Table of Contents
1. The Story Of Billy Mansfield & Secrets
Hidden In The Green Bus
2. Gay Encounter Costs Priest His Life
3. Torture Murder In The Swamp
4. A Christmas Rabbit Hunt Became A
Night Of Murder
5. Shootout In Sumter County
6. He Killed The Pretty Young Women
7. Murder To Be Popular
8. A Gunman’s Intent: She’s As Good As
Dead
9. Rumble At The Old Publix
10. They Killed For A Hunk of Crack
11. Granny Killer On The Loose
12. Killer Left Body For The Dogs
13. She Awakened To A Gunshot In The
Night
14. Killers Claim Rock Star & Bodyguard
Fame
15. Couple On The Run: Caught With Gun
In Her Panties
16. She Listened To Kidnappers Plot Her
Murder
17. Mother & Daughters Dumped In The
Bay
18. Cop Log I
19. Cop Log 2
20. Cop Log 3
21. Epilogue
1. The Story Of Billy Mansfield & Secrets
Hidden In The Green Bus
2. Gay Encounter Costs Priest His Life
3. Torture Murder In The Swamp
4. A Christmas Rabbit Hunt Became A
Night Of Murder
5. Shootout In Sumter County
6. He Killed The Pretty Young Women
7. Murder To Be Popular
8. A Gunman’s Intent: She’s As Good As
Dead
9. Rumble At The Old Publix
10. They Killed For A Hunk of Crack
11. Granny Killer On The Loose
12. Killer Left Body For The Dogs
13. She Awakened To A Gunshot In The
Night
14. Killers Claim Rock Star & Bodyguard
Fame
15. Couple On The Run: Caught With Gun
In Her Panties
16. She Listened To Kidnappers Plot Her
Murder
17. Mother & Daughters Dumped In The
Bay
18. Cop Log I
19. Cop Log 2
20. Cop Log 3
21. Epilogue
| Local slayings recounted in "Murders in the Swampland" Written by Lara Bradburn |
| Writer visits McNairy County By Micah Smith From the Independent Appeal Selmer, TN |
| MURDERS IN THE SWAMPLAND |
This is a review from the Citrus County Chronicle (Florida)
written by
Chris Van Ormer
Inverness--Many people move to the Nature Coast knowing
little about the region.
Certainly, they've been enticed by the climate and the
natural beauty of the countryside, the Gulf of Mexico
and the lower cost of living. Yes, the Nature Coast is an
attractive place.
What almost no newcomer to the region does is check the
crime files. Perhaps the newcomer will look up
the statistics and see fewer hard crimes here than in the place
they are leaving and be reassured.
However, a higher crime rate reflects a larger population than
that of the Nature Coast. And statistics never
put a face to crime.
Putting a face on big crimes in the Nature Coast is what
Patricia Lieb had done in "Murders in the Swampland." She
chronicles 17 murder cases
from the late 1970s to the early 1990s. Some of these cases
Lieb covered while she was the crime reporter for the
Sun_Journal in Brooksville, from 1987 until the newspaper shut
down in 1991.
Lieb mentions her editor, Ken Melton, who now works for a
sister newspaper of the Citrus County Chronicle, and credits
Melton with encouraging her to publish her book.
Each story could be fiction, if the facts and characters were
not so real. The scenes of murders, the roads
traveled by the murderers and the lawmen who caught them
exist. Many of the lawmen are still at work and are well known
the communities. Most of the crimes are set in Hernando
County, but adjacent counties figure in as well.
Each story has a horrible uniqueness, but all the murders are
amateurs, even the serial killers detailed in the book. Many
mistakes are made that lead the lawmen to the killers. It is
refreshing to see the entire crime put into one document, rather
than revealed in the installments of newspaper reports.
`These stories read like accounts in detective magazines, for
which many of them were written. Thus the
reader learns about the serial killer, Billy Mansfield, who in the
late 1970s and early 1980s picked up young women hitchhikers
on U.S. 19, took them back to his mother's trailer in Weeki
Wachee for some hours of rape and torture before murdering
them and burying them in the back yard. I have lived near
Weeki Wachee for more than seven years, I had never heard
about the Mansfield murders.
What is unusual about those murders and several others in
the book is that so many people at the time knew about them
and said nothing. Indeed, the sheriff
said he would have to build a wing on the jail to detain all the
people who had withheld evidence about Mansfield's crimes.
But those folks knew about the murders after the fact.
