The Piano Teacher: The True Story of a Psychotic Killer

by Robert K. Tanenbaum, Peter S. Greenberg, Peter S. Tanenbaum, Robert K & Greenberg

Book Overview

Everybody has a dream. For aspiring actress Suzanne Reynolds, her dream ended in a gruesome encounter with eccentric New York artist Charles Yukl. Fooled by his choirboy looks, Reynolds had no idea the man who taught her the piano was a woman-hating recluse who spent his days lost in fantasies of perversion. As a result of the plea bargain for Suzanne's brutal murder, Yukl soon gained his freedom due to a shocking series of legal errors -- and killed...

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0453005470
• ISBN13: 9780453005470
• Release Date: October 1987
• Publisher: Dutton Books
• Length: 277 Pages
• Weight: 1.30 lbs.

Customer Reviews

The Piano Teacher: The True Storay of a Psychotic Killer

Excellent writing. The author keeps you interested. By the end of the book I absolutely despised Charles Yukl. This is good reading for those who love true crime.

The Piano Teacher The True Story of a Psychotic Killer

I really enjoyed this book. It was intense, and very explainitory. It started with the terrible murder that happened in 1966 and the murder that happened after his parol in 1974. Then it went into Yukle's up bringing. It explained the lifestyles of his parents. They were both very good musicains. They taught Yukle music from a very young age and they were very strict with him. His mother was a perfectionist, and expected him to play every thing perfect. She would make him sit at the piano until he did. When his brother was born they weren't as strict with him. They let him do and be who he wanted. Soon his parents were divorced. He and his brother lived with their father and his new wife. He didn't see his mother for years after that. Yukle and his father weren't very close at all. His father was very cruel to him. He always made Charles feel unworthy. Yukle was a loner and kept to his music, the one thing he was very good at. His grades in school weren't that great except for music. He quit school to go into the army. He was still a loner there to. He was court marshalled and sent back home. He went back to school and met a young girl in band that he really liked. He moved to Chicago to go to school for photography. He felt like a different person behind the camera. Things didn't work out with the girl back home and soon he met his wife; she was one of two women that he was able to talk to, but he was never able to completly open up to her. It talks about the police reports and the events leading to his conviction. It was all very intresting. I like reading true stories rather than fictional, and this one kept me reading until the end.

Riveting and chilling

Though I read this book several years ago, I still remember it vividly and hope this review inspires someone to buy it. I don't normally buy books like this; in fact, I picked this one up from a freebie table at work because I needed to read something on the train home, and boy, was I in for a surprise! The author leaves you hanging at the end of each chapter, luring you into the next until you're done before you know it. My heart pounded from the suspense and ached for the victims. This will be well worth your money.

Non-fiction at its best.

The authors give a chilling and factual account of themis-steps involved in seeking justice for a murderer of two youngacting students in the late sixties and early seventies in NYC. After being convicted for the first crime he is released from prison after 7 years, only to kill again less than 2 years later. After serving only part of his sentence for the second crime another technical error is poised to set him free again on parole. He is unaware of this and commits suicide in his cell. The authors paint a detailed and involving portrait of this psychotic serial killer, as well as the courts, the police officials, and the D.A.'s office. Issues of the insanity defense, the Miranda warning, the legalities of a valid confession, and the general atmosphere of the NYC justice system, are all raised in a thought provoking manner. Although written much earlier, this book is an excellent companion to Judge Harold Rothwax' book, "Guilty", in which he discusses the same issues and their deleterious effect on truth and justice in the courts.