First and foremost, a large thank you to NetGalley, Ellen J. Green, and Thread for providing me with a copy of this publication, which allows me to provide you with an unbiased review.

Always curious about the world of true crime, I eagerly chose this book to enjoy. The story appeared straightforward and the premise clear, which only made it all the most intriguing to me. One hot, September morning in 1949, a young man walks along the main strip in East Camden, New Jersey and begins firing. Where the smoke settles, thirteen people are dead. While the shooter did not deny committing the crime, there’s a concern of mental illness, which forces the authorities to undertake significant testing. What follows is the story of the shooting, its aftermath, and a deeper exploration of what might have happened to lead a “quiet man” to commit such a horrific crime. Ellen J. Green does a masterful job at storytelling in this piece.

It was a muggy morning, that September 6, 1949, when Raymond Havens headed out to get a haircut. Little did he know, his life would change forever that day. While walking up the main road in East Camden, New Jersey, Havens heard shots and soon saw Howard Unruh wielding a gun and shooting indiscriminately. Blood flowed and bodies fell, leaving thirteen people dead after Unruh’s twelve-minute spree. This was the first recorded mass shooting in the United States and the authorities were baffled.

Unruh did not deny the shooting, allowing himself to be taken into custody. However, with the electric chair as a looming possibility, everyone wanted to make sure that things were clear, sending Unruh for evaluation to ensure he was fit to stand trial. All the while, young Raymond began piecing things together for himself, wondering if there were more to the story than a war vet who lost his way.

As the story progresses, the reader receives insight into the life of Howard Unruh, as well as the connection that he had with his family. His time in Europe was surely trying on him, as was the struggles he faced afterwards when he returned stateside. Deep psychological analyses helped professionals see a darker side to Unruh, one that few knew about, but which turned to fodder for the press and local gossip circles.

Raymond offers his own views on the shooting, having witnessed it, as well as some of the encounters he had with Unruh leading up to the day. Together, it may create a more comprehensive narrative as to why a twenty-eight year old man would turn from docile into someone filled with rage. The truth reveals much and paints quite a complicated picture of this small, coastal town. Ellen J. Green does a wonderful job with this piece, pulling the reader in from the opening pages.

While true crime is not my go-to genre, I do enjoy treating myself on occasion. I enjoy learning more about the crimes, the background, and the thought of the killer as they prepare for the event. Ellen J. Green did a wonderful job of telling this story, the first documented mass shooting spree in US history. She looks at the event from a number of angles and pulls on details that help shape the narrative in interesting ways. The writing is clear and flows well, keeping the reader a part of the action all the way through.

Green focuses her attention on Howard Unruh and Raymond Havens throughout the piece, though there are many others whose appearance helps shape the narrative. These two offer insights in the shooting itself, its backstory, and even the fallout thereafter. Green uses them and their views primarily to cobble things together for the curious reader. That said, she was a great job of providing needed backstory on the victims as well and how townsfolk handled the news and scandal of such a crime in their own backyards.

Green’s depiction of events in 1949 is not only clear, but also helps develop a wonderful foundation for the rest of the novel. Working with primary sources and small-town newspapers, she pieces the crime together, offering the reader some insights throughout the narrative. A well-paced story, told from a few angles, makes things come to life and provides the reader with the needed insight to come to some of their pwn conclusions as well. Exploring the lives of many, victims and townsfolk alike, helps breathe a realism into the piece that makes the reader want to delve a little deeper. While there were no major mysteries surrounding the shootings, it is the secret life that came to be discovered that makes this book all the more suspenseful. I will have to look into reading more that Green has to offer, when time permits.

Kudos, Madam Green, for a great piece you said was recounted to you by a family members all those years ago. You did it justice and I cannot wit to do some of my own research on the subject.