A more surprising crime happened Aug 3, 1990, in Floral City,
when many people were aware of the plot to murder Joanne
Sanders. The gang at a car repair business in Melrose would
get together and talk about how it should be done, priming the
murderer-to-be, John Barrett.
This case was perhaps the most bungled of the 17 in the
book, because Sanders never got murdered at all. But four
m,en who entered her house before she did were killed, while
Barrett was waiting for her.
Barrett was gone when Sanders came home and found the
bodies. One thing this story does not tell the reader is why
Barrett left before Sanders came home. Perhaps he lost his
nerve, or perhaps he thought of something else to do.
A striking similarity in may of these cases is the randomness
of the violence. Many of the victims were not
safe in the security of their own homes, where the killer broke in
through the screen door in the back or just knocked on the
front door and asked to use the phone or bathroom.
In the case of the serial killer Mike Kaprat, the Granny Killer of
Spring Hill, who murdered several elderly women between
August and October in 1993, some of the victims had one thing
in common--they had written checks to the same handyman
who was Kaprat's relative whom Kaprat occasionally worked for
as a helper.
Kaprat's motive was hard to determine. He would break in,
rape and torture the elderly female victim, tied her to her bed,
then set fire to it. When the law enforcers picked him up, Kaprat
expressed loathing for the crime. Although Kaprat was an
odious person, likely on one loathed him as much as he hated
himself.
Kaprat was tried, convicted and sentenced to the electric
chair, but never made it to "Ole' Sparky." He was
murdered by a fellow inmate. However these were not all acts
by strangers. Murders killed friends, relatives and spouses.
They killed for money, for a car, for a tire, for a rock of cocaine
or for the thrill of it.
The reader gains a heightened sense of paranoia, that at
any moment a knock at the door or a trip to the kitchen can
mean death. All of these cases really happened, in a
neighborhood near yours or even next
door.
Chris Van Ormer is a desk editor at the Citrus Chronicle.
written by
Chris Van Ormer
Inverness--Many people move to the Nature Coast knowing
little about the region.
Certainly, they've been enticed by the climate and the
natural beauty of the countryside, the Gulf of Mexico
and the lower cost of living. Yes, the Nature Coast is an
attractive place.
What almost no newcomer to the region does is check the
crime files. Perhaps the newcomer will look up
the statistics and see fewer hard crimes here than in the place
they are leaving and be reassured.
However, a higher crime rate reflects a larger population than
that of the Nature Coast. And statistics never
put a face to crime.
Putting a face on big crimes in the Nature Coast is what
Patricia Lieb had done in "Murders in the Swampland." She
chronicles 17 murder cases
from the late 1970s to the early 1990s. Some of these cases
Lieb covered while she was the crime reporter for the
Sun_Journal in Brooksville, from 1987 until the newspaper shut
down in 1991.
Lieb mentions her editor, Ken Melton, who now works for a
sister newspaper of the Citrus County Chronicle, and credits
Melton with encouraging her to publish her book.
Each story could be fiction, if the facts and characters were
not so real. The scenes of murders, the roads
traveled by the murderers and the lawmen who caught them
exist. Many of the lawmen are still at work and are well known
the communities. Most of the crimes are set in Hernando
County, but adjacent counties figure in as well.
Each story has a horrible uniqueness, but all the murders are
amateurs, even the serial killers detailed in the book. Many
mistakes are made that lead the lawmen to the killers. It is
refreshing to see the entire crime put into one document, rather
than revealed in the installments of newspaper reports.
`These stories read like accounts in detective magazines, for
which many of them were written. Thus the
reader learns about the serial killer, Billy Mansfield, who in the
late 1970s and early 1980s picked up young women hitchhikers
on U.S. 19, took them back to his mother's trailer in Weeki
Wachee for some hours of rape and torture before murdering
them and burying them in the back yard. I have lived near
Weeki Wachee for more than seven years, I had never heard
about the Mansfield murders.
What is unusual about those murders and several others in
the book is that so many people at the time knew about them
and said nothing. Indeed, the sheriff
said he would have to build a wing on the jail to detain all the
people who had withheld evidence about Mansfield's crimes.
But those folks knew about the murders after the fact.
A more surprising crime happened Aug 3, 1990, in Floral City,
when many people were aware of the plot to murder Joanne
Sanders. The gang at a car repair business in Melrose would
get together and talk about how it should be done, priming the
murderer-to-be, John Barrett.
This case was perhaps the most bungled of the 17 in the
book, because Sanders never got murdered at all. But four
m,en who entered her house before she did were killed, while
Barrett was waiting for her.
