The Most Dangerous Animal Of All

Format : Paperback/361 pages
Publication Date : 2014
Publisher : Harper Collins
Publication Country : London, United Kingdom
Language : English
Author : Gary L. Stewart and Susan Mustafa
ISBN PB :9780007579808
ISBN EB : 9780007579815
Type : Non-fiction/True Story
Price : USD 43.00/normal price
             USD 17.90/on sale

Book Review by Publisher (English)

The Zodiac Killer has captivated America's imagination for decades. His ability to evade capture while taunting the authorities made him infamous. The vicious specificity of his crimes terrified Californians before the Manson murders and after, and shocked a culture enamoured with the ideals of the drawning Age of Aquarius. His ciphers have baffled detectives and amateur sleuths to this day, his identity remaining one of the great unsolved mysteries of the 20th century. Until now.

The Most Dangerous Animal of All reveals the name of the Zodiac for the very first time. Stewart and Susan construct a chilling psychological profile of Stewart's father: as a boy with disturbing fixations, as a frustated intellectual with pretensions to high culture, and as an inappropriate suitor and then jilted lover unable to process his rage. At last, all the questions that have surrounded the case for almost fifty years are answered in this riveting narrative, story rooted in Stewart's search for the father who callously abandoned him in a stairwell when he was only one month old. The result is a singular work of true crime at its finest - a compelling, unbelievable true story told with the pacing of a page-turning novel - as well as a sensational and powerful memoir.

My Reviews (In Bahasa)

Gary Loyd Stewart bahagia dengan kehidupannya, walau beliau gagal dalam perkahwinannya, namun beliau tidak kekurangan dalam kehidupannya kerana sentiasa ditemani oleh anak bujangnya Zach dan kedua ibu bapa angkatnya yang telah dianggap sebagai keluarga kandungnya iaitu Loyd dan Leona Stewart. Sehinggalah satu hari beliau dikejutkan dengan berita mengenai ibu kandungnya yang menghubungi Leona bagi mengesahkan bahawa Gary adalah anak kandungnya yang telah dibuang oleh bekas suaminya dahulu.

Bermula dari situ, Gary menyelidik dengan terperinci kisah keluarganya. Dari mana asal usul keturunannya dan kaitannya ayahnya dengan kisah jenayah yang menggegarkan Amerika, Pembunuh Zodiak. Pertemuan pertama dengan ibu kandungnya, Judith Gilford di San Francisco telah membuka satu persatu kisah rahsia yang terpendam selama ini. Pertemuan pertama Judy dan bapanya yang dikenali sebagai Earl Van Best Jr., yang berlaku di sebuah kedai ais krim membuahkan cinta antara mereka walaupun ketika itu Judy berumur empat belas tahun manakala Van telah mencecah 28 tahun, tapi tidak menjadi penghalang untuk ke pertemuan seterusnya sehinggalah tindakan tekad mereka melarikan diri untuk berkahwin tanpa restu ibu Judy, Verda. 

Kisah ini juga menceritakan hidup Van terlalu obses dengan perkara2 ghaib yang berhubung dengan paranormal, penglibatannya dalam The Age of Satan dan menjadi sahabat kepada pengasasnya Anton Lavey. Van juga telah dilatih oleh ayahnya memecahkan kod dan mencipta kod rahsia sendiri sebelum ayahnya berpisah dengan ibunya, Gertrude kerana sudah tidak mampu hidup bersamanya yang menjalinkan kehidupan liar dan tidak bermoral ketika ketiadaannya. Semenjak itu Van tinggal bersama ibunya. Semenjak itu juga beliau telah terlibat dengan berbagai2 yang berkaitan dengan minatnya, The Mikado, Henfire Club, obses dengan kisah Venus dan Bacchus, menyelidik tentang The Teotihuacano dan akhirnya setelah melalui banyak keperitan hidup dan kegagalan meraih kembali cinta Judy, beliau mula obses dengan prmbunuhan dan menggelar dirinya, The Zodiac dalam bahasa Greek, Zoion yang bermaksud binatang. 

Apakah penyebab Van yang bijak memusnahkan hidupnya sendiri? Dapatkan buku ini di Www.bookdepository.com atau di kedai2 buku terpilih.

Author's Note

The Zodiac case has been shrouded in mystery for almost fifty years. When I began my journey to find my biological father, I never envisioned that my search would lead me to a series of brutal murders that terrorized the residents of California in the 1960s and 70s. The very idea that my father committed these acts is repulsive to me, and I try hard to dissassociate myself from the horrific crimes he perpetrated upon innocent young people. After I met my biological mother, I simply wanted to find the man responsible for giving me life. I wanted to know him, love him, and even forgive him for what he had done to me. I had been raised in an adoptive home and taught that love and forgiveness are tenets by which to live one's life. 

I had been gathering information about my father for two years before I got the first suspicion that he could somehow be connected to the Zodiac killings. At the time, I did not want to believe what my instincts were telling me, so I set out to uncover the truth, to prove to myself that my father could not possibly have been a serial killer. As years went by and more and more telling evidence unfolded, there came a day when I could no longer deny that my worst fears were true. That realization prompted me to write this memoir. I felt it was my responsibility to share the truths that I had learned in a way that would leave no doubt as to the identity of this killer and the reasons why he had committed these murders.

This memoir is based upon my research over a twelve year period, which I recorded in a journal as I went through the process of discovering the facts of my father's life. Through conversations with my father's best friend, family members and my biological mother,  police records, newspaper articles, old Best family letters, marriage and divorce records, and other government records, I was able to create a timeline of my father's early life, which makes up Part One of this book. The narration of that period is presented in a novelistic manner of storytelling because this was the most coherent way to tell his story. I have taken some small liberties when re-creating dialogue in Parts Two and Three is based upon twelve years of investigation and the facts that investigation revealed. I should note that all of the conversations that took place between me and others, including my biological mother,  my father's best friend, and detectives at the San Francisco Police Department, are related verbatim.

The details concerning my father's life span five decades and are complex.  It seemed best to sinply start at the beginning, in order to give the reader a real sense of how and why my father grew into a serial killer.