cover image Three Boys Missing: The Tragedy That Exposed the Pedophilia Underworld

Three Boys Missing: The Tragedy That Exposed the Pedophilia Underworld

James A. Jack, . . HPH, $22.95 (432pp) ISBN 978-0-9776281-4-8

This fast-paced account of the murder of three young teenage boys in Chicago in 1955 reads like a Law and Order SVU episode. Despite an intensive investigation and a series of promising but ultimately false leads, the case goes unsolved for 40 years, until a breakthrough leads to a man (Kenneth Hansen), who is charged and convicted. Though the conviction is reversed on appeal five years later, the suspect is retried, convicted and sentenced to 200–300 years for each death. Jack, the lead police detective on the case who followed the investigation for more than four decades, brings an authentic voice and a Mickey Spillane style to this account. But the book falls apart in its last third, at the second trial. Although there is testimony against the suspect, it is relatively weak (one of the witnesses is a married ex-boyfriend of the accused with a criminal record) and is recalled long after the events. Critical readers may begin to mistrust the narrator, who is convinced of Hansen's guilt and the strength of the evidence. The book's subtitle doesn't help, either: the investigation includes some other sexual offenders, but there is never a sense that a broader conspiracy is at play here. (Oct.)