Barrett was gone when Sanders came home and found the
bodies. One thing this story does not tell the reader is why
Barrett left before Sanders came home. Perhaps he lost his
nerve, or perhaps he thought of something else to do.
A striking similarity in may of these cases is the randomness
of the violence. Many of the victims were not
safe in the security of their own homes, where the killer broke in
through the screen door in the back or just knocked on the
front door and asked to use the phone or bathroom.
In the case of the serial killer Mike Kaprat, the Granny Killer of
Spring Hill, who murdered several elderly women between
August and October in 1993, some of the victims had one thing
in common--they had written checks to the same handyman
who was Kaprat's relative whom Kaprat occasionally worked for
as a helper.
Kaprat's motive was hard to determine. He would break in,
rape and torture the elderly female victim, tied her to her bed,
then set fire to it. When the law enforcers picked him up, Kaprat
expressed loathing for the crime. Although Kaprat was an
odious person, likely on one loathed him as much as he hated
himself.
Kaprat was tried, convicted and sentenced to the electric
chair, but never made it to "Ole' Sparky." He was
murdered by a fellow inmate. However these were not all acts
by strangers. Murders killed friends, relatives and spouses.
They killed for money, for a car, for a tire, for a rock of cocaine
or for the thrill of it.
The reader gains a heightened sense of paranoia, that at
any moment a knock at the door or a trip to the kitchen can
mean death. All of these cases really happened, in a
neighborhood near yours or even next
door.
Chris Van Ormer is a desk editor at the Citrus Chronicle.
| True Crime Florida's Central Swamplands |
Patricia Lieb recently published her true crime book , after
spending many years in the writing business as a journalist.
"Murders in the Swampland" contains 17 true crime stories that
took place in the Brooksville, FL, area while Lieb was a reporter
for the Daily Sun-Journal. The stories are sometimes gruesome
and shocking, especially since they are all based on fact.
Her stories of events that include serial killers, kidnapping,
murders and murders for hire show a blend of styles.
They are written in a journalistic style, which brings the reality of
the crimes home, but they also have the narrative approach of a
work of fiction to add an emotional edge to the horror of many of
the stories.
Lieb also mixes in her own notes on some of the cases and ends
the book with a series of cop logs relating humorous briefs of
events that happened into he area.
"I had a regular beat and at night I had time to go to the library
and research the records for police stories at the courthouse,"
said Lieb. "All the information in her is from reading court
depositions and talking to police officers, public attorneys and
prosecutors. I had a lot of friends in the county so it was easy to
just call them."
Lieb is an experienced writer, she freelances for several papers
and magazines, has worked full-time at several papers in Illinois
and Florida and has published several collections of poems
including Captured and Catholics and Publics.
Lieb recently quit her job working for the Suncoast News in New
Port Richey, FL, to come to Selmer and stay with her parents,
Walter and Rachel Reeves.
" My parents were both sick," related Lieb. "Pop had prostate
cancer. They did surgery on that and it appears he is clear.
Mother has another biopsy so I am here indefinitely."
Lieb said her parents decided to move to Selmer in 1989
because they have numerous relatives wo already live in the
area.
Lieb said she is planning to not take another full-time job to
focus on other writing projects. "I´m gonna get back into it and
now I don´t plan to get another job," said Lieb. "I´m glad I´m
going to free my mind up to do what I want to with my writing."
One of her projects is a novel titled Across the Red River to her
Mysterious Heritage that Lieb describes a "really weird but very
good." Set in California in the early 1970s and in Louisiana in
the 20s-40s, the book is a flashback novel about a black girl who
does not fully understand her strange heritage. It involves many
cultures and stories that slowly bring the reader into an
understand of the girl´s past and gives the reader a better
understanding of race relations in the "old" south.
She also had freelanced for Vocational Biographies based in
Sauk Centre, MN. The magazine is published seven times a year
and is used in places such as vocational centers, high schools,
libraries and online to help people decide what career path to
follow. Lieb said that the magazine focuses on different
individuals in every possible vocation imaginable. It describes a
person´s career path, what all the tasks of their job are, how
they chose the career, other jobs they have had and
advantages and disadvantages of the job.
In Selmer, Lieb has written a biography on Christina Hawkins,
who works for home Health and one on Smiley´s Towing. She is
planning to do another on a car salesman and three doctors.
