Madison County, IA-- Jack Schecter, widely known as the dean of movie and book reviewers, was found dead on one of the bridges of Madison County, Iowa yesterday at the age of 93. Schecter, who began his career writing reviews for silent films for his local hometown paper, The Picayune Picayune, is generally considered to be the man who wrote the book for latter-day reviewers.

"Jack definitely had a checkered past," said longtime friend and personal secretary Lucille Ballard. "He had his quiet moments and was the perfect summer companion on a beach. He was also quite fond of rollercoaster thrillrides."

Schecter, a man known for his white knuckles and raised hair, led a controversial life marked by webs of intrigue and shocking betrayal, tempered by unexpected moments of tenderness and compassion.

"I'll never forget the time he was writing one of his last reviews," said another longtime friend, Sol Abrahamson. "It was for MEG, I think. Jack retired after that one. Anyway, I was wrestling with my inner demons trying to knock out a review for some other book and Jack took me aside and said, 'Sol, when I die, I want you to come to my funeral. If there's only one funeral you go to that year, make sure it's mine.' I'll tell you," said Abrahamson, wiping his eye, "that was a real tearjerker. I used up a box of Kleenex after that."

Other reviewers, even though they are in debt to Schecter for defining the medium in which they work, weren't as laudatory.

"I'd be up all night, unable to go to work in the morning," said Barry Levin, Schecter's Reviews editor at the Washington Post, Schecter's last paper. "You never knew what he was going to do, what with all his last-second twists and turns, double- and triple-crosses. But you know, in spite of all the flaws in his character development, I just couldn't put him down."

Siskel and Ebert, his longtime rivals, declined to comment but gave him two middle fingers way, way up.

"Four stars for Schecter," says Rex Reed. "He lived his life as he saw fit and worked and played as hard as he loved. He was the last of a dying breed of hard-drinking, two-fisted reviewers. He made George Gene Nathan look like a pussy by comparison."

The details surrounding Schecter's demise weren't disclosed by Iowa police officials. "The reviewer's untimely end is shrouded in mystery and, some say, a whirlpool of deceit," said the spokesman for the Madison County Sheriff's Department.

"Jack wasn't known for playing by the rules," said one intimate of Schecter's who preferred to remain anonymous. "He knew the seamy underbelly of society and frequently was seen cavorting with scantily-clad dames and seedy, shadowy characters. He was always involved in some kind of foreign intrigue or another. He was a good reviewer in a bad town."

Schecter leaves behind a wife, Scarlett, and two children, Jack and Ryan. The cause of his death remains under speculation pending an autopsy. Says failed detective/ME Dr. Robert Lee, "Logically, even at his age, there's no reason for this man to be dead. Maybe he just took one too many walks down the dark corridors of power. My verdict on his death will most certainly be the blockbuster of the year. The coroner's inquest, coming out in paperback this October, will be a real pageturner."

The cause of death has been variously reported to be natural causes, a hail of bullets, a broken heart, a tragic accident, a suspicious suicide, and death by misadventure. "However," the family hastens to add, "there's no truth to the rumor that his lawyer failed in a race against the clock for an 11th hour stay of execution for a crime he didn't commit."

Funeral arrangements are incomplete at press time but the family requests, in lieu of flowers, that donations be made at amazon.com, Barnes & Noble, Borders, or any Sony theater. According to the family, Jack's epitaph, which will be inscribed under his byline on the headstone, will be:

"What a shocking but satisfying conclusion."

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