Dena kleiman biography of abraham

A Deadly Silence

The Ordeal of Cheryl Pierson:

A Case of Incest and Murder

By Dena Kleiman

Atlantic Monthly Press, 305 pages, $19.95

What distinguishes this book from other true-crime tales are not the crimes-they were depraved and vicious-but the author`s investigation and sensitive craftsmanship.

Kleiman, a reporter for the New York Times, is not so much concerned with the nature of evil but with secret sickness, the kind of decay that can settle in a family like a deadly virus and then is passed on from generation to generation.

The case made national headlines.

In 1986, Cheryl Pierson, a Long Island teenager and high school cheerleader, hired a homeroom classmate to murder her father. Her boyfriend, Robert Cuccio, handled the cash ($400) and dealt with the unlikely assassin, Sean Pica, an Eagle scout who had not been in trouble before.

The plot apparently was not hatched with any great drama.

It was all matter-of-fact. Then, without much thought, Pica stalked 42-year-old