The Ice Man

[SFG75]

SFG 75=


We are all capable of doing this. It's what has made it possible for us to continue sending our children of to kill other people's children down through the ages.

Politics aside, mentally well-adjusted individuals will follow orders and sublimate their own decision making in doing so. That is how many SS guards and others like them did what they did. You can be a mentally healthy nazi in other words. I don't agree in this case, with the assertion that it is impossible, for a mob hit man to be a cold hearted killer during the day, and a warm, caring family man in the evening. Like the SS guard, the mob hit man is following orders, as well as justifying it in his own mind.

 

[Fantasy Moon]

I don't see what is so ghastly about the back cover excerpt. It would make me want to read it all the more if the book's subtitle didn't already.

I admit, I read a lot of books in regards to the mob. They make an offer I just can't refuse.

I'll remember that the next time I get questioned about my reading material.

 

[Peder]

I don't see what is so ghastly about the back cover excerpt.

Fantasy Moon,
Yours seems to be the majority reaction, and might even be the universal reaction here except for one, my own. I have wondered long and hard why my reaction is so out of step -- because it still is -- and have realized that my own outrage has so many dimensions that it would take a very long essay, verging toward book-size, to get to the roots of all the issues. That will not happen here, and not now, and probably not ever for this audience, since I see that it may well fall on deaf ears and will almost certainly rekindle old fires. I think the difference in our reactions will simply have to be regarded as the difference in people and if the back cover is motivating you to read the book then it is fulfilling its intended purpose. What more can one expect from a back cover?

Peder

 

[Fantasy Moon]

Fantasy Moon,
Yours seems to be the majority reaction, and might even be the universal reaction here except for one, my own. I have wondered long and hard why my reaction is so out of step -- because it still is -- and have realized that my own outrage has so many dimensions that it would take a very long essay, verging toward book-size, to get to the roots of all the issues. That will not happen here, and not now, and probably not ever for this audience, since I see that it may well fall on deaf ears and will almost certainly rekindle old fires. I think the difference in our reactions will simply have to be regarded as the difference in people and if the back cover is motivating you to read the book then it is fulfilling its intended purpose. What more can one expect from a back cover?

Peder

My reaction is probably just the result of reading so many true-crime books over the years. During summer breaks my favorite activity was to check out all the criminal behavior books at the library, especially profiling cases by FBI agents John Douglas and Roy Hazelwood. I guess it doesn't help that I've gotten back into reading the archives at the Crime Library website again.

I left off on the chapter after a teenage Richard killed the bully in the projects. It seems interesting so far.

 

[Peder]

I left off on the chapter after a teenage Richard killed the bully in the projects. It seems interesting so far.

Sounds like an appropriate beginning for a cold-blooded Mafia killer.

 

[Fantasy Moon]

Sounds like an appropriate beginning for a cold-blooded Mafia killer.

Before that it was killing the stray animals around the neighborhood. A classic prerequisite for killers. It seems a lot of these cold-blooded killers wish to blame their acts of violence on abuse or other childhood torments. What a cliche.

 

[raffaellabella]

The Ice Man back cover.

I haven't read the book but saw the HBO doc on The Ice Man and thought it was interesting to see into the mind of a killer-for-hire.
****************

There were times at home when Richard would have one of his outbursts and break things and then lock himself in his office. Merrick would ask him to please calm down, to “please relax, Daddy.” During these episodes, Richard would explain in a matter-fact-way, “You know if…if I kill Mommy, if some thing happens and she dies, I’ll have to kill you all…I can’t leave any witnesses.”
“Yes, Daddy. I know, Daddy,” she said.
As strange and horrible a things as this was to tell a child, Richard was trying to let Merrick know in advance – out of consideration – what might happen. He wanted her to understand that he was doing such a thing out of…love.
Only out of love.
He loved Barbara too much.
He loved the children too much.
That was the problem. The only way he could deal with their loss, if he inadvertently killed Barbara was to kill them. That was how Richard had dealt with all his problems since he was a child.
“But you, Merrick…you’ll be the hardest to kill. You understand that?”
“Yes, Daddy,” she said, and she did understand this. She knew she was his favorite and she coveted that.

--From The Ice Man

 

[Peder]

Before that it was killing the stray animals around the neighborhood. A classic prerequisite for killers. It seems a lot of these cold-blooded killers wish to blame their acts of violence on abuse or other childhood torments. What a cliche.

Fantasy Moon
It sounds as if you have enough experience with the genre to provide an informed opinion. It is not a book that I myself intend to read, but I am sure that there are a number of us, including myself, who will be interested in hearing your reactions as you read along.
Many thanks,
Peder

 

[pontalba]

I cannot begin to express my revulsion.
Someone actually called this guy a caring family man?


Obviously not someone that was of one of his victim's family.

 

[Fantasy Moon]

Fantasy Moon
It sounds as if you have enough experience with the genre to provide an informed opinion. It is not a book that I myself intend to read, but I am sure that there are a number of us, including myself, who will be interested in hearing your reactions as you read along.
Many thanks,
Peder

No pressure, right? The criminal mind is something that I've had an odd interest in studying for many years so I'll do my best. It might take me a little longer to read it than normal because I'm in one of those moods where I'm reading more than one book at a time. The Ice Man is also being accompanied by a biography of the Marquis de Sade.

 

[Peder]

No. No pressure, Fantasy Moon,
Maybe the interest here has faded completely.
Peder