Regular price: £18.79
The police in Jersey County, Illinois, accepted Paula Sims' story of a masked kidnapper who snatched her baby girl, Lorelei, from her bassinet. Three years later, her second newborn daughter suffered an identical fate - and this time the police were unable to stop searching until they had discovered the whole horrifying truth. This is the full terrifying story of twisted sexuality and hate seething below the surface of a seemingly normal family and of the massive investigation and nerve-shattering trial that made the unthinkable a reality.
Lacey Spears made international headlines in January 2015, when she was charged with the "depraved mind" murder of her five-year-old son, Garnett. Prosecutors alleged that the 27-year-old mother had poisoned him with high concentrations of salt through his stomach tube. To the outside world, Lacey had seemed like the perfect mother, regularly posting dramatic updates on her son's harrowing medical problems. But in reality, Lacey was a textbook case of Munchausen Syndrome by Proxy.
This is the heartbreaking story of the murder of 16-year-old Bristol schoolgirl Becky Watts, a personal and heartfelt account of a crime that shocked the nation in a unique way and tore a family in two. A vulnerable and shy girl, Becky Watts was brutally murdered and dismembered by her own stepbrother on 19 February 2015. As her father, Darren, discovered the horrific details of what happened to his darling girl, his world fell apart.
Susan McFarland watched, powerless, as her husband, Rick McFarland, went into a downhill spiral of get-rich-quick schemes, quirky shopping trips, and prescription-drug abuse. Susan, a rising star at a major corporation, finally had enough. When she decided to call it quits, Rick ended her life, leaving three young boys - ages 5, 8, and 11 - without a mother. A two-month long search by law enforcement and volunteers found no trace of the missing woman....
As seen on A Current Affair - the shocking story of Florida's most bizarre multiple murder case. As Lisa and Kosta Fotopoulos lay sleeping in their home, a burglar broke in and shot Lisa at point-blank range in the head. Miraculously, she survived to learn the sobering truth about her would-be assassin - and about her sociopathic husband's deadly agenda.
Recounts the tragic events that followed the arrest of Fred Coe, a conservative, clean-cut young man, for a series of rapes committed in the city of Spokane and led to revenge and murder.
The police in Jersey County, Illinois, accepted Paula Sims' story of a masked kidnapper who snatched her baby girl, Lorelei, from her bassinet. Three years later, her second newborn daughter suffered an identical fate - and this time the police were unable to stop searching until they had discovered the whole horrifying truth. This is the full terrifying story of twisted sexuality and hate seething below the surface of a seemingly normal family and of the massive investigation and nerve-shattering trial that made the unthinkable a reality.
Lacey Spears made international headlines in January 2015, when she was charged with the "depraved mind" murder of her five-year-old son, Garnett. Prosecutors alleged that the 27-year-old mother had poisoned him with high concentrations of salt through his stomach tube. To the outside world, Lacey had seemed like the perfect mother, regularly posting dramatic updates on her son's harrowing medical problems. But in reality, Lacey was a textbook case of Munchausen Syndrome by Proxy.
This is the heartbreaking story of the murder of 16-year-old Bristol schoolgirl Becky Watts, a personal and heartfelt account of a crime that shocked the nation in a unique way and tore a family in two. A vulnerable and shy girl, Becky Watts was brutally murdered and dismembered by her own stepbrother on 19 February 2015. As her father, Darren, discovered the horrific details of what happened to his darling girl, his world fell apart.
Susan McFarland watched, powerless, as her husband, Rick McFarland, went into a downhill spiral of get-rich-quick schemes, quirky shopping trips, and prescription-drug abuse. Susan, a rising star at a major corporation, finally had enough. When she decided to call it quits, Rick ended her life, leaving three young boys - ages 5, 8, and 11 - without a mother. A two-month long search by law enforcement and volunteers found no trace of the missing woman....
As seen on A Current Affair - the shocking story of Florida's most bizarre multiple murder case. As Lisa and Kosta Fotopoulos lay sleeping in their home, a burglar broke in and shot Lisa at point-blank range in the head. Miraculously, she survived to learn the sobering truth about her would-be assassin - and about her sociopathic husband's deadly agenda.
Recounts the tragic events that followed the arrest of Fred Coe, a conservative, clean-cut young man, for a series of rapes committed in the city of Spokane and led to revenge and murder.
The true story of Barbara Stager, a devoted mother, loving wife, and dedicated church leader who committed an almost perfect crime. By all accounts, Stager seemed to lead the perfect life in her community in Durham, North Carolina. After her husband, popular high school coach Russ, died tragically, the police were inclined to believe her story - that she accidentally shot him. Suspicions rose when the police discovered that Stager's previous husband had died similarly 10 years prior.
On any Sunday morning in the Florida Redlands, Dee Casteel might have served you pancakes at the IHOP. She was a hard-working, cheerful waitress, one of the nicest people you'd ever want to know. She was also a three-bottle-a-day alcoholic, hopelessly in love with the IHOP's manager, Allen Bryant. Bryant wanted his live-in lover, IHOP owner Art Venecia, dead. And Dee Casteel helped him to arrange it.
