We recently posted a review (“My Little Red Book”) of Sal Mineo: A Biography by Michael Gregg Michaud. In this review we noted that the writer had not contacted Michael Genelin, the man who prosecuted Mineo’s killer. So we did contact Mr. Genelin in order to get his impressions of the accuracy of the content presented in the book’s Afterward. Here is what he told us:
“The facts, as presented by Michaud seemed, in the main, to be correct. There were a number of things about the case that he was incorrect on, most of them minor, some major; however, he also got much of it right… with two exceptions. Michaud said we played tapes of (Lionel) Williams wherein he made numerous boasts of the killing. Nope! We had no recorded statements of Williams boasting of the killing. We also did not, as alleged, bring in the defendant’s past criminal record – commencing with a juvenile conviction when he was 14 – to establish a ‘pattern of criminal behavior.’ That would not have been allowed, and would have been reversible error.”
Thank you to Michael Genelin, author of the novel The Magician’s Accomplice (Soho Crime), for correcting the record. This follow-up note was written by Joseph Arellano.
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