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Sleep, My Child, Forever

The Riveting True Story of a Mother Who Murdered Her Own Children

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About this listen

The dark double life of Ellen Boehm, the mother who murdered her two sons - and nearly killed her daughter

Ellen Boehm, a single mom from St. Louis, Missouri, appeared devoted to her children. But in reality, she was unequipped for motherhood, financially strapped, and desperate. Within a year of each other, her sons, ages two and four, died mysteriously, and Boehm's eight-year-old daughter then suffered a near-fatal mishap when a hair dryer fell into the girl's bath. While neighbors wondered how Boehm remained so calm through it all, Det. Sgt. Joseph Burgoon of St. Louis Homicide had darker suspicions.

Burgoon soon unraveled a labyrinth of deception, greed, and obsession that revealed a cold-blooded killer whose get-rich-quick scheme came at the cost of her children's lives. Boehm had taken out insurance policies on her children with six different companies totaling nearly $100,000. Using police reports, case documents, and photos, journalist John Coston recreates the events that led to one mother's unspeakable acts of filicide - and a cop's relentless pursuit of the truth.

©1995 John Coston (P)2019 Brilliance Publishing, Inc., all rights reserved. Crime Murder Social Sciences True Crime Violence in Society Scary
All stars
Most relevant
Those poor little kids, a dragon mother.
My one conclusion is they should have ended her.

A fascinating and horribly compelling listen.

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I thought that too much was made of the descriptions of the murderess as`fat', 'un-attractive' & 'cold'. That's an opinion not fact. The account was lacking psychological analysis. The narration was fine.

Not as in depth as I would have liked.

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This was an interesting tale of circumstances leading to the death of two children. I was quite shocked at the mothers attitude to her children, there is obviously a serious underlying mental health issue.

The book could be a little shorter, as parts (such as the interview process) were basically the same information repeated, just in a slightly different format…….I ended up fast forwarding part of it as the back and forth naming the people talking was just frustrating.
The book goes into detail on how the investigation was put together and then the subsequent charges.

The narration went at a nice pace and there was no attempt at acting (which is great in this type of book) and allowed me to relax into it.

A good listen but a little repetitive

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Alot of pointless information and first 30 minutes could be skipped as it's pointless information

Not too bad

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I managed to listen to the end and the story is heartbreaking, but it felt like the narator was reading a list rather a story.

Story ok, Narator seemed emotionless

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