The Choir Boy: Why I Turned to a Life of Crime with the Whitey Bulger Gang after Being Raped by My Scoutmaster

"When you begin reading 'The Choir Boy,' dig in and hang on. It's a frightening journey that eventually shows there can indeed be a light at the end of life's darkest tunnels." Brown Burnett, The Clarion-Ledger

Eric Schneider was one of the young victims in the notorious Boy Scout sexual abuse case that rocked Boston in the mid-1980s. It was big news at the time, but not until now have we heard from a survivor of that abuse (all the others except for one committed suicide). Never has there been a more riveting look at the long-term psychological effects of childhood sex abuse.

By his teens, Eric was a drug dealer, arsonist, and small-time thief. By the age of twenty, he was a major crime figure, working under the umbrella of the notorious Whitey Bulger organized crime network. He specialized in armed robberies, with a focus on banks and armored cars transporting large sums of cash.

Faced with over 200 years in prison, Schneider testified for the prosecution, sending his partners in crime to prison. He was given a new identity by the Witness Protection Program and he has lived in obscurity since the early 1990s. When his book is published, he will emerge from the safety of witness protection to promote the book.

Schneider will take you on a journey that will expose you to some of the most frightening accounts of human depravity imaginable, regarding both sex abuse and organized crime. A lifetime struggle with addictions to cocaine and alcohol complicate the story, with riveting accounts of his attempts at rehabilitation. Add to that an unlikely love story, and you have the most powerful story of childhood abuse and crime since the 1995 bestselling memoir, Sleepers. All said, The Choir Boy is the inspirational story of a survivor who has been to hell and back, yet still has hope for the future.

The names of some individuals in this book have been changed for privacy reasons.