Bike Path Rapist

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A friend of mine, Jeff Schober, along with police officer Dennis Delano wrote a book about the capture of the Bike Path Rapist that terrorized Buffalo for twenty plus years. The man, Al Sanchez, was caught a few years back.

First off, the book is great. Jeff did a wonderful job of telling the story with style and grace. That certainly couldn't have been easy because his subject was a pure monster who didn't care even a little about human life.

Shameless plug for Jeff...the book is entitled Bike Path Rapist...google it and order it!

Secondly, the pull of the story for me was that Sanchez had a wife, a couple of kids, and worked among us in the community, all the while keeping the filthiest of secrets.

My mind was caught up in the how and whys of it all.

There were no answers in the book, possibly because there are no answers.

One of the most compelling aspects of the story comes when the author puts Sanchez' words out there for interpretation. Sanchez' father wasn't around as he got caught with a hooker when little old Al was only two.

A lot of serial killers live without a father influence. A father whose downfall was caused by a woman could conjure up hate for women as a boy grows older.

Yet that's all bullshit. We do that all the time...look for reasons to explain bad behavior. There are a lot of model citizens who grow up without their Dad in their lives. It has to be a bit more than that, right?

And Sanchez' wife never suspected a thing, right? That's the story and they are sticking to it.

I don't have a lot of secrets from my wife. My bad behavior is usually front and center and she, thankfully, puts a stop to it most of the time.

The other aspect of the book that was interesting was the crime-solving parts of it. I knew all of the figures from their time on the local news, and I knew every location that the killer roamed, so it was spooky from time to time.

Do you really know the next-door neighbor? Will you be the guy on the news that says, 'He was such a quiet guy.'

So what to learn from such crimes? Sanchez attacked over ten women and killed three. That's what they know for sure. He says that it was all about sexual fantasy and that he blacked out and never truly felt responsible.

Pure evil.

Life really is a catastrophe, isn't it?

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