The Kentucky Cannibal: The True Story of an Outlaw, Murderer and Man-Eater

I’ll admit: I hesitated before hitting play. Cannibalism isn’t my usual true-crime beat, but *The Kentucky Cannibal* hooked me in the first 10 minutes—not with gore, but with its clinical, almost *amused* tone toward Helm’s escalating depravity. Steve White’s performance is masterclass restraint; he never slips into melodrama, even when describing Helm’s most grotesque acts (like the matter-of-fact way he recounts Helm *roasting a man’s leg* like it’s a Sunday dinner). The pacing is relentless, but not rushed—Green knows when to let a detail sit, like Helm’s habit of collecting victims’ teeth as trophies, and White’s pauses here are *devastating*. That said, the audiobook isn’t perfect. The lack of historical context for Helm’s early life (beyond broad strokes) leaves some psychological gaps—why *this* level of brutality? And while the sound design is mostly brilliant, a few transitions between chapters feel abrupt, jarring you out of the narrative. Still, these are quibbles. What sticks with me is how the audiobook forces you to confront the banality of Helm’s evil: no grand manifesto, no tragic backstory—just a man who decided rules didn’t apply to him, and a frontier too vast to stop him. If you’ve ever rolled your eyes at true crime’s tendency to glorify killers, this is the antidote. Just don’t listen before bed.