Gary Provost - Without Mercy: Obsession And Murder Under The Influence

Obsession and Murder Under the Influence

By Gary Provost

Digital Edition published by Crossroad Press

Digital Edition Copyright 2016 The Estate of Gary Provost

Represented by: Gail Provost Stockwell

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G ary Provost is the author of eighteen fiction and nonfiction books, including Fatal Dosage: The True Story of a Nurse on Trial for Murder; Without Mercy: A True Story of Obsession and Murder Under the Influence; and Make Your Words Work. He has written thousands of stories, articles and columns for national, regional and local publications; humorous columns for more than 100 newspapers; and celebrity profiles for a dozen magazines. He is a popular speaker around the country and also conducts several writing seminars and workshops a year. He lives in Massachusetts.

Book List

The Dorchester Gas Tank

Make Every Word Count

The Pork Chop War

The Freelance Writers Handbook

Share the Dream (as Marion Chase)

Good If It Goes (with Gail Levine-Freidus)

One Hundred Ways to Improve Your Writing

Popcorn (with Gail Levine-Provost)

Fatal Dosage

Finder (with Marilyn Greene)

Beyond Style

David and Max (with Gail Provost)

Across the Border

Without Mercy

Make Your Words Work

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For early-morning cuddles and late suppers, for reading pages and writing letters, for staying at home and coming along, for taking notes, for magic spells, for coffee in bed, and for long, perfectly arced shots that usually go in, this book is lovingly dedicated to my honey, Gail.

This book could not exist if I did not have the cooperation of a number of people who took the time to remember moments from their own lives and answer my questions.

For generously giving me their time in interviews I want to thank Vivian Andre, Kenny Baldwin, James Allen Bryant, James Campbell, Dee Casteel, Bob Davis, Robert Edward, Steve Fitzgerald, George Freitas, Hal Henry, Sally Hicks, Richard Higgins, Donna Hobson, Ona Hostutler, Cynthia Kaiser, Art Koch, Sandra Lochard, Calie Maitland, Susan Mayo, Frank Natale, Jay Novick, Jenny ONeil, John Parmenter, Bill Rhodes, Joanne Rivera, Pat Swanson, Wayne Tidwell, Dr. Jethro Toomer, Sally Weintraub, Reid Welch, Todd White, and Warren Woods.

Also, there are several other people who spoke to me but have asked me not to mention their names. My thanks to them.

I want to thank Rob MacGregor, for background material on Santeria; Philip Needleman for the use of his house during part of the research; Allan Provost, for bringing the story to my attention; Gail Provost, for reading and commenting on the manuscript in progress; Paula Tulley of the Florida Department of Corrections for arranging my prison visits; Marta Villacorta, Superintendent of the Broward County Correctional Institution, for allowing me as much visiting time as I needed; and Lee Weissenborn for providing me with a copy of the trial transcript.

I also want to thank various staff members of the Boston Public Library, the Miami Public Library, and the records room at the Dade County Courthouse.

Thanks, too, to my agent, Russ Galen, for taking the book on in midstream and pulling it safely to the other side.

And a special thanks to my editor at Pocket Books, Claire Zion, for having faith in the book to begin with and for her wise and valuable editing when it was almost done.

O n the day I arrived in Miami to look into the Venecia-Fischer murders, there was a heartbreaking story in the Miami Herald. A young German woman had been murdered while visiting the city. Kersten Kischniok and her boyfriend, Dieter Riechmann, had gone to Bayside where they listened to Brazilian music and drank cocktails. It was dark when they left, and as they drove through the shadowy streets of Miami, Riechmann made a wrong turn and became lost. When he saw a man standing near some parked cars, he asked for directions.

I asked, Where is Biscayne Boulevard? he later told the Heralds reporter. I know if I stay on Biscayne Boulevard, I find my home. He say he wants to give help.

Instead, the man leaned close to the passenger side of the car, and Riechmann saw that he had something in his hand. The man shot Miss Kischniok twice in the head. Riechmann hit the accelerator on his rented Ford Thunderbird and sped desperately through the dark Miami streets, but by the time he came to a police car his girlfriend was dead.

The police concluded that the motive was robbery, but the killer didnt even get Miss Kischnioks purse. It was still on the seat next to her dead body.

The Herald story ended like this: Riechmann and Kischniok were to return to Germany Wednesday. Now Riechmann is going home alone with a question: Why do I earn this, coming here?

I clipped the story out of the Herald and slipped it into my briefcase. I had a hunch that I could somehow use it for this book, though that seemed improbable. The Kischniok murder was unlike the ones I was dealing with, and it was, sadly, not even an unusual crime. But still I kept the clipping. Im not sure how I hoped to use it.

There are many such tragedies every day in America, and as I went about the business of researching this book, people often asked me why I had settled on this one. Surely I could have written a book about the well-respected doctor who murdered his wife and put her body through a wood chipper, or the four-star general whose Ivy League son was knocking off gas stations and liquor stores, they said. So why did I want to write a story about such ordinary people as a waitress at a pancake house and her boss and a couple of guys who worked at a gas station?

I live in Massachusetts and I first learned about the story when my brother, who lives in Miami, sent me a clipping from the