Sunday Synopsis - true crime

The Road Out of Hell: Sanford Clark and the True Story of the Wineville Murders by Anthony Flacco
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

You may have seen a Clint Eastwood movie called The Changeling. I have never seen it, but as I understand things, it covers the events in about half of this true crime story. The book is always better, though.

Sanford Clark was only 13 when his mother sent him from Canada to a chicken ranch near Los Angeles to live with his uncle Gordon Stewart Northcott. She may have known what she was getting him into since her own mother, which was also Stewart's mother, actively participated in some of Stewart's crimes and turned a blind eye to others.

From 1926 to 1928, Sanford Clark was tortured, sexually abused, beaten, and forced to participate in the murder of several young boys that Stewart lured to his farm for his own sick pleasure. He bore witness to Stewart's crimes (kidnapping, molestation, murder) and came out on the other side, heavily guilt-ridden. In fact, he spent most of the rest of his life trying to make up for his past even though as a boy who was held captive he had no choice but to participate in this hell that was forced on him or be killed himself.

This story is terrifying because these gruesome acts actually happened. I don't know how Sanford survived, but he did, unlike the kidnapped boys who were as young as 9 years old. Sanford got an education, served his country during WWI, got married, had children, and by all accounts was a respected father, husband, and member of the community. Not that the hell ever actually left him. There were dark hours and dark days. But he came out on the other side.

In this book, his son Jerry is a co-author and adds details that no one else would know about Sanford's life after the Wineville chicken coop murders except Sanford's son. It's an excellent and well-written true tale.

Interesting side note - Wineville changed its name in 1930 due to the negative publicity surrounding this case. It became known as Mira Loma.

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Sunday Synopsis - The Girl in the Leaves (true crime)

 

The Girl in the Leaves by Robert Scott
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I read, watch, and listen to true crime (books, TV and movies, podcasts), so I was well aware of this case... the victims, what happened to them, even who committed the crime, but I wanted to read the story about how it happened. Sadly, very little time was spent describing events, and too much time was spent quoting tips and testimonials. Honestly, how fifteen other people felt about the crime and what they did was not what I was interested in, or the hundreds of irrlevant tips. I'm glad he spent some time telling how one of the victims overcame this tragedy, but he could have done so without the superfluous material.

In Howard, Ohio in November of 2010, Tina Herrmann, her two chidren, Kody Maynard, 11, and Sarah Maynard, 13, and Tina's friend Stephanie Sprang were reported missing. It was as if they disappeared into thin air. Despite all the searching, they were not found, and probably never would have if not for the confession of the killer, Matthew Hoffman.

Hoffman was known in the area to exhibit extremely strange behavior. At the time, he was a tree trimmer with what many would call an obsession with trees and leaves. When his name was brought to the attention of law enforcement, his home was raided. In the basement of his home in a pile of leaves was 13 year old Sarah, bound and gagged. There was no sign of Sarah's mother, brother, or friend.

At first, Hoffman would say nothing. Eventually he confessed to murdering Tina, Kody, and Stephanie and led police to their bodies which had been dismembered, placed in trash bags, and hidden in the hollow of a large tree. The remains of the family pet were also found there. Hoffman was tried for the three murders as well as the kidnapping and rape of Sarah. He was sentenced to life without the possibility of parole. He is still incarcerated in Ohio.

The crime was obviously horrendous, but the book did not give it due justice. The book was poorly written with too many extraneous details and not enough information about the crime, the victims, the case, and the conviction. The author seems to have copied verbatime the statements of, not only those who testified, but the many friends and family members who suffered the loss of these victims. It could have been condensed, and if it had, maybe it wouldn't have been so, dare I say, boring (the book, not the crime or the case). I ended up skimming through parts of it due to their insignificance to the crime.

Although the crime and case were interesting, the same cannot be said for this particular account of it, and I would not recommend this book. Suprisingly, there doesn't seem to be another book that I could find about this case. Maybe I should have stuck to TV and podcasts to learn more about his particular crime. The book was not worth the time it took to read.


