Ramsey May 16, 2012 THE VILLADOM TIMES IV • Page 13 Detail from the cover of ‘The Charmer.” Richard Muti will discuss his new true crime story, “The Charmer: The True Story of Robert Reldan -- Rapist, Murderer, and Millionaire -- and the Women Who Fell Victim to His Allure” at the Ramsey Library on Sunday, May 20 at 2 p.m. Copies of the book, which Muti co-authored with Deputy Attorney General Charles Buckley, will be available for purchase. Proceeds from this event will benefit the Friends of the Ramsey Library. Reldan, a handsome, personable charmer of the Ted Bundy mold, had an engaging, friendly smile that inspired trust. Over a 20-year period, that smile caused a dozen or more unsuspecting women to drop their guard and place themselves under the power of one of New Jersey’s most ruthless criminals. Two of those women -- Susan Heynes, a nurse, and Susan Reeve, a recent college graduate -- achieved unwanted fame as victims in what a prominent newspaper would call “the Susan strangulations.” Both women were abducted within days of each other: Heynes from her home in Haworth, and Reeve after getting off a commuter bus in Demarest. Their bodies were soon discovered, also within days of each other, in Rockland County, New York. Each had been strangled with her own pantyhose. While in prison awaiting trial for the “Susan” murders, Reldan tried to hire a hit man to kill his wealthy aunt, from whom he hoped to inherit money to retain a top criminal defense attorney. A jailhouse snitch ratted on Reldan, and Muti to discuss ‘The Charmer’ authorities were able to substitute an undercover cop as the putative hit man. In an ironic twist of fate, Reldan, while serving life plus 30 years for the Heynes and Reeve murders, would become, briefly, the wealthiest lifer in the prison system. The aunt he tried to have killed left him an $8.9 million trust fund when she died in 2007. Arthur Reeve, father of Susan Reeve, went after Reldan in the courts and, eventually, deprived him of his inheritance. Buckley spent 25 years as one of New Jersey’s top trial prosecutors, crisscrossing New Jersey to try the most difficult cases. Buckley put away the boss of the Philadelphia/ Atlantic City crime family, and the capo of the Hudson County waterfront. In New Jersey’s first televised trial, he convicted a judge who accepted bribes to fix sentences. Buckley was the prosecutor who finally convicted Reldan after two previous murder trials ended in failure. Muti, a former mayor of Ramsey and current school board trustee, has more than 70 publishing credits, most of which are opinion/editorial pieces on history, law, politics, and government. He spent 19 years as a successful trial prosecutor and taught writing, American government and politics, criminal justice, and history at three New Jersey universities. “The Charmer” is Muti’s third book. He is a graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy, Harvard Business School, and Rutgers Law School. He is also a former Navy pilot.