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But I've grown philosophical in my middle age, and it seems to me now that there's far more to this genre than the simple opportunity to feel superior. The thing that all these books have in common is an exploration of the limits of human mastery. Murder is a power trip, proof of your ability to put an end to the existence of another person. What true crime shows us, in telling the stories of murderers and how they are brought to justice, is that human control is an illusion.

Above the Law: The Sensational Murder Case That Stunned the Nation By Brian Karem Pinnacle Books Nonfiction Buy Above the Law: The Sensational Murder Case That Stunned the Nation The Summer Wind: Thomas Capano and the Murder of Anne Marie Fahey By George Anastasia HarperCollins (Regan Books), 256 pages Nonfiction Buy The Summer Wind: Thomas Capano and the Murder of Anne Marie Fahey Fatal Embrace: A Tale of Love, Obsession, and Murder in the Thomas Capano/Anne Fahey Case By Cris Barrish and Peter Meyer St. Martin's Press, 384 pages Nonfiction Buy Fatal Embrace: A Tale of Love, Obsession, and Murder in the Thomas Capano/Anne Fahey Case And Never Let Her Go: Thomas Capano: The Deadly Seducer By Ann Rule Simon & Schuster, 479 pages Nonfiction Buy And Never Let Her Go: Thomas Capano: The Deadly Seducer

Money grants an extraordinary level of power to those who have it, and Thomas Capano had big money. The oldest son of a high-profile, immensely successful real estate development family in Wilmington, Del., he had been a state assistant attorney general, right-hand man to Wilmington's mayor and legal counsel to the governor. Worth a mere $5 million at the time of his arrest, Tom Capano was not the richest member of the Capano family. Brothers Louie, Joey and Gerry had continued the family business, enabling them to maintain vacation houses at the Jersey shore and a family condominium in Boca Raton, Fla. And in comparison with the du Ponts, whose sprawling local estates are called "chateau country," the millionaire brothers were small potatoes and nouveau riches; their father, Louis Sr., had been an immigrant Calabrese carpenter who made good. But new money or not, they had plenty of it.

Added to Tom's dark good looks, his extensive education and his smooth charm, that money was more than enough to grant him nearly everything he desired, including women. Lots of women. Capano had almost 20 mistresses during his lengthy marriage, and at one point he was seeing at least three on different nights of the week. One was the gorgeous, exuberant and troubled Anne Marie Fahey, 30, scheduling secretary to Gov. Tom Carper. When Fahey disappeared on June 27, 1996, her diary revealed her secret life, and Capano instantly became the prime suspect in a jaw-dropping case of obsession, murder and betrayal.

Money figured prominently in the attraction Anne Marie Fahey felt toward Capano. Fahey, the youngest of six children, had experienced a chaotic childhood. When she was 9, her mother died, and her father descended into alcoholism and irresponsibility. During Anne Marie's teens, there were days when there was nothing to eat at home and the electricity and water were turned off. She took showers at school, did her homework by flashlight and sometimes moved in with friends of the family for weeks at a time. She fought with her drunken father, at first hiding from him under the dining room table when he became violent, but later threatening him with a field hockey stick when he stole her babysitting money. It was a rocky, humiliating existence, and Fahey never quite recovered from it.

In addition to his seductive wealth, Capano had a soothing, sympathetic personal style that invited confidences. Capano, 17 years Fahey's senior, appeared to be as much a father figure to her as he was a lover. "I've told him everything," she confessed to her diary. Fahey was accommodating, anxious to please and adept at disguising her pain. She was a compulsive neatnik -- "Anal Annie," some called her affectionately -- who even folded her dirty clothes in the laundry hamper and lined up stacks of coins with the heads all facing in the same direction. It was a way of gaining a semblance of mastery over her life, her psychiatrist later testified, as was her fierce battle with anorexia. Her body was beautiful, but for some reason she thought her breasts were "too big" and her legs were "too fat." In striving for perfection, especially as her guilty relationship with Capano developed and then deteriorated, she dieted toward a cadaverous ideal.

When she first met Capano in the spring of 1994, Anne Marie was a ravishing young woman: bosomy and curly-haired, with arresting blue eyes and rosy lips. Two years later, when Capano took her to the upscale La Panorama restaurant in Philadelphia for her last meal -- which she wouldn't eat -- she was barely a size 4, and her ribs showed whitely through her skin. Later that night Capano killed her with a bullet to the head and stuffed her frail body into a huge, 162-quart Igloo ice chest. There is little doubt that he had to break some of her bones to do it.

Next page | The suave millionaire turned scary stalker