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Murder in the Neighborhood
5.0 (1 rating)

Murder in the Neighborhood

On September 6th,1949, twenty-eight-year-old Howard Barton Unruh shot thirteen people in less than twelve minutes on his block in East Camden, New Jersey. The shocking true story of the first recorded mass shooting in America has never been told, until now. The sky was cloudless that morning when twelve-year-old Raymond Havens left his home on River Road. His grandmother had sent him to get a haircut at the barbershop across the street - where he was about to witness his neighbor and friend Howard open fire on the customers inside. Told through the eyes of the young boy who visited Howard regularly to listen to his war stories and pour over his stamp collection, and the mother trying to piece together the disturbing inner-workings of her son's mind, Ellen Green uncovers the chilling true story of Howard Unruh - the quiet oddball who meticulously plotted his revenge on the neighbors who shunned him and became one of America's first mass killers. With access to Howard's diaries, newly released police reports and psychiatric records alongside interviews with surviving family members and residents of the neighborhood, A Murder in the Neighborhood will have readers of In Cold Blood, If You Tell and American Predator absolutely gripped. en.

Pages: 320

ISBN: 9781909770706

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Reader Reviews

5.0

1 rating

Rachel S.

Apr 6, 2026
Murder in the Neighborhood goes through the details of what happened on the fateful day of 6th September 1949 in Camden NJ where Howard Unruh left his home and shot and killed thirteen people in his town, told by Freda, Howard’s mother and Raymond Haven who was a young boy at the time perspectives. It also tells of the aftermath and how it affected many people even many years later.
This is a non-fiction book written like it was fiction so it made it easier to read for me at least, however, I did have to stop and remind myself that it was a true story many times throughout.
I had not heard of this tragedy before so had no incite at all, but I really enjoyed reading it and finding out what had happened. It also made me fearful though as there have been many more mass shootings in the US since 1949 and a lot of those have been in my lifetime.
The book was well researched and well written.