Death on the Devil's Teeth

Death on the Devil's Teeth: The Strange Murder That Shocked Suburban New Jersey | Mark Moran, Jesse P. Pollack

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Thanks to @Kaye for another solid true rec. This one checked all my boxes, despite the possible satanic undertones. Ritualistic killings aren‘t usually something that interest me, but I loved the way the authors focused on the time period (Jeannette DePalma was killed in 1972) and how the idea of satanism was popular at the time. I also loved the inclusion of other cases from the area, such as the infamous John List murders.

riversong153 Sounds interesting 7y

AmyG Thr List murders are maybe NJ's most famous. 7y

Reviewsbylola The time period is what really made this book for me. I wasn‘t alive in the 70s, but the culture interests me. All the hitch hiking really blows my mind! @riversong153 7y

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Reviewsbylola Have you read any good books on it? I‘ve seen TV specials so I knew about the murders but I‘d love to read more about them. @amyg 7y

Reviewsbylola @Mdargusch you were about the same age as the teenagers in this book. I think you would enjoy it. 7y

Mdargusch I will add this to my list. Did you get it on overdrive? 7y

AmyG @Reviewsbylola I read the book Righteous Carnage - Timothy Bensfors and James Johnson... about the List murders. I thought it was good. 7y

Reviewsbylola Hoopla @Mdargusch 7y

Reviewsbylola Awesome, I will look it up! Thank you @amyg 7y

AmyG @Reviewsbylola My pleasure! 7y

Kaye @reviewsbylola I‘m glad you liked the book. Quite a story, huh? If you want more info on it, there‘s a podcast also about the case. It‘s been dormant for awhile but they just posted again last month I think. You might wanna check it out. It‘s not very long. Just look it up by the book title. 7y

Reviewsbylola Oh cool, I‘ll def check out the podcast. Do you have any theories on this one? It was hard for me to sift through all the information the authors included and I finished it without any clear cut ideas of what happened. It was especially hard I think because even her whereabouts on the last day of her life weren‘t thoroughly fleshed out. The conflicting stories of everyone added to the confusion but that‘s to be expected after 40+ years. @Kaye 7y

Kaye Well this one was odd because the first half of the book was slow then it seemed like they were tossing all sorts of other cases in the ring. This one is sure a puzzle. Whoever took her had to make her climb up there. Nobody could have dragged a person, dead or alive up that steep cliff. To hear the podcast part of the guys say there were signs of devil worship but that stuff was coming out of the woodwork in the 70s so I don‘t put much faith in 7y

Kaye That theory. I think she could possibly have been included with the serial murders of those other girls. That‘s a possibility. Another tiny clue in the book also made me sit up and take notice. The freaky church they attended. The preacher gave 2 conflicting stories to the cops. He wouldn‘t be the first preacher to have himself involved in shenanigans like this. It could‘ve been someone she knows but I don‘t think so. How about you ? 7y

Reviewsbylola I definitely take the religious symbols around her body with a huge grain of salt. Every single person interviewed seemed to give conflicting details on that, so I assume that that was a very small detail of her death and probably had nothing to do with the actual motive. I definitely could see all of the girls having been killed by the same person. I think it‘s probably likely that Joan was killed by Nilson, so it is possible that he killed @kaye 7y

Reviewsbylola Them all. That‘s the main problem though, there seemed to be a lot of possibilities and nothing concrete. @kaye 7y

Kaye Yes it‘s another one that may never be solved unless they have some DNA to link up somehow. Was it just me or did it seem like the cops really didn‘t put a major effort into her case. I was also mixed up as to whose opinion was right. Was she a nice kid, or wild ? You also heard conflicting stories on that. Too bad when the richer girls seem to get the most attention in these cases. They should all be given an equal amount of work. 7y

Reviewsbylola Literally everything was conflicting in this case. Some of the cops seemed very helpful and willing to talk to the authors, whereas others weren‘t so helpful. The main cop on the case refused to talk and died in 2014. @kaye 7y

Kaye Yep. Take a listen to the podcast if you get a chance. It might fill in a few gaps. I listened to it back when it first came out. I think it might be the author but not sure. 7y

emilyhaldi This sounds cool!! 7y

Reviewsbylola It was definitely one of the better true crime books I have read. @emilyhaldi 7y

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