The Sleeping Lady: The Trailside Murders Above the Golden Gate

A California serial killer now awaiting his third trial, David Carpenter endured a miserable childhood with a mother who beat him and a remote father. He stuttered badly and that, along with his status as a teacher's pet, made him the victim of neighborhood bullies. Carpenter found no outlet for his anger as a child but in adulthood learned to exercise his fury sexually. He spent most of the '60s and '70s in prison for attacks on two women and, released on probation, began a spree in 1979 during which he killed at least half a dozen people--some of the women were raped first in lonely wooded areas around San Francisco. The details of the crimes--and the bumbling police work that apparently allowed more to occur--are carefully presented by Graysmith ( Zodiac ) in a thorough and engrossing account of a violent sociopath. Illustrations. (May)