instead of suffering the death penalty? It is up to the reader to decide. I found this book a fascinating study of a man about whom I knew nothing before I started reading it. The book is written in a low-key style - the very opposite of the sensational headlines the case received in the newspapers of the time. I sometimes felt the author was looking for too many justifications for Heath's actions and that maybe he has more sympathy for his subject than he wanted to reveal.
Heath was a product of his time but it seems he may have shown his sadistic tendencies in his childhood and these could have been exacerbated by the stresses and strains of war time and the difficulties of adjusting to peace time life.
The book contains extensive notes on the sources used as well as a bibliography and illustrations.
Great to hear the real story
Have heard lots of rumors before in South Africa
Interesting story and well written
A very interesting and thoughtful book; well written and not just about murder, but also about justice, a police blunder leading to the death of another innocent victim. The law, as it was than in the UK, often lacked mercy and understanding of the definition of insanity, leading to misdirected and inconsistent penalties. Also the damage that war can inflict on those who fought and lived throughout it all was another considered and interesting part of the book.
This is true crime writing of the highest calibre. Deeply researched and crisply written, Handsome Brute grips from the first page.
Neville Heath murdered two women in England in 1946, the second while on the run from the police for the first crime. O'Connor's outstanding achievement is to transport the reader back to the time of the crimes, so richly does he capture the period and the social and moral changes wrought by the Second World War.
He researches the background of the killer, his victims and the senior detective in charge of the case to the extent that the reader feels as if he has known the people in person. You feel as if you are inhabiting the life Heath led London's bars, drinking clubs and hotels. Equally well, the author places you in Bournemouth as it is beginning the transformation from wartime camp back to popular tourist destination.
He restores humanity to the victims and the killer by carefully recreating their lives, drawing on original records and refusing to accept the exaggeration and inaccuracies of many of the contemporary newspapers' and books' accounts of the case.
He acutely questions why Heath became a killer and how his wartime experiences and return to civilian life may have affected him. He exposes the inadequacy of the trial in addressing these questions.
Only start reading this thought-provoking, moving book if you know you can set everything else aside until you have finished it.
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