Longtime residents of the area surrounding the Adirondack Mountains undoubtedly will recall the terror that gripped the region in August 1973 when serial killer Robert F. Garrow Sr. went on a murderous rampage, killing four people and spawning the largest manhunt in New York state history.

For almost two weeks the killer remained at large, sending a normally placid region into a state of hysteria.

Lawrence Gooley, author of "Terror in the Adirondacks," was an avid 20-year-old mountain climber from Champlain at that time, and he said his life was ever changed by the events.

Living about 60 miles from the areas of the grisly slayings, Gooley recalled the ripple effect of the murders on the people in his town who were terrified to walk the streets alone and the stepped-up police patrol along the Candadian border as Garrow sightings were reported from Syracuse to Champlain to Albany.

"I refused to let Garrow steal completely from me a very special part of my life. Since then, I've enjoyed several hundred additional climbs ... but never have I felt completely safe," Gooley wrote in the preface to his book.

With "Terror," the author feels he is a keeper of a dark side of Adirondack history. New generations are now learning what happened in the region almost 40 years ago.

After spending at least a year writing and examining more than 2,000 pages of court documents, the author has delved into the back story and trial of this cold-blooded killer, whose trail of horror extends much further back than those hot August days 36 years ago.

The book was written with painstaking accuracy, Gooley said, because so much of what he discovered had been "embellished" over the years in print and over the Internet.

"I did my best to correct the record," he said.

To give background on the life of Garrow, Gooley presents a chilling account of the murderer's abusive childhood at the hands of his parents and his revelations about bestiality on a neighbor's farm.

He goes on to describe the brutal murders, the frustrating manhunt and the twists and turns of Garrow's trial that continually contained surprises.

It is Gooley's opinion that Garrow was one of the most evil of all human beings and was capable of changing his demeanor to pass himself off as innocent, yet given the chance, would just as quickly kill. He felt Garrow knew his actions, although he did his best to hide behind the legal system.

Gooley pointed out that from reviewing the testimony, Garrow knew when

to cooperate with psychiatrists from whom he could benefit and be difficult with others.

"He tried to portray himself as a victim, but he certainly didn't seem that way to me," Gooley said.

Although Garrow testified during his trial and admitted to seven rapes and four murders, police believed there were many more.

Gooley also explains how Garrow had manipulated the New York State corrections system.

He described prison officials as being "gullible" when dealing with the convicted murderer when he claimed he was bound to a wheelchair due to injuries he suffered during his eventual capture that August.

It was a claim Garrow

held to for five years before making an escape and

being shot dead by police in 1978.

"It's the way it often happens. The little people who are close to the case, the prison guards and sheriffs, they strongly suspected he could walk, that the wheel chair wasn't necessary, and there were doctors who initially said there was nothing wrong with this man, but he stuck to the wheelchair," Gooley said.

Changes in the New

York state prison system

resulted from the Garrow case, such as the reluctance to transfer inmates with

injuries to other facilities, new regulations for brush

removal on the prison grounds and even a revised protocol for searches to be conducted on prison property.

Working on "Terror in the Adirondacks" was difficult for Gooley because of the "disturbing" material.

"You've got all these terrible crimes in your head

day after day, just trying to sort it out about what

(Garrow) did and how he got away with it and all the people that he hurt. So many lives he destroyed," Gooley said.

The horror also has had lingering effects For Gooley. Now 56, the events of that summer are still fresh in his mind.

"It's sort of like you remember where you were when JFK was shot, and most of us remember the whole Garrow deal, especially the manhunt. So atypical for this area to have someone murdered and the way it was done. So scary to know how he was getting away with this under the radar, no one able to pin everything on him," Gooley said.