Oh, man! This story is sad all the way around!
On September 6, 1949, Howard, a 28-year-old shot thirteen people in less than 12 minutes in his neighborhood in East Camden, New Jersey. While this is the story of the first recorded mass shooting in the united states, this is a story as a true-crime lover that I have not heard of until now. This story is one that was kind of brushed under the rug.
Howard was bullied in the neighborhood, and he was also a soldier that had PTSD. Then on top of that, he was a guy living in the closet and he didn't want his mother to find out about all that. Back then that was a big deal, and he was shunned for a lot of reasons. However, this story was sad all the way around because Howard was misunderstood. He was bullied in his neighborhood by many people having them call him names and teasing him all the time. Then, he was dealing with all of the trauma of being a soldier and having to deal with everything that he had seen in the war along with coping with what he had to do. He had a lot on his plate his mother was doing everything that she could and his father was absent as he had divorced his mother and that was a big deal back then as well. Then there were all of the victims. As young as a toddler who did nothing wrong, while he was definitely not an intended target he was killed during this massacre.
Now because this story was told from many different perspectives the author definitely did a lot of research on the topic, however a lot of the information was repetitive and we would hear the same information from different perspectives and while that is expected by hearing the story in different perspectives it did make the story that much longer.
I listened to the audiobook the narrator did an amazing job keeping the story alive and interesting. If you are looking for a good audiobook to gain insight into what actually happened way back then, this would definitely be a great choice for you! I listen to true crime podcasts and read true crime all the time and this was definitely a new fresh story that has not been told several times over the years. Definitely worth the read or listen! Thank you Netgalley and Bookouture Audio for the extraordinary opportunity to listen to this one!

An interesting way of telling a true crime story, it reads much more like a novel.

The authors passion and commitment to research really showed. All the different perspectives really added to the story telling.

Overall a really sad story for everyone involved but very well told.

Thanks for the arc for review.

A true crime story told as a narrative which allows for it to have a small town gossip feel that I don’t feel is regular in a lot of crime stories.

Murder in the Neighborhood follows the real life events of one of the first known American mass shootings. Told from a narrative perspective of a young boy who was not only witness to the crime but also friendly with the murderer as well as his own mother giving the shooter’s history.

The narrative style had a few pros and cons to a true crime telling. To me, it felt as if I was more connected to the individuals involved. It absolutely humanized this story. However, I felt like I didn’t get much into the actual facts and speculations of the crime. As someone interested in the psychology, I didn’t feel like I got a full picture from my glances through a narrative lens in the aftermath.

It was still very interesting and an easy listen. Unlike most non-fiction stories, I did find myself far more engaged and less inclined to drift throughout the story. I even think the narrative style helps me remember details better since they are connected to our own ‘character’ that we follow.

Overall, a good listen if you are interested in true crime and want to try a narrative style.

Thanks to Netgalley for a copy of this audiobook in exchange for an honest review. This novel was narrated by John Chancer who did a good job though it was sometimes odd to have someone so deep narrating a child.

This is a truly sad true crime story of a soldier who comes back from the war with PTSD and no one really understands him, they just ridicule him. He then became the man who committed the first mass shooting without and remorse or reaction to what he had done. His mother supported him no what he had done and it was really sad to hear the different chapters told from various POV and various timelines. The author has clearly done a lot of research on the subject and I liked the letters that he sent home to his mother while he was in middle of the war because it really shows what they went through. But it isn’t the complete cause of why he went on the shooting spree. He had been treated cruelly by the neighbors until one day he snaps and can’t take anymore. The buildup to that day had been coming for a while and he was blatantly asked if he would do it again and he said yes. It was shocking and so very sad.
The narrator did a fab job of keeping the story alive and adding to the depth of the story.

I was initially a bit wary of reading this book, since it is based on true crime, but I was actually really surprised with it, since it felt like I was just reading a fictional story. I really enjoyed it a lot. The audiobook narrator was great, and his voice was perfect for the job.

The story, which is well researched, is about the first recorded mass shooting in the US in 1949, and it is told from the point of view of little 12 year old Raymond, who seen everything happening up close, as well as from the perspective of the killer's Mum.

Although it is a terrible crime to read about, I found it all very fascinating and interesting, and I enjoyed the psychology of it all, and the exploration of why the killer got to the point of wanting to shoot people. Him and his family were bullied a lot by lots of people in the neighborhood, and he just eventually snapped, as he couldn't take it anymore.

This is a great book to read if you are into exploring true crime or crime fiction, as the way the story is told, it feels like it is a fictional novel, and it is easy to read.

Many thanks to the author, publisher and NetGalley for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

This was an interesting retelling of a true crime story. The author sticks to the facts and is clearly well researched but its original in its rendition as a novel.

