Junger and Norton Combat Claims about 'Belmont'

by Rachel Deahl, PW Daily -- Publishers Weekly, 4/17/2006

Sebastian Junger and publisher Norton are confronting angry claims from the daughter of a woman whose murder he examines in his newest book, A Death in Belmont. The book, which is due in stores tomorrow, examines the 1963 murder of Bessie Goldberg, and posits the notion that the man convicted of the crime (which happened at a house down the block from the author's childhood home) could be innocent.

The book makes a case for the possibility that the Goldberg murder could have been committed by the man who was later identified as the Boston Strangler (Albert DeSalvo), instead of Roy Smith, a black day laborer who was in the Goldberg home on the day of the murder and was convicted of the crime. The ideas put forth in the book have outraged the daughter of the victim, Leah Goldberg, and inspired her to speak out.

In an April 5 story in The Boston Globe Leah Goldberg (now Scheuerman) said: ''The book is inaccurate." She goes on to say that the author "leads you to believe that maybe it's possible Albert DeSalvo killed my mother. If all the facts are known, it's virtually impossible."

Now, on the eve of the book's publication, Junger and his publisher have rallied against Scheuerman's claims with public statements of their own. In a notice sent from Norton on Friday, Junger said: "Leah Goldberg suffered a terrible tragedy years ago, and my heart goes out to her. As a journalist, however, I am compelled to point out that my book is the product of three years of research and consultation with legal experts." Going on to explain the exhaustive methods he used to compile and check the manuscript—including having numerous experts pore through legal documents and having the work "rigorously fact-checked"—Junger leaves little room for the possibility that he got things wrong. Norton also seemed confident that the work will stand up to scrutiny, pointing out the specific pages where information is included that Scheuerman said was left out of the book. So is the industry in for yet another last-minute foreword or addendum? Thus far, it doesn't look like.