This is the tragic tale of Nick Markowitz, a 15-year-old boy caught in a set of circumstances from which he’d never escape. He would ultimately be executed by a group of sociopathic outcasts, and Markowitz’s mother relates the story. This is the account most famously revealed in the film Alpha Dog, the 2006 movie directed by Nick Cassavetes and featuring Justin Timberlake and Anton Yelchin.

Susan Markowitz's truly disturbing narrative describes Nick and how he innocently became embroiled in the machinations of his drug-dealing older brother, Ben. Twenty-year-old drug dealer Jesse James Hollywood and three of his crew kidnapped Nick as payment for Ben’s drug bills. The quartet of kidnappers then murdered Nick and buried him in a shallow grave.

As much as anything, this is the story about a group of people not willing to do anything--even make a phone call--when they knew something was wrong. No one, including friends and parents, lifted a single finger to help Nick, and the results were tragic.

Susan Markowitz obviously loved her son, and on these pages her heart breaks every time she thinks about the loss. It’s a moving and almost unbelievable story about bad things happening to good people.