This story is for those with a strong stomach, involving the murders, postmortem sexual assault, and vicious dismemberment of four young women, whose remains were buried together in shallow graves in the woods near an old cemetery in Truro, down the road from Provincetown, Massachusetts. These crimes are grisly even for true crime readers to digest. Several factors make this story fascinating, however. Taking place in 1969, with the trial in 1970, several events occur during this timeframe that make one wonder how we could lead normal lives and not be terrified at worst, bewildered and depressed about our country at best. Drugs and hippie culture were everywhere, with young people leaving home to ramble without roots or plan, leaving their parents confused and distressed. The Manson murders took place at this same time, as seemingly unbelievable in their viciousness as those described here. The Chappaquiddick Island drowning of Mary Jo Kopechne, in a car driven by Senator Edward Kennedy also occurred at this time. The Kent State shootings took place during the trial as well. This was a startling series of events to occur in rapid succession, in a cultural moment when people felt everything stable was falling apart.

The setting of Cape Cod with its tranquil landscape of sand dunes, beaches, glorious sun rises and sunsets, seemed a natural wonder and tourist destination. The long history of sailors, whalers, wives and sweethearts left behind, witchery, artists, writers, and great distance from population centers making it a welcome place for those desiring divergent (aka deviant) lifestyles, all made for the perfect place for an unfathomable series of crimes. The small villages of the Cape, where everyone seems to know everyone, or at least recognize everyone by sight, gave the crimes a frightening intimacy, to think that neighbors you thought you knew could be capable of such debauchery and violence.

The last factor that gave this story great interest was the attention and absorption of two authors who captured the zeitgeist of the moment, Norman Mailer and Kurt Vonnegut. Vonnegut lived in Barnstable, a walk from the court house where these crimes were tried, and a short car ride from where they took place. Mailer’s home was on Commercial Avenue in Provincetown, where all the action leading up to the crimes in Truro took place, where the predator met, charmed, and led away his victims. Both authors had daughters the age of the victims, which terrified them. They both had journalistic backgrounds, complicated relationships with the women in their lives, and due to their military service in World War II, a close-up experience of unbelievable violence and man’s cruelty. All of this drew them both to the story of Tony Costa, the perpetrator, and the desire to understand how a person could be capable of such atrocities. Costa himself was a psychologically complex character, who had a split ego, according to psychiatrists who interviewed him. Due to a pathological relationship with his mother, he developed a compulsion to act out with unbelievable aggression toward women, the violent compulsion acted out by his alter ago, named Cory Deveraux. Costa talked as though he, Costa, was not responsible for the actions of Cory, that this personae took over and committed these crimes. It is a truly terrifying story, made all the worse for the fact that Costa presented as a normal, gentle, intelligent person. He gained people’s trust so easily, and was admired by many teenagers in the area, who loved being around him, hearing his musings.

This took place before law enforcement was aware of serial murderers, before DNA analysis, cell phones, and the Internet. Detectives had to use methodical physical searching, careful interview skills, and common sense and experience, coupled with lucky breaks, to try to solve these crimes. It is a fascinating look at a unique time in our history.