This review is for the audiobook of "Murder in the Neighborhood" by Ellen J. Green.
I thought the narrator of this book did a great job of differentiating voices and enunciating the story. No complaints there!
As a true crime lover, I was excited to listen to "Murder in the Neighborhood." I've heard the story of the mass murder that happened in New Jersey in the 1940s, but never to this depth. While I realize some parts of this story are fictionalized, I do think the author did a great job of harnessing the aftermath of such a shocking event.
I will say, that as a listener, the occasional jumps in timeline were a little confusing, I think mostly because they were not delivered regularly, so it was hard to track when to expect them.
Otherwise, this was a fascinating book!

The book, Murder in the Neighborhood, gives an in-depth look into the first recorded mass shooting in US history. In 1949, Howard Unruh shot and killed 13 people in Camden, New Jersey. Known as the “Walk of Death,” five men, five women and three children were gunned down over a period of 12 minutes. All of the victims lived in Unruh’s neighborhood.

This work is nonfiction and was very well researched. The reader is able to learn about Unruh as a child through adulthood and while his reasonings are not sound, the author does a clear job in explaining why Unruh snapped.

The biggest flaw is the pacing. The meat of the story is fascinating and captivating, but the repetition of dialogue, repeating facts multiple times and the narrator keeping the same tone throughout the book made it feel slow and heavy. It could have been cut in half to tell the same story and been more impactful.

I found the book to her vet fascinating. However, I wish the narrator would have changed his voice with different people. At times when reading conversations the narrators voice never changed and it was a bit hard to follow who was saying what. This book made me think a lot about mental health and bullying and how it affects people differently. I also found it very intriguing that there was so much first hand testimony from those who survived the shooting.

I received a free review copy from the publisher, via NetGalley - thank you!

This is a story about the first mass shooting in America. It is a true story, and this was an interesting way to tell it.

I received this audiobook from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

Murder in the Neighborhood tells the story of the first recorded mass shooting in the US (which took place in 1949), from the perspective of 12-year-old Raymond Havens who witnessed the shootings and Freda Unruh, the killer's mother.

Sitting here in 2022, with dozens of mass shootings have occurred in recent decades, the facts surrounding the first mass shooting in 1949, alarmingly, doesn't seem shocking to me. What is clear, is that nothing has changed since 1949. Through a gripping narrative, the author explores not only the crime, but the events leading up to the crime. We get to see not only the aftermath, but Howard Unruh's evolution from veteran to mass murderer.

I am not sure if the author intended it, but as I read this book, I could really see the parallels with the mass shootings taking place today, and it is honestly maddening that nothing has changed in 70+ years. This book is not only a story about an event in history, but also gives us a lens into our future.

I read a book recently that posited that people who commit suicide do so only when their chosen method of suicide is at hand. In other words, the method of suicide is intrinsically linked to the suicide itself. E.g. if Person X wants to shoot himself, but can't find a gun, he will not just use another method, he will, in fact, not commit suicide at all.

This made me wonder whether mass killings are similar. What would have happened if Howard Unruh did not have access to guns? Would he have been able to shoot as many people? Would he have stopped at just the Cohens -- the original intended victims? Unruh had planned to murder the Cohens for their ceaseless bullying, but Unruh describes that as he started shooting, he couldn't stop. He just kept going. Shooting people, whether they had "wronged" him or not. He even killed 3 children for no reason. Now, if he had a knife, say, would he have been able to keep killing before someone stopped him? I guess we will never know.

The book seemed to be well researched, and I liked how this book not only discussed the hard facts surrounding the killings, but also went into the psychology of Unruh. As readers, we got to see the "why" (as ridiculous as his reasons were), not only the how. I also really liked the writing style of the author. It was written like a fiction book i.e. the telling of a story rather than a recitation of facts, which made it very easy to read.

If you are a true crime fan who otherwise reads mostly fiction (like me) I think this book is right up your alley.

Interesting but not my fav. A true story about America's first recorded mass shooting, I appreciated the information but didn't realize it was a novelization of the nonfiction and I wasn't a huge fan of that.

