Ron FranscellCritiques

The drama, humor, and plot twists in this book had me hooked from beginning to end. Even though I had never read anything by him before this book, he has since gained a place in my list of favorite authors. It is engaging and well-written, I highly recommend.

Alice & Gerald by Ron Franscell is a highly recommended true crime drama that reads like a novel.

Alice and Gerald Uden murdered at least four people and thought they had gotten away with it for almost forty decades. Between the two there were multiple failed marriages before they met and married. Alice killed husband number three in 1974. Gerald met and married her in 1976, a few weeks after his third divorce was final, and she became his fourth wife. The two were an oddly suited-for-each-other couple, with Alice firmly controlling their lives. When it seemed that Gerald's third ex-wife, Virginia, and mother to the two boys he adopted, might be wanting more child support, Alice wrote several insulting, unsettling, and vaguely threatening letters to Virginia. Then, in 1980, Virginia and the two boys mysteriously disappeared.

With Virginia's mother, Claire, suspected foul play - and Gerald. She was asking questions and insisting that the police investigate, although their initial investigation seemed perfunctory. After all, Virginia was living a nomadic lifestyle and she could have just decided to move on to somewhere else. It seemed Gerald got away with murder. And then, even when her children were telling authorities that Alice told them she killed her ex-husband, It seemed that this murder case would also go cold. Even when suspected and questioned, Alice and Gerald weren't talking. It took decades and the determination of several investigators to finally get the answers after a skeleton is found

What follows is a long investigation by authorities trying to bring murderers to justice. They also uncovered a lot of background information about Alice and Gerald. When the two cases break open in 2013, it is a relief to the readers that justice is finally served, and it is satisfying, even when served cold.

Franscell writes this true story in a matter-of-fact style that reads like a police procedural crime novel, although the reader will have more inside information than the police did while working these cases. The book is extremely well-researched; Franscell spent two years researching it and interviewing Gerald. Alice & Gerald contains chapter notes and sixteen pages of color photos. This is a fascinating case.

Disclosure: My review copy was courtesy of Prometheus Books/Penguin Random House.

http://www.shetreadssoftly.com/2019/04/alice-gerald.html

3.75 stars

In a town in Wyoming in 1973, 18-year old Becky and her 11-year old sister Amy went to pick up some groceries. By the next morning, Amy was dead in a canyon, thrown of a high bridge, and Becky somehow managed to survive the night with a broken pelvis after having been raped and also thrown off the bridge. The author was the girls’ neighbour. The book not only looks at the crime, but it also looks at Becky and Amy’s lives, the lives of the two convicted murderers/rapists, and the author thinks back on his own life in the small town where it happened.

The first half of the book was the most interesting, where it focused on the crime and aftermath, including the trial. The next part of the book follows Becky’s life, as well as Ronnie’s and Jerry’s, in jail for their crimes. The books slips a little (at least I found it less interesting) as it looks closely at an autobiography written by Ronnie; as the author scrutinizes the autobiography, it becomes more clear why he includes as much of it as he does in the book. But, it is due to this section that I brought my rating down to just under 4 stars.

As the title states, this book is designed to be a guide to crimes and assorted mishaps that took place in the Los Angeles area. At the start of each entry, we're given the address and GPS coordinates of the location where the crime took place. The author then gives us a brief account of the story and the people involved. If you live in or plan on visiting the Los Angeles area, this is a handy book to use for a self-guided tour of the locations of some notorious crimes. I don't live in or plan on visiting LA, but it was fun to take a Google Earth tour of the locations as I read each entry.

I have to say that it must suck for the new(er) owners of the homes mentioned, having found themselves on a crime buff's tour. The author stresses the issue of private property, so do follow his advice and only look from a distance.

The events discussed span a couple of centuries, from the very old to the fairly recent. The book's layout is not in chronological order, and there is no date with each entry's title and location. Consequently, it often took me a paragraph of so to orient myself in the time of the event. I would have liked an ordered timeline and/or headings clearly stating the dates.

The writing style is conversational, with no formality. At times sentence structure is a little awkward but, in fairness, I read a review copy and wording might have changed before publication.

Whether you're interested in LA's criminal history or you enjoy true crime in general, this book offers some interesting stories. Many are infamous, while others I'd never heard of. Some are gruesome and a few made me laugh. This is definitely a well balanced assortment of stories.

