Murder He Wrote

The story of William F. Buckley's most dangerous cause célèbre

First, Vickie. So begins Sarah Weinman's Scoundrel: How a Convicted Murderer Persuaded the Women Who Loved Him, the Conservative Establishment, and the Courts to Set Him Free. Vickie was Victoria Zielinski, the 15-year-old victim of Edgar Smith, who was sentenced to death for his crime. The killer went on to write two memoirs and a novel about the murder, insisting on his innocence. With the precision of an atom splicer, Scoundrel probes the psychological fallout for those in Smith's orbit, from the mourning Zielinski family to Smith's editor at Knopf (whose correspondence veered quickly from professional to romantic) to conservative pundit William F. Buckley, instrumental in securing Smith's ill-advised release— in large part, Weinman tells V.F., "because he felt that there was literary talent there"—only to have Smith attempt murder five years after getting out. The book grapples with capital punishment, racism, and intellectual bias. "If you're telling a crime story now, it can't just be the crime story itself," says Weinman. "Are there other deeper questions that you should be reckoning within? True crimes should enable you to do that."

KEZIAH WEIR