A review by james7634
Chasing the Devil: My Twenty-Year Quest to Capture the Green River Killer by David Reichert

4.0

I didn’t know anything about the green river, killer, and man that was a disturbing story. I feel really bad for these victims, and I think this book is in really good true crime memoir

As expected, the sheriff is very ACAB. Pontificating, religious and separating good normal Americans versus the bad or  damaged ones. 
Really self congratulating and not very self critical. It sounds like it was a very difficult case to solve, and there were mistakes over the investigation.

I did the audiobook, and he had a very Chris Hansen type tone, so I was totally down to listen to this book. It was really interesting listen to the law enforcement  perspective I would be interested. In listening to some other perspectives.

The victims were so young and it’s so tragic to hear not only about how they were victimized and dismissed, but also to have these stories of these young people who were involved in prostitution and criminal activities, based on how they were brought up

This audiobook also had excerpts from interviews with the killer and from documentaries, and I thought the book was done really well

Again, the crusading night against the darkness of evil narrative was really grading. I think law enforcement  is plagued by religious fanatics, who dismiss fact, in order to embrace their feelings of being in a battle against evil. 

I was really frustrated when he gave extra attention to one victim, who unlike the other victims, had actually just fallen with the wrong crowd. Keep in mind these are 14 to 18 year old girls. It was super dismissive and dripping with the classism that allows sex workers, and lower income people to be victims of Crime. 


But what can you expect from a sheriff?

I really enjoyed this. I think this case must’ve been devastating for the people involved and I was happy to learn more about it. Again, this guy was caught in 2003 and I knew next to nothing about this.