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Sunday Synopsis-The Decision to Kill-true crime

 

The Decision to Kill: A True Crime Story of a Teenage Killer and the Mother Who Loved Him by Leslie Ghiglieri
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

The description calls this book a "gripping true crime debut" for author Leslie Ghiglieri. It is anything but gripping. It is devoid of suspense. It is devoid of courtroom drama. There is nothing gripping about it. For me, it was the-book-that-never-ends!

When troubled teenager Dwayne Weir was 16 in 1986, he killed his adoptive father. He allowed his little sister to be the person who discovered his dead body. And his decision to kill left his adoptive mother Cherie with agonizing grief and heart-wrenching guilt. She wanted to forgive him, but she wasn't sure she could.

The story is told mostly through letters that Cherie and Dwayne wrote to each other during his incarceration, so Ghiglieri did less writing than most authors. She was also Cherie's long time friend. Entire letters were quoted verbatim when they could have been summarized.

Cherie's letters disccussed her grief and guilt, her Christian faith, and her desire to understand what happened. But she also expressed concern over Dwayne's Alport Syndrome, a genetic kidney disease that also affected his hearing and eyes.

Dwayne blitzed his mother with letters, page after page. Some of them were pity party letters. Others were defiant. He tried to blame the drugs or strict parenting for causing him to kill his father, anything but blaming himself. He even claimed a struggle with gender identity. Later in his incarceration, he "found religion," which still didn't prevent him from acting out enough to get thrown in the "hole."

I got so tired of reading his letters. He may have written different words, but every letter was basically the same, and I can't find any reason why I should care what happened to him or what was going to become of him because he killed his father. I feel like the author tried too hard to make him sympathetic, and I just couldn't conjure any pity for him. Needless to say, but I'll say it anyway, I do not recommend this book.

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Sunday Synopsis: Death Sentence - The Inside Story of the John List Murders

Death Sentence: The Inside Story of the John List Murders by Joe Sharkey
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This was not the first book I've read about John List. Many years ago, I read a different book that I believe John List himself wrote or co-wrote. This one is much better and more realistic.

John Emil List murdered his entire family: his mother, wife, daughter, and two sons. Due to List's careful planning, the murder wasn't discovered for a month, and he was long gone. Prior to this, he was a "milquetoast" accountant and follower of a now-defunct sect of Lutheranism. He and his family moved to New Jersey, lived in a mansion complete with a library and ballroom, and then he lost his job. Feeling like he could no longer be a good provider (among other reasons detailed in the book), he shot each and every member of his family.

List then assumed the name Robert P. Clark, became a cook then a chef's assistant, remarried, and finally worked his way back into accounting. John List was featured on America's Most Wanted. A neighbor of "Bob" and his wife believed Bob was John, based on a bust that was made to show what John List looked like all these years later, but his wife convinced the neighbor there was no way this mild-mannered, introverted man could have short his own family. They decided it was just a coincidence, but other people were watching. He would eventually be caught, albeit 18 years after the crime was committed.

Joe Sharkey tells the story of John List from before the crime as well as after. He gives detailed background information so the reader can see where John List came from and possibly why he was motivated to do this. Only he will really know, and he died back in 2008, so all we have is speculation. A lot of research, time, and effort went in to writing this book making it a thorough account of the ordeal. True crime fans should enjoy this one.

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Hey! It's a Random Happy Tuesday!

 

And I'm on time!  I can't believe it!

I was talking to my son last night, and for some reason, I was thinking it was Friday and he would be off for the weekend.  Friday!  How did I think it was Friday when it was Monday?  I'll tell you how!  I feel like I've been so busy with paperwork, bills, keeping mom's finances and taxes, and new physical/health issues that have arisen, trying to take care of my home, cook a few meals, while also trying to start a craft business, and occasionally help my husband with his dad, and, well, I'm busy! I don't know what day it is most of the time!

While I'm in the car running errands or going to my mom's, I tend to fire up Spotify and listen to podcasts instead of music lately.  I especially like the Dateline podcast, and there is one called Morbid that one of our daughters has me hooked on.  But I also found one about Texas crime called Outlaws and Scorned Women.  I was specifically looking for a podcast about the Todville Mansion Murder in Seabrook in the early 80's, and that was where I found it.  If you like true crime, you should check all of these out! (Side note:  this is not the same as the horror movie The House on Todville Road, which is fiction.  This one most definitely was real.)