This was a riveting and gripping book that was told through eyewitness accounts, psychiatric records, diary entries and police records . The narrator did a great job through reading this tough subject matter. This definitely isn't a book for everyone due to the sad subject matter. But a powerful read the less

This was such an interesting listen! The true story of the first mass shooting in America 1949, told from the perspective of the killer’s mother and a 12-year-old boy who witnessed the start of the shooting. It felt very much like a true crime podcast/documentary, but equally almost like a fiction book? The way it was told really read like a story, but it made it so much more fascinating that it actually happened!

You really get to feel for Howard (the shooter) despite his horrible crime. You see a compassionate side to him in the story, and really get an understanding of what led him to violence. He suffered with PTSD from being in the war, but never got the help he needed. His sexuality was also not accepted at the time so he felt extremely isolated and it led to his mental deterioration.

A very interesting and pretty sad story, both from the perspective of the victims and their families obviously, but also from the perspective of Howard’s mind and his suffering. Definitely recommend!

I found this book soo interesting and thought provoking. You will try to get into the mind of Howard to really understand why he did what he did. Fantastic informative read.
Thanks to Netgalley

If you like any true crime show, this book should go on your TBR. It is the true story of the first mass shooting in the US in 1949. It is told from the point of view of Raymond, a 12 year old who was friendly with shooter Howard Unruh because he would deliver him stamps from his father, and Howard's mother for the most part. I can't figure out if Raymond was a real person, or just a figure to be a witness to the horror and someone to tell the story through though.
Ray sees the beginning of this 13 person mass murder, yet Howard does not shoot him. Howard has a list of neighbors who have made fun of him or harassed him (either outright or made up in his mind) and he has a mission to kill them all. Ray was not on that list.
It was really interesting to see this story through the eyes of a child as well as his mother and a few other small POVs. To Ray, Howard had always been kind of a loner, but was interesting and had stories to tell. To the town, he was a bum (he did not have a job, but relied on his mother), he was weird, he needed to get a job.
We really learn a lot about Howard throughout this book and you can tell that it is well researched. We learn that he wasn't "right" after he came home from the war. The fence he installed just the day before he killed had been ripped out of the ground and stolen. We learn he has a deep dark secret about what he really does on his frequent trips to Philadelphia.
It is very obvious that he has PTSD from being in the war and in one of the worst battles of the war. But PTSD wasn't really a thing back in 1949, so he wasn't treated and just left to fend for himself. His sexual preference was not accepted in 1949 so he had to hide it and lived in fear of people finding out. There were so many things (big and small or even nonexistent to anyone but him) that led to this tragedy that are either accepted or can be treated now which just is sad to think about.
This book really read like a story, not like how sometimes non fiction can be and the narrator did a great job. It wrapped everything up nicely and even brought in a story about something that happened to a survivor's granddaughter that just seemed like too much of a coincidence. Highly recommend for true crime lovers!

This was a good listen. I liked all the different angles covered, although one must question the validity of some characters' thoughts. Regardless, it was very informative and all the information was set out in a flowing narrative rather than a collection of facts - closer to a novel than a documentary.

I just finished listening to Murder in the Neighborhood and this has to be one of the most thought-provoking and impactful true crime stories I’ve read/listened to in a long time. Seventy-three years ago, Howard Unruh shot and killed thirteen people in just under that many minutes. This is the first mass shooting recorded, which that in itself is absolutely tragic, but another less talked about tragedy lies in what led up to this hideous crime.

Howard was intensely ridiculed and bullied, physically and verbally. He’d reached his breaking point and as I said above, shot 13 people in cold blood – including a child that was only two-years old. It was determined that this was a premeditated crime and later, it was established that he was mentally ill. He was sentenced to a hospital for the insane and this is where he stayed until his death in 2009.

Ms. Green explores the possible reasons that may have led up to Howard’s breakdown by utilizing eyewitness accounts, parts of Howards diary, psychiatric and police reports along with interviews with members of his surviving family, piecing together a mostly factual account. I will never agree with violence in any situation but the authors meticulous research really gives potential insight into his frame of mind at the time of the crime.

Narration: John Chancer does an amazing job moving the story forward and is so pleasant to listen to.

Chilling, gripping and a must read for any true crime fan or murderino.

