Monster Mass Market Paperback – July 2, 2013

Steve Jackson’s Monster reads more like a seasoned bestselling authors opus than a first publication! Be very aware that Steve Jackson does not dilute horrifying events of many innocent young girls in this gripping true crime story, not for the meek! From beginning to end, Steve Jackson tells a story of a man with Borderline Personality Disorder along with Narcissistic Personality Disorder and a full blown Sociopath turned serial rapist and murderer. The overwhelming evidence and witness accounts are staggering as Jackson gives the audience a clear picture and understanding of who this “MONSTER” is. The cooperation with the Lakewood Police Department, the lead investigator, the Jefferson County District Attorney’s Office, and the Breckenridge Sheriffs along with other interagency and cooperative agencies in forensics and other science is exceptional! This hands down is one of, if not the best true crime investigation accounts I have read; I have read many. When I finished this impossible to put down read, I felt outraged, sick, frustrated and dirty- just from knowing a man like Thomas Luther was set free twice to just brutally rape and torture more victims within days of his release and his completely insane girlfriend who remains in love and in support of him even though she know what he was doing and who! Most importantly and infuriating is the incompetents of the Colorado justice system that deliberately failed to protect society from a sadistic serial killer with a plea bargain to free up expenses, the court calendar and overcrowding prisons without the victims knowledge who survived a Thomas Luther rape with a hammer, who broke her neck and left to die in the snow afraid neighbors would hear his gunshot’s. Like the three bullets Luther put in the back of 19 year old Cher Elders head after dehumanizing her. Monster tells the story of the predatory and the vicious monster that is the judicial system that can create as much pain for victims as the perpetrators do. This is not light reading nor easy to put down!

This was very well-written book that I highly recommend. The author Steve Jackson did an excellent job with his sources. He gave law enforcement (especially Detective Richardson) a strong voice in this book along with the surviving victims of Tom Luther's demonic inner rages and the family of the dead victim Cher Elder. Jackson also gave Luther the killer and rapist a voice as well as the unsavory, out-of-prison associates of Luther. The author also gave a voice to Debrah Snider, who had the misfortune of falling in love with Luther and becoming a different kind of victim of this very wicked man who had such a maniacal hatred of women and was the kind of sociopath who damages everyone who comes wittingly or unwittingly into the pathway of his life.The author also does a good job with the trial of Luther, which had its own dramas. The judge, even though he knew Luther to be a serial killer, amazingly would not allow overwhelming evidence of prior bad acts against women to be used in the trial. The author also provides insight into the inner workings of the jury, which had one stubborn holdout for second-degree murder when the 11 others wanted to convict him of the first-degree murder of 20-year-old Cher Elder and give him the death sentence.Tom Luther is responsible for the death of at least nine women and probably more in addition to the ones he beat nearly to death but, to his deep regret, permitted to remain alive. Steve Jackson's book provides insight into Luther's frame of mind, his complete lack of conscience and the motivations of his depravity.

Steve Jackson weaves a tale of evil that contains so much ugliness, the reader may want to put it down. Except being true, it hooks you from the beginning with a senseless murder that makes you hope it is the only murder this "monster" has been involved in. However, Tom Luther is just so far from your run of the mill sociopath who, by definition, has no conscience, no feelings of remorse and thinks of himself as the victim, it is difficult to believe he walks among us, I love true crime, although sometimes the reality of the crime is so difficult to grasp that the reader actually thinks it is fiction. Not. Tom Luther is the poster child for a serial killer.....killing because, according to him, the women remind him of his mother who abused him as a child. Same old song. But these words are so horrific that the refrain, which plays over and over, is absolutely unbelievable. Suffice it to say that this is truly difficult to read, however Scott Richardson, as the detective pursuing him is the antithesis of the horror he is investigating. It goes back and forth in years, so you must pay attention because it can get confusing. I can honestly say that I couldn't put this down to see how it all played out...and there is plenty to play out. Without giving anything away, if you are a true crime enthusiast, you really must read this account of a true "monster". What makes it even more disturbing is that someone with the normal organs of a human being, except his brain, can perform such unspeakable acts and still blame everyone but the postman. If you want a book that will illustrate how a sociopath thinks, or doesn't, I encourage you to read this story. One warning. If you are unable to stomach reading about the reality of hate, this isn't for you. It has made me ever so much careful before I trust another stranger, it was that real. You won't be sorry you read it, even though it is such an unsettling story, not only about him, but his protectors.