Dianna Lynch was just fifteen years old when she married Charles Schmid in 1965. After surviving a tumultuous childhood, she found in “Smitty” a nearly fairytale kind of romance and looked forward to a lifetime with him. Schmid was odd in some ways—he styled himself after Elvis Presley, and applied a fake birthmark to his face that grew larger over time—but he was confident and kind to Lynch, sweeping her off her feet.
Only weeks into their marriage, Dianna was shocked when the police arrived and arrested Schmid, charging him with two counts of murder. Over the next few months, more killings were laid at Schmid’s feet and (after a sensational trial) he was convicted, given a death sentence, and sent to prison. Dianna remained steadfastly loyal to Schmid through the years, even as she struggled with the reality of the man she’d married, and was one of the few mourners to attend his funeral after he was brutally murdered in prison in 1975.
Lynch writes with clarity and grabs attention immediately with her first-person account of not just knowing a serial killer but being in love with one. Her confusion and despair when his actions were revealed still feel raw, and her tale offers a compelling account of how a sociopath can appear normal and charming in one area of their lives while committing horrendous crimes elsewhere.
SMITTY: My Marriage to Serial Killer Charles Schmid, the Pied Piper of Tucson is undermined by the disconnect between the author’s stated acceptance that Smitty was a killer who deserved punishment and the tone and attitude on display. Although she does write that she believes he was guilty and that she has empathy for his victims, she writes bitterly about Smitty’s treatment and seems convinced that the several murders he committed were an isolated moment in an otherwise good life. For example, she writes that “Smitty was taken from me before we had a chance to begin building a life together—at a time when life was full of promise and passion” because writing poetry “brought out the best in him.” She writes with clear animosity and hostility toward anyone who testified against him or otherwise failed to support him—as when she calls Mary Rae French, an accomplice in the murder of one of Schmid’s victims, “a true waste of a human being” who “got off with an extremely light punishment.” There is never a sense that she truly understands or accepts the enormity of his crimes, nor that she has much sympathy for his victims.
For those who can get past that, this is still an interesting, up-close account of a notorious killer—as well as an examination of an American society that is long gone.
SMITTY: My Marriage to Serial Killer Charles Schmid, the Pied Piper of Tucson is an intriguing perspective on a serial killer that offers plenty to true-crime fans, even if author Dianna Lynch can’t decide whether her subject is monstrous or misunderstood.
~Jeff Somers for IndieReader