My thanks to Thread and NetGalley for this ALC.

In this nonfiction account of the first recorded mass shooting, you get a look into the lives affected, the way mental illness was treated, and the attitudes surrounding LGBTQ+ people in 1949. The true crime event is told through the eyes of two different people, 12 year old Raymond Havens and Howard Barton Unruh’s mother. It also begs the question, if the combination of events that led Howard to seek revenge on his neighbors had never occurred, would Howard have killed 13 people in 12 minutes?

Bonus: If you listen to the audiobook, the narrator, John Chancer’s voice sounds a lot like Casey Kasem’s!

Thank you Net Galley and Thread Books for allowing me to listen to the audiobook ahead of publication in exchange for my honest review.

This was a solid account of one of America's first mass shootings in 1949 when twenty-eight-year-old Howard Barton Unruh shot thirteen people in his neighborhood in East Camden, New Jersey.

Unruh was a renowned veteran who fought in Battle of the Bulge and repeatedly made fun of throughout his life. He had no friends, didn't work, spent his days in his basement shooting range. One day he cracked. It is so painful reading this knowing how things should have been done differently and knowing that Unruh's mental capacity left him feeling no remorse. I am glad to hear that immediately following this event gun control became part of the conversation, but growing up today, it is odd thinking that something so dangerous was left so unchecked not that long ago.

The mentioning of the Parkland shooting and the fact that one student on campus was related to victims in the Unruh shooting was absolutely chilling.

I recommend this for people who enjoy true crime or like learning about lesser historic events that impacted our society.

On the day after Labor Day in 1949, a young man named Howard Unruh left his apartment and shot thirteen people on the main street in his small town of Camden, New Jersey. This was the first recorded "mass shooting" in American history, proceeded by what we all know to be the tragedy of all-too-common mass shootings throughout the US.

This book details the events of that day, what happened beforehand to cause Howard to go on this rampage, and what happened afterward. The story is mostly told from two perspectives - one of Raymond Havens, a twelve-year-old boy who used to deliver collectors' stamps back-and-forth between his dad and Howard and escaped the killings of that day, and Freda Unruh, Howard's mother.

Howard was a veteran of World War II, and had all the classic signs of PTSD. After the war, he moved back in with his mother - he couldn't hold down a job, he didn't have a girlfriend, and he carried himself in a strange, off-putting way. Many of the residents of this small town "tormented" Howard, constantly teasing or insulting him, both to his face and behind his back. Objective observers agreed that all of this was true - hardly anyone in the town was kind or respectful to Howard. The final straw came when he built and installed a gate to the path leaving his and his mother's apartment on Labor Day, and the very next morning, he woke up to discover that someone had stolen the gate. Howard had documented his hatred towards the townspeople in his journal, and even had a "kill list" of all the people he wanted to target, first and foremost his neighbors, the Cohens. After seeing his gate gone, he grabbed his Luger and went on his killing spree. Although he killed most of the people he was intending to, he also killed three innocent children and a few people who just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time who Howard had never even met before, like a man who happened to be driving down River Road and stopped at a red light just as Howard was starting to shoot.

Of course, this book is sad at many points, especially when it discusses the lives of the survivors - little Charles Cohen, whose parents and grandmother were killed right in front of him, or the Hamilton parents, whose two-year-old son Thomas was killed by a stray bullet because he was sitting in his playpen in front of the window. These lives were changed irreparably.

Although many people wanted Howard to "get the chair" because of these deaths, that never ended up happening. He was determined clinically insane by psychologists, primarily because of the lack of emotion he expressed about the event. He had no remorse and often said he would do it again. But there's no doubt that it was premeditated and intentional, and he knew what he was doing while it was happening. Either way, he ended up living out the rest of his life in a psychiatric hospital.

