The Doomsday Mother: Lori Vallow, Chad Daybell, and the End of an American Family

Title: The Doomsday Mother: Lori Vallow, Chad Daybell, and the End of an American Family
Author: John Glatt
Publisher: St. Martin's Paperbacks
Release Date: January 18, 2022
Page Count: 304
Rating: 4.5 stars out of 5

Read book blurb here

If you thought, as I did, that you knew a great deal about this convoluted case involving the disappearance and murder of two children, the murder of two husbands and one wife, and the disturbing doomsday cult that drew Lori Vallow and Chad Daybell together, this revelatory book is a must-read.

Lori Vallow and Chad Daybell's first meeting was like gasoline and fire, a perfect storm of religious fervor and the belief that they were destined to be together and deliver the select 144,000 after the apocalyptic end of the world in July of 2020.  Author John Glatt provides details I have not read elsewhere. He met and interviewed numerous people from both Lori and Chad's life (and he names names) as well as law enforcement officers. Also, his interviews with family members and family background provides a solid foundation for understanding just how Lori and Chad ended up believing their hybrid religious fantasy. 

The book is very enlightening and I appreciated Glatt's solid research and careful analysis of this case.  4.5 stars and I highly recommend this book.

I received an ARC from the publisher, via NetGalley, in exchange for an honest review.

Bone Deep : Untangling the Betsy Faria Murder Case

Title: Bone Deep : Untangling the Betsy Faria Murder Case

Author: Charles Bosworth Jr., Joel J. Schwartz 

Publisher: Citadel Press

Release Date: February 22, 2022

Genre(s): True Crime

Page Count: 320

Rating: 4.5 stars out of 5 

Read book blurb here

If you watch Dateline NBC, you probably saw one of their five episodes about Pam Hupp and the Betsy Faria murder, and are somewhat familiar with this bizarre case.  Co-author Joel J. Schwartz was Russell Faria's defense attorney and he and Charles Bosworth, Jr. presents all the aspects of the case for both the newcomer as well as the true-crime aficionado.

The authors present their evidence clearly and concisely about the initial case, the police and prosecutor's singular focus on Russell Faria, the first trial, the retrial and Pam Hupp's murder of Louis Gumpenberger. It's a gut-wrenching ten (10) year period of time and the case continues, with Pam Hupp finally charged with the murder of Betsy Faria in July of 2021.

Reading this account, it is unimaginable that the police and the prosecutor made up their minds almost immediately that Russ Faria was guilty and Pam Hupp had nothing to do with Betsy' s murder .... despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary.  And even more disturbing is the growing evidence that the police lied, convinced others to lie, and sought to cover up the truth. 

If you are interested in an insider's viewpoint of this case, I would highly recommend this book. 4.5 stars.

I received an ARC from the Publisher, via NetGalley, in exchange for an honest review.

Golden Boy : A Murder Among the Manhattan Elite

Title: Golden Boy
Author: John Glatt
Publisher: St. Martin's Press
Release Date: July 20, 2021
Page Count: 320
Rating: 4 stars out of 5

Read book blurb here

Buckley, Deerfield, Princeton, Maidstone, East Hampton. Tommy Gilbert, Jr. had it all - model good looks, a great education, a loving family - and yet he is now serving 30 years to life for murdering his father by firing a bullet through his brain.

Tommy had been blessed with both hands, yet it was this very thing that prevented him getting any sort of real help.  As a few friends said:

Nobody thought this handsome, well-educated, privileged Princeton man was capable of violence [...] if Tommy looked like me, people would have thought he was an insane person fairly quickly.

I must admit that I really struggled with this book because while I feel that Tommy's mental illness (paranoid schizophrenia) was absolutely the major factor in the murder, time and again Tommy was given a second, third, fourth, ad nauseum chances at redemption solely because of his looks and his background.  

And in a sense, this is the same struggle that the court faced with this case. It took four years to bring the case to trial because of the difficulty in determining if Tommy was sane enough to stand trial. He refused to speak with medical personnel tasked with determining his mental state, he refused to take any medication, he refused to participate in his defense.  Yet he also carefully planned to murder his father - purchasing the Glock he used, sending his mother out of the townhouse on an errand, carefully walking away from the scene, etc. 

The author had access to Tommy's mother, Sheila Gilbert, and others close to him, including his attorney Arnold Levine. There's plenty here showing that Tommy's parents were in denial about his mental illness - "They appeared more concerned about their reputation than their son's highly dangerous mental state" -  and that their status and wealth had protected him in the past from consequences.  And Sheila strongly advocated for her son getting "as light a sentence as possible" while, IMHO, failing to advocate for her murdered husband. But again, this entire case is a horrific Sophie's choice that far too many families are dealing with every day. 

At times, the narrative dragged with far too many parties and events described in great detail, but overall Glatt clearly lays out a dilemma to which there is no clear answer. 4 stars. 

I received an ARC from the Publisher, via NetGalley, in exchange for an honest review.

Written in Bone : Hidden Stories in What We Leave Behind

Title: Written in Bone: Hidden Stories in What We Leave Behind
Author: Sue Black
Publisher: Arcade
Release Date: June 1, 2021
Page Count: 304
Rating: 5 stars out of 5

Read book blurb here

I absolutely loved this book. Internationally renowned forensic anthropologist and human anatomist Dame Sue Black details the human skeleton from the top of the skull to the tiniest bones in the feet. She explains how the various bones are formed, how they function together and how they leave clues to the attentive about how an individual lived .... or died. 

The author educates us laypersons and then delves into the finer details by using criminal cases to illustrate, and writes in such a way that it appears to clear and understandable, which is a real gift. Highly recommended. 5 stars. 

I received an ARC from the Publisher, via NetGalley, in exchange for an honest review.

In the Shadow of Mt. Diablo : The Shocking True Identity of the Zodiac Killer

Title: In the Shadow of Mt. Diablo : The Shocking True Identity of the Zodiac Killer
Author: Mike Rodelli
Publisher: Indigo River Publishing
Release Date: May 11, 2021
Page Count: 496
Rating: 3.5 stars out of 5

Read book blurb here

As a child of the 70s, I recall seeing a list of amazing coincidences between the JFK and Lincoln assassinations such as ages they married, years they were each first elected to Senate and then White House, Lee Harvey Oswald and John Wilkes Booth each had three part names, etc.  The list was perhaps 15-20 items long.  

However, you can apparently also find similar amazing coincidences between Kennedy and former Mexican President Álvaro Obregón.  So, is this something extraordinary, or is it "data dredging" which Wikipedia says is: "the misuse of data analysis to find patterns in data that can be presented as statistically significant, thus dramatically increasing and understating the risk of false positives." 

Reading Mike Rodelli's work also brought up the same sort of questions for me.  Has he truly cracked the criminal case of the century, or is he just finding strands of vaguely similar coincidences and using that to weave together the supposed identity of the Zodiac Killer?   Well ... in some instances I think Rodelli has brought up some startling evidence, such as his belief that the SFPD determined right away that the Zodiac was a loner, low-economic class psycho, rather than even entertaining the idea that he might have been wealthy, well-read, crazy smart and twisted. 

He also points out that the SFPD did not really question the two true eyewitnesses to the Paul Stine murder, nor follow up with other clues or evidence that clearly appeared to be new avenues of investigation. Their DNA handling is also very suspect.

If you are at all interested in the Zodiac, I would definitely recommend you read this book and decide for yourself if Rodelli is correct.  I'm still pretty much on the fence, but I appreciate his dedication and the level of his research.  3.5 stars. 

I received an ARC from the Publisher, via NetGalley, in exchange for an honest review.