*I received a review copy from the publisher, via NetGalley, in exchange for my honest review.*

Crime Buff's Guide To OUTLAW SOUTHWEST (Crime Buff's Guides Book 1) by Ron Franscell is a great book I was allowed to read from NetGalley. It is filled with crimes and exact GPS locations of those crimes or significant things related to those crimes of the southwest from about mid 1800's to about present day. The crimes varied greatly and so did some of the punishments. Plenty of photos. I guess if you were an avid traveler and liked to look these things up, you would certainly have the exact coordinates to do so. Some of the more recent ones, ones I should know more about, I did learn more interesting tidbits. I enjoyed this book. A good history book even if it was on the darker side.

This little compilation is basically condensed true crime stories set in the Southern United States. I would like to say there are a whole bunch of new and interesting cases to explore here, but it is territory that has been well trodden over the years by many of the true crime authors with which we are all familiar.

The first story concerns Dean Corll, known as the Candyman who terrorized teenagers in Texas. Say that three times fast. Less is known about Corll than most others because the term serial killer had not yet been invented and often he is lumped under mass murder due to his crimes pre-dating the designation.

The Darkest Tower covers Charles Whitman. While what he did was heinous, he also realized that he was having physical and psychiatric symptoms and if the university psychiatrist had perhaps been a bit more pro-active, his brain tumor would have been found before he went on a mass murdering spree at the University of Texas.

Nightmare at Noon covers the Luby’s cafeteria massacre in Texas and is the last story set in that state in this book. Another terrible tragedy and the information here is old stuff.

The next stories are set in Louisiana. The first in the 1940’s concerns an illicit love affair and greed. And in good old southern gothic style, ends in an alligator infested swamp.

The second story is from New Orleans in 1973 and has a bit of politics involving the Black Panthers but ends with a Howard Johnson’s hotel sniper. I had read or seen something of this at one time but did not know the details.

The last Louisiana story was about one of the Baton Rouge serial killers – Derek Todd Lee. This was of passing interest because I have been watching “The Killing Season” on tv and at one time, Derek Todd Lee was one of their suspects. This was a survivors story which is a refreshing change in the true crime scene.

Another alligator infested bayou and love triangle completes the Louisiana portion of this book. This story is another throwback, occurring in 1927 and proving that ugly crime stories occur through the ages.

The book concludes with four stories set in Mississippi. Like the rest of the book, a combination of contemporary stories and historical ones. All par for the course true crime writing.

The whole thing is mildly entertaining and if true crime is a favorite, readers will like a bite sized helping rather than a novel that delves deep into the investigation. The stories are told without all the technical crime fighting details. An easy read.

A series of stories about mass murderers/killers, and the people who survived.

Franscell's writing style is not my favorite - more a tabloid, sensationalist style, then plain face, but the subject is interesting. His writing style does make the book very readable, though this isn't a book you are going to read in one or two evenings - it's too horrible. There's a similarity between all of the murderers and the aftermath and how the survivors all coped.

Reading a book like this makes one wonder how quickly your whole life can change, and really makes me want to step up my game today, because tomorrow may never come.

--
borrowed from the library as an e-book

Let's be honest, I am a sucker for authors who become my friend on Facebook. It helps when the author is highly recommended by people whose opinions I value.

Although I really like a long book chock full of all the gory details, sometimes I just want to breeze through a book, when that happens a collection of short stories will do. These are all true accounts and in my cheeky Goodreads review all I said was this book was first rate. Most of the accounts of the shootings / murders are, just the facts ma'am, the most detail comes from the surviving victims stories.

Every chapter gives the survivors name and the name of the shooting, the focus is on the victims, I like this, so often the killers get all the press. Some of these events were familiar to me, some I had never heard about. Like the book before this, this book has added more books to my, I want to read this pile.

Some shootings: (listing the ones I already knew about) The McDonald's Massacre in San Ysidro, California; The Luby's Massacre in Killeen Texas; Tim Ursin and the Howard Johnson Sniper (I think I read this on Ron's Facebook Page), New Orleans, Louisiana; the University of Texas Clock Tower shooter, Austin, Texas.

I definitely recommend this book.

September 24, 1973 started like any other day in Casper, Wyoming, the events that transpired that evening into the next day changed life for everyone. Eleven-year old Amy Burridge and her half-sister Becky Thomson had been abducted from a local store, Amy was thrown off the Freemont Canyon Bridge, afterwards Becky was raped by the two men that had abducted them and was also thrown off the bridge. Becky survived, Amy did not.

Ron Franscell lived next door to Amy and Becky. Because of that we get a uniquely personal view of the account. Besides learning biographical details of the people involved we also learn how the town was affected by this horrifically violent crime. This book is about more than the murderers, the victims, the crime and trial. It is about a town and how one act can have widespread consequences.

