Benedict Giamo is associate professor of American Studies at the University of Notre Dame. He is the author and coauthor of a number of books, including On the Bowery: Confronting Homelessness in American Society and Beyond Homelessness: Frames of Reference.
"Homeless Come Home: An Advocate, the Riverbank, and Murder in
Topeka, Kansas . . . is part Owen biography, crime drama and
assessment of homelessness in Topeka and beyond. 'What really
compelled me about this case,' Giamo said, 'was the victim
contributed to his own gruesome demise.'" —The Topeka
Capital-Journal
“Benedict Giamo has long had an interest in the plight of the
homeless. . . . Giamo has written several books on the topic,
including On the Bowery: Confronting Homelessness in American
Society . . . . In the true crime book Homeless Come Home, Giamo
recounts the tragic end that came to David Owen. Owen was a
Kansas-based homeless advocate whose efforts to force homeless
people to reconnect with their families led to his 2006 murder.”
—South Bend Tribune
“Benedict Giamo, who has written extensively on homelessness in
America, found himself fascinated with the story of the life and
death of David Owen, 38, an advocate for the homeless and a
registered lobbyist. ‘It was a tragic irony that he was tortured
and killed by four of the same homeless souls he sought to get off
the street,’ Giamo says. ‘It wasn’t a “whodunit,” it was a
“why-dunit.”’ Giamo’s book on the crime . . . [is] a true-crime
story, a documentary combining social analysis and investigative
journalism.” —ND Works
“Whenever a serious crime is committed, members of the surrounding
community are plagued by burning questions regarding who is
responsible, why the incident occurred and how it could have been
prevented. In his new book Homeless Come Home: An Advocate, the
Riverbank, and Murder in Topeka, Kansas, professor Benedict Giamo
examined these complex questions in the context of the story of
David Owen, an advocate of the homeless who was brutally murdered
in 2006 by members of the community he aimed to help.” —The
Observer
"This book is a serious penetration into the lower depths of the
lost society that exists next door to many of us—the hellish
villages where the homeless live. Benedict Giamo takes us into
their abysmal center through the story of one maniacally determined
advocate who tried to rescue the homeless—all of them—and was
murdered by them. This tale has the fascination of the
abomination." —William Kennedy, author of Ironweed
"Using his own extensive research and court transcripts, Benedict
Giamo generates a documentary of the murder of David Owen that is
novelistic in sweep. With the insight of a superior writer he
starts with the raw fact of a crime and then artfully adds layers
of factual complexity. The result is both impressive and deeply
satisfying. This is a very well-written and remarkably
well-structured book. What Giamo gives us is as gripping and
exciting to read as a crafted 'true-crime' story. The details it
provides give us a deeper understanding of the sociology of
homelessness." —Donald W. Faulkner, New York State Writers
Institute
"Benedict Giamo has written a beautiful, tender, piercingly honest
story of homelessness in America, of what it means to be hidden
away in America's social underbrush. Empathic and riveting, Giamo's
Homeless Come Home will make you sit up and listen." —Alex
Kotlowitz, author of There Are No Children Here
"This thorough, rigorously sympathetic account of a terrible crime
and its many resonances does narrative and analytical justice to
the tortured complexity of David Owen, an unreasonable, inspired,
polarizing man who wanted to bring the homeless home—whether they
wanted to come or not. Giamo's evenhanded investigation into 'a
clash between a type of homelessness lived in extremis and a brand
of advocacy that went to the end of the line' follows the tangled
stories of its difficult characters to their common root, the
profound tension between individual and community at the heart of
American life." —Carlo Rotella, Boston College
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