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Thomas Thompson

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Richie: A Father, His Son, and the Ultimate American Tragedy Kindle Edition

by Thomas Thompson (Author) Format: Kindle Edition

4.3 580 ratings

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The “powerful and moving” true story of a Long Island family torn apart by drugs, violence, and the unbridgeable divide between generations (Kirkus Reviews).

George Diener, World War II veteran and traveling salesman, and his wife, Carol, had old-fashioned values and ordinary aspirations: a home, a family, the pleasure of watching their two sons grow up. But in February 1972, an unthinkable tragedy occurred in the basement of their Nassau County residence, shattering their hopes and dreams forever.

George and Carol doted on their shy eldest son, Richie. But at fifteen, the boy fell into a devastating downward spiral. He started smoking marijuana, shoplifting, and hanging out with drug dealers, and was soon arrested for assault and expelled from school. By the time his parents sought psychiatric counseling for their son, Richie was addicted to barbiturates and given to violent outbursts and threats. The boy George and Carol knew was long gone. Then, one winter evening, Richie came at his father with a steak knife and a suicidal cry of “Shoot!”

Edgar Award–winning author Thomas Thompson delivers a “scary, harrowing” account of a turbulent era in American history when the gulf between young and old, bohemian and conservative, felt wider and more dangerous than ever before (The New York Times Book Review). A tragedy of Shakespearean proportions, the devastating account of George and Carol Diener’s nightmare was adapted into The Death of Richie, a television movie starring Ben Gazzara, Eileen Brennan, and Robby Benson as Richie.

Editorial Reviews

Review

“A powerful book . . . Ought to be read by parent and teenager.” —Los Angeles Times

“Scary, harrowing . . . A powerful indictment of America.” —TheNew York Times Book Review

“If you care about your kids, read Richie.” —The Washington Post

“An important book—a shocker.” —ThePhiladelphia Inquirer

“An absolutely powerful and moving record of a family in adversity.” —Kirkus Reviews, starred review

Praise for Thomas Thompson
“Thompson is a dogged reporter and a tireless detective and, most of all, a keen observer of human nature.” —Houston Chronicle

“A writer of tremendous power and achievement.” —Detroit Free Press

About the Author

Thomas Thompson (1933–1982) was a bestselling author and one of the finest investigative journalists of his era. Born in Forth Worth, Texas, he graduated from the University of Texas at Austin and began his career at the Houston Press. He joined Life as an editor and staff writer in 1961 and covered many major news stories for the magazine, including the assassination of John F. Kennedy. As Paris bureau chief, Thompson reported on the Six-Day War and was held captive by the Egyptian government along with other Western journalists. His first two books—Hearts (1971), about the rivalry between two famous Houston cardiovascular surgeons, and Richie (1973), the account of a Long Island father who killed his drug-addicted son—established Thompson’s reputation as an originator, along with Truman Capote, of the “nonfiction novel.” In 1976, Thompson published Blood and Money, an investigation into the deaths of Texas socialite Joan Robinson Hill and her husband, John Hill. It sold four million copies in fourteen languages and won the Edgar Award and the Texas Institute of Letters prize for best nonfiction book. To research Serpentine (1979), an account of convicted international serial killer Charles Sobhraj, Thompson flew around the world three times and spent two years in Asia. His other books include Lost! (1975), a true story of shipwreck and survival, and the novel Celebrity (1982), a six-month national bestseller. Among numerous other honors, Thompson received the National Headliner Award for investigative reporting and the Sigma Delta Chi medallion for distinguished magazine writing.

Product details

ASIN ‏ : ‎ B01N7HJKID
Publisher ‏ : ‎ Open Road Media (December 13, 2016)
Publication date ‏ : ‎ December 13, 2016
Language ‏ : ‎ English
File size ‏ : ‎ 4553 KB
Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Not Enabled
Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Sticky notes ‏ : ‎ On Kindle Scribe
Print length ‏ : ‎ 308 pages

Best Sellers Rank: #116,849 in Kindle Store (See Top 100 in Kindle Store)
- #19 in Drug Dependency & Recovery (Kindle Store)
- #115 in Drug Dependency & Recovery (Books)
- #245 in Biographies of Murder & Mayhem

Customer Reviews:
4.3 580 ratings

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4.3 out of 5

580 global ratings

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Laura

well written

Reviewed in the United States on April 5, 2024

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Very interesting and well written!! Well researched and reminded me of the struggles over had with my sons. Good book

Reviewed in the United States on February 18, 2017

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Almost everybody I know has or had a Richie in their family. None have ended as tragically as this but all are tragic just the same.
Even though the ending is telescoped so clearly, it is still well written and a sad commentary on contemporary life.

12 people found this helpful

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tbear

Why did they not get help?

Reviewed in the United States on March 16, 2024

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It is hard to say that I liked this book. It was well written but the subject was such a waste of a life. I don’t understand how they could have waited so long to get him the help he so desperately needed. Have others parents learned anything from this? I sincerely hope so.

Reviewed in the United States on April 26, 2024

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This is the prolonged story of everything a 17 year old did wrong, and then finally shot dead at the end by his father. I wouldn’t bother with this one….

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gammyjill

Two great reissued books...

Reviewed in the United States on January 8, 2017

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One of the benefits of the e-book publishing boom is the reissuing of old, out-of-print books. Several books by the late author Thomas Thompson have been published in e-form and I just reread two of his classics, "Richie", and "Blood and Money". I had read both books when they were originally published in the 1970's and I found they have both stood the test of time. I'm going to review them together; both are true crime books but they differ in scope. One, "Richie", is a very personal story of one family, which is torn apart by one son's use of drugs and his death at the hand of his father in a final horrific scene. The other, "Blood and Money", is a sprawling tale, set in Houston, and is the story of many people who are touched by a woman's death and the murder of her husband a couple of years later.