Becky struggled with PTSD, with survivor guilt, she self-medicated with alcohol and drugs. She was quite possible the victim of another sexual assault. She lived in fear of the men who raped and tried to kill her. In 1992 they were seeking a new trail, as unlikely as it was they would be successful, she feared they would one day be free. In July she returned to the bridge where it all started and as the back cover of the book states: “she met her fate . . . at the same bridge where she’d lost her sister.”

This is an extremely detailed account of this tragic event. Some have said it was too long, and took too many side trips into the history of the town and other people, I found it rich in detail and well rounded, never boring and recommend it.

Have you ever wanted to find the burial site of your favorite Wild West outlaw? I did until I saw that picture of how big centipedes get in the Southwest, now, not so much. All kidding aside, this short book contains accounts of crimes that were committed in New Mexico, some recent and some a long time ago, along with pictures and GPS locations for either the crime site or burial sites. The author cautions anyone wanted to go to these sites that some are on private property, considering that 11 out of 9 people in the Southwest carry guns, you don't want to trespass.

~~~ Musical interlude ~~~

Billy the Kid Google or YouTube

When I was a girl I learned this song, don't ask me why, but I am ¼ Mexican, the second half of this book is about Billy the Kid, I was finally able to find out if the song was true! I kind of suspected it wasn't. The author takes us through Billy's childhood, including his real name, the aliases he took, family members, his life of crime and death. He was shot by Pat Garrett, that is if he was really shot, if you want to know what I mean, read the book.

A quick read, informative and interesting. Loads of pictures, just what us TC readers LOVE.

The true tale of John Story and his crimes against women is a frightening revelation of what can happen in a small town when women are afraid to speak out. Jack Olsen takes you through the horrors of Story’s crimes, at first delicately as the women of Lovell, Wyoming reveal their experiences on his examining table. As each victim comes forth with her story it becomes almost unbelievable. The idea that a trusted and respected small town doctor could manage to rape young girls and women and get away with it for so long is horrifying. When his actions, denials, and rebuttals grow to unbelievable levels the entire town is split into factions; Story supporters and Story accusers. Already somewhat at odds due to religious differences, Mormons and Christians, the gap widens and the hatred reaches insane depths. Long time friends become enemies, violence erupts, and Story sits back letting it happen. As more and more victims surface from Story’s past it becomes obvious his depravity has grown over time. Only the determination of a group of brave women who stand strong bring justice to the town of Lovell. Well written and gripping, “Doc: The Rape of the Town of Lovell” is an example to abused women everywhere that evil can be rooted out and exposed no matter how successful the criminal. In fact this book was so good I easily overlooked the editing errors.

loved this book about two sisters that were abducted when their car broke down and the guys that offered to help them....

This is a compilation of cases in Louisiana, a short read, there are only 4 cases, the earliest one is 1927 and the last is 2002. There isn’t a ton of detail, but each accounts contains a brief history of the perpetrators, the crimes committed and if there was an investigation and trail, the bare details of these. My only complaint is that the book is too short! I would have liked more. However if you want a quick read that packs a punch, this selection of cases will satisfy you.

Morgan fled from Chicago following the death of his young son from leukemia. He had little else to want but to start a small town newspaper in Winchester, his childhood home, a town filled with “peccadilloes and idiosyncrasies,” with his wife, Claire, and now a new son, Colter. A forensic team, headed by Dr. Cowper, has come to town to examine the remains of an old women, ostensibly Etta Place, the girl friend of the infamous Sundance Kid. When they open the casket, however, the discover a headless male corpse, clearly murdered. How could he tell the skeletal remains were that of a male? “Dr. Cowper slipped a ballpoint pen from his breast pocket and kneeled beside the grim box. The sheriff and the coroner bent over for an anatomy lesson from one of America’s most brilliant forensic anthropologists. Even Morgan leaned closer. “Gentlemen,” Dr. Cowper said, directing their rapt attention to a leathery flap near the corpse’s pelvis, “this is a penis.” “

That scene gives you a feel for the sardonic nature of this small town mystery populated with characters like rancher Ray, who believed state road signs bore secret codes to tell New World Order tank squadrons who owned guns. He believed jet contrails in the sky were secret government plots to control population and inoculate Americans against their wills with anthrax and other strange diseases. He believed, because he’d once heard it on Art Bell’s late-night radio talk show, that Thomas Pynchon and J.D. Salinger were the same person, although he’d never read either. and who put cowboy boots on the top of his fence posts, but only because they looked good.

The book has some nice similes and metaphors. How’s this for the inverse of what we normally envision of a Wyoming sunset: The blood-smeared western sky spilled along the brink of the horizon, seeping slowly beneath the earth where it peeled back at the edges. A summer sunset in Wyoming was silently violent, a death. . . . The bleeding sky drained to corpse blue, then decomposed to black while Morgan slept.

