False Allegations (review)

False Allegations, by Andrew Vachss (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1996), 225 pp.

And the professors—those pitiful little failures with their practiced little affectations. The older ones bombard you with pomposities, the younger ones act oh-so cynical, so blasé. You know: “A trial isn’t a search for truth; it’s a contest to determine a winner.” Well, it was then I decided: my career would be precisely that—a search for the truth.

Andrew Vachss ¹

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QUESTION: Well, there’s no question, I gather, that this man is very much likely to commit sexual offenses against children in the future, if released.

MR. WEILERT: There is certainly no—

QUESTION: Strong evidence to that effect.

MR. WEILERT: There’s certainly no doubt that Mr. Hendricks presents a risk of committing further crimes if released.

QUESTION: To children.

MR WEILERT: To children. That is what his previous crimes have been, yes. ²

I remember the births of both of my sons. I remember their tiny fingers and toes. I remember the smiles on the faces of the young children in the homelands in South Africa. I see young girls and boys walking and skipping to school with their bookbags and knapsacks throughout the city. I can see their radiant innocence.

How is it that a person can destroy, mutilate, terrorize, and kill these innocents? Can steal the music of their lives? How can we accept a society that lets such horror exist, that literally permits today’s headline: “Boy scalded in tub dies.” ³ How can sexual, physical, and psychological abuse of children happen in this world? What should society do with a sick threat to children like Leroy Hendricks? How can the law respond? Is there a limit beyond which lawyers cannot rely on the legal process and must try to expose the truth?

These are frightening and tragic questions. More frightening and tragic still is the realization that there are no answers, that the law is a poor system to use to protect these pure victims, and that truth can be manipulated by evil against virtue.

Andrew Vachss’ latest novel, False Allegations, examines these issues. And through all of the anger he brings to bear on sexual abuse of children, and through all of his skepticism about the legal system, his book succeeds in making us think about the interplay of law and truth.

Ironically, as critical as Vachss is about the law, in the end, truth is more elusive and more manipulable in the search for justice. As deficient as the law is, it may be the best that we can do, although we must be vigilant in assessing whether the system we have is good enough.

Andrew Vachss, novelist turned lawyer, writes of the darkest places of our world with crystalline prose, macabre wit, and plot turns. His novels, particularly the Burke series, examine Charon’s world of child abuse. Burke is an “investigator” of a different sort. An abused child—a member of Children of the Secret—and an ex-con, Burke is surrounded by an odd assortment of characters. His accompanists include a Mongolian mute named Max, a Chinese restauranteur named Mama, an ex-con teacher/rapper/philosopher named The Prof, and a Neapolitan mastiff named Pansy. This crew sets up elaborate sting operations in the netherworld of child abuse, child prostitution, and child pornography. Not only will this ring set up a sting, but will murder when necessary.

With False Allegations, Burke penetrates the psychological circle of the monsters who prey on children.

The key character in False Allegations is a Yale-trained lawyer called Kite whose self-avowed mission in life is to expose false allegations of child abuse in order to bring true allegations to light and to justice. Kite is a highly skilled lawyer and investigator who hires Burke to determine the truth of a young woman’s story of childhood sexual abuse. Kite has a theory called “Fabrication for Secondary Gain Syndrome” which he believes can be used to distinguish true repressed memories from false allegations. Kite’s usual clients are defendants in child sexual abuse...