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Written by: Dennis McDougal
Narrated by: Tara Ochs Length: 11 hrs and 17 mins The true story of Theresa Knorr, the twisted child abuser who murdered her daughters—with the help of her sons—told by a former New York Times reporter. In June 1985, Theresa Cross Knorr dumped her daughter Sheila’s body in California’s desolate High Sierra. She had beaten Sheila unconscious in their Sacramento apartment days earlier, then locked her in a closet to die. But this wasn’t the first horrific crime she’d committed against her own children. The previous summer, Knorr had shot Sheila’s sister Suesan, then ordered her son to dig the bullet out of the girl’s back with a knife to hide the evidence. The infection that resulted led to delirium—at which point Knorr and her two sons drove Suesan into the mountains, doused her with gasoline, and set her on fire. It would be almost a decade before her youngest daughter, Terry Knorr Graves, revealed her mother’s history of unfathomable violence. At first, she was met with disbelief by law enforcement and even her own therapist. But eventually, the truth about her monstrous abuse emerged—and here, an award-winning journalist details the jealousy, rage, and domineering behavior that escalated into homicide and shattered a family. A former reporter for the New York Times and Los AngelesTimes and the author of true-crime classics including Angel of Darkness, about serial killer Randy Kroft, and Blood Cold, about Robert Blake and Bonny Lee Bakley, Dennis McDougal reveals the shocking depths of depravity behind a case that made headlines across the nation. |
Murder & Mayhem
Nonfiction
So, I can't exactly say that I LIKED this story, but more that it was well written and well read. The story of these people's lives deserved as much information to fully understand their actions as possible, and I feel like this did that. It was hard to hear some of the things that happened to those poor children, especially the girls, and I found myself in tears more than once. So, you know, trigger warning.
The only drawback I had to the story was that weight was brought up a LOT. I understood that part of it attributed to what was going on, but sometimes it was just people talking about the females, and it felt....wrong, I guess. Other than that, I had zero issues with the way it was told. 4 platypires for story. At first I thought the narrator sounded almost robotic, and put it down to the genre. And I'm so glad it was that way. During some of the rough parts of the story, the parts that broke my heart and had me sobbing, I'm not even sure just how much worse it would have been had she used much emotion in the reading! She spoke clearly, steadily, and has a pleasant voice. She did a really good job! 5 platypires for her. Over all, I'll give it 4.5 platypires and a prayer for that family! |