UBC: Reichert, Chasing the Devil

[truepenny]

Chasing the Devil: My Twenty-Year Quest to Capture the Green River Killer by David Reichert

My rating: 2 of 5 stars

[library]
[audiobook]
[N.b.(1) David Reichert is now a Congressman.
[N.b.(2) What I say about "Dave Reichert" is in reference to the character presented in Chasing the Devil, not to the Congressman himself. I have no knowledge one way or the other of Congressman Reichert's character.]

I'm afraid that even after a couple of days to think it over, my principal response to Chasing the Devil is FUCK YOU DAVE REICHERT.

I have several reasons:

1. Anyone who self-describes utterly unironically as an "alpha male" is going to encourage this reaction from me.

2. There is an excruciating moment when, as a new sergeant, Reichert goes to work with Lieutenant Fae Brooks (an African-American female officer) whom he had worked with on Green River. He claims he trained her (which he didn't, she was at least as experienced a police officer as he was, even if he started in Homicide before she did, so there's no grizzled elder advising Young Grasshopper here) and that he could therefore never take orders from her. The way he tells the story, he told her this AND SHE AGREED WITH HIM. And they agreed to work as partners. That was the moment at which I literally shouted FUCK YOU DAVE REICHERT at my car.

Thoughts:

a. I would love to hear Fae Brooks' side of the story. From her presence in Green River, Running Red, I got the impression of a person who had made a lot of compromises in order to be promoted--and I have NO argument with her there, she is clearly a brave and incredibly tough and talented person--and I'm guessing this was just one more compromise with the white men she had to deal with every day of her working life.

b. I don't think Reichert thought he couldn't take orders from her because he "trained" her. I think he couldn't take orders from her because he was an "alpha male" and she was a woman. Possibly also because she was African-American, but I'm not as sure of that part.

c. Would he ever have said this to ANY man, "alpha male" or not?

3. He's. A. Bully.

4. He is a petty vindictive character assassin of anyone he thinks has done him wrong (Robert Keppel, Frank Adamson, etc.) It's clear from GR,RR and from his own books that Keppel is what might politely be called a difficult person, but I don't believe for a second he's the self-aggrandizing prima donna Reichert makes him out to be, just like I don't think Adamson was at all stupid and I doubt he was dazzled by the FBI. He commits a truly ugly character assassination of Lt. Dan Nolan--and, you know, I know from reading Rule, that Nolan was dead (of leukemia I think) before Gary Ridgway was caught. So Reichert is saying these horrible things about a man who (a) can't answer him and (b) died cruelly young of a cruel disease.

5. He is an arrogant glory seeking prima donna, who has this way of saying "we" that means "I," who tries to claim he's both "lead detective" on the Green River case (as Rule points out, as tartly as Rule ever gets, Reichert, by pure luck of the draw, was lead detective for five of the forty-eight Green River victims. But he wasn't lead detective for the rest, and I seriously doubt he was a de facto leader for the other detectives, most of whom, as Rule also notes, called him "Davy"--not what you call an "alpha male," is it there, boyo?) and he's the stand-up guy who goes to the brass with the working stiffs' concerns (and, in Reichert's version, gets ignored because of that already mentioned FBI-bedazzlement and general stupidity: the brass is the brass and therefore stupid . . . right up until Reichert himself becomes the brass and then that leitmotif mysteriously vanishes). He takes credit for things that weren't his idea and claims command of things he wasn't in command of.

All the things he says he hates in Keppel and Adamson and Nolan are things I saw in Dave Reichert.

6. He's smug and sanctimonious. I have no beef with his being Christian, but I have a big beef with his assumption that his faith makes him superior to basically everyone ever.

7. He's unchristian, which I mean in the technical sense of not following the teachings of Jesus Christ. The way he talks about and treats Gary Ridgway is unconscionable, and I say this not because I'm going to defend Ridgway but because Reichert's bullying and lording it over Ridgway made me profoundly uncomfortable. Just because Ridgway is the worst thing you can imagine does not actually give you the right to behave like that. Nothing gives you the right to behave like that.

8. Also, I know Reichert must have had explained to him the difference between a personality disorder and a mental illness. Gary Ridgway does not have a mental illness. (Like many sociopaths, he is almost aggressively sane.) He has a personality disorder. Don't put yet another stigma on the mentally ill, dudebro. Not when you know better.

9. He persistently makes the Green River murders ALL ABOUT HIM, even though he remembers to pay lip service to--and I think genuinely believes he believes--that it's about the victims.

9. He is breathtakingly un-self-aware, as evidenced by this list of ways in which he betrays himself.

And it's a pity, because in other ways, this book is quite good. Reichert is great at describing police work; he goes into way more detail than Rule, and I was fascinated. Also, credit where credit is due, I think he was a good detective, like all the detectives on the Green River Task Force(s). He goes into way more detail about the 6 months of interviews with Ridgway, and gives a very different picture of what those interviews accomplished.

This is basically the opposite of Jensen's Green River Killer. That graphic novel is about a hero who doesn't see what he does as heroism and is uncomfortable being recognized as a hero. This book is about someone who wants desperately to be, and be recognized as, a hero and who sees his every action as heroic.

Yeah. Okay. Fuck you, Dave Reichert.



View all my reviews

Comments

[kore]

Richert was an asshole, but not a terrible detective, but he definitely used the myth that he'd "caught" Ridgway as a political stepping stone -- on the backs of the women Ridgway killed. I found that the most unforgivable thing about him. (And of course, as a "Christian" politician, he's voted against women's interests a lot of the time. Fuck you indeed, Reichert.

I dunno if you've gotten around to it yet, but Defending Gary, by his lawyers, was pretty good. To me most of the books written post-capture have fallen pretty flat.

[truepenny]

I totally respect Reichert's accomplishments as a detective, and I agree with him that he--along with a lot of other excellent detectives--was instrumental in Ridgway's capture. But he wants to make it ALL him and that's not only untrue, it's ludicrous.

I have not read Defending Gary, although I've got it on my list. Thanks for the rec!

[lokifan]

This is very entertaining and as ever your analysis is incisive, although WOW UGH.