Mama's Boy: The True Story of a Serial Killer and His Mother

by Richard T. Pienciak

Book Overview

Updated for the paperback version, the story of serial murderer Eric Napoletano recounts how his mother, Carolyn, used blackmail, bullying, and a Ponzi scheme to help her killer son elude capture.... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Mass Market Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0451407482
• ISBN13: 9780451407481
• Release Date: April 1997
• Publisher: Onyx Books
• Length: 384 Pages
• Weight: 0.45 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.0" x 4.2" x 6.8"

Customer Reviews

love tri-angle

Mama's Boy is 1 of 3 books that PIENCIAK investigative reporter & editor for the AP has written. I have read Deadly Masquerade and plan on reading Murder 75 Birch. Eric is the product of a dysfunctional love triangle. Eric, Carolyn- his NPD mother and homosexual pedophile Uncle Al. These 2 DESPICABLE people raised Eric. He became a SEXUAL SADISTIC KILLER all by himself. Al and Carolyn would always help him dispose of the bodies and give him alibis. Eric choose very young black and Hispanic girls. He isolated them from their friends and families to control their every move. When they grew up and realized that this was not normal they tried to leave him. If Eric loved you and you tried to leave he would KILL you. Eric learned to kill in slaughter houses--pigs & cows. He killed his woman the same way he killed the animals. There is very little in the book about his mother, Al and his wives lives before Eric. I would like to know more about each of them. There is some very sloppy police work but one Clifton NJ detective Nick Donato makes it his goal to put Eric away. Eric laughs went he is sentenced in court.

Professionally Written True Crime

In MAMA'S BOY, Richard T. Pienciak details the story of a serial murderer, Eric Napoletano who, while not unusual in his sociopathic arrogance, is somewhat unique in that he only killed his wives and girlfriends. Their transgressions which Napoletano found intolerable were such things as wanting to have contact with their families, to make their own decisions, and basically failing to be completely subservient to him. Rather than being a cool and intelligent sociopath, Eric is presented as an hysterical and out of control lunatic, who, while possessing a certain amount of craftiness, is not very smart. This description also defines his mother, Carolyn, an unusually nauseating woman with more than her share of creepy insanity. Eric's pathology is the direct result of Carolyn's style of "mothering" which was to spoil Eric, whom she treated as much like an adult equal as her son. In fact, mother and son seem to behave toward each other more like lovers than parent and child. There is however no indication in the book that Carolyn and Eric actually had a sexual relationship. That was reserved for "Uncle Al" Jiovine, a gay man attracted to adolescent boys with whom, astoundingly, Carolyn allowed Eric to live, at age 14, without ever having met him. While it is not explained in the book why Carolyn would do this to her son - maybe because there IS no explanation - she says she wasn't worried about Al because Eric needed a father figure and that she had heard from an acquaintance that Uncle Al was "OK." MAMA'S BOY includes a highly successful device of, every 40 pages or so, presenting a chapter called "In Her Own Words" in which Pienciak allows Carolyn to comment directly on her life and the murders (in which she of course denies any involvement by Eric or herself)) and then presents, without commentary, her statements. What emerges is an awful person who hates everyone and who takes no responsibility for herself or her son, believing that everything that has happened to them is the result of some master plot to bring them down. She has learned to be superficially clever in manipulating siuations so as to temporarily derail, for example, the investigations into Eric's murders, or her disciplinary hearings at work. And she has taught Eric well. As an adult he has become just like her, whiny, manipulative, and a liar. Pienciak moves the story along expertly. His writing is crisp and professional and he doesn't feel the need to tell us what we are supposed to think about the main characters (although it would be hard to come to any conclusion other than that they were rotten people). He avoids the melodrama, grade-school similes, and repetitive filler used by untalented or lazy writers. And even the section on the trial is handled well and presents evidence which is often new to the story, thereby avoiding the always boring "now we quote the trial transcript verbatim" school of true crime writing. Pienciak presents us with a lot of information about

Enjoyable

I thought this was written very well. I kept wanting to get the chance to read as much as possible, throughly enjoyed reading this book.

Well Researched True Crime Book

This is a good example of a writer who obviously spent an incredible amount of time researching his book. Not only does he give us an in-depth study of the murderer but his mama as well. I am fascinated by the background of criminals and Mr Pienciak provides a lot of detail in this area. He writes well and it is a true crime selection worth reading.