Talk:Death Sentence (novel)

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Is there any real connection between the bok and the film ? -- Beardo (talk) 07:48, 10 February 2008 (UTC)

I enjoyed the only novel sequel to Death Wish. It actually improved things by exploring the vigilante's m.o. In this one, the author solves a problem...nobody could find crime by going on patrol. Page 38

"Long ago Paul [the Vigilante] had learned not to waste time in fruitless search for felons in the act of committing crimes; the odds were too long. A robbery took place in the city every three minutes.....but it was an enormous city and there were three million potential victims".

Paul Benjamin, besides using himself as bait, comes up with the idea of shadowing the court houses. After all, criminals often are repeat offenders who have to show up for parole hearings, methadone treatment, etc. So, he tails them from the court house. See page 56

Using the driver's id of a dead brother in law, Benjamin rents an office to hide his guns in (page 132). To disguise himself, he wears a Russian style winter cap (covering his hair and the back of his head, goggle-esque dark glasses, and a fake mustache. (page 138). He smeared his car's plates with oil and dirt.

An imitator arises, and also disguises himself. However, he goes Benjamin one better. Named Orson Pyne, he is tailed by Benjamin to a parking lot, one of those shopping centers that always seem to have hundreds of cars parked that nobody keeps track of. (Benjmain had earlier deduced Pyne's identity as the second vigilante; they did not work together). Parking his car (an Ambassador), Pyne gets out.

Page 196

"Pyne stooped, fitting his key into the lock of a battered old car.

He's changing cars.

How brilliant, he thought. It's something I should have thought of.

It was at least ten years old-the kind of car you buy with a hundred dollars cash with no questions asked. A phony name, phony address. Untraceable.

....He recognized the deep treads of the snow tires: Pyne wasn't taking changes on getting stuck...........It was a sure thing he didn't have it [the cheap car] serviced in the filling station where he took the ambassador."

 Logged  

the second one was much more elaborate in detailing Benjamin's m.o.

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Actually, in 180 page novel, in the first Death Wish, Paul Benjamin only slays his first victim at about page 138! That said, the first novel was interesting in terms of characterization, but did not cover his m.o. as much as the second one.

On page 143 of the first one

"Monday in the lunch hour he went down into the Village........At different shops he bought a dark roll-neck sweater, a reversible jacket with dark gray on one side and bright hunter's red on the other, a cabbie's soft cap, a pair of lemon colored gloves".

On page 146, he pulls of a hit and reverses the jacket, puts the cap in his pocket with the gloves.

On page 150, he set a trap for criminals. He rented a car. He left the car, put an "Out of Gas" sign on the car, and hid as part of a stakeout. He waited until criminals came to try to steal the car.......then he shot them.

Page 154 states he had five victims.

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Brian Garfield wrote the original novel Death Wish, but disagreed with the film. So he wrote a sequel novel exploring his ideas further.

I will say that a great idea someday if they ever try to do a Death Wish remake is to combine the first novel and the sequel novel together. The original novel Death Wish was more about mood and atmosphere...which are of course had to convey on film. Not much plot and action in the first novel (he kills his first victim on page 130 out 180 pages), so that is why the film was made as it was.

The sequel novel had more action and a somewhat more complicated plot, but it also continued Garfield's ideas about ways to reform the legal system and why taking the law into one's own hands causes problems. Kersey also interacts more with people who have strong opinions about the vigilante's actions, something not in the first novel or really in the films, and as a result, gains an alternative view on things. In the end, Benjamin the vigilante renounces his outlaw ways. This gives the story a sense of a person going through an event and maturing because of what he has learned and seen.

My summary goes through the first part:

Paul Benjamin was a CPA in New York and life long liberal. However, his staid life was overturned when his daughter, Caorl, and spouse, Esther, were attacked by muggers. His wife did not long survive the attack, while his traumatized daughter died with a few years after slipping into autism. Force to reevaluate his views, Benjamin became paranoid and eager for vengeance. Purchasing a gun on a trip to the Southwest, Benjamin used it on a mugger who accosted him. Benjamin decided to continue to use his gun against muggers, drawing them into traps with himself as bait. (In one case, he rents a car, pulls it over to the side of the road, writes an ":Out of Gas" sign on it, then hides, waiting for someone to try to steal it. When they do, he shoots them.)

It is only within the last fifty pages of the first novel that Benjamin slays his first victim. The second novel, Death Sentence, states that Benjamin murdered seventeen people over five weeks. Moving to Chicago, Benjamin refined his m.o. First, he bought two guns (one a .38, the other a smaller weapon) in Wisconsin (from a man named Truett) using a fake ID; a dead brother-in-law's driver's identifaction. Second, he rented an office, also using his brother-in-law's identification (that of Robert Neuser) to hide his guns in. Third, Benjamin took to wearing a flapped winter hat, goggle-like dark glasses, and a fake moustache to disguise his identity. Fourth, Benjamin would smear his car's plates with dirt and grease to make identifying his plate number harder. (As Benjamin admits to himself later, he should have purchased a second car to use for his attacks.)

Most importantly, Benjamin realized that it would not be feasible to try to patrol the city looking for crimes to stop. Since cities are so huge, and the window of opportunity for crimes to take place during the night is so long, the chances of stumbling upon a crime in progress would be remote. Aside from using himself as bait as he had before, he realized that many criminals, being repeat offenders, frequently have to show up at the courthouse for parole hearings and other matters. So, Benjamin started shadowing the courthouse, finding potential victims there, tailing them until they tried to pull something. (Benjamin also began staking out pawn shops and bars, since many criminals use those as potential sources for victims.) Benjamin's Chicago murders take place within the span of a few weeks in December and January.

