In the summer of 1973, a serial killer's rampage in the Adirondack Mountains of northern New York State changed the region forever. Innocent visitors and campers were brutally knifed to death, terrifying thousands of residents and vacationers.
A peaceful part of America was lost, as people armed themselves and locked their doors, living and sleeping in fear. It was a reign of terror the likes of which the mountains had never seen.
And it was all the vile handiwork of one very troubled, dangerous man: Robert Francis Garrow.
But there is much more to Garrow's story than a series of murders. Before he was captured, there was the longest manhunt in Adirondack history, and one of the longest the state has ever seen. There was a bizarre trial, with horrifying revelations that shocked the senses of citizens from coast to coast.
There was also Robert Garrow's unfortunate, unbelievable childhood, including horrific beatings, bestiality, bloodshed, and more. There was his secret life of crime as an adult, his frequent improbable escapes from the law, his years in maximum-security prisons, and his incredible manipulation of legal, medical, and correctional professionals right up to the state level.
The case also spawned a nationwide debate about legal ethics, and eventually became the testing ground for one of the basic tenets of the American legal system. Today, it is discussed in virtually every college course addressing legal ethics and client confidentiality.
Garrow was a serial rapist and serial killer, but his number of victims may never be known. He admitted to several such crimes, but there may be many others forever relegated to cold case files from central New York north to the Canadian border.
It's an incredible story, and it's all here. For the first time ever, Robert F. Garrow's story from birth to grave. Not a pretty part of Adirondack history, but a part of it nonetheless. |
