The Hunting Accident: A True Story of Crime and Poetry

By David L. Carlson and Landis Blair

The amazing true story of Matt Rizzo, an uneducated blind criminal who received a classical education in prison from his cellmate, Nathan Leopold Jr., of the infamous Leopold and Loeb duo.

It was a hunting accident—that much Charlie is sure of. That's how his father, Matt Rizzo—a gentle intellectual who writes epic poems in Braille—had lost his vision. It’s not until Charlie’s troubled teenage years, when he’s facing time for his petty crimes, that he learns the truth.

Matt Rizzo was blinded by a shotgun blast to the face—but it was while participating in an armed robbery.

Newly blind and without hope, Matt began his bleak new life at Stateville Prison. But in this unlikely place, Matt's life and very soul were saved by one of America's most notorious killers: Nathan Leopold Jr., of the infamous Leopold and Loeb.

From David L. Carlson and Landis Blair comes the unbelievable true story of a father, a son, and remarkable journey from despair to enlightenment.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Macmillan Publishers
• Release date: Sep 19, 2017
• ISBN: 9781250190734

David L. Carlson

David L. Carlson has been a filmmaker, musician, car salesman, experience designer and is the co-founder of Opera-Matic, a non-profit street opera company in Chicago. The Hunting Accident is his first book.

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Reviews for The Hunting Accident

[librolindsay · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Wow...I really enjoyed that... I had never heard of the Leopold and Loeb murder and was a little unclear as to how much of this was a true story. By the end I was fully invested. Landis Blair's crosshatching is perfect for the mood.

[stahl2ricco · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Gorgeous art! Just opening the cover was breathtaking! I’ve become a fan of Landis Blair for sure! And I really liked that the last illustrated page had color! Awesome choice! I also liked the pictures at the end! A real work of art!The story was just so-s0 for me. Way too much Dante and philosophizing. The “Writings of Matt Rizzo” were absolutely not my cup of tea. It was interesting historically, with it being set at Hitler's rise to power and with Matt's cell mate being Nathan Leopold, of Leopold and Loeb infamy. But the poetry and philosophy really bored me. Art and presentation = 5 stars! Story, for me = 1 star.

[kayanelson · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This is the first graphic novel (although it's non-fiction) that I've read. I found it to be a good experience. I enjoyed looking at the drawings to get a better feeling of what was going on versus just reading the words. I had to remind myself to slow down and enjoy. The factual part of the book was very good too and I learned a little about Dante. The poetry aspect was a little difficult for me to get through but it truly was a necessary part of the story. I'm going to the American Writer's Museum 9/6/2018 to hear the author speak and I'm looking forward to it.

[villemezbrown · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I had trouble liking this book as the first half is slow, meandering and filled with what seems like unnecessary psychedelic imagery for a pedestrian domestic drama and pages crosshatched to the point of being nearly completely black. Even the midpoint turn to being a prison drama and the introduction of a infamous murderer Nathan Leopold didn't pull the book out of its downward spiral. But slowly as the book neared its end, my boredom spiral synched up to the suicidal spiral of the main character and his study of Dante's Inferno and started to turn around as things turned around for him. The imagery and themes came together in the conclusion and lifted the whole book in my estimation.

Unfortunately, the one part that finds no redemption in my opinion are the actual writing samples of the blind father, Matt Rizzo. I found those passages a chore to read and understand why they were repeatedly passed over for publication.

[whitreidtan · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

When I am asked what I like to read, I generally tell people that it's easier to share what I don't like to read since my actual reading is so randomly eclectic. That said, one of the few areas of the bookstore/library that I steer clear of on a regular basis is the true crime section. Another area is that of graphic novels and memoirs. And a third is poetry. The Hunting Accident is the both of the first two with sections of the third. So what gives, right? Why on earth did I ever pick this up and read it? Sometimes people I trust can get me to edge out of my comfort zone just a little bit and this is one of those rare times. Although I still won't be searching out those sections of the bookstore, it was interesting indeed to read something so unlike my usual choices.Charlie Rizzo is just a young boy when his mother and grandmother take him from Chicago to California. After his mother's death, Charlie, still young, goes back to Chicago and his father. He has to adjust to a whole new life, not the least of which is his father's blindness, ostensibly a result of a youthful hunting accident, and the way that this disability makes Charlie his father's caretaker in ways that he comes to resent as he grows. As Charlie gets older, he falls in with a bad group of kids and starts heading down a path that has no good end and very probably only ends in jail time or worse. It is to this defiant but still pliable son on the cusp of adulthood that Matt Rizzo finally tells the real story of his blindness, what shaped him into the man he became, and continued to impact and change his life, including his marriage, long after the events were past.Growing up in Chicago's Little Italy, Matt Rizzo was blinded not in a hunting accident but during a job for the Mob. Newly blind and increasingly depressed, he ends up in Stateville Prison in special housing with a notorious and terrifying cellmate: Nathan Leopold of Leopold and Loeb fame. (Note that the murder these two committed was grisly and horrifying so you may or may not want to look it up.) Oddly enough, his association with this infamous sociopath leads him to learn braille and to discover the power of reading and writing. And ultimately he bequeaths his story and his lifetime of writing to his son Charlie in the hopes that this information will help turn Charlie around and that Charlie will keep his story alive.This is an enormous book, break your wrist enormous and I'm not entirely convinced it needs to be so long. The illustrations are black and white and covered in tiny cross-hatchings that contribute to a feeling of darkness, bleakness, and despair. But this is more than just the black tale of Matt Rizzo's crime and punishment, it is also at its heart the story of parenting, of a father and son trying to come together, of a father wanting a different life for his son, a better life. The stories contained in it expand outward, each framed by another and another, all tied thematically, explicitly and not explicitly, to Dante's Inferno, chronicling both Dante and Matt Rizzo's journeys through Hell. There are pieces of Matt's own writing included in the text and while it is understandable why they were included, they are rather baffling bits of writing. On the whole, Charlie's story is less interesting than his father's so the book is slow going until Matt finds it necessary to tell Charlie his own life story, at which point it picks up. Over all, I appreciate the idea of redemption through literature and of the surprising turn Matt Rizzo's life takes living with Nathan Leopold but the fact that poetry, graphic non-fiction, and true crime are not my bailiwick combined with the unrelenting darkness of the tale and its drawings made me unable to fully appreciate this as so many others have. Looking at other reviews, I am firmly in the minority though so if anything about this book has piqued your interest, by all means do grab a copy and form your own opinions.