In the summer of 2000, Jane Steare received the phone call every mother dreads. Her daughter Lucie Blackman - tall, blonde and 21 years old - had stepped into the vastness of a Tokyo summer and disappeared forever. That winter, her dismembered remains were found buried in a desolate seaside cave. Her disappearance was mystifying. Had Lucie been abducted by a religious cult? Who was the mysterious man she had gone to meet?
Jenn Corbin appeared to have it all: two dear little boys, a posh home in one of the upscale suburbs of Atlanta, expensive cars, a plush houseboat, and a husband - Dr. Bart Corbin, a successful dentist - who was tall, handsome, and brilliant. But gradually, their seemingly idyllic life together began to crumble. Bart was distraught and Jenn seemed disenchanted. Then, just a few weeks before Christmas 2004, Jenn was found dead with a bullet in her head, an apparent suicide....
Everyone thinks they know the story of Milly Dowler. Haunting headlines about the missing schoolgirl splashed across front pages. The family's worst fears realised when her body was found months later. The years of waiting for the truth, only to learn that the killer, known to the police, lived just yards from where Milly had vanished. The parents subjected to horrific psychological torture at a trial orchestrated by the murderer.
Michael Peterson was a decorated veteran of the Vietnam War, a candidate for mayor and a New York Times best-selling novelist. His wife Kathleen was the first woman ever admitted to the Duke University School of Engineering, a brilliant executive and a loving and fun-filled mother-the last woman who one would expect to become a victim in her own home.
David loved Cindy and was loved in return. Or so he thought. The troubled young man clung to his new love and dreamed of their future together. So begins the chain of events that was to evolve into a horror of terrifying proportions. Jack Olsen, best-selling author of Son, now reveals the details of a true-life romance gone hideously awry.
The tragic story of Susan Powell and her murdered boys, Charlie and Braden, is the only case that rivals the Jon Benet Ramsey saga in the annals of true crime. When the pretty, blonde Utah mother went missing in December of 2009 the media was swept up in the story - with lenses and microphones trained on Susan's husband, Josh. He said he had no idea what happened to his young wife, and that he and the boys had been camping in the middle of a snowstorm.
On March 16, 1992, Elizabeth DeCaro, a 28 year-old mother of four, was found dead in her own home, murdered execution-style with two bullets to the head. Her husband, Rick, was immediately a suspect, having previously struck her "accidentally" with the family van after taking out a $100,000 life insurance policy on her. A Killer Among Us presents the true shocking story of Elizabeth's family and their search for justice against the man who continued to play father to the children whose mother he had killed.
Stella Nickell's small-time world was one of big-time dreams. In 1986, her biggest one came true when her husband died during a seizure, making her the beneficiary of a $175,000-plus insurance payoff - until authorities discovered that Bruce Nickell's headache capsules had been laced with cyanide. In an attempt to cover her tracks, Stella did the unconscionable. She saw to it that a stranger would also become a 'random casualty' of cyanide-tainted painkillers.
It was the trial that stunned America, the verdict that shocked us all. On July 5, 2011, nearly three years after her initial arrest, Casey Anthony walked away, virtually scot-free, from one of the most sensational murder trials of all time. She'd been accused of killing her daughter, Caylee, but the trial only left behind more questions: Was she actually innocent? What really happened to Caylee? Was this what justice really looked like?
To his parishioners, minister Matt Baker seemed a pious and good man. To his wife, Kari, he was a devoted husband and caring father. Always sunny and vivacious, Kari never questioned their frequent relocations from one small Texas Baptist church to another. Even when tragedy struck, Kari remained strong - until one day, inexplicably, she took her own life.
Police found the body of 16-year-old Calyx on her bed under a white blanket. They found her 13-year-old brother Beau in the family car covered up the same way. Both had two gunshots to the head. Both had been dead for hours. The only other person who had been in the home was their mother, Julie Schenecker. She told law enforcement that she could no longer tolerate her kids talking back to her. Was this a case of premeditated murder? Or a horrible tragedy fueled by a mental illness that had spun out of control? Sleep My Darlings is the deadly true story of a mother's betrayal of her natural instincts and the loss of two innocents' lives.
About the author: Diane Fanning is the author of the Edgar Award finalist Written in Blood: A True Story of Murder and a Deadly 16-Year-Old Secret that Tore a Family Apart. Her other works of true crime include the best seller Mommy's Little Girl, A Poisoned Passion, Gone Forever, and Through the Window. She is also the author of the Lucinda Pierce Mysteries. She has been featured on 48 Hours, 20/20, Court TV, The Today Show, and the Discovery Channel, and has been interviewed on dozens of radio stations coast to coast. Her books are sold throughout the English-speaking world, including the UK and Australia, and there are more than half a million copies in print. Before becoming a writer, Fanning worked in advertising, and she earned more than 70 Addy Awards.
This could have been better, by far. The book struggles for material with three hours still to go and continues to use cheesy anecdotes, overuses the words of the children's father, until such a time when you beg the narrator to chirp in the old familiar " We hope you enjoyed your audible book"
I'm no author, but even I wouldn't have had the audacity to scrape a book out of such little material, I think Fanning is getting a little greedy and desperate at the consumers expense,.
