Today, I am happy to host a guest review for The Most Dangerous Animal of All from my mother Margaret.
The Most Dangerous Animal of All: Searching for My Father . . . and Finding the Zodiac Killer Published by Harper
Publication Date May 13th 2014
Goodreads
A New York Times BestsellerA San Francisco Chronicle Bestseller
Soon after his birthmother contacted him for the first time at the age of thirty-nine, adoptee Gary L. Stewart decided to search for his biological father. His quest would lead him to a horrifying truth and force him to reconsider everything he thought he knew about himself and his world.
Written with award-winning author and journalist Susan Mustafa, The Most Dangerous Animal of All tells the story of Stewart's decade-long hunt. While combing through government records and news reports and tracking down relatives and friends, Stewart turns up a host of clues—including forensic evidence—that conclusively identify his father as the Zodiac Killer, one of the most notorious and elusive serial murderers in history.
For decades, the Zodiac Killer has captivated America's imagination. His ability to evade capture while taunting authorities made him infamous. The vicious specificity of his crimes terrified Californians before the Manson murders and after, and shocked a culture enamored with the ideals of the dawning Age of Aquarius. To this day, his ciphers have baffled detectives and amateur sleuths, and his identity remains one of the twentieth century's great unsolved mysteries.
The Most Dangerous Animal of All reveals the name of the Zodiac for the very first time. Mustafa and Stewart construct a chilling psychological profile of Stewart's father: as a boy with disturbing fixations, a frustrated intellectual with pretensions to high culture, and an inappropriate suitor and then jilted lover unable to process his rage. At last, all the questions that have surrounded the case for almost fifty years are answered in this riveting narrative. The result is a singular work of true crime at its finest—a compelling, unbelievable true story told with the pacing of a page-turning novel—as well as a sensational and powerful memoir.
Wow! What a frightening need to want your biological father to be the Zodiac Killer. The writer shows no empathy whatsoever for the victims of this killer, but only seems to search for some sort of kinship and celebrity by claiming to be the offspring of a serial killer. Even to go so far as to write one of the Charles Manson ranch followers to ask if they knew “his father” was again a pathetic attempt to achieve his sick idea of a brush with a murderous celebrity inmate. Aside from the lack of evidence, it was poorly written and slow going. I continued to read to the last page as I actually was naive enough to think that he was going to reveal the DNA results that would prove his relationship to the Zodiac Killer. I was adopted myself and the author throws himself a regular pity party over having been “abandoned” at the age of just 4 weeks. Even though he states repeatedly that he was adopted by the most wonderful parents in the world AND that (in his mind) his biological parent was a serial killer. By the way, I recently learned that there are at least 3 other unrelated people that have claimed the Zodiac Killer to be their father as well. This author needs to seriously consider an appointment with a therapist.
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