This book details the events of that day, what happened beforehand to cause Howard to go on this rampage, and what happened afterward. The story is mostly told from two perspectives - one of Raymond Havens, a twelve-year-old boy who used to deliver collectors' stamps back-and-forth between his dad and Howard and escaped the killings of that day, and Freda Unruh, Howard's mother. Howard was a veteran of World War II, and had all the classic signs of PTSD. After the war, he moved back in with his mother - he couldn't hold down a job, he didn't have a girlfriend, and he carried himself in a strange, off-putting way. Many of the residents of this small town "tormented" Howard, constantly teasing or insulting him, both to his face and behind his back. Objective observers agreed that all of this was true - hardly anyone in the town was kind or respectful to Howard. The final straw came when he built and installed a gate to the path leaving his and his mother's apartment on Labor Day, and the very next morning, he woke up to discover that someone had stolen the gate. Howard had documented his hatred towards the townspeople in his journal, and even had a "kill list" of all the people he wanted to target, first and foremost his neighbors, the Cohens. After seeing his gate gone, he grabbed his Luger and went on his killing spree. Although he killed most of the people he was intending to, he also killed three innocent children and a few people who just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time who Howard had never even met before, like a man who happened to be driving down River Road and stopped at a red light just as Howard was starting to shoot. Clearly the author has done a ton of research into witness statements and evidence from the incident, which is obvious in the writing and details given, but for me it just wasn’t fast paced enough.

Thank you to NetGalley, the author, and the publisher for an advance copy.

Thanks to Netgalley for the audiobook ARC.

Murder in the Neighborhood is a terrific read. The narrative style, reminiscent of In Cold Blood, kept me engaged from beginning to end. And the case is quite fascinating. Having come into this read not knowing anything about the Unruh case, it was very interesting and educational.

I liked the fact that this was told from the point of view of an eyewitness to the shooting spree, who was also a close acquaintance of the accused. It added a level of realism and relatability that otherwise might have been lacking.

I would highly recommend Murder in the Neighborhood to anyone interested in true crime, especially when told in a narrative fashion.

Awesome true crime, for once, told from the perspective of a child. The entire story is told by a nine or 10-year-old eyewitness to the mass shootings, not as a child in the moment of the event, but as he grew and came to have other related experiences and understandings.

But the book is more than that. It looks at the actual person behind the shooter, his life events, and what brought him to this place. I hope that Ms. Green’s research is accurate and her telling not biased to make the reader/listener feel that Howard should not be punished for what he did. It does not feel that way. It has a gritty, real feel to it that lends Green's telling great credibility.

Ultimately, it is hard to feel badly toward anyone in the story. So many bear scars either from the events or contributing to them.

Both the author, Ellen Green, and the narrator, John Chancer, are strongly commended for their handling of the story. Well written, well performed. And I hope Ray Havens was able to have a brilliant life despite the experience.

Murder In The Neighborhood by Ellen J. Green


On the morning of the sixth of September 1949, twenty-eight-year-old Howard Unruh woke in Camden, New Jersey and ate a breakfast of fried eggs prepared by his mother. He then got himself ready, armed himself with a 9mm recently purchased pistol and his German Luger P08 and left his home to carry out what is now recollected as the first mass shooting in modern American history. Unruh, a World War Two veteran, had been keeping a list of neighbours and town residents who he felt had wronged him, and he decided to take what he saw as his revenge against the wrongdoings against him – killing thirteen people in the process. Five men, five women and three children. Howard Unruh’s ‘walk of death’ foretold an era in which such tragedies would become all too common.

The day before the mass shooting was to take place – Labor Day, 1949, Howard Unruh decided to go to the movies. He left his Camden apartment that he shared with his mother and headed to the family theatre in downtown Philadelphia. On the bill that night was a double feature, the double-crossing gangster movie I Cheated The Law and The Lady Gambles, in which Barbara Stanwyck plays a poker-and-dice-game addict. Maybe it was the violent movies that altered his mind? Unruh, however, wasn’t interested in the movies that were playing – he was supposed to meet a man whom he’d been having a week-long affair with. Unfortunately, Unruh was held up by traffic and by the time he reached the well-known gay pick up spot, his date was gone with no way of being able to contact him again. Understandably upset, Unruh then arrived home by three am, only to find the newly constructed gate that had been installed that day to quell an ongoing feud with the Cohens who lived next door, ripped out and missing. This seemingly tipped him over the edge.

Psychiatrists have stated that “Unruh matches the mass murder profile, having a rigid temperament, an inability to accept frustration or people not treating him as well as he wanted, and a feeling of isolation – all things people manage to accept and move on from; but Unruh had free-floating anger, held grudges and owned weapons he knew how to use, and decided somebody was going to pay! It’s what’s known now as a typical recipe for internal combustion.” Unruh’s rage festered. In his mind, everyday ordinary happenings became acts of aggression that demanded retribution. And so, he began to keep thorough lists of his grievances and slights, both real and imagined. Unruh’s paranoia about what was being said of him around Cramer Hill in Camden fuelled his persecution complex, he was certain everyone was insulting him and he felt that several people knew he was a homosexual (which was illegal at the time) and were talking about it. On top of that, Unruh served in the 342nd Armoured Field Artillery, taking part in the relief of Bastogne in the Battle Of The Bulge. While in combat, Unruh kept meticulous notes of every German he killed, describing the bodies in disturbing detail. After the killings, Unruh’s younger brother, Jim, would tell reporters that he wasn’t the same after he served his country and never acted like his old self, but – he was honourably discharged with no record of mental illness. Today we are now aware of PTSD and hopefully a lot better at spotting the symptoms. Less than twenty-four hours after Unruh’s arrest, he was transferred to the Vroom Building for the criminally insane at Trenton Psychiatric Hospital, voluntarily. He would remain there for the next sixty years as case number 47,077 before dying in 2009.

