Lemuel Smith and the Compulsion to Kill
The Forensic Story of a Multiple Personality Serial Killer
By Denis Foley
Trade Paperback
Cover Price: $16.95
Lemuel Smith and The Compulsion To Kill: The Forensic Story of a Multiple Personality Serial Killer by Denis Foley is a true crime shocker about one of New Yorks most notorious serial killers.
Rapist, thief, and killer Lemuel Smith brutally murdered five people from 1958 to 1977. Judge John Clyne imposed two consecutive life sentences and labeled him “the poster boy for capital punishment.” In 1981, while serving those sentences in Green Haven Correctional Facility, he murdered prison guard Donna Payant.
Anthropologist Denis Foleys riveting narrative reads like a novel but is one of the most detailed and well documented accounts ever published on the workings of the mind of a violent, multiple personality serial killer.
Forensic psychology exposed in Smith a pathological view of women, religion, and his place in society. That pathology played itself out through the actions of Lemuels imagined brother “John,” the monster that dwelled within his mind and, according to Smith, committed the rapes and murders.
Excerpt
Rage grew inside the soul of Lemuel Smith. Every day a police car sat outside his house. His mother told him the phone lines had been bugged. Tracy had a contact with the police who confirmed this. Lemuel talked to no one on the phone, but in truth, it was because no one called anymore.
The only peers he felt comfortable with in school were his fellow blacks. Young white girls ran away from him in the halls like he was some demented freak. Their parents pointed to him in the street. He wanted no part of this type of notoriety. The cops stepped in and rounded up his friends. Lemuel knew the police would try something big sooner or later.
His lawyer told him, “Be careful. Be quiet.”
Early on Tuesday morning, on his way to school, Detectives Jacob Bush, Victor Stark, and Captain Al Luzinas stopped Lemuel on Guy Street. “Into the car, boy. The Grand Jury indicted you in a burglary of a Wall Street Confectionery Store,” Luzinas said.
About the Author
Denis Foley is curator at Lewis Henry Morgan Institute, SUNY Poly in Marcy, NY. He is a former National Institute of Mental Health postdoctoral fellow at the Graduate School of Criminal Justice, Rockefeller College, The University of Albany. He is a graduate of the City University of New York-Hunter College and Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.), Anthropology from State University of New York at Albany.
Book Details
- Publisher: New Leitrim House Publishing, LLC (January 2003)
- Distributor: Nicholas K. Burns Publishing
- Trim Size: 6 x 9
- Paperback: 256 pages with b & w photos.
- ISBN: 0-9722383-0-1
- ISBN13: 978-0-9722383-0-4
- True Crime
Reviews
“Edge of your seat. I’m not a book reader usually but bought this because of one of his victims, it also surprisingly brought the story back to my local town, which I had no idea about (separate victim’s story)…I couldn’t put the book down!!! It was fantastically written and very captivating…I would 💯 suggest this to anyone who is into true crime!!!” Kristy Roberts, Amazon, 5 stars.
“Not your typical true crime book. This book was written by an anthropologist so you don’t get the usual cop praise. In fact, its the opposite. This book shows the failures of the parole and prison systems. The only book I’ve ever read in a day.” Wily Girl, Amazon, 5 stars.
“Gripping Reality. I was a year behind Smith in high school and lived through the murder in Amsterdam. I found the book to be straightforward and factual, a fascinating look into a strange mind. Knowing the positive side of Smith as a fellow student and club member made it all the more enlightening and puzzling. This book would be an excellent choice for required reading for criminal justice majors.” P, J. Muggins, Amazon, 5 stars.
“Who knows what evil lurks? It’s hard to imagine a more gripping tale than that told in “Lemuel Smith and the Compulsion to Kill” by Denis Foley, the story of a likable, personable man with a very dark side and the astonishing trail of death and terror he blazed before finally being jailed for life. This is not a story for the faint of heart; although it’s delivered in a relatively unemotional, “just-the-facts” style, the facts themselves are so atrocious as to make for hard reading at times. Those with a strong stomach and an interest in plumbing the darkest depths of the human psyche — not to mention the darkest depths of the New York prison system — will find this “true crime” and psychological study (what’s the truth about “multiple personalities?”) well worth reading. But while “Lemuel Smith” doesn’t take long to read, the thoughts and questions it raises are likely to stay with the reader far longer.” Lennonist, Amazon, 5 stars.
