Even Fictionalized, She Comes Off As A Piece Of Cheap Goods!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

                                  "The Investigation" was first published in 1977, so I must have first read it around 1978. At the time, I did not know as much as I do now about the Alice Crimmins case, on which it is unquestionably based. And, like most book discussions on here of late, they tend to be for those who have already read the book, meaning spoilers. So, if you haven't read it, or are thinking of doing so, stop here.

                                Alice Crimmins here becomes Kitty Keeler.  Kew Gardens becomes Fresh Meadows. It is still in Queens, where, per capita, you are going to find more cheap, round heeled, cocktail waitresses, then and now!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

                                The structure is the same as the case. The kids vanish, are found dead in a park, and no one is sure what happened.  But I can tell you one thing. Miss Uhnak and I are on the same page. That tramp did it.  She may have claimed an accident, but it was still a nasty accident, and she never fessed up.

                                   In the novel, the two boys, Georgie and Terry, are ill. Georgie is very ill, with measles, and when he throws up and wets the bed too often, Kitty loses it, and throttles him. Whether this is Shaken Child Syndrome, or whether there was just too much force on his neck in not fully determined; in any case, Georgie is dead.  Terry awakens, witnesses something, but Kitty gives him some sleeping pills, and before you know it, she thinks he is dead.

                                   Except it turns out he isn't. And the lug she has gotten to him rid her of the bodies is an idiot who will do anything his father says. I mean, if Pops told him to shit on the street, he would!  Not because he is playing up to the guy, but because he is an idiot!  Who belongs in the Gowanus!!!!!!!!!  En route to the park, Kitty discovers Terry is not dead, and begs the lug not to shoot
her child. But the dumb lug will not be deterred, and does the deed. So Kitty is complicit here.

                                     I would not be surprised if something similar did not go down with Alice. In the novel, Kitty's hubby, George, issues a false confession and kills himself.  I don't know what happened to Alice's husband, except they went their separate ways.  She did time for her daughter Missy's death--12 years, but they could never determine how the boy died. The cops did a rotten job, anyway.

                                      But that Alice was some cool customer. She married Mr. Grace, who waited for her, then they fled to Florida, where he died after 12 years, leaving her to troll bars.  You know
where I bet she hangs out?  That trashy Bamboo Lounge, or whatever it is now called, in Vero Bach!!!!!!!!!!

                                      Oh, hons, it was really trashy and trampy!  Just like Alice!  No wonder she never bothered to find out what happened, when released! She knows!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

                                        Trash  is drawn to trash!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!