Fall 2018:

This was part of a historical horror series released by Amazon for checkout on special. I ended up listening through all of them, and being both fascinated and horrified by the things within. The questions that are left, and the points about how certain authors and certain novels headtip to these things was quite interesting. ( )

4th in the series of short stories (non-fiction) about crimes in the 1930's. this one was all about the media panic caused by several child rape/murder cases in that time period before World War II. Some interesting side information was given about the theories why these crimes were being committed, one trying to link the behavior to Big Band music. ( )

The book was well written and, in the case of the audiobook, was well read. However, its subject matter is disturbing. Read/listen with caution. ( )

The United States was paralyzed by The Depression when a series of child murders incited a national panic about killer pedophiles. Reports from the FBI in the media about these cases riled the downtrodden masses into hysteria about supposed huge numbers pedophile sex criminals targeting American children. Turns out, those types of crimes, while scary, terrifying and horrible, were not increasing in number at all, but the public was in a particularly vulnerable state and susceptible to hysteria and fear. Panic, part of the Bloodlands Collection from Audible/Amazon Originals outlines some of the child murder cases that incited the fear about pedophile sex perverts in 1937.

The Bloodlands Collection gathers six true crime stories by Harold Schechter. Schechter is also the author of several true crime novels. I listened to the audio version of Panic. The audio is just over 1.5 hours long, so an easy, short listen. Steven Webber narrates. He reads at a nice even pace and has a good voice. Even with my partial hearing loss, I was easily able to understand and enjoy the entire audio book.

I found Panic to be interesting, informative and poignant even after the passing of 81 years. Sensationalized reporting in the media can still incite emotion, panic, and fear in the public even now. And, with the instant news feeds of the internet age, the spread of news reports -- sensationalized, true, false and otherwise -- is lightning quick. I found myself comparing the scare of 1937 to present day panics as I listened. Some things never change. Public sentiments can still be manipulated by the media. In some ways it's even worse now than 80 years ago as information is passed so much faster now, often times with no fact checking whatsoever.

Another great listen in the Bloodlands Collection! I have enjoyed each story. I'm definitely going to check out some of Harold Schechter's other writings. ( )

Looking at what causes "moral panic", those times when just a few but similar horrible incidents happen closely together and spark nation-wide fear, true crime author Schechter uses the year 1937 as an example. In that year alone there were several cases of little girls being assaulted and murdered, primarily in the New York City area. The newspapers printed articles from every angle of the subject, much of it telling the public that there were thousands of men out looking for children. This year seems to be the year that parents began telling children not to take candy from strangers, as some of the men offered treats to lure the very young girls.
The author briefly explores the part that The Great Depression may have played, and that many experts blamed the new big band swing music that was rising in popularity. Duke Ellington even wrote a newspaper article defending his music from the charges. I would have liked more about these topics, or others that may have explained why this particular year saw such a rise in child murders, or perhaps a rise in the reporting of child murders. Much of the information was devoted to particular cases from 1937 and the information is disturbing. ( )