"In the 1960s\, Edgar Smith\, in prison and sentenced to death for the mu rder of teenager Victoria Zielinski\, struck up a correspondence with Will iam F. Buckley\, the founder of "National Review." Buckley\, who refused t o believe that a man who supported the neoconservative movement could have committed such a heinous crime\, began to advocate not only for Smith's l ife to be spared but also for his sentence to be overturned. So begins a b izarre and tragic tale of mid-century America. Sarah Weinman's "Scoundrel" leads us through the twists of fate and fortune that brought Smith to fre edom\, book deals\, fame\, and eventually to attempting murder again. In S mith\, Weinman has uncovered a psychopath who slipped his way into public acclaim and acceptance before crashing down to earth once again. From the people Smith deceived--Buckley\, the book editor who published his work\, friends from back home\, and the women who loved him--to Americans who wer e willing to buy into his lies\, Weinman explores who in our world is acco rded innocence\, and how the public becomes complicit in the stories we te ll one another. "Scoundrel" shows\, with clear eyes and sympathy for all t hose who entered Smith's orbit\, how and why he was able to manipulate\, o bfuscate\, and make a mockery of both well-meaning people and the American criminal justice system. It tells a forgotten part of American history at the nexus of justice\, prison reform\, and civil rights\, and exposes how one man's ill-conceived plan to set another man free came at the great ex pense of Edgar Smith's victims."
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