Not a Gentleman's Work

April 1, 2020
The story of one of the most vicious murders ever committed at sea. On July 8, 1896, the Herbert Fuller, loaded with lumber intended for Buenos Aires, departed Boston with 12 people aboard: the captain, his wife, nine crew members, and one passenger. Less than a week into the journey, in the middle of the night, someone viciously butchered the captain, his wife, and the second mate, slamming each one's head multiple times with the ship's ax. But no one heard anything, and only three men could possibly have done it: Thomas Bram, the first mate who had argued with the second mate; Justus Westerberg, also called Charley Brown, an odd Swedish sailor with a murder conviction in his past; and Lester Monks, a young alcoholic Harvard dropout whose parents had paid his fare to get rid of him for a while. Since nobody aboard had a known motive, whodunit? And why? Former CBS News editor Koeppel covers the murder itself in two pages and then tries to follow the crew's harrowing journey back to port, although there is no definitive narrative of what happened on that trip. Bram was convicted of murder even though strong evidence indicates he was innocent, and President Woodrow Wilson eventually pardoned him. In the rest of the narrative, the author details the lives of Bram and Monks. This should be the stuff of a gripping, can't-put-it-down thriller, but the book is disappointing. Although Koeppel clearly conducted an impressive amount of research, there just isn't enough information available to justify a book-length project, even one this slim. Consequently, the author fills the space with unimportant, unrelated details that do little to contribute to his story. A stupendous long-form magazine piece masquerading as a book.

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May 1, 2020
In July, 1896, the shipping vessel Herbert Fuller was in the middle of a voyage to Argentina when the unthinkable happened: three people were brutally murdered, including the ship's captain and his wife. Appearing to have occurred in the dead of night, the murders were predominantly unheard and unseen. Deckhand Lester Monks took charge, alerting the crew. The light of suspicion was directed toward crewman Thomas Bram. Once on shore, Bram was soon charged with the slayings. Historian Koeppel (City on a Grid, 2015) here contemplates other suspects not considered. Bram's trial consisted of circumstantial evidence and conjecture, but he would be convicted and sentenced to death. Prudent jurists and intrepid lawyers led to his case being re-tried, but he was convicted a second time and sentenced to life imprisonment. Bram would continue to fight the injustice, while Monks' life had more turns than a winding road. This captivating and thorough true crime work reads like a suspenseful novel, the mystery of which continues even after the last words have been read.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2020, American Library Association.)