The book does a very good job at piecing together a lot of primary sources into a coherent narrative. Although it's not quite as compelling and well-written as other narrative true crime classics like [book:In Cold Blood|168642], I'm sure it was quite a feat to read through thousands of interviews, journals, articles, and other sources and make it into a story told by a few main characters - and to my knowledge, this is the first book about this exact event to be published. I found the book a bit too long and repetitive, especially because there's not a lot of "new" information that happens after the main parts of the story have been told. I was wondering if the outcome would go in a different direction at the end, but was disappointed to see it was exactly as expected.

Thank you to Thread for the audio ARC via Netgalley!

A great mix of true crime and fiction to bring this story to light. I really liked the aspect of how this event effected those involved and how changed their lives were to what they could’ve been. It was sad and it was interesting. Slightly slow in parts but still enjoyable!

3.5⭐️

If you have an interest in local (NJ) history and/or true crime stories, you'll want to add this book to your list. Publication date is 4/28/22, but I was lucky to snag an advance copy of the audiobook, and to listen to most of it this weekend. The story is a compelling one, and very well written. On September 6, 1949, Howard Unruh, a 28-year-old WWII veteran, went on a shooting spree in his neighborhood in Camden, NJ, killing thirteen people, three of them children, and spent the rest of his life in Trenton State Psychiatric Hospital until he died in 2009. Much of the story is told in the voice of a young boy who had known Unruh, and who witnessed the murders and spent years afterward pondering the events of the day that shattered so many lives.

Unruh's is one of the first cases of mass murder in the United States, and it's sadly interesting to note that there was a major push in its aftermath to reduce the availability of guns, with a very positive response initially, and then dwindling public interest. In a striking coincidence, the book includes a description of events nearly seventy years later, when the granddaughter of one survivor of the shootings, then a young boy whose parents and older brother were killed by Unruh while the boy hid fearfully in a closet, was a student at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School hiding in another closet during the Parkland School shooting.

The author, Ellen J. Green, did an incredible amount of research to build a detailed portrait of Unruh, his family, his neighbors in Cramer Hill, and the events leading up to the murders as well as its aftermath. I do wish she had included a note at the end to describe her research process, and especially her process of obtaining the perspective of then-12-year-old Raymond Havens. The audiobook's narrator, John Chancer, is excellent, and I'd be happy to find additional works that he's narrated.

Thanks netgally and bookouture audio for this ARC.

Murder in the neighborhood follows the events leading up to the first mass shooting in USA. Howard B Unruh shot 13 people in cold blood, and I felt the ramifications of the tragedy as if I’d been there myself. The author writes about the shooting so vividly, as if you watched it all from a window. I also loved how well we got to know Raymond, who was one of the few who actually knew Howard. He comes forward as a perceptive boy, curious about everything.

The book raises many questions, like we all do when something unfathomable happens; Why did Howard kill so many people? Was it his time in the army, the way he was treated in his neighborhood or the rejection by a man he cared for? Or was it simply everything combined with antisocial personality traits ?

I would have loved to get to know the people who were killed, but a reconstruction of a tragedy must focus on some things, leaving others out.

Green writes beautifully and capture the complexity of humans accurately. The book comes across as well-researched and I learnt a lot from it.

Book: Murder in the Neighborhood
Author: Ellen J Green

🅢🅤🅜🅜🅐🅡🅨:⁣
Murder in the Neighborhood, is the true story of the first recorded mass shooting in America. On September 6, 1949, in Camden, New Jersey, Howard Unruh shot and killed 13 people in the span of 12 minutes. This book is told from the POV of 12 year old Raymond that had a friendly relationship with Unruh and from the POV of Freida, Unruh’s mom. The book not only tells about the events of that day, but how it affected the people involved, and tries to figure out why it happened in the first place.⁣
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🅡🅔🅥🅘🅔🅦: ⁣
This book read like fiction, and at times I had to remind myself that I was reading about true events. It was obvious that the author, Ellen J Green, did an extensive amount of research for this book. I would recommend to those interested in true crime, and I would encourage those that do read it to read it in it’s entirety, including epilogue. ⁣
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Thank you to Thread Books for the ALC of this book.

