The Piano Teacher: The True Story of a Psychotic Killer Paperback – August 2, 1988 by Robert K. Tanenbaum (Author), Peter S. Greenberg 
 
A chilling portrait of Charles Yukl, a mild-mannered piano teacher who brutally murdered a twenty-five-year-old student in 1966, served four years in prison before his parole, and killed a second student in 1974
 
From Publishers Weekly
This true crime tale presents a stinging indictment of the judicial system at its worst, freeing a killer to kill again. Tannenbaum (No Lesser Plea, Badge of the Assassin) and Greenberg, a syndicated columnist and TV producer, examine Charles Yukl's childhood: son of musical parents, he had an icy, perfectionist mother determined to make him a great pianist and a distant, uncommunicative father. He grew up to become a maladjusted loner who hated women. And when, working on the fringes of show business in Manhattan, in 1966 he murdered one of his pupils, Suzanna Reynolds, he was given a light sentence and served only five years. He went back to the entertainment world and repeated the pattern, killing another pupil in 1974, Karen Schlegal. Convicted and eligible for parole in 1989, Yukl hanged himself in a prison hospital in 1982.
Copyright 1987 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Library Journal
In 1974, Charles Yukl, a New York City clerk who dabbled in music and photography, murdered a female acquaintance in his apartment. Yukl was on parole, having been convicted of a similar killing in 1966. Tanenbaum, who coauthored Badge of the Assassin ( LJ 4/1/79), was Yukl's prosecutor. The book's subtitle is rather misleading given Tanenbaum's opposition to the idea that Yukl should be found "not guilty by reason of insanity." Yukl, who committed suicide in prison, was deeply disturbed but his drives receive only perfunctory attention in this brief, dated story. It is, however, competently written and will interest true crime buffs. Gregor A. Preston, Univ. of California Lib., Davis
Copyright 1987 Reed Business Information, Inc.
 
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