Another of life´s former projects is an online magazine titled
Write on Magazine, founded and published by Lieb and friend
Evelyn Manak. It includes columns, contests, information and
writings of many styles by all different levels of writers from
novices to professionals.
Lieb shows her support for writers in general in describing her
own writing style.
In creative writing, I let my mind do the writing and I think that´s
what other people do too," said Lieb. "So I guess everybody´s
style would be different. I jut write what comes in my head and
everybody´s head is unique."
spending many years in the writing business as a journalist.
"Murders in the Swampland" contains 17 true crime stories that
took place in the Brooksville, FL, area while Lieb was a reporter
for the Daily Sun-Journal. The stories are sometimes gruesome
and shocking, especially since they are all based on fact.
Her stories of events that include serial killers, kidnapping,
murders and murders for hire show a blend of styles.
They are written in a journalistic style, which brings the reality of
the crimes home, but they also have the narrative approach of a
work of fiction to add an emotional edge to the horror of many of
the stories.
Lieb also mixes in her own notes on some of the cases and ends
the book with a series of cop logs relating humorous briefs of
events that happened into he area.
"I had a regular beat and at night I had time to go to the library
and research the records for police stories at the courthouse,"
said Lieb. "All the information in her is from reading court
depositions and talking to police officers, public attorneys and
prosecutors. I had a lot of friends in the county so it was easy to
just call them."
Lieb is an experienced writer, she freelances for several papers
and magazines, has worked full-time at several papers in Illinois
and Florida and has published several collections of poems
including Captured and Catholics and Publics.
Lieb recently quit her job working for the Suncoast News in New
Port Richey, FL, to come to Selmer and stay with her parents,
Walter and Rachel Reeves.
" My parents were both sick," related Lieb. "Pop had prostate
cancer. They did surgery on that and it appears he is clear.
Mother has another biopsy so I am here indefinitely."
Lieb said her parents decided to move to Selmer in 1989
because they have numerous relatives wo already live in the
area.
Lieb said she is planning to not take another full-time job to
focus on other writing projects. "I´m gonna get back into it and
now I don´t plan to get another job," said Lieb. "I´m glad I´m
going to free my mind up to do what I want to with my writing."
One of her projects is a novel titled Across the Red River to her
Mysterious Heritage that Lieb describes a "really weird but very
good." Set in California in the early 1970s and in Louisiana in
the 20s-40s, the book is a flashback novel about a black girl who
does not fully understand her strange heritage. It involves many
cultures and stories that slowly bring the reader into an
understand of the girl´s past and gives the reader a better
understanding of race relations in the "old" south.
She also had freelanced for Vocational Biographies based in
Sauk Centre, MN. The magazine is published seven times a year
and is used in places such as vocational centers, high schools,
libraries and online to help people decide what career path to
follow. Lieb said that the magazine focuses on different
individuals in every possible vocation imaginable. It describes a
person´s career path, what all the tasks of their job are, how
they chose the career, other jobs they have had and
advantages and disadvantages of the job.
In Selmer, Lieb has written a biography on Christina Hawkins,
who works for home Health and one on Smiley´s Towing. She is
planning to do another on a car salesman and three doctors.
Another of life´s former projects is an online magazine titled
Write on Magazine, founded and published by Lieb and friend
Evelyn Manak. It includes columns, contests, information and
writings of many styles by all different levels of writers from
novices to professionals.
Lieb shows her support for writers in general in describing her
own writing style.
In creative writing, I let my mind do the writing and I think that´s
what other people do too," said Lieb. "So I guess everybody´s
style would be different. I jut write what comes in my head and
everybody´s head is unique."
| Book's murder stories send chills up spine of the Nature Coast |
Article appeared in Hernando Today
Brooksville--In the winter of 1976, a young girl
disappeared from the KOA campground west of
Brooksville.
A friend had seen the girl the night before with a
young man named Billy Mansfield--a man who
would later
become the most notorious criminal in county
history.
Over the course of four years, three other women
linked to Mansfield would disappear in the night.
Witnesses would later recall hearing the screams of
women emanating from the woods of Weeki
Wachee.
Years later, police would dig up the bodies of four
women who died at the hand of Mansfield.
It was the end of innocence for this sleepy, rural
county of Hernando. Mansfield had stolen its small
town
security.
"Billy Mansfield didn't get caught in Florida. He got
caught in California where he killed another girl,"
explained former crime reporter and author Patty
Shipp Lieb. "It was during another man's trial where
he
mentioned Billy Mansfield burying bodies in his
backyard. That's when they started looking for
bodies. It
was 1981."