For a small town,there’s a lot going on. “Excellent,” Cowper said as he rose to leave. “Meet me at the funeral home in thirty minutes. You won’t believe this, but he leaves the back door unlocked.” Morgan smiled. “It’s a small town,” he said. “The only time we lock our cars around here is zucchini season. If you don’t, somebody will stick a box of squash in your front seat.” “I’ll keep that in mind. And the cashier at the truck stop reads Anais Nin and Bertrand Russell. Not to mention the small-town radio station with totally obnoxious characters with a call-in show too often frequented by a local twelve-year-old. Dude, you got nothin’ better to do with your Saturdays than sit around and call the radio station?” The Bug said. “You’re what, thirteen? Haven’t heard of masturbation? Can I say masturbation on the air?” “You just did.” “Cool.”

An author definitely worth following.

This book is horrible. While the story of Amy Burridge and Becky Thompson is sad (and horrific), their nightmare could have been written in a two-page article instead of a 300-page book. The author rambles, over dramatizes, and inserts a lot of Wyoming history that doesn't have much bearing on the story.

completed: June 5. Very sad story. 8.5

Here I was not liking short true crime stories. How wrong I was. After Online Killers I picked this one and it was just as good.
What I liked was these were stories I had not heard before except the Charles (W)hitman story. I have been wishing for a book about him for 10 years or so so I was glad with the short story about him.
What made me like this book even more was that the author when he described heights and stuff he would use the American and add the European conversion. I wish all writers would do that.
The stories were very interesting and now I want to read more short stories.

This was a bit of a disappointment. I thought it would be more about the psychology of the victims, why some of them coped better than others. But in my opinion it focused far too much on the crimes themselves. Now, the information about the crimes was very interesting, as I had little prior knowledge of some of these mass killings and the book went into great detail. But that wasn't what I was looking for.

There are soooo many books about people's criminal activities and I thought this one was supposed to be different from those, but it really wasn't. It was like the author just wanted to write another book about crimes and dressed it up a bit with the "survivors' stories" angle.

This is a hard book to describe. It is a story about family ties, and it is a story of traveling to a distant location. I don't have a son and I am not a father, but this author is so good at what he does that I was able to instantly connect with both he and his son. It is also about the author (Ron) connecting with his father who abandoned both he and his mother when he was born. You will definitely laugh with this book, and you might get teary-eyed in parts, but if you have ever been a father or a son, or even a human with all of the failings that accompany this role, you will enjoy this book.½

As a member of the law enforcement community, I found this book fascinating and compelling. I love the insight into the mind of the killer and the victim. It certainly will help on the Hostage Negotiations Team when I'm negotiating with someone barricaded in a house with prisoners. Excellent read and I've recommended it to everyone on my team.

A good read, but I felt it might have dragged on a bit too long, especially at the very end. Maybe a little too much philosophizing that didn't really strike home, at least for me. A compelling and very sad story of a crime committed at random against two sisters. A touching connection between the two. Also some good local color describing Caspar, Wyoming and the people who lived there. I very much liked the idea of including one killer's "autobiography" and then deconstructing it and explaining what it showed about his character. Sad book, better-than-average true crime investigation, with no stone left unturned.

Tragic story of two sisters in a small Wyoming town

In September 1973, I was a clueless and naive kid, having grown up secure and safe, surrounded by family, friends and neighbors in Casper, Wyoming. Across town, still warm with the lingering summer, two sisters ran an errand to the 15th grocery store. Leaving the store the girls found their tires flat and were lured into a car. It was an area I passed by frequently and would not have known the dangers any more than Amy or Becky. Jerry Jenkins and Ron Kennedy slashed the tires of the sisters’ car while they were in the store, setting themselves up to be rescuers with the offer of a ride. I was not the only naive resident as even the girls’ mother found no reason for concern when the sisters called to check in and report they had a ride home. The ride and the men driving turned brutal. Hours later two young girls were thrown from the top of the Fremont Canyon bridge.

The author, Ron Franscell, lived next door to the family and was destined to write Becky’s story. Living in Casper at the time, remembering the lynch talk among the people of Casper and having my first taste of fear was not the entire story. Franscell tells of Casper and it’s growth, of Becky Thompson, her family and of two men convicted of rape and murder. He fills in details and shares familiar names and places involved. Fall eliminates the questions of what had happened, since most in Casper, like myself, were fearful and concerned, but were on the periphery. Ron Franscell writes from his heart, educates with meticulously researched facts and with knowledge from his personal history. He manages to look deeply and fairly into the lives of the unredeemable for a clinical look at the crime.

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