Description
The terrifying true story of Louisiana serial killer Ronald Dominique’s ten-year killing spree that left more than twenty men dead, and the two dedicated detectives who hunted him down.
In 1997, the bodies of young African American men began turning up in the cane fields of the quiet suburbs of New Orleans. The victims—many of them transient street hustlers—had been brutally raped and strangled, but police had no leads on the killer’s identity. The murders continued, leaving southeast Louisiana’s gay community rattled and the police desperate for a break in the case. Detectives Dennis Thornton and Dawn Bergeron came together as task force partners, and they were indefatigable in their decade-long effort to track down the killer.
In 2006, DNA evidence finally linked the murders to a suspect: the unassuming Ronald Joseph Dominique, who had lived under the radar for years, working as a pizza deliveryman and meter reader. But who was Ronald Dominique and what led him to commit such heinous crimes? With direct access to the investigation, Dominique’s confession, and all of the killer’s body dump sites in Houma, author Fred Rosen enters the warped mind of a murderer and captures a troubled, disturbing, and broken life. As with the many other serial killers he has covered, including Jeffrey Dahmer (the Milwaukee Cannibal) and Dennis Rader (the BTK killer), Rosen provides a horrifying and fascinating account of the lengths to which a bloodthirsty monster will go to lure and brutalize his victims.
Ronald Dominique was a Patti LaBelle impersonator, meter reader, pizza delivery guy, rapist, and serial killer. This is a look at his crimes, his confession and his sentencing.
When I read true crime I prefer a more matter of fact and less sensationalized approach. I would have liked to know more about his family and what drove him to these crimes and less about his "pulsating" slang for male sex organ. Not much of his family life was disclosed other than he may have been molested by a priest or he may have lied about it, and that his relatives made fun of him for being gay. Out of respect for the dead I would have liked to know more about his victims, other than some of them were gay and some of them were straight, and that most of them were seedy characters. I never felt fully engaged in the story due to the strange writing style. It seemed a bit awkward and clumsy.
3 out of 5 stars
I received a complimentary copy for review.
There is definitely a lot going on in this story. Sometimes too much. Maybe that is why it is being continued as a trilogy. Jack and Penny met years ago at university. Penny was instantly charmed by the way Jack was caring for his little sister. They became the best of friends and apparently that friendship continued as Jack became a rock star and fathered several children with his wife Crystal, none of whom Crystal seemed to particularly want to mother. Jack was not the typical rock and roll type, he loves his children above all else and is a good and decent family man. His wife is the partier in the family and she often takes off for long stretches of time leaving her children in the care of their father and Penny who has become their nanny. Penny has come from a dysfunctional family and having nothing to do with her own relatives she comes to love Jack's children as her own. Penny suffers depression and bouts of anorexia which she tries to hide from Jack along with another darker secret. While spending the Thanksgiving holiday together, Crystal and Jack have a fight and he demands Penny drive him home during a snow storm. On their way they are kidnapped by a strange group who claim that although Jack is the real target they are taking Penny along as well. Someone they call "The Employer" wants information from her. 
