Eve Lazarus

In 1965, after months of intense suffering and including the last seven weeks in hospital care, Esther Castellani died from an illness her doctors couldn't figure out. That she vomited nearly every time she ate, and her limbs went from numbness to paralysis, leaving her a virtual paraplegic, was a mystery to the team of doctors who tried to help her, with her illness progressing even while she was in a Vancouver hospital.
The hospital policy of encouraging family to bring favorite foods to the patients was meant to bring some normalcy, but in this case, it allowed her husband to have great control over Esther's intake. Her only period of any small relief was coincidentally during the ten days her radio personality husband, Rene, was broadcasting live from a car in a "Guy in the Sky" stunt. Even though everyone in the Castellani family circle was aware that Rene was having an affair and wanted out of the marriage, no one thought that Rene might be the cause of Esther's illness, and for the first months her doctors kept telling her that she was the cause, from over-eating or because she loved junk food, especially vanilla milkshakes from the burger chain White Spot.
Not until after Esther was buried did the facts of Rene's callousness and arrogance come out, that he'd applied for a mortgage with his mistress Lolly weeks before Esther's death, and that he and Lolly left for a trip to Disneyland the day after the funeral. Esther's body was exhumed and tested for poisons.
This is one of the most famous Vancouver true crime stories, one that is even addressed in the city's Police Museum. I found the story slowed in chapters when the author included the rise of the 60's counter-culture or the effect of The Beatles to the city's youth, but it's understandable that these extended asides were to place the Castellani murder in the larger world. The case itself, with it's psychopath, medical sleuths and trial, is hard to put down, and the author also had the fortune of having the cooperation of the Castellani's daughter in telling the story of what was going on in the family throughout.… (mais)

While this is a the story of a murder, it is also a social history of British Columbia in the late 1950's and early 1960's. The author explains how society was changing from the conservative straight laced one to the drug and sex life style of the 1960's. She includes a chapter on the Beatles concert in 1964 where it was a miracle some young people didn't get killed in the melee at the concert.

Rene Castellani was a radio promoter, actor, skilled handyman and a very talented individual. He was also a psychopath He married Esther Castellani and they had a daughter Jeannine. To their friends the marriage was very happy until Rene fell in love with a younger and prettier woman at work. Friends tried to get him to stop the afair and he lied to them that it was over.

In 1964 Canada, the only way to get a divorce was by admitting adultery or being cruel. Since he was lying about his activities he decided to kill his wife by slowly poisoning her with arsenic. It was a long and cruel death and mystified medical specialists as to what was killing her. Eventually her cause of death is discovered and the husband is the prime suspect in these cases and the rest of the book is about how the detectives built their case, the trial, the appeal and the final result.

While not well written, the story keeps you reading.… (mais)

Many years ago, I used to love to read true crime and watch true crime documentaries. Then I moved on, but once in a while I like to revisit that genre.

Eve Lazarus starts her vignettes of 18 unsolved murders in the Vancouver area in the late 1940s when the demographic was suddenly changing with the soldiers returning from WWII. Vancouver was a port city at the end of the rail line, and had a seedy underworld, small though it was. She moves chronologically through unsolved cases and concludes in with a cold case that was solved in 2005.

Statistics show that the murder rate has decreased significantly across North America overall, and this book reminds me of the scary murders I used to hear about when I was younger, and just don't hear about anymore.

There were a few cases I was familiar with, such as the notorious "Babes in the Woods" where 2 skeletons of children were found in Stanley Park in the early 1950s. This case bubbles up in the news every now and then, but so far no one has even identified the victims.

Overall, it was a compelling, interesting read. A bit disturbing to read multiple stories about women being murdered late at night after getting off a bus, when I was waiting for my 17 year old daughter to make her way home at 11PM (a LOT of texts saying "okay, where are you now?"). But still, really interesting, and lots of great pictures of Vancouver in the past, which I always find fascinating.

Recommended for: It is classified as "history of BC/Canada" and "sociology: crime", so if you're one of those nerds, then you'll like it. It appealed to my latent true crime interest and Vancouver history.

Rating: I could nitpick and be critical (editing: Ah hem. Danish used when it should have been Dutch, but no one cares. Except the Danish. And the Dutch. I'm Dutch), but I'll say I'll overlook some of that and give it a 4 star rating for enjoyment and interest.… (mais)