The front of the mansion.  It had a 1/4 mile driveway leading up to it.

The mansion came up in conversation with DH while we were taking a walk in Seabrook this weekend.  We were only a few blocks down the street from where the horror happened. 

The spiral staircase leads from the garage to the second floor cat walk that joins the 2 wings of the house.
This photo was taken long after the murder when everything had already been removed besides the actual structure.

Here's the short version:  Convicted sex offender from Ohio (Bill List) moves to Texas after he serves time and loses his wife and kids.  He starts a tractor-trailer business and gets rich during the oil boom.  He builds the ugliest 4300 square foot "home" you've ever seen complete with bars on all the windows on a plot of land adjacent to Galveston Bay.  This guy likes to cruise Montrose (an area known for gays, homeless, and drug addicts in the 80's) looking for young men to live out his sexual deviancy (BDSM) and keeps them on as houseboys till he is either tired of them or they of him. He picks up the wrong dude one night and ends up dead in his prison home a few days later.  The perpetrators are caught by the next day.

The killer "confessed" before actually committing the murder. This was written on a wall in the home.

Whew!  Yes, that was the short version!  Anywho... the podcast was informative, and it's interesting to read about things that happen near where you live.  So, on we go...

How many of these can you name?

This is valid!

This is definitely me!!!!!

And just so you know I have other interests...

Visit Happy Tuesday and Random Tuesday Thoughts for more fun.

Sunday Synopsis

 

A Question of Murder: Compelling Cases from a Famed Forensic Pathologist by Cyril Wecht
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This was an interesting book. The author, Cyril Wecht, a pioneer of forensic pathology, who has been consulted on many prominent cases including those involving celebrities and other infamous people such as Jon Benet Ramsey, Laci Peterson, Nicole Brown Simpson, John F. Kennedy, Elvis Presley, and Kurt Cobain, to name a few. He has examined thousands of bodies and testified in hundreds of titles. In this book, he and his co-author, true crime journalist Dawna Kaufmann, share five cases he has worked on.

First is the case of Daniel Wayne Smith, Anna Nichole Smith's 20 year old son. The second was Anna Nicole Smith's death. They occured within months of eachother and within months of Anna's daughter's birth, so these two parts are connected in many ways. Were drugs in their system that could have caused their deaths, or was something more sinister happening? 

Stephanie

Danielle

The third case is about 12 year old Stephanie Crowe who was stabbed to death in her own bedroom. The fourth case is that of Danielle Van Dam whose neighbor David Westerfield is serving time for, but did he really do it? There is disagreement among experts.

The last case was eye-opening to me because I remember it happening, and it occurred in one of our neighboring states, Louisiana around the time Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans. A doctor and two nurses have been accused of purposely killing many elderly patients who they felt they were going to be unable to evacuate. It is really sickening, if true, and Wecht, who consulted on the case, knows quite a bit more than the general public about what happened at Memorial Medical Center. Statistics show a higher percentage of death among the elderly than other similar hospitals, but you can read and evaluate the evidence to determine your own opinion.

I liked how the authors spent time building their characters, especially toward the beginning of the book. They humanize and describe them well. For instance... "And while women of Marilyn's era seldom got tattoos or body art, Anna's body was a virtual canvas..." They are also very specific in describing the medical point-of-view. For example, "an extensive sive blood clot along the wound tract. Wound I was in the left anterior axillary fold, or under the armpit..."

Cyril Wecht

I do have to say that Dr. Wecht is arrogant. Maybe he has the right to be! But he states that he does double the number of autopsies a day than his counterparts. He also writes... "I had written a book on the case several years ago and instantly recognized what few in the media or the Boulder district attorney's office seemed to be thinking-that Karr was a false confessor." Instantly recognized! I also don't like how the book is written from his point-of-view, his expertise, his knowledge, so when he occasionally refers to his co-author, I think it's just to remind the reader that he is superior. Perhaps he is. He's a doctor, lawyer, cornoner, pathologist, expert witness, and the author of 32 books.

