Leading the Lambs

A cunning psychopath or truly insane?

In 1979, in a small upstate New York town, a respected 38-year-old middle school teacher committed one of the most heinous sexual murders in recent history. Was that sexual and cannibalistic murder truly the result of a transient psychotic episode… or was it the work of a practiced—though undetected—serial killer?

Leading the Lambs explores both sides of that issue: temporary insanity and its juridical and psychiatric import; or malignant, psychopathic-driven criminality.

Having been examined by three psychiatrists, Albert Fentress in 1981 was found not guilty by reason of temporary insanity and was remanded to a psychiatric hospital. But, 25 years later, as he was about to be discharged as free of mental illness, his court hearing was suddenly disrupted by a startling new accusation.

For the year leading up to the murder, this former school teacher had been sexually abusing a ten-year-old boy. That news immediately led to revelations of other boy victims, all now young men finally able to speak out. A revision of that old verdict suddenly emerged. The reader will be challenged to decide.

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