Ramsey September 19, 2012 THE VILLADOM TIMES IV • Page 3 ‘Charmer’ to be one of state library’s first audio books a long time. Authors Muti and Buckley, two experienced former prosecutors who know what they are talking about, have expertly captured the sights, sounds, and feel of a gritty homicide investigation as well as the pulsating essence of a major murder trial.” Ken Auletta, best-selling author and columnist for The New Yorker, was equally enthusiastic in his praise. “What elevates this tale is the authors’ account of how these needless tragedies could have been avoided,” Auletta said. “Every phase of the criminal justice system failed—from prosecutors, to judges, to juries, to court psychiatrists, to probation officers. The book could read like sociology. It does not. It is almost Dreiser-esque.” Serial rapist/murderer Robert Reldan had an engaging, friendly smile that promised a charming personality and inspired trust. That smile that would, over the next 20 years, cause a dozen unsuspecting women to drop their guard and Richard Muti and Charles Buckley at a recent appearance at the Mahwah Library. Adam Szczepaniak, director of the Talking Book & Braille Center of the New Jersey State Library, has advised authors Richard Muti and Charles Buckley that their recently published book -“The Charmer: The True Story of Robert Reldan -- Rapist, Murderer, and Millionaire, and the Women Who Fell Victim to His Allure” -- has been selected to become one of the first audio books in the New Jersey State Library’s new pilot program. Production is expected to begin in a few weeks. “Charles Buckley and I are extremely pleased and honored that our book has been chosen for this wonderful new service of the New Jersey State Library,” Muti said. “A blind friend, Ms. BoJane Heap, was the person who suggested that we submit ‘The Charmer’ for consideration. I sent a review copy to Director Szczepaniak, and, apparently, the folks at the Talking Book and Braille Center liked what they read.” “The Charmer” created an immediate buzz when TitleTown Publishing, a small press in Green Bay, Wisconsin, brought out its trade paperback edition in late spring, along with e-Book editions. A second printing is now under way, and more than two dozen book signings have either been completed or are scheduled for the fall. Vincent Bugliosi, who prosecuted cult-leader Charles Manson and wrote “Helter Skelter,” the best-selling book about that case, called Muti and Buckley’s book, “One of the best in-depth examinations of the criminal mind I have read in place themselves under the power of New Jersey’s most ruthless killer. 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 called “the Susan strangulations.” Both women were abducted within days of each other: Heynes from her home and Reeve after getting off a commuter bus. 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 authorities were able to substitute an undercover cop as the putative hit man. Reldan, while serving life plus 30 years for the Heynes and Reeve murders, would become, briefly, (continued on page 21)