Dawna Kaufmann

He says this about one of his contemporaries: "Dr. James Young, former chief coroner of the province of Ontario, Canada, who was the current president of the American Academy of Forensic Sciences, a post I had held some years before. He likes to toot his own horn. Take this for example: "As word got out that we five were working on the Memorial Hospital pital case, someone good-naturedly referred to us as "The Forensic All-Stars..."

Even so, it is a good book. There is some medical jargon, but he tends to explain it as he tells the stories, and I like that it was divided into 5 manageable sections. As of now, Wecht is 90 years old and still practicing forensic pathology.



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Sunday Synopsis

 

The Moonlight Mill Murders of Steubenville, Ohio by Susan M. Guy
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

This was a very disappointing book. While it is a true crime story, which I usually enjoy, it is written more like a news article than a novel. The book tells the story of several murders that took place at a steel yard in Ohio in the 1930's. The impulsive "Phantom" shot his first random victim five times under the cover of night. Mill workers were frightened wondering who was going to be next. There were several victims before law enforcement finally caught him. He went to trial and was found guilty.

The author researched her facts very well, but the writing is dry and journalistic. There is no character development. I feel like there could be some good suspense built up, but it wasn't there. Very little time was spent on motive and the trial. There was not much dialogue. The author simply didn't bring the characters to life. And at the end of the book, there are biographies of the law enforcement officers involved in the case. These pages would have had more meaning if they described the victims and their families as well as what led this man to commit these crimes.

It's a short read, but very dull.

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Sunday Synopsis

 

TERROR TOWN, USA: The Untold Story of Joliet's Notorious Serial Killer by John Ferak
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Milton Johnson is the title character in this true crime book. His first known crime was in 1970 when he was 19 years old. He robbed a couple in Joliet's Pilcher Park and violently raped the woman also brutally torturing her with a hot cigarette lighter. He was sentenced to 25 years but was released early having spent slightly less than 13 year in jail. Being released in 1983 was a huge mistake of the Illinois Prison System. His release was followed by the summer of terror in Joliet, Illinois.

Between June and August of 1983, the following occured.
1. Two elderly sisters were murdered in their next-door-to-each-other-homes. (2 dead)
2. A couple was shot and killed during a home invasion.(2 dead)
3. Five people were killed including two auxiliary police officers.(5 dead)
4. A young couple was accosted. The man died, but the woman, while injured, was alive. She was raped, stabbed, pushed out of a moving car, and left for dead. (1 dead)
5. It is also believed that he murdered 4 women in a ceramics shop. (4 dead)
6. Three more murders occured in neighboring Cook County, but were not linked directly to Johnson. (3 dead)

His murders are a matter of public record, but in this true-crime novel, the author brings them to life in vivid detail. They are not just names and places on a piece of paper. Ferak humanizes them and gives them a voice. The reader will think of brothers, husbands, mothers, wives just like the ones Johnson killed, and see the randomness of this killer. Home invasions, sneaking up on parked lovers, using knives and guns, raping females, shooting at cars and chasing them... he had multiple MOs. He was also African American whereas 82% of serial killers are Caucasian. The author takes the reader through all of the crimes, the investigation, the evidence, and the trials. He doesn't leave you hanging at the end like some authors.

I had never heard of Milton Johnson, but I have no idea why! I guess his crimes were not publicized as much as say, John Wayne Gacy's crimes, although they were similarly horrifying.

Milton Johnson's mug shot

Ferak kept my interest throughout the book for the most part. A lof of information is repeated over and over in different parts of the book, and I would have preferred it to be streamlined into chronological order so there wouldn't be a need for repetitiveness of basic details which would also make it easier to read. It is well-written for the most part.

Thankfully Milton Johnson remains in jail. He was sentenced to death multiple times, but the sentences were commuted to life in prison, supposedly without parole, but he has been allowed to request parole anyway. His appeals for parole have thus far been denied, and for that, I am grateful.

