No Memory for Murder: The Incredible Story of a Sadistic Murder in Halifax’s Point Pleasant Park

Canadian journalist and musician Henshaw (The Peddlers) catalogs the bizarre life and crimes of Jimmy Odo in this spine-chilling account. After bouncing between orphanages and foster families in Nova Scotia as a child, Odo descended into drug addiction and schizophrenia as a young adult. In 1975, he was tried for the brutal torture and killing of a 14-year-old coworker who was tied to trees in a Halifax park and stabbed to death. At trial, Odo claimed the boy died in a drug deal gone wrong from which Odo barely escaped, and was acquitted. A year later, Odo was arrested for child rape and sentenced to five years in prison. Finally, in 1981, he was accused of murdering a five-year-old girl, and testified at trial that he had no memories of his crimes because he was once in a satanic cult and remained possessed by demons. He was found guilty and sentenced to life in prison. Drawing on his own reporting from the ’80s, Henshaw turns Odo’s lurid biography into a melancholy assessment of social welfare, mental health, and the flawed Canadian justice system that initially allowed Odo to walk free. It’s a haunting glimpse into the abyss. (June)