"The scary thing is," Lieb added," he could get out
soon. He's already been up for parole."
The years since have not dulled the gruesomeness
of Mansfield's killing spree, which seemed to set off
a
barrage of bizarre killings in and around Hernando
County. Nor has time dulled the public's fascination
with
them.
As a crime reporter, Lieb was able to follow many of
these cases first hand, becoming intimately familiar
with
the cases and those involved. Her experiences led
Lieb to record her impressions in the criminal
anthology, "Murders in the Swampland."
Those who remember the crimes and newcomers
interested in learning about the region's tainted
history
can hear Lieb recount the tales during Saturday's
author luncheon at the Brooksville Gold and
Country Club.
The noonday event is hosted by the Spring Hill
Service League and the United Way of Hernando
County.
Tickets are $20, which includes lunch and a chance
for door prizes.
Many local residences will remember Lieb as a
reporter for the Daily Sun-Journal and the Suncoast
News.
When ot working the local crime beat, Lieb would
put her experiences to work by publishing stories in
national detective magazines. That, in turn, led to
publishing the book.
There are 17 cases in all contained in this book.
Some stories were uncovered first hand. Others
had to be
painstakingly knitted together by combing through
court documents and police files.
But all of them are true. All of them terribly grizzly.
All of them ripped from the front page headlines of
area
newspapers.
Besides Mansfield, there is a story of John Barrett
who killed four people in a murder-for-hire scheme
that
went awry. Barrett was presumably hired by Dorsey
Sanders Jr. To kill his former wife Joanne.
As he waited for her to arrive home, four other men
haplessly wondered into the wrong place at the
wrong
time. He killed the all, never reaching his original
target.
Lieb said it was the most interesting case she had
covered as a reporter.
"Before Joanne came home, he got tired of waiting
for her and left," Lieb said. "Her son, dowries III, was
convicted of conspiracy. Sanders former husband
was tried and acquitted. (Accomplice) Scott
Burnside fled
to the Christmas Islands. He was brought home and
convicted.
"John Barrett was sentenced to death," Lieb said.
"He's the one who killed the four meant, very
brutally, I
might add."
Other stories recount the killing of Father Jon, the
Episcopal priest in Brooksville who was beaten to
death
in 1979 during a homosexual encounter, and the
mother and her two daughters who were killed
during a
vacation to Tampa. Their bodies were found in
1989 tied to concrete blocks and floating in Tampa
Bay.
Brooksville--In the winter of 1976, a young girl
disappeared from the KOA campground west of
Brooksville.
A friend had seen the girl the night before with a
young man named Billy Mansfield--a man who
would later
become the most notorious criminal in county
history.
Over the course of four years, three other women
linked to Mansfield would disappear in the night.
Witnesses would later recall hearing the screams of
women emanating from the woods of Weeki
Wachee.
Years later, police would dig up the bodies of four
women who died at the hand of Mansfield.
It was the end of innocence for this sleepy, rural
county of Hernando. Mansfield had stolen its small
town
security.
"Billy Mansfield didn't get caught in Florida. He got
caught in California where he killed another girl,"
explained former crime reporter and author Patty
Shipp Lieb. "It was during another man's trial where
he
mentioned Billy Mansfield burying bodies in his
backyard. That's when they started looking for
bodies. It
was 1981."
"The scary thing is," Lieb added," he could get out
soon. He's already been up for parole."
The years since have not dulled the gruesomeness
of Mansfield's killing spree, which seemed to set off
a
barrage of bizarre killings in and around Hernando
County. Nor has time dulled the public's fascination
with
them.
As a crime reporter, Lieb was able to follow many of
these cases first hand, becoming intimately familiar
with
the cases and those involved. Her experiences led
Lieb to record her impressions in the criminal
anthology, "Murders in the Swampland."
Those who remember the crimes and newcomers
interested in learning about the region's tainted
history
can hear Lieb recount the tales during Saturday's
author luncheon at the Brooksville Gold and
Country Club.
The noonday event is hosted by the Spring Hill
Service League and the United Way of Hernando
County.
Tickets are $20, which includes lunch and a chance
for door prizes.
Many local residences will remember Lieb as a
reporter for the Daily Sun-Journal and the Suncoast
News.
When ot working the local crime beat, Lieb would
put her experiences to work by publishing stories in
national detective magazines. That, in turn, led to
publishing the book.
There are 17 cases in all contained in this book.
