Kittling: Books: Eden Undone: A True Story of Sex, Murder, and Utopia at the Dawn of World War II by Abbott Kahler

First Lines: Los Angeles, November 1934. The wire reports traveled three thousand miles across the Pacific Ocean and described a gruesome scene: On Marchena Island, a bleak and barren speck of land in the northern part of the Galápagos, passing fishermen found two bodies.

Millionaire George Allan Hancock and crews of scientists had been visiting a group of European exiles on a remote island in the Galápagos for a few years, making sure that they had the supplies they needed.

The exiles were Dr. Friedrich Ritter and his patient/lover, Dore Strauch Koerwin; World War I veteran Heinz Wittmer, his wife Margret, and his son Harry; and Austrian Baroness Wagner-Bosquet and her two lovers, Robert and Rudolph. Ritter and Koerwin were the first two on the island, intent on creating a Utopia. Wittmer and his family were escaping a Germany increasingly under the iron fist of the Nazis; while the supposed baroness with her riding crop and pearl-handled revolver wanted to create her own world in which she was in complete command.

With the addition of the baroness, things rapidly turned to chaos, and the conclusion was deadly. When Hancock returned to the island in 1934, he and his crew found that two exiles were missing, two were dead, and the survivors were hurling accusations of murder at anyone who would listen.

Eden Undone is an often fascinating account of a deadly mix of personalities thrown together on a small, remote island. Once all the people were in place, it was only a matter of time before disaster struck.

The remote Galápagos Island setting with its fascinating flora and fauna intrigued me, but I have to admit that I often found the backgrounds of the millionaires who visited to be more interesting than those of the people living on the island.

Ritter was so devoted to his idea of a splendid life in isolation that he had all his teeth extracted and wore a set of steel dentures. His patient/lover, Dore Koerwin, was dedicated to ensuring Ritter's brilliance to the world. But it was Ritter's insistence on spreading the word about his Utopia that brought about its downfall-- especially when newspapers were quick to emphasize that the two roamed around the island naked. Soon tourists were beating a path to the island.

Wittmer and his family wanted to escape a Europe that was rapidly descending into madness, and there was little strife between them and Ritter and Koerwin. It wasn't until the supposed baroness showed up with her lovers that emotions began to run high.

Watching these personalities clash and resentments begin to fester and boil, disaster was a foregone conclusion, and Abbott Kahler gives readers ringside seats to the calamitous end of another dream of paradise.

Eden Undone: A True Story of Sex, Murder, and Utopia at the Dawn of World War II by Abbott Kahler

eISBN: 9780451498670

eBook, 288 pages

Non-Fiction

Rating: B

Source: Net Galley