Boston Tabloid

"A thoughtful, compelling reexamination of an intriguing story of fatal obsession and its enduring mysteries."-Kirkus Reviews

"Well-researched and a page turner..."-Library Journal

The disappearance of atwenty-one-year-old woman from a Massachusetts suburb became one of the mostdiscussed crimes of the twentieth century. The discussion intensified when thepubliclearned that she worked as a prostitute in Boston's notoriousred-light district, the "Combat Zone," and was linked by a trail of blood to afamous professor from Tufts University.

When Robin Benedict vanishedthe investigation and media circus that gripped the city of Boston hadn't been seensince the days of the Boston Strangler case. On a Sunday morning in March 1983,a small-time pimp walked into a police station and claimed his girlfriend wasmissing. He said she had been on her way to visit a client named WilliamDouglas. In the year that followed, the case drew in detectives, statetroopers, scores of journalists, and even psychics. But Robin was never found.

Boston Tabloidreconstructsa grisly murder, and explores one man's bizarre obsession. In revisiting thislegendary crime, Don Stradley consulted journalists involved in the mediafrenzy, prison authorities, arresting officers, and psychiatrists, all in aneffort to unravel a most tangled story. Why was the city, and the nation, sweptup in this sordid tale? It remains a grim and fascinating moment in Boston'shistory.