The Pied Piper cover art

The Pied Piper

Bloodlands collection

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The Pied Piper

By: Harold Schechter
Narrated by: Steven Weber
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About this listen

With makeup and an affected Elvis pout, Tucson’s Charlie Schmid was a crude parody of a bad-boy heartthrob. In 1964, he still had a hold on girls who’d follow him anywhere. He murdered three of them.

It was the dawn of the free-love movement - perfect for a magnetic madman who’d also foreshadow its end a few years later in the malignant charisma of Charles Manson. The inspiration for a classic story by Joyce Carol Oates, Schmid, the most bizarre serial killer of any era, was the epitome of a narcissist flattered into believing he could get away with murder.

The Pied Piper is part of Bloodlands, a chilling collection of short addictive historical narratives from bestselling true-crime master Harold Schechter. Spanning a century in our nation’s murderous past, Schechter resurrects nearly forgotten tales of madmen and thrill-killers that dominated the most sensational headlines of their day.

©2018 Harold Schechter (P)2018 Brilliance Publishing, Inc., all rights reserved. Americas Essays Murder Social Sciences True Crime United States Crime Nonfiction Serial Killers True Crime Nonfiction Crime

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All stars
Most relevant  
Well narrated short on an interesting and obscure character from the dark world of the serial killer.

A pleasant listen.

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Great narration, and an interesting story ,; I could have listened for a lot longer. Smitty’s victims got justice in the end by his violent and hopefully painful murder.

Interesting short story

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