Some stories were uncovered first hand. Others
had to be
painstakingly knitted together by combing through
court documents and police files.
But all of them are true. All of them terribly grizzly.
All of them ripped from the front page headlines of
area
newspapers.
Besides Mansfield, there is a story of John Barrett
who killed four people in a murder-for-hire scheme
that
went awry. Barrett was presumably hired by Dorsey
Sanders Jr. To kill his former wife Joanne.
As he waited for her to arrive home, four other men
haplessly wondered into the wrong place at the
wrong
time. He killed the all, never reaching his original
target.
Lieb said it was the most interesting case she had
covered as a reporter.
"Before Joanne came home, he got tired of waiting
for her and left," Lieb said. "Her son, dowries III, was
convicted of conspiracy. Sanders former husband
was tried and acquitted. (Accomplice) Scott
Burnside fled
to the Christmas Islands. He was brought home and
convicted.
"John Barrett was sentenced to death," Lieb said.
"He's the one who killed the four meant, very
brutally, I
might add."
Other stories recount the killing of Father Jon, the
Episcopal priest in Brooksville who was beaten to
death
in 1979 during a homosexual encounter, and the
mother and her two daughters who were killed
during a
vacation to Tampa. Their bodies were found in
1989 tied to concrete blocks and floating in Tampa
Bay.
After her years working as crime reporter for Florida’s
The Daily Sun-Journal, Patricia Lieb has complied some
of the stories from her career into a true crime book.
Murders in the Swampland is a fascinating look at the
horrifying things that happen in a small town through the
eyes of someone who was behind the scenes. In the
introduction to the book, Lieb writes of her boss at the
newspaper saying that he had been told Brooksville,
Florida was “a place where nothing ever happened.”
This book proves otherwise.
Serial killers, crimes of passion, and hate crimes are just
a few of the cases that Lieb writes about. She witnessed
it all during her time as a reporter, and conveys it to her
readers with a fierce honesty. She doesn’t step around
uncomfortable stories or avoid the details, but puts it all
out there for everyone to see the reality of what crime
does to people. Although she originally wrote these
stories as a reporter, she stylizes them in the book,
developing the characters and giving us a vivid
interpretation of the crimes.
Giving a book about true accounts of murders a personal
touch is a difficult task, but Patricia Lieb succeeds,
adding in accounts from her own notes during the trials,
and speaking at some points about the personal effects
the cases had on her and others. It adds another
dimension to the book, reminding you that they aren’t
just stories, but that these things happened to real
people. Each story also has a picture of the people
convicted in the case, along with details about their
sentence and where they are currently serving time.
Muders in the Swampland can be purchased on the
Asylett website: Asylett
You can also find out more about Patricia Lieb and the
inspirations for her work by going to her online magazine:
Writers Write On
And if you enjoy Murders in the Swampland, Lieb also
has a fiction novel, Blue Eyes, which you can buy by
clicking here: Blue
The Daily Sun-Journal, Patricia Lieb has complied some
of the stories from her career into a true crime book.
Murders in the Swampland is a fascinating look at the
horrifying things that happen in a small town through the
eyes of someone who was behind the scenes. In the
introduction to the book, Lieb writes of her boss at the
newspaper saying that he had been told Brooksville,
Florida was “a place where nothing ever happened.”
This book proves otherwise.
Serial killers, crimes of passion, and hate crimes are just
a few of the cases that Lieb writes about. She witnessed
it all during her time as a reporter, and conveys it to her
readers with a fierce honesty. She doesn’t step around
uncomfortable stories or avoid the details, but puts it all
out there for everyone to see the reality of what crime
does to people. Although she originally wrote these
stories as a reporter, she stylizes them in the book,
developing the characters and giving us a vivid
interpretation of the crimes.
Giving a book about true accounts of murders a personal
touch is a difficult task, but Patricia Lieb succeeds,
adding in accounts from her own notes during the trials,
and speaking at some points about the personal effects
the cases had on her and others. It adds another
dimension to the book, reminding you that they aren’t
just stories, but that these things happened to real
people. Each story also has a picture of the people
convicted in the case, along with details about their
sentence and where they are currently serving time.
Muders in the Swampland can be purchased on the
Asylett website: Asylett
You can also find out more about Patricia Lieb and the
inspirations for her work by going to her online magazine:
Writers Write On
And if you enjoy Murders in the Swampland, Lieb also
has a fiction novel, Blue Eyes, which you can buy by
clicking here: Blue
| Reviewed on Culture Popped By Kira Stegman |