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Sunday Synopsis - The "Peyton Place" Murder

 

The 'Peyton Place' Murder: The True Crime Story Behind The Novel That Shocked The Nation by Renee Mallett


This story is actually about two things. 1) Grace Metalious, author of the racy 1956 book titled Peyton Place and 2) the true-life crime dubbed "The Sheep Pen Murder" from which Metalious took inspiration for her book.

Honestly I didn't really enjoy reading of Grace Metalious' life except the parts that fell during her writing career and on. The author went back too far, in my opinion, and included details about her grandmother, mother, and other people in her early life. Frankly, I felt the book started turtle-style-slow, and I almost put it down. Let's say I was nonplussed.

It became more interesting to me when Mallett told the story about "The Sheep Pen Murder" which happened in Gilmanton, New Hampshire in 1947, 9 years prior to the publication of Peyton Place. A young woman was accused of murdering her father and concealing his body under the floorboards of their sheep pen. The author set the scene for the time period, the family dynamics, the American culture at the time, and did an excellent job characterizing the players in this tragedy. However, toward the end, it was slightly repetitive.

The author did a fair amount of research for both parts of the book, and I admire that. Overall, though, I would classify this book as "okay."

I learned of this book through Book Bub, and got an amazingly low price, so it was worth it.  If you've never heard of Book Bub, and you enjoy reading, you should check it out.  It's free to sign up, and they will send you emails with great low prices, sometimes free, e-books in the genre(s) of your choice.  It works with Apple Books, Kindle, Nook, Google Play, and Kobo.  The above is not an affiliate link because Book Bub is completely free just like Goodreads, which I also recommend.  Happy Reading!

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Happy Random Tuesday

Hope everyone had a great 4th of July. 

My husband cooked burgers and hot dogs in the backyard, but we just stayed home.  We didn't even watch the fireworks on TV this year, but we sure heard all the fireworks in the neighborhood!

I didn't actually have any desire to go anywhere, especially after the news of the mass shooting in Illinois. Thankfully, they have the suspect in custody.  There is a picture of him on the link, in case you're interested.  Senseless, sad, and scary.😿

I was going to talk about the expression "up in arms" today because I've been hearing it on TV a lot lately, but now that seems inappropriate...

So... I've been watching a lot of Dateline lately.  I think I have discovered how to keep yourself from becoming the victim of a rapist killer, so pay attention!

On almost every episode, the families describe the victim this way... 

• "She had a smile that lit up the room."
• "Her laughter was contagious."
• "She loved life and loved her family."
• "Everyone wanted to be around her."
• "Smart, optimistic, ambitious, determined."

There you have it, folks!  They never say, "No one liked her.  She was always in a bad mood.  She was not a fun person to hang around."

So here is the key -  Have a creepy smile, rarely laugh, act standoffish, have few friends, be pessimistic, be on poor terms with your family, and have no life goals.  There you go!  Follow these steps and you will not be the victim of a homicide. 

And in case you don't recognize sarcasm or satire, please know that this is just for fun!

So moving right along...

So true! Hahaha!

Actually looks like a bird right?

Hahahaha!!!!!!

I love a good pun!

I agree with that!

And last, but not least...

Have a great week, and don't forget to link up with Happy Tuesday and Random Tuesday Thoughts!

Sunday Synopsis

 

Deadly Innocence by Scott Burnside
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I guess I had heard of the so-called Ken and Barbie murderers, but I never really gave it much thought. It turns out, they are the subject of this book. The book's title is taken from a rap song that Paul Bernardo, the male in this duo, wrote around the time of the murders. This is not a review of the murders, though. They were vicious and disgusting, to say the very least. This is a review of the book and the way the authors wrote about what happened.

The book begins with a scenario of a teenage girl. The next chapter is another scenario. The next is another scenario. And so on. It takes several chapters before the reader will understand at least part of how these scenarios were connected, so it is disjointed in the beginning. In fact, the wedding of Paul Bernardo and Karla Homolka is near the beginning of the book, so the events are not written chronologically.

