by Caleb Carr
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
While researching the prequel to this book, The Alienist, it became apparent to me that, contrary to popular belief, women are just as prone to violent crime as are men. But their victims are most often children—frequently their own children—and this disturbing fact seems to discourage the kind of sensationalist reporting that usually characterizes cases involving violent men, especially male serial killers. I discussed this matter with Dr. David Abrahamsen, who had given me much assistance during the preparation of The Alienist, and he confirmed that women generally abuse or murder people with whom they have strong personal connections (unlike men, who often select strangers as the victims of their violent tendencies, since they are easier to objectify). Once again, I thank Dr. Abrahamsen for his assistance and encouragement, without which this project would have gone astray early on.
Anyone familiar with the phenomenon of female violence will see in the case of Libby Hatch elements of crimes from not only the last century but our own time, as well. This similarity is quite intentional, and could not have been achieved without the important work of analysts who have chronicled the stories of some of the more noteworthy contemporary female killers. Of these writers I must mention Joyce Eggington for her powerful study of Marybeth Tinning, Ann Rule for her incisive work on the Diane Downs case, Andrea Peyser for her reporting on and analysis of the Susan Smith murders, and my friend John Coston for his examination of Ellen Boehm. All are to be commended for their refusal to sociologically rationalize the acts of their subjects, and for their insistence (to paraphrase Rupert Picton) on treating them as violent individuals first and women second.
Libraries, as always, make the difference between fantasy and reconstruction possible. I must thank the staffs of the New York Public Library, the New York Society Library, and the New-York Historical Society for their tireless help. I must also thank the staff of the Brookside Museum in Ballston Spa, New York, along with the staffs of the Ballston Spa Public Library, the Saratoga Springs Public Library, and the Saratoga County Historical Society.
Perrin Wright provided not only research assistance but companionship on some mental and physical journeys which, disturbing as they were for me, were in some ways more so for her. I thank her for being so insightful, open-minded, and supportive.
Dr. Laszlo Kreizler was born during a dinner I had long ago with John Therese, who has continued to offer his friendship and advice. Both are as highly valued now as they were then.
My path through the maze of the late nineteenth-century legal system in New York State was lit by the ever-insightful Julie Glynn, attorney-at-law. In addition, she and her husband, Andy Mattson, a keen analyst of American studies, were always willing to discuss ideas and listen to tirades, all of which kept the pressure from becoming explosive. Needless to say, whatever liberties I have taken with legal procedure for drama’s sake are my own doing.
Once again, Tim Haldeman provided invaluable reactions and suggestions, as well as the friendship necessary to keep a long and difficult project going. I am in his debt.
For their supreme patience and constant encouragement, I thank my agent, Suzanne Gluck, and my editor, Ann Godoff. They endured what must sometimes have seemed the endless ramblings of a soul in torment, and I hope they know that I couldn’t have gotten through it all without them. Marsinay Smith and Enrica Gadler also smoothed the path, and I deeply appreciate their efforts.
Heather Schroeder has worked tirelessly to oversee the fates of these stories abroad, and has always exhibited understanding and patience.
For helping me stay on course, as well as extending the hand of true friendship in Mother England, I offer my sincerest thanks to Hilary Hale.
I must also acknowledge the efforts of those physicians who took pains to keep me going through several very difficult years: Ernestina Saxton, Tirso del Junco, Jr., Frank Petito, and Bruce Yaffe exhibited the kind of committed and responsive behavior that all doctors should embody but with which most, tragically, cannot be bothered. I thank them all. I offer special gratitude to Vicki Hufnagel, a pioneering surgeon who offered me hope when many others could or would not. For her efforts to illuminate several dark corners of medicine Dr. Hufnagel has consistently been rewarded with the hostility of the medical establishment, which continues to protect its blind and backward members as assiduously as it did a hundred years ago.
While this book was in its infancy, it nearly suffered the fate of many of Libby Hatch’s victims due to my wide-eyed wandering into a creative quagmire on another coast. For helping me first try to realize a difficult vision and then get back to the business of writing books I would like to thank, in order of appearance, Rene Garcia (and Risa Bramon Garcia), Betty Moos, Mike Finnell, Joe Dante, Kathy Lingg, Cynthia Schulte, Helen Mossier, Garry Hart, Bob Eisele, Dan, Dugan, Thorn Polizzi, Jamie Freitag, Sandy Veneziano, Jason La Padura, Natalie Hart, Deborah Everton, Marshall Harvey, Michael Thau, Kathy Zatarga, Bill Millar, Hal Harrison and the rest of the crew at Paramount, along with—for they cannot be forgotten—John Corbett, John Pyper-Ferguson, Rod Taylor, J. Madison Wright, Darryl Theirse, Carolyn McCormick (and Byron Jennings and Cooper), Marjorie Monaghan, Joel Swetow and the rest of the cast of the Chronicles. That this book will be released before that project is evidence not of any shortcomings on their parts, but of why New York need never fear a certain desert village in Southern California as a rival for artistic innovation and cultural power.
Special gratitude goes to Lynn Freer and Jim Turner, along with my buddy and morning nemesis, Otto; John and Kathy von Hartz; my brother Simon and his wife, Cristina, along with my most reliable advisers Lydia, Sam, Ben, and Gabriella; my brother Ethan and his wife, Sarah; Maria von Hartz and Jay Shapiro; William von Hartz; Debbie Deuble; Ezequiel Vinao; Oren Jacoby; Meghann Haldeman; Ellen Blain; and the ever-reliable Tom Pivinski. I would also like to thank Marvin Cochran, and have faith that wherever he is, he’ll hear me.
The completion of this book, along with the sanity of its author, were consistently aided by the remarkable sense and sensibility of Elisabeth Harnois.
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THE ANGEL OF
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THE ALIENIST
by Caleb Carr
It is 1896, and a serial killer is on the loose in New York City. Dr. Laszlo Kreizler, a pioneer in forensic psychiatry, assembles a motley crew of investigators to embark on a quest that takes them into the tortured mind of this killer. Old New York comes to vivid life as Kreizler and his team race against the clock to hunt down a murderer before the death toll rises.
From the gastronomic delights of Delmonico’s to the corruption of Tammany Hall, THE ALIENIST delivers an unforgettable portrait of modern evil in old New York.
Published by Random House.
Available in your local bookstore.
THE DEVIL SOLDIER
The American Soldier of
Fortune Who Became
a God in China
by Caleb Carr
A courageous leader who became the first American mandarin, Frederick Townsend Ward won crucial victories for the emperor of China during the Taiping rebellion, history’s bloodiest civil war. THE DEVIL SOLDIER is a thrilling historical account of the kind of adventurer the world no longer sees.
Published in trade paperback
by Random House.
Available in your local bookstore.
A Ballantine Book
Published by The Random House Publishing Group
Copyright © 1997 by Caleb Carr
Map copyright © 1997 by Anita Karl and Jim Kemp
All rights reserved.
Published in t
he United States by Ballantine Books, an imprint of The Random House Publishing Group, a division of Random House, Inc., New York, and simultaneously in Canada by Random House of Canada Limited, Toronto.
Ballantine and colophon are registered trademarks of Random House, Inc.
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Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 98–96045
eISBN: 978-0-307-43272-8
This edition published by arrangement with Random House, Inc.
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