Benjamin is dismayed when others begin imitating him with disastrous effect. Ordinary people begin packing guns and weapons trying to fight with muggers and robbers rather than give up their money and possessions, only to lose their lives. Worse, a copycat vigilante has launched his own version of Benjamin's sudden justice, picking off criminals with a .45 Luger; once, unfortuneately, killing an innocent bystander. Benjamin is also confronted by a law professor acquaintance who dedcues that Benjamin is the vigilante, and tries to persuade him to renounce his violent ways.

Benjamin deduces that, since the copycat uses a rare type of gun that he saw at Truett's shop, the copycat may have purchased the gunnthere. From Truett he finds out the identity of the man who purchased the Luger, Orson Pyne. Going to Pyne's neighborhood, Benjamin observes as the clean-shaven Pyne comes home driving an Ambassador car, and later a man with grey hair and a bushy moustache steps out of his front door; Benjamin realizes that Pyne wears a wig and a fake moustache to disguise himself. Tailing Pyne, Benjamin watches as Pyne goes to a shopping center's parking lot, parks his Ambassador car, and gets into a battered old Impala parked there. Benjamin realizes that Pyne purchased a used car (probably using a fake name and ID) to use in his vigilante missions; Benjamin realizes that he should have thought of that.

Benjamin tails Pyne as the latter tries to entice muggers to attack him with no success. Eventually, Benjamin stops Pyne, telling him he has to stop his actions. Pyne lashes out, shooting at Benjamin, but where Pyne misses, Benujamin does not. Luckily, Benjamin shot Pyne with the smaller gun (which he had not used before). Benjamin realizes that, by planting his .38 on Pyne (Benjamin used the .38 in all of his Chicago missions), he could frame the now dead Pyne for all of his Chicago slayings. Doing so, he then throws his remaining gun and a cleaning kit into the river.

Pyne's body is found, with the .45 and the .38 on it. The public believes that Pyne held responsibility for all of the vigilante murders of the last few weeks. Sadly, Pyne's death does not stop the imitators. The final page of the novel reveals that a string of similar killings has commenced, with the newspaper speculating that yet another vigilante has arisen in Chicago.

Victims of Paul Benjamin

The first victim in the first novel was Thomas Leroy Marston, 24. Two weeks before his death he had served 42 months for grand larceny.

Page 154 notes that five had been killed, two of them seventeen year old boys. George Lambert, 22, was killed while stealing a tv.

Page 22 of Death Sentence notes that over five weeks in New York he killed 17 people.

In Chicago he slew:

Circa Dec 16-17 Edward A. Smith and Leroy Thompson

Dec 18-19 Ernest and Julio Delgado

James Washington

On page 55 and 69 it is noted that he slew Joseph Crubb and two unnamed men.

Orson Pyne on page 69 killed Richard Hicks and John R. Davis

Page 76 Orson Pyne slays William O. Newton

P.111 Orson Pyne slays two youths, Benjamin slays a machete wielder.

P.116 Pyne double homicide

P.164 Pyne slays Peter Whitmore by accident (intended victims survive)

P.184 Pyne kills a drug dealer and an addict

P.185 23 shot in Chicago,

11 shot by Benjamin 12 shot by Pyne

Benjamin also shot, but did not slay, a group of boys attacking girls.

Benjamin of course slays Orson Pyne.

Benjamin is 47 at the time of Death Wish Pyne is 47 at the time of Death Sentence Carol was about 23 at the time of Death Wish.

In Death Sentence, the author inserts many events that happened to him or that he observed while writing Death Wish or seeing the reaction to the film. On page 135-136, a bus driver, after having heard of the vigilante, buys a gun and uses it to shoot a man who demands he hand over the money in the bush's cash box. A similar incident happened after the Death Wish movie came out. This is mentioned on pages 29-30 of Bronson's Loose by Paul Talbot. On page 158, a policeman recalls an incident where he finds that the canvas roof of his car was slashed. Garfield noted that a similar incident that occured to him led to the chain of events that prompted him to write Death Wish.

—Preceding unsigned comment added by Enda80 (talk • contribs) 17:11, 24 February 2008 (UTC) 

16:58, 24 February 2008 (UTC)Enda80

"Death Wish II (1981) follows some of the plot, but is set in L.A."

Has the writer of this article actually read the book? Because Death Wish II does not follow the plot of the book.86.46.40.189 (talk) 19:01, 25 September 2012 (UTC)

Orphaned references in Death Sentence (novel)

I check pages listed in Category:Pages with incorrect ref formatting to try to fix reference errors. One of the things I do is look for content for orphaned references in wikilinked articles. I have found content for some of Death Sentence (novel)'s orphans, the problem is that I found more than one version. I can't determine which (if any) is correct for this article, so I am asking for a sentient editor to look it over and copy the correct ref content into this article.

Reference named "death":

• From Death Wish 3: 'DEATH WISH 3' ALIVE, DEADLY IN LONDON Beale, Lewis. Los Angeles Times (1923-Current File) [Los Angeles, Calif] 23 June 1985: z7.
• From Death Wish II: THE REINCARNATION OF A 'DEATH WISH' Trombetta, Jim. Los Angeles Times (1923-Current File) [Los Angeles, Calif] 13 July 1981: g1.

I apologize if any of the above are effectively identical; I am just a simple computer program, so I can't determine whether minor differences are significant or not. AnomieBOT⚡ 23:16, 6 August 2017 (UTC)

Creation section

Badly written, hard to follow, please fix up. ELSchissel (talk) 17:56, 27 May 2024 (UTC)