Helltown: The Untold Story of a Serial Killer on Cape Cod
3.5/5
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About this ebook
**Soon to be an Amazon limited series directed by Academy Award winner Ed Berger from Robert Downey Jr.'s Team Downey**
Before Charles Manson, there was Tony Costa—the serial killer of Cape Cod
1969: The hippie scene is vibrant in Provincetown, Massachusetts. Long-haired teenagers roam the streets, strumming guitars and preaching about peace and love… and Tony Costa is at the center of it all. To a certain group of smitten young women, he is known as Sire—the leader of their counter-culture movement, the charming man who speaks eloquently and hands out hallucinogenic drugs like candy. But beneath his benign persona lies a twisted and uncontrollable rage that threatens to break loose at any moment. Tony Costa is the most dangerous man on Cape Cod, and no one who crosses his path is safe.
When young women begin to disappear, Costa's natural charisma and good looks initially protect him from suspicion. But as the bodies are discovered, the police close in on him as the key suspect. Meanwhile, local writers Kurt Vonnegut and Norman Mailer are locked in a desperate race to secure their legacies as great literary icons—and they both set their sights on Tony Costa and the drug-soaked hippie culture that he embodies as their next promising subject, launching independent investigations that stoke the competitive fires between two of the greatest American writers.
Immersive, unflinching, and shocking, Helltown is a landmark true crime narrative that transports us back to the turbulent late 1960s, reveals the secrets of a notorious serial killer, and unspools the threads connecting Costa, Vonnegut, and Mailer in the seaside city that played host to horrors unlike any ever seen before. New York Times bestselling author Casey Sherman has crafted a stunner.
Casey Sherman
Casey Sherman is an award winning journalist and bestselling author of The Finest Hours, Bad Blood, Black Irish, and Black Dragon. He received the Edward R. Murrow Award for Journalistic Excellence as a member of the CBS Boston news team, and has been nominated for an Emmy Award. A featured guest on major television networks and news programs, Sherman has lectured at The National Press Club and the US Coast Guard Command Center in Washington, D.C. He lives in Marshfield, Massachusetts.
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Reviews for Helltown
9 ratings1 review
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A fascinating look at a series of sociopathic killings that paralleled and yet was overshadowed by the Charlie Manson Family's Tate/LaBianca murders, which occurred around the same time. While those captured the world's attention, Tony Costa's activities slipped into obscurity. They are now resurrected in an excellent narrative by Casey Sherman. Beware that this is not a truly nonfiction work as broad poetic license is taken with many of the characters, including the very real life Normal Mailer and Kurt Vonnegut. Yet, the story captivates and drags you along into a dark tale of just how evil some killers can be. Tony Costa was every bit as charismatic and manipulative as Manson and had his own bevy of witchy devoted followers. Did he truly have q dual personality or was he running a game on everyone? What were his true motives? The reader will decide. Once you begin this tale you will undoubtedly squirm a bit but putting it down will not be an option.DP Lyle, Award-winning author of the Jake Longly and Cain/Harper thriller series