Overview

The disappearance of a twenty-one-year-old woman from a Massachusetts suburb became one of the most discussed crimes of the twentieth century. The discussion intensified when the public learned that Robin Benedict worked as a prostitute in Boston's notorious red-light district, the ""Combat Zone,"" and was linked by a trail of blood to a famous professor from Tufts University. When Robin Benedict vanished, the investigation and media circus that gripped the city of Boston hadn't been seen since the days of the Boston Strangler case. On a Sunday morning in March 1983, a small-time pimp walked into a police station and claimed his girlfriend was missing. He said she had been on her way to visit a client named William Douglas. In the year that followed, the case drew in detectives, state troopers, scores of journalists, and even psychics. But Robin was never found. Boston Tabloid reconstructs a grisly murder and explores one man's bizarre obsession. In revisiting this legendary crime, Don Stradley consulted journalists involved in the media frenzy, prison authorities, arresting officers, and psychiatrists, all in an effort to unravel a most tangled story. Why was the city, and the nation, swept up in this sordid tale? It remains a grim and fascinating moment in Boston's history.

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Reviews

Boston Tabloid is everything a top-notch true-crime book should be and more. -- Linda Rosencrance, author of Murder at Morses Pond In captivating prose that may just keep you up at night...Stradley exposes Boston's seedy history in a way that reimagines true crime and contemporary American history. -- Bob Batchelor, author of The Bourbon King We're fascinated in this country by scandal. Add a true crime element to it, with a penchant for suspense and mystery, but, most important, a sincerity and integrity in telling the victim's story, and you've got yourself a nonfiction thriller of the highest caliber. Don Stradley's Boston Tabloid answers the call to take true crime to the next level--a true page-turner, it brings the reality of Boston's underbelly to the forefront for perhaps the first time. -- M. William Phelps, New York Times bestselling author

""A true page-turner, it brings the reality of Boston's underbelly to the forefront for perhaps the first time."" -- ""M. William Phelps, author of Beautifully Cruel"" ""An exceptionally well written, organized and presented study of a notorious homicide and the mysteries that surrounded it...A riveting read from cover to cover."" -- ""Midwest Book Review"" ""This case was the subject of the 1986 television movie The High Price of Passion and Teresa Carpenter's late '80s book, Missing Beauty. Well-researched and a page turner, this book fills in the void since those works...Ideal for true crime collections, especially for libraries in the New England region."" -- ""Library Journal"" ""This thorough book includes some recent interviews, including a 2021 conversation with the state trooper first assigned to the case, and...is just one of the ways that Stradley weaves engrossing new details and dimensions into this account of a rather well-known true-crime story...The author convincingly argues that this event gave rise to the modern tabloid era."" -- ""Kirkus Reviews"" ""With a brisk, newsreel-like manner, Patrick Lawlor delivers Stradley's meticulous research...He judiciously uses tone, volume, pacing, and well-timed pauses to build each person's voice."" -- ""Library Journal (audio review)"" ""Boston Tabloid is everything a top-notch true-crime book should be and more."" -- ""Linda Rosencrance, author of Murder at Morses Pond"" ""In captivating prose that may just keep you up at night...Stradley exposes Boston's seedy history in a way that reimagines true crime and contemporary American history."" -- ""Bob Batchelor, author of The Bourbon King"" ""Recounts the sordid but undeniably fascinating case...and how the shifting tides of public perception in the 1980s could turn a perpetrator into a victim."" -- ""Stephanie Schorow, author of Inside the Combat Zone"" ""Stradley's restraint and interest in getting details right combine to elevate true crime writing to a level that turns it into something brand new."" -- ""Charles Farrell, author of (Low)life""

Author Information

Don Stradley is the author of several books of nonfiction, including The War: Hagler-Hearns and Three Rounds for the Ages, named one of The Progressive magazine's Favorite of Books 2021, and Slaughter in the Streets: When Boston Became Boxing's Murder Capital, named by CrimeReads in 2020 as one of the Classics of Boxing Literature. His work has also appeared in The Ring, Cinema Retro, and on ESPN.com Patrick Lawlor, an award-winning narrator, is also an accomplished stage actor, director, and combat choreographer. He has worked extensively off Broadway and has been an actor and stuntman in both film and television. He has been an Audie Award finalist multiple times and has garnered several AudioFile Earphones Awards, a Publishers Weekly Listen-Up Award, and many starred audio reviews from Library Journal and Kirkus Reviews.

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