challeggity. -
"Tukeitlexs re,spe,e.,4 s-tu.krt-ts."
"I can be rnrelf — and not be ixdied."
... REFLECTIONS FROM OUR STUDENTS
THE ROEPER SCHOOL
WHERE GIFTED STUDENTS LOVE TO LEARN
Ask No Questions
When the author began to - ask
family members about Harold,
most tried to shush his inquiries.
For years, most have distanced
themselves from their relative.
Some said they didn't realize that
he was in prison for murder; oth-
ers said they had forgotten about
him. They had a sense of shame
about their violent relative, and
decidedly went on with own lives,
finding no place for Harold.
Ultimately, some cooperated
with the author, others were
angry that he was again bringing
negative attention to the family
name. After he had stayed in his
grandmother's Bayonne home for
a few days, doing research and
making phone calls about Harold,
she asked him to check into a
hotel.
Konigsberg's reporting on his
uncle's crimes is a portrait of
brutality. As the journalist sees
when they first meet, Harold also
has a charming and seductive
side. He taught himself to read as
an adult and went on to learn the
intricacies of the legal system,
representing himself in court.
Some journalists and others
who knew him — two fictional
pieces were inspired by Kayo, by
Sidney Zion and Peter Maas —
described him with fascination
and warmth, "as if he were some
kind of pet monster:' Konigsberg
writes.
"I began the whole thing feel-
ing curious about him:'
Konigsberg explains, "finding
him quite intriguing, looking for
opportunities to see him as a
more sympathetic person. As I
spent time around him, learning
more about what he did, that
changed. I felt no sympathy as
time went on!' He adds,"It's
impossible now to feel sympathy."
As he writes, "The funny thing
about blood is, you can't control
how you feel about your relatives.
Even after I had seen what Harold
had done to others, I was unable
to hate him quite as deeply as I
wanted to, or even as much as I
felt I should. And yet I was a lot
less capable of wishing him any
possibility of redemption than I'd
have been if given the chance to
forgive a stranger for the same
sins. The thing about blood is
that you can't undo what funda-
mentally connects you to some-
body else.”
0 CAI Nooses
Tough Guy
The reader, too, wants to see an
uplifting side of Kayo — to see
him as some sort of good bad guy.
But this guy is truly bad.
Konigsberg defuses the notion
of Jews taking pride in having a
tough guy among their own. "I
don't think that Jews are timid or
weak. If one thinks that way, I don't
think that a violent and menda-
cious criminal, a psychopathic
killer, is an antidote to that. He's
not someone to take pride in."
The author says that his uncle
sometimes expressed remorse, but
then in the next sentence would
blame his circumstances, saying
that what he did was honorable.
"There were times when he
cried, saying he took responsibility
for what he did," Konigsberg says,
and then asks,"Who's to say if he
did? There's so much that contra-
dicted."
In researching, Konigsberg
tracked down as many of the
families of Harold's victims as he
could, visiting them in their
homes and corresponding with
them. Through them, he saw the
ripple effects of his uncle's trail of
murder. Sometimes, he felt like a
good-will ambassador on behalf
of his family, bearing witness to
the lives other families lost.
On his last visit with his uncle
in 2001 — before The New Yorker
article came out — Harold
threatened him if he published a
word about him. Konigsberg, who
lives on the Upper East Side with
his wife and young son, hasn't
heard from his uncle since then,
and has no interest in seeing him
again. He now understands the
defensive tack taken by his rela-
tives.
"I felt so intimidated by him. I
like that he knows I'm intent on
exposing as much as I could
about him." O
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