I haven't read much true crime, however, this caught my attention. Not only does it talk about the 1st mass shooting that took place Sept. 6, 1949. It also took place in East Camden, New Jersey and lived in Jersey for several years so I think that was another spark of interest for me.

Murder in the Nighborhood was a true story about 28 year old Howard Unruh who killed 13 people in a matter of 12 minutes. The story was told through the eyes of 12 year old Raymond Havens (who's life was spared that day) and Howard's mother.

While I will NEVER agree that what he did that day was justified, this story makes you see what finally makes Howard snap. He was tired of being bullied, the war definitely left him with PTSD and he was having to hide his sexuality from everyone. This book definitely brings awareness to mental health issues that in this case were definitely overlooked and especially not as commonly talked about at that time.

This story was narrated by John Chancer and I thought he did a wonderful job.

Thank you NetGalley for the ARC in return for my honest opinion. Definitely a must-read for true crime junkies!

September 6,1949

The first recorded mass shooting occurred on this date when twenty-eight-year-old Howard Barton Unruh opened fire and shot thirteen people in less than twelve minutes. Howard Unruh plotted the revenge on his neighbors for their bullying, mistreatment, and shunning. They never let Howard have a minute's peace. Their taunting was constant and unrelenting.

Howard lived with his mother and kept mainly to himself. He had a secret life and kept an apartment in Philadelphia where he could be his true self. Where he could date, meet other men and have relationships with them.

When not being taunted and ridiculed by his neighbors, he kept a shooting range in his basement. He was honorably discharged from the service after the war. Was this a way to let off steam or was this practice for the massacre that was yet to come?


Raymond Havens went to get a haircut that morning and was a witness. when his friend and neighbor, Howard opened fire. So many lives were forever changed that day.

This book is told through eyewitness accounts, psychiatric records, diary entries and police reports. I had not heard of this case prior to seeing this audiobook being available on NetGalley. The author did a tremendous amount of research, and I did not want to stop listening.

In addition to being a riveting and gripping book, I thought the narrator did an amazing job. Howard is presented as a sympathetic character. I kept thinking how much one person could take before reaching a breaking point. What would have happened if that door had not been messed with?

This whole book is sad. So many lives lost, so many lives changed. A man taunted and beaten down. A man who was already changed by war. A man who screamed in his sleep. A man who had been bullied his entire life. A young man who bore witness, who visited Howard and was forever changed as well. A mother who can't understand the actions of her son, who can't understand how her sweet bible reading son could do such a thing.

This is a powerful read/listen.

Howard did a horrible thing, there is no doubt. But I could not help but feel for him as I did his victims.

True crime fans will enjoy this book. It is thought provoking, powerful, evoking emotion and well written.

Thank you to Thread and NetGalley who provided me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. All the thoughts and opinions are my own.

I listened to the audio version and the narrator is phenomenal!! I had never heard of this event before so I came into the book with only the synopsis I read. The author did a great job making the reader/listener feel anger, sadness, despair etc throughout the book.

Brilliant! The story the characters the research and the narrator I cannot fault any one of them.
The blurb for the book claims -: ‘ Murder in the Neighborhood is a compulsive page-turner that will have you asking—how well do we ever really know those around us? Are we ever really safe?

A gripping untold true story that will leave your heart pound’ and quite honestly I couldn’t have put it better myself… so I won’t. Just get a copy and be entertained in a very original way.

3.5 stars rounded up. An interesting book that strives to understand how Howard Unrah, the first ‘mass shooter,’ decided to kill thirteen people in his neighborhood back in 1949. This book clearly points to the importance of addressing mental health problems and the effects of persistent bullying and social ostracism. Many reviewers have shared their empathy for Howard (while certainly not condoning his actions). I can see why— he experienced an unimaginable amount of bullying, and it is no wonder he reached a breaking point (again, by no means does that justify his actions). At times, I found the story to be a little repetitive, but I think that most fans of true crime would find it enjoyable.

This book was interesting. Definitely a piece of history and history is important. You really do almost feel sympathy for Howard. It’s like kids being bullied at school nowadays and way before they called it bullying.