March 9, 2009
Emmy-winning TV newsmagazine producer Cohen examines one of the most publicized missing child cases in America. On May 25, 1979, Etan Patz left his family's SoHo loft to walk two blocks to catch his school bus, the first time his parents let him make the trip alone. He was never seen again. Early in the investigation, police interviewed Jose Antonio Ramos, whose “interest in little blond boys” had become known to police, yet they dismissed Ramos as a suspect in the Patz case. But over the years, Ramos repeatedly intimated that he molested and murdered Patz and hid the body. Assistant U.S. Attorney Stuart GraBois doggedly and shrewdly pursued Ramos, hoping prison informants could coax a confession. Cohen details GraBois's efforts and the pain Stan and Julie Patz endured as years passed and Etan's fate remained a mystery. Perhaps most heart-wrenching is Stan's twice-yearly ritual of mailing Etan's “missing” poster to Ramos in prison, always with the same message: “What did you do to my little boy?” As true crime, this tragic tale is a standout, and Cohen, though no prose stylist, does a creditable job telling it.
Starred review from April 1, 2009
An engrossing account of a watershed missing-child case.
On May 25, 1979, six-year-old Etan Patz disappeared while walking the two blocks to his bus stop on his way to school in lower Manhattan. The case—which TV newsmagazine producer Cohen convincingly argues changed the way Americans think about their children's safety—had a ripple effect beyond New York, eventually leading to the establishment of the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, whose ubiquitous missing-child alerts on milk cartons in the 1980s raised public awareness about the phenomenon across the country. While most of those children were found and their abductors brought to justice, the Patz case remains open 30 years later. The author tells the complete, heartbreaking story, from day one of the boy's disappearance to his family's continuing efforts to bring a rapist and killer to justice. First-time author Cohen, who covered the case for 60 Minutes and Prime Time Live, admirably avoids a hysterical approach to the shocking subject matter. Instead, she lets the disturbing facts speak for themselves. The author had access to an astounding amount of information, including multiple interviews with Patz's parents and former chief prosecutor Stuart GraBois. She also consulted the TV interviews with the prime suspect, though he declined to cooperate on the book. Cohen covers the story from all angles and keeps the main thread of the investigation clear, even while sharing some of its most intriguing left turns and red herrings, including a series of child molestations by a former boyfriend of one of the boy's caretakers, and a trip, prompted by a psychic's vision, to Hell's Gate in the East River in search of Patz's body.
A masterful combination of deep human interest and detailed criminal investigation into a parent's worst nightmare.
(COPYRIGHT (2009) KIRKUS REVIEWS/NIELSEN BUSINESS MEDIA, INC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.)