It seems important to note that despite claiming to feel sorrow for the children he’d killed, Unruh, when asked, cold-bloodily explained everything that happened, listing the neighbours who had wronged him, and describing each murder with little to no emotion – and the doctors’ notes indicated that he didn’t appear at all remorseful during their observations!

This true story is told from the perspective/recollections of eleven-year-old Raymond Havens, who knew Howard Unruh (better than most) and was present during the shootings but was unharmed. Unruh’s mother, Frieda and a few others who were involved in the case. I found the book really interesting, being the first recorded mass shooting and obviously very sad at times. The author did a great job at detailing events before, during and after the shootings took place and I was surprised to feel empathy for Howard at times during the telling of the story. But I was often reminded that this is not just the telling of Howard Unruh’s story, but that of his victims, their families and of his mother, who I would also consider one of his victims – one who had to live through and deal with the fallout following the mass shooting. This push / pull feeling continues throughout the book, leaving you with the certain knowledge of only two things – Howard was bullied, treated terribly by his neighbours, degraded and harassed at every opportunity. The way he walked, the way he talked… but, of course, that does not excuse what Howard did that day, especially seeing as many of Howard’s victims were ‘collateral damage.’ Innocent people caught up in his rampage! Not just the people who he sought revenge against – including a two-year-old boy, a day away from his third birthday, happily playing in his playpen. I think there are many people who held varying degrees of accountability for what happened that day – and some of them paid the ultimate price for their actions!

I was lucky enough to receive the audiobook, and the narrator, John Chancer, did an excellent job bringing an ‘olde feel’ to the story reminiscent of the era when this tragedy occurred. I would highly recommend the audiobook for this one.

My thanks to the author and Octopus Publishing Group for my advance copy to review via NetGalley.

Four sad, true story stars !

I started this one on audiobook, and this would've been my first true crime audiobook. Having had some small connection to a mass shooting, the first chapter was too much for me to listen/read. That is NOT the authors fault at all. I decided to not continue this one SOLELY because I don't think I can handle it, and that's on me.

I've seen a lot of great ratings of this book on goodreads so I'm going to rate it based on the average GR rating, which is a 4.

This true crime book tells the story of Howard Barton who one day in New Jersey takes the lives of thirteen people in 1949.
This is reported as the first mass shooting in America and it tells the story of the victims, as well as witnesses from the time.
It studies Howard Barton's life and subsequent treatment to try and answer the question of why this happened.
It jumps out that similar question are asked today after tragic mass shootings.
This book is well researched and well written.
The narration is good and it is an interesting but sad audiobook.
Thanks to the author, narrator, publisher and NetGalley in allowing me to listen to in return for a review.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for the opportunity to listen to this audio book in return for an honest review.
Synopsis
On September 6,1949, twenty-eight-year-old Howard Barton Unruh shot thirteen people in less than twelve minutes on his block in East Camden, New Jersey.

The shocking true story of the first recorded mass shooting in America has never been told, until now.

The sky was cloudless that morning when twelve-year-old Raymond Havens left his home on River Road.

His grandmother had sent him to get a haircut at the barbershop across the street - where he was about to witness his neighbor and friend Howard open fire on the customers inside. Told through the eyes of the young boy who visited Howard regularly to listen to his war stories, and the mother trying to piece together the disturbing inner workings of her son's mind, Ellen Green uncovers the chilling true story of Howard Unruh - the quiet oddball who meticulously plotted his revenge on the neighbors who shunned him and became one of America's first mass killers. With access to Howard's diaries, newly released police reports and psychiatric records alongside interviews with surviving family members and residents of the neighborhood, A Murder in the Neighborhood will have readers of In Cold Blood, If You Tell and American Predator absolutely gripped.

Written in the form of multiple diary entries this book portrays the story of America’s first recorded mass shooting. Clearly a difficult topic but written with such delicacy and empathy I found myself largely conflicted as regards to my feelings of the perpetrator, which is an absolute testimony to fabulous writing skills. This story is as sad as it is shocking and powerful. A brilliant read/listen beautifully written and narrated. It was great I can’t round it up in a much better way to be frank! It’s excellent.

Overall it was a good interesting story, clearly researched well. I just don't understand why true crime is still narrated by old men.