Unfinished Murder: The Pursuit of a Serial Rapist

Finalist for the Edgar Award: The gripping account of a sexual predator’s reign of terror and the manhunt that sought to bring him to justice

From 1983 to 1988, a serial rapist preyed on the women of Cleveland’s West Side. His victims were spied on, stalked, and brutally assaulted, their most intimate moments invaded by a vicious stranger. Arrested more than a dozen times for other crimes, Ronnie Shelton slipped through the cracks of an overburdened police department so often it seemed he would never be caught.
 
Based on extensive interviews with the survivors, the police, psychiatrists, and Shelton himself, Unfinished Murder is the riveting, all-encompassing story of this five-year nightmare. In clear-eyed and compelling prose, investigative journalist James Neff documents the long-term devastation caused by rape—a crime too often hidden in shadow—and celebrates the courage of the women who helped to put a ruthless criminal behind bars. Thanks to their brave testimony and the perseverance of the detectives who made the case their personal crusade, Shelton was convicted of raping twenty-nine women. Chillingly, the total number of his victims may be closer to one hundred.