cover image Mortal Remains: A True Story of Ritual Murder

Mortal Remains: A True Story of Ritual Murder

Henry Scammell. Edward Burlingame Books, $19.95 (302pp) ISBN 978-0-06-016327-3

By the late 1970s Fall River, Mass., shows freelance writer Scammell, had turned into a seedy town abandoned by industry, filled with derelict buildings. Amid the decay existed a flourishing prostitution business, fueled by drugs and presided over by pimps. Three prostitutes were murdered, two in 1979 and the other in 1980, and pimp Carl Drew is now serving a life sentence for his involvement in their deaths. He and some of the prostitutes had dabbled in Satanism, but the book's subtitle about ritual murder is misleading: these folk were at most desultory cultists. This tale of ignorant, superstitious, pitiful street people is not in the least involving. Photos not seen by PW. 35,000 first printing; $25,000 ad/promo. (June)