"Richie: A Father, His Son, and the Ultimate American Tragedy", is the story of a suburban Long Island family, caught up in the horrors of drug addiction and ends with the murder of the son by his father. Thompson examines the lives of the Diener family - George and Carol and their sons Richie and Russell - and the society in which they lived. George and Carol Diener had met and married after WW2 and took their places in the post-war boom. They moved from crowded New York City to the more pastoral area on Long Island, where George bonded with his older son, Richie, in shared interests. That closeness was torn apart when Richie moved into adolescence and discovered drugs. His use of all sorts of drugs - but mostly "downers" - made the life in the Diener family close to unbearable. George and Carol looked for help in the schools and the court system of Nassau Country. This was in the late 1960's and early 1970's, when the drug epidemic was beginning and they received no guidance.

What do parents do when their children become strangers? When the purchase and consumption of drugs become the kid's primary activity? When their child hangs around other drug users? George and Carol Diener responded by ratcheting up measures meant to curtail Richie's drug use. Richie was caught up in his spiraling drug use and committing crimes while on drugs. The parents bemoaned the society where they saw drug using all around them and little help offered. But did George mean to kill his son when he was threatened by Richie that evening on the basement stairs? He shot to kill, and kill he did. He was later taken before a grand jury which declined to charge him with any crime.

Thomas Thompson's look at the Diener family is intensely personal. He doesn't make excuses for either father or son, but rather lets the reader try to draw his own conclusion. It's a masterfully written book.

39 people found this helpful

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Kindle Customer

True Crime

Reviewed in the United States on September 8, 2018

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I read this book because of the author shook i had read previously. The book is good and The story is well told and is believiable. The relationship between the boy and his father is true and has happened many times. The book is well worth a read

3 people found this helpful

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Kindle Customer

A must-read.

Reviewed in the United States on April 30, 2024

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What a nightmare in that family. I believe the mental hospital failed that boy and his family. There could have been a different outcome.

Reviewed in the United States on July 7, 2019

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Not your typical true crime as I was expecting but a really good read. Tragic story well researched and well written.

One person found this helpful

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Lynda Kelly

Very Good Account Indeed

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on July 7, 2019

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This book was so good !! An outstanding account of this true crime. I found it gripped me the whole way through and it was so bloody sad all round as well. I hadn't heard of the case itself but after I finished it I looked the family up on Google and when I saw Richie's photograph I recognised him. So somewhere or someplace I've known about him deep in the old recesses.....
For me, I really don't see his dad had any alternative in the end. The parents both tried getting assistance to help with him and his addictions but it didn't seem there was much help to be had. His school wasn't a great ally, either, not even realising he'd missed 2 months of one particular class ! I had never heard of courts getting involved with recalcitrant kids before, however. Maybe it is something parents in these times ought to consider, especially with the surfeit of one-parent families nowadays struggling to control their offspring. Something similar available here might help with these knifecrime murders we're currently experiencing among the nation's youth.
Richie and his family were pretty much ideals of the American Dream yet things still went tragically wrong. He certainly had 2 parents interested in him, loving him and in his early years with his dad I thought it was a lovely relationship they shared, one any lad would envy. Both parents seemed to have great values, too.
The book was originally released back in 1973 but this digital version isn't without mistakes. In the acknowledgement passage at the start the word docters was written, which made me gasp, I have to say !! Further in, melancholv was written as opposed to melancholy, which was clearly what was meant, then cruption and not eruption and hear not year ! The author/copywriter also committed the cardinal sin of spelling a person's name wrong, too.....suddenly write Deiner and not Diener. Careless in the extreme. A lot of words were just dropped from sentences altogether, "....asking punishment" or "pocks in fender and doors." There were of course the obligatory apostrophe mistakes usually seen in digital books and we also had rogue hyphens used....was-pleased or tone-rising.
Often books I read written by American authors have a habit of using some truly godawful English (to my way of thinking) but it seems to be just the way they do it there. This line, ".....several black youths rang her front-door bell in mistake" or "....growing familiar with the dismaying sight of a young person sitting across from his desk in suspicion of using or selling drugs...."
There was quite a bit of drug slang used, too, though I managed to figure most of that out.
One paragraph near the end made me cry and it seemed at times the old Richie was still in there somewhere and could be redeemed. There was no real explanation given to understand why he had the odd straight weeks here and there in his latter life....clearly a choice he was making. It was just a total shame for all involved that he couldn't control himself in the end.

One person found this helpful

Donny Rock

Tragedy

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on July 12, 2019

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True story of a teenage drug user and how his parents, in particular, his father, dealt with the matter. Well told account, if maybe, a little too heavy on extraneous detail. It is a very good account of the lengths users go to, of how their parents react, of the lack of trust and loyalty among so called friends who are equal users. What is not told is the reaction of the user's younger brother. Drugs can and do affect all socio-economic groups.

true crime

Tragic father and son story.

Reviewed in Australia on June 5, 2017

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TRAGIC STORY of a close relationiship tur ed toxic. Iincrnd the whole story incredibly sad but mainl6 for the father. We want the best for our children and this was sad.

Amazon Customer

Gritty, book of teenage life in America

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on February 10, 2020

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This is a gritty book of a teenagers life of drugs, and the problems him and his family faced as a result. It is based on real life, which makes it all the more hard hitting.

karen hodgson

Really good

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on January 7, 2018

Verified Purchase

The book got off to a slow start but got better and better. Good if you like true crime. Don't think his father got away with murder, I don't think he had another option

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