I do believe the author did a great deal of research for this book... maybe too much. If anything, there is too much detail, and it is repetitive. You will read about each murder multiple times: when it happens, when Karla talks about it, when it is discussed in court. I feel like it could have been condensed, especially considering the extremely graphic content and the sheer length of the book. With such explicit content, the book is already difficult to read mentally (unless you are a psychopath who enjoys those graphic details multiple times), and it is a very long book.

The end, especially, dragged on. The next-to-the-last chapter contains expert dissections of the couple's mental states. These experts include a women's abuse specialist (who is a man), forensic experts, kidnapping and homicide experts, and a behavioral scientist from the FBI. Other cases, experiments, and studies were also considered. Most of their opinions were not allowed as testimony in the case because it didn't actually apply to this case. I feel it should have been included in an appendix for readers who were interested in what they had to say rather than in an actual chapter of the book.

Additionally, there were numerous mistakes. Did anyone edit this book for grammar, punctuation, spelling, typographical errors? I think not. There were countless errors. The book was written by "journalists (reporters)" rather than "authors" and I think that dinstinction makes a difference.

I have not read another book about this same couple although there are many, so I did not have anything to compare it to, but based on the writing style, the number of errors, the explicit vulgar detail, the repetiveness, and the unnecessary parts, I can only say that it was "okay."

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Thursday Thirteen

 I'm a true-crime junkie, and I've recently been looking for some new shows to watch.  Here are a few that I found and how I rate them.

(These are not in any particular order. Rating 1-5 with 1 being lowest and 5 being highest.)

1.  When They See Us on Netflix.  5 Stars!   This was about the 5 young men who were accused in the death of the jogger in Central Park in 1989.  I remember when it happened, and it was a travesty!

2.  Evil Genius:  The True Story of America's Most Diabolical Bank Heist on Netflix.  Only 2 Stars.  This happened in 2003.  A man walked into the bank with a bomb locked around his neck.  This was kind of repetitive and boring, unfortunately.

3.  The Act on Hulu.  3 Stars. This is a weird story about Dee Dee Blanchard and her "handicapped" daughter Gypsy Rose. Blanchard basically had Munchausen by Proxy. 

4.  The Keepers on Netflix.  3 Stars.  This is a documentary about the unsolved murder of Sister Catherine Cesnik.  She was an English teacher at an all-girls Catholic school in Baltimore when she went missing.  It became a huge scandal.

5.  Accused:  Guilty or Innocent on Hulu.  4 Stars.  Each episode focuses on one person who is accused and follows them from arrest through trial.  I have watched 5 episodes so far.

6.  Murder to Mercy:  The Cyntoia Brown story on Netflix.  4 Stars.  Cyntoia was convicted of murder when she was 16 years old.

7.  Deadly Women on Hulu.  3 Stars.  This is about... you guess it!  Women who kill.  Each episode presents three stories. The narrator is way over-dramatic.  And I also dislike one of the commentators, Candice Delong, a former FBI employee.  She just gets on my nerves.

8.  Murder Among the Mormons on Netflix.  3 Stars.  This is about a man who forged documents, and rather than face his accusers, decided to murder instead.  This was a little slow, but I found the history of the Mormon Church rather fascinating.

9.  Crime Scene: The Vanishing at the Cecil Hotel on Netflix.  5 Stars!  This is the story of Elisa Lam, a student visiting from Canada, who disappeared from the hotel, but was later found deceased.

10. The Disappearance of Madeline McCann on Netflix.  1 Star!  I couldn't finish this.  It was terribly boring! A 3-year-old child disappeared from the Portugese resort she and her family were visiting.  I feel awful for the child, but this just didn't keep my attention.  Poor presentation of the material.

11. Snapped on Bravo.  3 Stars.  Each episode focuses on the crimes of a woman who "snapped" and became a killer.

12. In Plain Sight on Hulu. 4 Stars.  This series focuses on disturbing murders in which the killer should have been caught much sooner than they were because they weren't actually hiding.

13. A Killer on Floor 32 on Hulu.  3 Stars.  The shooting at the concert at Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas was the biggest mass shooting in US history.  This documentary shows actual footage and interviews with people who were part of the tragedy.

For more fun lists of 13, visit Thursday Thirteen.