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A Murder in Wellesley

The Inside Story of an Ivy-League Doctor’s Double Life, His Slain Wife, and the Trial That Gripped the Nation

Tom Farmer and Marty Foley

On Halloween morning in 1999, Mabel Greineder was savagely murdered along a wooded trail in the well-heeled community of Wellesley, Massachusetts. As the shock following the brutal killing slowly subsided, the community was further shaken when the focus of the investigation turned to her husband, Dirk Greineder, a prominent physician and family man who was soon revealed to be leading a secret double life involving prostitutes, pornography, and trysts solicited through the Internet. A Murder in Wellesley takes the reader far beyond the headlines and national news coverage spawned by “May” Greineder’s killing and tells the untold story of the meticulous investigation led by Marty Foley, the lead State Police detective on the case, from the morning of the murder through Dirk Greineder’s ultimate conviction. Exhaustive interviews with key figures in the case, including many who have not talked publicly until now, contribute to an unprecedented behind-the-scenes account of how investigators methodically built their case against Greineder and how the sides taken by Dirk and May’s relatives aided the investigation but bitterly divided their families. A fascinating true-crime procedural that is also a deeply unsettling tale of the psychopath you thought you knew, of deceptions and double lives, and of families torn apart by an unthinkable crime. Culminating in one of the most dramatic courtroom spectacles in recent memory (aired nationally on Court TV), A Murder in Wellesley reveals the truth behind the murder that gripped a nation.

Cover Image of A Murder in Wellesley: The Inside Story of an Ivy-League Doctor’s Double Life
Paper: $22.95
ISBN-13: 9781512601060
Pages: 336 | Size: 6 in. x 9.25 in.
Date Published: March 7, 2017
Imprint: 
Screenshot-2023-10-11-at-16.51.58

Reviews

  • The bizarre case of the 1999 murder of May Greineder of Wellesley, Mass., is explored in all its unsettling detail by Boston Herald reporter Farmer and former Massachusetts State Police detective Foley, a key investigator. . . . While Dirk Greineder’s guilt is never in question for the reader, Farmer and Foley imbue the investigation and subsequent trial with suspense, going to great lengths to flesh out the players.

    Publishers Weekly
  • This is tragedy. Pass the popcorn.

    NY Daily News
  • From the crime scene to the courtroom, Boston Herald reporter Tom Farmer covered every twist and turn in the Halloween murder of Mabel "May" Greineder, a Wellesley mother of three killed by her husband, Dr. Dirk Greineder nearly 13 years ago... a chilling account of Greineder’s murder and her husband’s conviction... those who read early release copies of the book ‘haven’t been able to put it down.

    The Eagle-Tribune
    No. Andover, MA
  • A story of how our judicial system should work.

    mmbookandmovie.blogspot.com
  • The Greineder murder case-one that I covered as a journalist and one that still gives me chills. In A Murder in Wellesley, authors Tom Farmer and Marty Foley show me all that I didn’t know about the investigation and its consequences. They take you deep into the heart of the murder probe and deeper into the black heart of the unlikely killer.

    author of The Finest Hours: The True Story of the U.S. Coast Guard’s Most Daring Sea Rescue

About the Author

TOM FARMER, a former award-winning Boston newspaper reporter and editor, covered the Greineder murder case for the Boston Herald. MARTY FOLEY spent more than 24 years with the Massachusetts State Police before retiring in 2007 with the rank of Detective Lieutenant.

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