That's a shame.
Emma
I have to say that this is the most boring book I have ever read. I was determined to finish it to see if anything relevant to the murders was mentioned. No it never happened. I was actually getting angry listening to more about Harry Potter than I wanted to know, or the square footage of various homes and statistics that went on and on. In other words a load of useless information.
The narrator spoke so fast I wondered if she was also bored with the story and was hurrying the reading of it to get it over with. The author certainly thanked loads of people for helping her. Watch the trial on UTUBE and get all the facts and testimonies about the murders. It will save you money and leave you knowing what had happened. I will never try and read another of this authors books.
I don't know where this book comes in Diane Fanning's bibliography. I usually love her accounts because of her in depth research and fresh true crimes. But this book is so full of excruciating unnecessary minutiae that it's mind-numbing! We learn more about the military, Oahu, Ft. Leavenworth, and the mundane day-to-day (nay....second-to-second) activities of the Scheneker family than about the horrific murders of 2 innocent teens. There's no real sense of the mother's long descent into madness that ended in the cold blooded murders of her children. The deaths don't even come into play until the last 3 hours of the book. Then the reader is forced to take each and every step with the first responding police officers through the crime scene, from the front lawn to the bodies, with everything along the way described in great detail, from the number of forks on the kitchen counter to baskets of folded laundry. Meanwhile, we are waiting for them to finally find what we already knows awaits the cops - the bodies of two teenaged children, brutally shot in the face and head by their mother. After that, the author drags us through interviews of the neighbors rehashing hours of trivia about the Schenekers that we'd been told about in the preceding chapter! They actually use the children's Facebook pages frequently as a means of investigating the murders.. Plus there is a very cavalier attitude towards the gruesome tragedy. The narrator relates the story as if this is some lightweight chick-lit. Not her fault - it's the way the book is written.
The reader gets no real sense of ANY of the family members, particularly the murdered children. Much of the book focuses on the father's early life, his education and career military years. There's a point where he goes back to his high school decades later to receive some minor honor. For some bizarre reason, Fanning found it appropriate to list EVERY medal, award, honor and accomplishment that the father received while in the military. It had to be 15-20. Then, during the crime scene investigation depiction, Fanning actually listed the inventory of the items taken from the home - one-by-excruciating-one! If you listen to this book while driving, you will definitely fall asleep at the wheel! As usual, Fanning feels the need to include snippet accounts of other unrelated, but similar crimes, which occurred in the state of this one. Then she has the irritating habit of speculating what the victim and/or perpetrator was thinking at the time of the crime, i.e., "Did he know this would be his last second alive?" or "What did she think was on her mother's mind as the bullet spiraled through the barrel?" Really, Diane?!
What bothers me the most is that every one could see that the Julie Scheneker had been unraveling mentally for a very long - and highly visible - period. She had been on depression medication BEFORE she got married but never told her fiancé. Her erratic behavior, prescription drug abuse, alcoholism, hospitalizations in mental hospitals, etc. was very obvious throughout her life. Yet her husband, Parker, big time "Mr. Military", keeps moving his family from state, country to country, while ignoring his wife's mental decline and, more disturbing, the physical abuse that she perpetrated on their children. After decades in the military and a college degree, Parker was only making about $100,000 in 2011, so I don't get his excuse for not putting family first. His wife was acting all "fruity-loops", however, in spite of an investigation by officials due to allegations that the 16 year-old daughter was viciously attacked by her mother, he takes his butt to off Afghanistan, on some not-so-critical assignment for the US government. This, when his OWN home was a "war zone". But, then, no one took the kid seriously while friends and family turned a blind eye. Why? Because, obstensibly, this was a white upper middle-class family with a perfect FICO score!
This story could have been written in less than an hour. In fact, the Audible synopsis sums up the whole story quite nicely. The crimes, while tragic, aren't particularly compelling and the family unremarkable. It was hard to have sympathy for anyone - we barely "knew" the children or the parents. Even the description of the funeral was dispassionate and cold.
This woman went out and bought a gun for the sole purpose of executing the 2 children that she'd carried under her heart for 9 months. In the end, Julie Scheneker told the world that she killed her children because they were "mouthy" and that she had no regrets at all. After deliberating for 2 hours, the jury she was convicted her of 2 counts of capital murder. Being white, she received concurrent life sentences. All I can say is that it would have been "Old Sparky" for a black woman killing ONE stranger, much less TWO of her own children!
I have purchased almost every book by Fanning available on Audible. I was very impressed by the first 2 or 3. However, the last couple have been beyond awful. This one is by far the worst! Go to Wikipedia and SAVE YOUR CREDIT!!!
4 of 4 people found this review helpful
This book is a tribute to the murdered teens. It gives a very detailed description of their lives: what they liked about school, their Harry Potter addiction, and the memorials after their deaths. The actual crime and criminal are almost never mentioned. I understand the impulse, but the result is a non-story.
4 of 4 people found this review helpful