The Wicked Wives by Gus Pelagatti
4 stars
(Excerpt from Goodreads) “Wicked Wives” is based on the true story of the 1938 Philadelphia murder scandals in which seventeen wives were arrested for murdering their husbands. Mastermind conspirator Giorgio DiSipio, a stunning lothario and local tailor who preys upon disenchanted and unfaithful wives, convinces twelve of them to kill their spouses for insurance money. The murder conspiracy is very successful until one lone assistant D.A., Tom Rossi, uncovers the plot and brings the perpetrators to justice. “Wicked Wives” is a story made for Hollywood, combining murder, corruption, treachery, love, lust and phenomenal detail as it vividly captures Depression-era Philadelphia.
Tom Rossi is in line to be an assistant District Attorney. While on a case, he meets Lillian Stoner, who just lost her husband to pneumonia. But something is fishy to Tom and he wants to continue his investigation. Unfortunately Lillian is the niece of a high political leader. It is made clear to Tom that if he pursues this case he will not make assistant DA. But Tom proceeds anyway.
Enter Giorgio DeSipio, a well known womanizer. He is well known to the ladies in Philadelphia. He works the unhappily married women; he knows how to keep them wanting more but to never get attached. Giorgio is recruited to get the women to take out insurance policies on their husbands, with the help of corrupt insurance agents. Then the wives kill their husbands for the insurance money, in 1938 many people died from pneumonia and such which is similar to how some poisons work. Of course Giorgio has plenty of women that want to make him an honest man and there are plenty of unhappy, adulterous women to keep him going.
I admit that I have a love/hate relationship with true crime stories. I love to read them but there are some that are so dry about the facts that they just make the story unbearable. I admit that it was a little challenging for me to get into the beginning of the story. There are a lot of characters so I had a harder time sorting them out. Now, once I had that down, I couldn’t wait to see what was going to happen next.
I felt for Tom, his is trying to do the right thing but he is getting pressure to stop the investigation. There was clearly a lot of research done because I felt like I was right there trying to figure out what is going on. Plus knowing that this actually happened back in the 30’s Philadelphia just made it even better.
For those that like a good true crime story, this is one book you don’t wan to miss out on.
I received this book for free in exchange for an honest review.
For more information on The Wicked Wives be sure to check out Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Goodreads, and Gus Pelagatti‘s website.
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