truepenny | UBC: Robert V. Cox, Deadly Pursuit

Deadly Pursuit by Robert V. Cox

My rating: 2 of 5 stars

Robert Cox won the Pulitzer for his vivid deadline reporting of the kidnapping of Peggy Ann Bradnick and the massive manhunt that followed, but--I'm sorry, and I'm not saying this to be glib--you wouldn't know it from Deadly Pursuit. The writing is pedestrian at best (not vivid); the efforts to build suspense clumsy, obvious, and annoying; Cox writes from the point of view of the victim(s) of each of Hollenbaugh's attacks before the kidnapping, the murdered F.B.I. agent, the murdered F.B.I. agent's wife (for pathos), "Mary Lou Broderick" (Bradnick--one of her younger sisters was actually named Mary Louise, which makes this seem like a pretty damn tactless choice on Cox's part), a news photographer, police officers, sheriff's deputies, and--oh yeah--Robert V. Cox himself. There's something unspeakably creepy to me about the way he writes about himself in the third person--not just that he does it, although he'd really be better off to 'fess up and use first, since his identity is not secret--but the weird flat way Cox's PoV seems not a shred more real than that of Terry Anderson, which Cox is blatantly making up, given that Anderson was killed before the manhunt was even over. (I found myself surprised that he didn't drop into the PoV of one of the dogs--several dogs play critical roles in the story--because that's just the sort of cheap emotionally manipulative stunt that seems right up Cox's alley.) He does not organize his facts well, and the way he wanders from PoV to PoV makes it really quite difficult to keep track of what the hell is going on.

Also, while I'm complaining, hoo boy is it 1966 in this book. All the police officers and F.B.I. agents and volunteer manhunters are men (manly men, men in tights); all the women are victims or providers of food (no, really, that's the most contribution any woman in the book makes toward this massive effort--they contribute less than the German Shepherds. Which are male.). Women can also cry, while men are manly and uncomfortable: "While Margie and Brenda sobbed, both agents remained silent" (156). The male/female active/passive divide is absolute. And this is so completely Cox's understanding of the way the world works that it took me two-thirds of the book to notice it. I don't know if there were really no women actively involved in the manhunt or if Cox just didn't see them.

Six of the book's 200 pages are spent on Peggy Ann Bradnick's side of the story.

He also keeps raising the question of whether Hollenbaugh was really the Mountain Man, the guy who'd been terrorizing that part of Pennsylvania for two years, but every shred of evidence he gives us indicates the answer is yes. I can see why there might be reason to doubt--the Mountain Man raped one of his victims, but Hollenbaugh did not sexually assault Peggy Ann Bradnick, despite holding her captive for eight days, the (vague, confused) eyewitness descriptions of the Mountain Man don't match up with Hollenbaugh--but Hollenbaugh, from Bradnick's testimony, was using devices to alter his appearance, and otherwise, Cox doesn't explain. Is there a plausible theory that Shade Gap and environs were being plagued by two such predators? If there is, I need more details; if there isn't, stop trying to manufacture mystery out of nothing.

According to Cox, Terry Anderson was the sixth FBI agent killed in the line of duty. The blog of New York radio station WFMU says ninth. On the FBI's list, he's number fifteen. I think I know who to believe here.

So far as I (or Wikipedia) know, this is the only book about Hollenbaugh's crimes.

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