Monster

Steve Jackson’s Monster reads more like a seasoned bestselling authors opus than a first publication! Be very aware that Steve Jackson does not dilute horrifying events of many innocent young girls in this gripping true crime story, not for the meek! From beginning to end, Steve Jackson tells a story of a man with Borderline Personality Disorder along with Narcissistic Personality Disorder and a full blown Sociopath turned serial rapist and murderer. The overwhelming evidence and witness accounts are staggering as Jackson gives the audience a clear picture and understanding of who this “MONSTER” is. The cooperation with the Lakewood Police Department, the lead investigator, the Jefferson County District Attorney’s Office, and the Breckenridge Sheriffs along with other interagency and cooperative agencies in forensics and other science is exceptional! This hands down is one of, if not the best true crime investigation accounts I have read; I have read many. When I finished this impossible to put down read, I felt outraged, sick, frustrated and dirty- just from knowing a man like Thomas Luther was set free twice to just brutally rape and torture more victims within days of his release and his completely insane girlfriend who remains in love and in support of him even though she know what he was doing and who! Most importantly and infuriating is the incompetents of the Colorado justice system that deliberately failed to protect society from a sadistic serial killer with a plea bargain to free up expenses, the court calendar and overcrowding prisons without the victims knowledge who survived a Thomas Luther rape with a hammer, who broke her neck and left to die in the snow afraid neighbors would hear his gunshot’s. Like the three bullets Luther put in the back of 19 year old Cher Elders head after dehumanizing her. Monster tells the story of the predatory and the vicious monster that is the judicial system that can create as much pain for victims as the perpetrators do. This is not light reading nor easy to put down!

This was very well-written book that I highly recommend. The author Steve Jackson did an excellent job with his sources. He gave law enforcement (especially Detective Richardson) a strong voice in this book along with the surviving victims of Tom Luther's demonic inner rages and the family of the dead victim Cher Elder. Jackson also gave Luther the killer and rapist a voice as well as the unsavory, out-of-prison associates of Luther. The author also gave a voice to Debrah Snider, who had the misfortune of falling in love with Luther and becoming a different kind of victim of this very wicked man who had such a maniacal hatred of women and was the kind of sociopath who damages everyone who comes wittingly or unwittingly into the pathway of his life.The author also does a good job with the trial of Luther, which had its own dramas. The judge, even though he knew Luther to be a serial killer, amazingly would not allow overwhelming evidence of prior bad acts against women to be used in the trial. The author also provides insight into the inner workings of the jury, which had one stubborn holdout for second-degree murder when the 11 others wanted to convict him of the first-degree murder of 20-year-old Cher Elder and give him the death sentence.Tom Luther is responsible for the death of at least nine women and probably more in addition to the ones he beat nearly to death but, to his deep regret, permitted to remain alive. Steve Jackson's book provides insight into Luther's frame of mind, his complete lack of conscience and the motivations of his depravity.

The author truly did their research and put together a masterpiece of true crime. You cannot pass this one up!

I looked forward to reading this book. It really did grab me right from the beginning, starting with an anonymous person dumping another anonymous person in a lonely place, as if one were dropping off garbage. Well, garbage that they do not want discovered. The book then moved on to a murder case in Colorado, and the Detective who eventually became obsessed with bringing the killer to justice.But let me say this, in the first part of the book, a crime is described in detail, so horrible and disgusting that it made my skin crawl. The victim survives to tell everyone who did the terrible things to her, every single thing, and I was thinking, "how did she survive this? What an amazing woman!" We, the readers, know who did it too! So, then it starts with the plea bargaining, and the victim trying to heal mentally and physically, after an attack that SHOULD have killed her.More women go missing. One in particular, 20 year old Cher Elder, is the victim the writer focuses on, because basically, everyone pretty much knows who is responsibile for Cher's disappearance. They just need to prove it.The suspect is known to the criminal justice system. WELL known. Served time. Should have served more, but of course.........I won't give away the end, but I will say, I really think this book dragged in the second half. And the way Richardson (the cop who is obsessed, and I mean obsessed with finding Cher) is a tad, just a TAD, off putting sometimes. I am so glad he cared, but what of the other women?The end will infuriate you. I read a lot of true crime books, I am a Homicide Detective's daughter. This should have been much better.And I have to say, the woman who chooses, that's CHOOSES, to "fall in love" with the man convicted of the unspeakable crime that we read about in the beginning of the book: I grew to just detest her. At first, I felt sorry for her. We are supposed to. However, the way she acted after Cher Elder went missing and the things she KNEW.....as far as I am concerned she belongs in prison. Lastly, when closing arguments in a jury trial are reprinted WORD FOR WORD, that's just laziness. It's a transcript. The writer can sum it up, not take page after page after page to write the summations. This book should have been so much better.

Amazing story read it to the end took me a 3 weeks to get through the story and a good story it was have a flu so bad so this took me away from it all.love reading new crime story ,give I give it a 5 star cause it was good 👍

Impossible to put down. Very well written without pathos. The author dugs deep into the circumstances of Cher Elders murder, the other cases, in which Luther fits in. Very long and informative without too much gore. Five stars.

read this book after being told about it by my son,it has to be the bast book I have ever read,the detail is quite amazing,and just so well written,felt every location,in the wind and snow,made me cry listening to the familys comments near the end,and what an amazing old fashioned dectective ,dog eared and determined,there are not many like him around and god bless him,I have now downloaded all Steve Jacksons books ,and can honestly say this book has to be read to warn people that serial killers come in all disguises,having read it it has stayed in my mind and Im sure it will do for a very long time. A triumph in writing .

Quite the story of a monster. Well written but a little drawn out. But very interesting on how a crazy mind works. Very sad that women had to suffer horrific abuse and even death. I recommend this book.

This was VERY well researched indeed and I enjoyed it a great deal, though some silly mistakes cost it one star for me. Especially as the author's revisited it some years after original publication and I'd have hoped others may have spotted them and passed them on to correct. Most were words dropped from sentences like of/as/a/to and some spelling mistakes-like Gacey and not Gacy, accent and not accentuate, chargrined and not chagrinned, giris and not girls, occassion not occasion, imporant not important, drown not down.....not good. Then one person was Will on one page and Joe the next. There were apostrophe errors as well so editing is sloppy.That aside, I'll certainly look for more in this genre by him as he does a really good job. I saw reviews mentioning repetition but it was a long book and in a few instances it was handy and saved me flicking back and forth.I'd never heard of Thomas Luther and his awful crimes before so all credit to Mr Jackson for telling us all about him and also for ensuring Mary, Heather and Cher won't be forgotten. A huge salute to Scott Richardson and all he did to bring Luther to justice, too. He really went over and above the call of duty. The passages about the funeral arrangements had me in tears...I had a lot of time for Southy Healey too. Most of those Luther associated were as big a liars as he is but Southy came good. I thought Deb was a flake and her husband a saint for putting up with her. I lost patience with her just reading about her.The Footloose story mention was interesting so Googled it but it says it was based around a place called Elmore City in Chicago and not Purdy in Missouri which was disappointing.I wondered about the 2 girls murdered in the Colorado mountains as killers don't usually kill then revert to letting one get away as Luther did so I am not sure I believe he also killed them. The author also mentioned Bobby Jo at one point saying the irony wasn't lost on investigators but it was on me !! Wagner's gun was also referred to at one point and however hard I went back and looked I still never figured out who THAT was !!I'm pleased there was a postscript to the story and I really liked the author's final words in the book-so very true.