A Clockwork Murder

Excellent book with great characters. Very well written. I would recommend this book.

A great read for true crime fans. Jackson gives detailed account of a horrific crime.

I love a true crime thriller and this one is no exception. George Woldt had a sick fantasy about raping and murdering a woman. A friend of his, Lucas Salmon, was manipulated by Woldt into helping him carry out that fantasy by raping and murdering Jacine Gielinski. The brutality of what they to her did is beyond belief. It took years to get a verdict as they were tried separately. Jacine's parents , Peggy and Bob wanted them to face the death penalty, again the lawyers did everything they could to prolong the hearing in the hope that Peggy and Bob would be worn down and say enough is enough and let the accused have life imprison instead. Even though they were caught straight away and both gave statements of what they did to her, we learn how the justice system works in Colorado Springs, and how the lawyers use every tactic there is to try to get them off and of the mountain costs to the taxpayers throughout the hearings.
If you enjoy true crime then I have no hesitation in recommending this book as one of the best I have read in a long while
I received a copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for my honest and unbiased review

A well written and well researched book. I had never heard about this murder before I read this book. It is a horrific crime. This book is very hard to read in places due to the gruesomeness of the murder. The fact that defence lawyers were willing to help them is also hard to read. This book will stay with me for a while.

You learn what pure evil is in this book, two friends George and Lucas decide after watching a movie a clockwork orange that they are going to stalk, rape, and murder a young woman.... This book gives you all the details (truth) about how these two friends came about this horrible act. We then follow the case through court and how the young woman's parents have to suffer for years upon years as they are forced through a brutal trial... In the end yet again the justice system has failed and has allowed pure evil to rot away in prison... Personally i believe for something this evil and yes i believe they do not deserve to be considered human anymore- they should be put to death- why should tax payers have to pay for them to have 3 meals a day and a bed, meanwhile the poor girl they killed was left naked under a van to freeze as they took their time killing her, then mutilated her after death.

This is a powerful and emotional book that will not only force this emotions out of you, but may change your mind on the controversial issue of the death penalty.

This is a scary, horrid story and gave me the chills. I guess it was very well written now that I look back on it but, it wasn't pleasant while reading. So wit that being said, I guess any book that gets me that entranced means it must be well written.

This was a suspenseful and overall interesting look into the killers. I could not put the book down. the writing was fantastic. I am excited to read more by this author

Another dive into true crime…and having read and reviewed Steve Jackson’s Rough Trade, I anticipated a well-written exploration of something creepy In fact, I recall being surprised by the quality of Rough Trade (reviewed at https://littorallibrarian.wordpress.com/2017/04/13/rough-trade-by-steve-jackson/). So I was happy to receive an advance copy of Mr. Jackson’s “A Clockwork Murder” from Wild Blue Press and NetGalley in exchange for my honest review.

Jackson’s approach differs from that of many TC authors, as he explained in the foreword to Rough Trade: “It’s not the blood and gore, or sexual titillation, I’m looking for…I’m interested in the psychology and “ripple effect” of violent crime, and the back stories of the human beings involved: killers, victims, law enforcement, those involved in the justice system, and the community.”

And wow, does he have a lot of material to work with in this exploration of two of the creepiest murderers ever, George Woldt and Lucas Salmon. These two friends shared a fascination with the movie A Clockwork Orange (hence the title), a movie from the 19070s that explores the theme of violence and ‘ultra-violence’, as it follows the actions of some guys who take joy in terrorizing others. Seen as an extreme example to those who are outcasts and do not feel self-empowered, it often reinforces the idea that people can do whatever they please, without regard to the repercussions.

These two weirdos met as teenagers. In high school, Woldt didn’t really stand out, being just another somewhat troubled teenager in a rough high school. He possessed the skill to be a charmer, especially face-to-face with females, although behind their backs he was known for saying they were all bitches good for only one thing: sex. Known for the screaming matches he would get into with his Korean mother, he was widely regarded by friends and associates as someone obsessed with very strange ideas fantasies, including the desire to commit rape and assault…which most saw who knew him saw as bluster. At one point he was married to Becky, who “tried to get him to go to counseling to deal with his anger, but he wouldn’t. Instead, she learned to do what he said or suffer the consequences. He was a master manipulator…”

Lucas Salmon was also an odd guy, although from a more traditional family. Lucas was seen by many to be the victim of George’s control, and he “…envied George Woldt and wanted to be like him—have sex with women and not care what other people thought of him. And he especially wanted George to quit teasing him about being a virgin.”

The book goes into gruesome detail about the night these two finally made their long-discussed fantasy come true, as they randomly chose a woman (a beautiful young athlete named Jacine), abducted her (in view of numerous witnesses), raped and tortured her, and murdered her, leaving her corpse under a van in a school parking lot. Being complete lunatics, they kept the bloody knife and the victim’s bloody sweatshirt in the car they used for the crime, parking it in front of their apartment (which they shared with George’s wife Bonnie) until the police showed up shortly after the witnesses had called in the license plate number of the car.

I kept shaking my head at the crazy that leapt off every page. These two were bad enough, but Bonnie was also wacko: “Bonnie said she couldn’t understand why her husband didn’t come to her if he wanted to rape someone. She would have been more than willing to act out the fantasy…Bonnie had pouted that she thought she was prettier than Jacine and complained, “Why her and not me?”” Holy hell.

There is a boatload of detail about the trials and the effect of the crime on the victim’s families, particularly Jacine’s mother and stepfather. There was so much that completely reinforced my already negative view of our system of “justice,” in this case emphasizing the way the system focuses on the plight of those on trial and ignores the victim(s). The reliance on “expert witnesses” was another source for my disgust, as various psychologists and psychiatrists trotted out theories and justifications, including “dependent personality disorder” for Lucas and the truly mind-boggling idea that as he was raping Jacine, George actually had the mindset that HE was the victim of sexual assault! (yeah, I told you – crazy).

It is possibly the most horrific crime book I’ve read, partly due to the fact that the two perpetrators were totally matter-of-fact about the way they picked their victim completely at random (so perhaps it COULD happen to anyone), and how they confessed in great detail, down to the fact of their high-fiving one another after Jacine was finally dead. Ugh.

Lots to ponder here, about the judicial system, death penalty, whether it is right for defense attorneys to do ANYTHING to avoid conviction, the rights of victims, etc.

As I said about Rough Trade, this isn’t literature, nor is it meant to be. What it IS is quality True Crime, well written and researched. It’s definitely five star true crime, but be warned — it is HORRIFIC.

A Clockwork Murder tells us all about the story and lifes of George Woldt and Lucas Salmon, two men who brutally raped and murdered a young woman who had a beautiful soul called Jacine Gielinski.

It deals with Jacines life up to her brutal murder, and the impact she had on peoples lives. It also shines a light onto the lives of George Woldt and Lucas Salmon and their, lightly put, "odd" friendship in which George was the sadistic, brutal one and Lucas let him do whatever he pleased just to keep their friendship alive. It tells us all about the aftermath of the murder as well as the lengthy court trial that followed the quick confession of the two killers.

All in all, it was a very good read. The author did an amazing job at capturing all aspects and details concerning this horrifying crime and it's clear that he knows what he's talking about.
Though I'm usually a very quick reader, especially when it comes to true crime books, it took me a while to finish this, simply because the details on the sickening friendship of the two men as well as everything leading up to and following the murder were just so horrific that it took me a while to stomach all that. So I'd definitely recommend this book to everyone, especially true crime bingers though not for the faint of stomach.

I got a free copy of this book from the publishers via NetGalley in exchange for a free and honest review.