The Count and the Confession: A True Murder Mystery

Overview

Roger de la Burde was an unusual and charming man--a wealthy scientist and art collector, he claimed to be a Polish Count, wore ascots, and always bowed to women. But after he was found dead in the library of his Virginia estate, police discovered that de la Burde was not the man he had pretended to be. In fact, he was such a womanizing swindler that they had no difficulty compiling a list of suspects, including the tobacco company he was suing, his disgruntled business associates, his longtime girlfriend, his pregnant mistress, and her husband.

The woman they ultimately charged with the crime seemed the least likely of them all to commit murder; Beverly Monroe was an educated and unfailingly genteel Southern mother of three who had never had so much as parking ticket. But she had been de la Burde's lover for twelve years (despite his frequent affairs) and she made a bizarre confession under intense police questioning. Was she really guilty, or was she manipulated by the police? With unimpeachable research, Taylor reveals the multiple layers of this fascinating case and leaves readers with troubling doubts about de la Burde, about Monroe, and about the justice system in America.

Editorial Reviews

Seasoned journalist Taylor explored financial wheelings and dealings in Circus of Ambition and earned praise for Falling, an eloquent memoir of his doomed marriage. A similar intimacy and flair for intrigue pervade this account of the trial and conviction of Beverly Monroe for the shooting death of her boyfriend, an ersatz Polish count. Monroe made an unlikely murder suspect a gracious and loving mother of three, she was a patents analyst at Philip Morris but when tobacco research chemist Roger Zygmunt de la Burde was found dead on his 220-acre Virginia estate, police didn't think it was a suicide. Grief-stricken over her lover's death and unaware she was a suspect, Monroe, Taylor writes, was subjected to manipulative police procedures and eventually "persuaded to produce a false memory because she'd been convinced she had a repressed memory." But besides her confession (later retracted), other evidence incriminated her: there was another woman pregnant with Burde's child; the woman wanted Burde to leave Monroe; and the woman's ex-husband had reported Burde to the FBI for trafficking in fraudulent art. Monroe's daughter Katie, a lawyer, has dedicated years to ongoing appeals, and Taylor has spent considerable time unraveling complex entanglements: he interviewed Monroe and others extensively, reviewed 15,000 pages of legal documents and attended court proceedings. The result is a searing portrait of lives altered and destroyed, of violated rights and a labyrinthine and inflexible legal system and, ultimately, a story that remains an "irreducible mystery." Photos not seen by PW.
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc. -- PUBLISHERS WEEKLY.

Author Information

Bio of John Taylor

John Taylor, a journalist for more than two decades, has been a contributing editor at New York magazine and a senior writer for Esquire. He is the author of four books, including, most recently, The Count and the Confession, a New York Times Notable Book of the Year, and Falling, which Entertainment Weekly ranked as one of the five best nonfiction books of 1999. He lives in East Moriches, New York, with his wife, Jeannette Walls.

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Additional Info

Imprint

Random House

Filesize

1.96 MB

Number of Pages

384

eBook ISBN

9780307428332

Awards

• Edgar Awards (Edgar Allan Poe Awards)