Little, crazy children A true crime tragedy

James Renner, 1978-

Book - 2023

"In September of 1990, in the Cleveland suburb of Shaker Heights, sixteen-year-old Lisa Pruett was on her way to a midnight tryst with her boyfriend when she was viciously stabbed to death only thirty feet from the boy's home. The murder cast a palpable gloom over the upscale community and sparked accusations, theories, and rumors among Lisa's friends and peers. Together they wove a damning narrative that circled back to a likely suspect: "weird" high school outcast Kevin Young. Without a shred of evidence the teen was arrested, charged, and tried for the crime. His eventual acquittal didn't diminish the anger and outrage among those who believed that Kevin got away with murder. With a fresh perspective and pai...nstaking research culled from police files, court records, transcripts, uncollected evidence, and new interviews, James Renner reconstructs the events leading up to and following that heartbreaking night. What emerges is a portrait of a community seething with dark undercurrents--its single-minded authorities, protective status-conscious parents, and the deeply peer-pressured teen within Lisa's circle. Who had the capacity for such unchecked violence? What monsters still lurk in the dark? After more than thirty years, questions like these continue to fester among the community of Shaker Heights, Ohio, still deeply scarred by wounds that remain hidden, unspoken, and unhealed"--Dust jacket flap.

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Subjects
Genres
True crime stories
Case studies
Published
New York, NY : Citadel Press, Kensington Publishing Corp [2023]
Language
English
Main Author
James Renner, 1978- (author)
Item Description
Includes discussion questions (pages 319-320).
Physical Description
xiii, 322 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm
ISBN
9780806542553
  • Prologue
  • I. Investigation
  • 1. On Shaker Heights
  • 2. The Bike in the Bushes
  • 3. Night Visitors
  • 4. The Boyfriend
  • 5. The Said Lisa Lee
  • 6. The Old Man
  • 7. They Call Him "Tex"
  • 8. The Echo of a Scream
  • 9. Have You Talked to Kevin?
  • 10. The Night Season
  • 11. The Dark Hallway
  • 12. We're Both Crazy
  • 13. Don't Kill the Messinger
  • 14. School Ties
  • 15. Theories
  • 16. The Girl Next Door
  • 17. Breaking Kevin Young
  • 18. Return to Shaker
  • 19. History Repeats
  • 20. Big Fish
  • 21. Shoe Leather
  • 22. Gods Don't Like to Be Ignored
  • 23. Proper Protection
  • 24. We Lost Feagler
  • 25. New Blood
  • II. Trial
  • 26. To Speak the Truth
  • 27. Openings
  • 28. The Black Glove Cult
  • 29. I Stand Corrected
  • 30. The Dog That Didn't Bark
  • 31. Confidant
  • 32. A Story for David Lynch
  • 33. The Runaway Juror
  • 34. The AP Posse Rides Again
  • 35. Shades of Gray
  • 36. The Curious Confession
  • 37. The Final Witness
  • 38. The Mosaic
  • 39. Forget It, Jake, It's Shaker Heights
  • 40. The Verdict
  • III. Judgment
  • 41. I Hear You Paint Houses
  • 42. The Serious Problem of Internet Sleuths
  • 43. Time Enough at Last
  • 44. Socially Distant
  • 45. Reason and Lack Thereof
  • 46. Where Are They Now?
  • 47. The Reluctant Foreman
  • 48. His Own Worst Enemy
  • 49. Somebody Else Was There
  • 50. The Long and Winding Road to Chipotle
  • 51. The Said David Branagan
  • 52. That Growing Unease
  • 53. The State Rests
  • 54. A New Mosaic
  • Discussion Questions
  • Acknowledgments
Review by Booklist Review

Cleveland suburb Shaker Heights, a tight-knit community bursting with hometown pride, suffered a brutal tragedy one fatal night in 1990. Lisa Pruett was just 16 years old when she was ruthlessly stabbed to death only 30 feet from her boyfriend's home. The town erupted in a cloud of rumors and suspicion. Could one of their own be capable of such a heinous act of violence? Their picture-perfect, upper-class facade was shattered to reveal a dark underbelly of secrets. Investigative journalist Renner lays out Lisa's case like a prime time police procedural, re-creating conversations and courtroom scenes through careful research. Despite a highly publicized trial, Lisa's murder remains unsolved. Renner presents it as a cautionary tale of how police tunnel vision and media interference can hinder the path to justice. He introduces readers to other suspects who didn't reach the limelight and offers hope that new advances in genealogical DNA research could help catch Lisa's killer. This title is extremely engrossing and well crafted. Recommended for true-crime fans of Little Fires Everywhere.

From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review

Who killed Ohio teen Lisa Pruett in 1990? Philosophy of Crime podcaster Renner (True Crime Addict) casts convincing doubt on the case's official theories in this superior real-life page-turner. After midnight on September 13, the Shaker Heights police received a 911 call from teenager Dan Dreifort, who reported that his girlfriend, Pruett, hadn't shown up at his home. Soon after officers responded, Pruett's body was found in a nearby yard. Dreifort, who had recently returned home after his father had him committed to a psychiatric ward, was initially a suspect: berries found on his front steps matched those on a bush near Pruett's body, and a potential murder weapon was found in his bedroom. Ultimately, though, Dreifort faced no charges. Instead, police focused on Kevin Young, a local teenager with a history of antisocial behavior (he'd called in a school bomb threat once, and he was often unkempt in public). In 1991, Young was indicted for Pruett's murder; he was acquitted at trial the following year. Renner does a meticulous job casting doubt on the prosecution's case against Young and using the authorities' dismissal of Dreifort to help identify a more likely murderer, spinning original interviews and reviews of official records into a vivid and disturbing account of a rush to judgment that left Pruett's brutal murder unsolved. True crime aficionados of all stripes will devour this. Agent: Yishai Seidman, Dunow, Carlson & Lerner. (July)

(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by Library Journal Review

In the early morning of September 14, 1990, in Shaker Heights, OH, 16-year-old Lisa Pruett snuck out of her house for a midnight rendezvous with her boyfriend. Just 100 feet from her boyfriend's home, Pruett was taken from her bicycle and stabbed 21 times. Investigative journalist/podcaster Renner (True Crime Addict) shows how the community focused on one suspect in the murder, classmate Kevin Young, who was believed to have feelings for Pruett. Although Young was found not guilty, many in the community still viewed him as the one who got away, although there was no evidence to support their theory. The author believes that Young was indeed innocent and presents another candidate as the possible murderer. Young ultimately died in 2017 at the age of 44; no foul play was suspected in his death. The book would have benefitted from a more engaging approach, instead of the casual and conversational tone employed in the narrative. VERDICT This book about an unsolved murder that continues to haunt an affluent suburb of Cleveland is an optional purchase for libraries in the region.--Michael Sawyer

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