Scoundrel: How a Convicted Murderer Persuaded the Women Who Loved Him, the Conservative Establishment, and the Courts to Set Him Free

Edgar Smith was convicted for the 1957 murder of fifteen-year-old Victoria Zielinski in New Jersey. While on death row, Smith began a strategic correspondence with William F. Buckley Jr., the influential editor of National Review. This book details how Smith utilized prose and intellectual posturing to convince Buckley and other literary figures of his innocence. Through archival research and personal letters, Sarah Weinman documents the decade-long legal and media campaign that eventually secured Smith’s release, only for him to commit another violent kidnapping years later.

True crime readers interested in the intersection of criminal justice and media manipulation will find this a detailed case study. It serves those who want to understand the psychological mechanisms of the "conman" and the vulnerabilities of the American legal system. Readers finish the book with a clear perspective on how celebrity influence can override forensic evidence and how institutional biases allow a violent offender to exploit the intellectual elite for personal gain.