Book Review: The Bike Path Killer by Maki Becker and Michael Beebe (Almetio Sanchez)

As early as 1977, he prowled the paths and streets of Buffalo, New York and its surrounding communities.

He was first known as The Bike Path Rapist.

He preyed on women. Looking to take control, then brutally rape them. Until control and rape were no longer enough.

Then he killed them.

And became known as The Bike Path Killer.

But he made mistakes. Big mistakes.

He left his DNA behind.

And while his reign lasted almost 3 decades, science was refining the art of identifying a criminal through their unique genetic markings.

The Bike Path Killer was unveiled: Almetio Sanchez.

Sanchez was well known and liked in his circle. He was a church going, golf player who was devoted to his two sons and was deeply in love with his wife Kathy.

It was all a persona to cover the evil within.

The Bike Path Killer is written by two journalist who worked for the The Buffalo News at the time of Sanchez's arrest.

Unfortunately, as is frequently found among this genre, newspaper reports can't turn true crime writers as their books often turn into compiled newspaper reports of the crimes.

And just as a newspaper uses fillers to keep a hot story selling the papers, those same fillers were tossed into this book: many of the first pages details the life story of numerous detectives and investigators involved in this case (irregardless of how minute their contribution).

As a result, I found myself skimming numerous pages.

The Bike Path Killer is an interesting case. Unfortunately, I found too much fluff in between the story.