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Fatal Journey
"Monster " That's the word people in Klamath Falls, Oregon, used to describe Jesse Pratt. The would-be macho trucker and sometime pimp was so threatening, even his own mother was terrified of him. Obsessed with his pretty, 20-year-old secretary, Carrie Love, Pratt alternately charmed and stalked her. When she resisted his advances, he forced the young girl to accompany him on a business trip, where he raped her, then brutally stabbed her to death. But that wasn't all. To hide her identity, he ran over her body with his tractor/trailer...
What the cold-blooded killer didn't know was that he had provided forensic scientists with enough evidence to put him on death row. Using meticulous analysis, gathering the tiniest of clues, a top team of detectives put together a case against Jesse Pratt, one extraordinary puzzle piece at a time.
- GenresTrue Crime
350 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published April 1, 2003
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
July 12, 2016
An okay book, but in my opinion it goes on too long. Part of the problem (spoiler ahead) is that there were two trials. The murderer is found, arrested, tried and convicted before you hit page 175, but you'll have to hear it all again by the time you reach page 350.
March 26, 2020
I hate to say a book about a rape and murder could be boring, but this one could win a prize. We get very little background information on the victim or the murderer, but most of the book is the courtroom proceedings. About halfway through the book, the trial is finishing up and I'm wondering what the rest of the book is going to bring. Guess what! The murderer wins an appeal and now we get to read about the new trial with almost all the same information. The new trial takes up half the book. I have to say, the only way I even finished this book was by skimming, mostly to see if some new information turned up, which it didnt. One interesting bit of information I came across was in a google search. Here's what it said:
"To comply with the U.S. Supreme Court ruling that people deemed “mentally retarded” can’t be executed, the state attorney general’s office has given 74-year-old Jesse Pratt and 53-year-old Michael McNeely life without the possibility of parole.
Pratt was convicted of sexually assaulting and killing a woman near Klamath Falls. He had been the state’s longest-serving death row inmate, having awaited execution at Oregon State Penitentiary since 1991."
I'm a little puzzled by that statement because no mention was made in the book about mental retardation. As a matter of fact, the murderer was a semi-driver that owned his own company.
"To comply with the U.S. Supreme Court ruling that people deemed “mentally retarded” can’t be executed, the state attorney general’s office has given 74-year-old Jesse Pratt and 53-year-old Michael McNeely life without the possibility of parole.
Pratt was convicted of sexually assaulting and killing a woman near Klamath Falls. He had been the state’s longest-serving death row inmate, having awaited execution at Oregon State Penitentiary since 1991."
I'm a little puzzled by that statement because no mention was made in the book about mental retardation. As a matter of fact, the murderer was a semi-driver that owned his own company.
April 9, 2012
*Minor Spoilers*
Overall, I found this book to be ok. I had never heard of this case before. One of the things that I found to be so gross about Jesse, the man who killed Carrie, was his sexual habits. One if the witnesses described how he would get off on sticking knitting needles in his penis. That is very odd! Another thing I found very sad for Carrie’s family was that the book states she was taking pills for Chlamydia at the time of her death. Even though she is dead, I think this is a sad fact to be put out there in the book for everyone to know.
Another thing that I didn’t like about this book was how it rambled on about pretty much the same evidence over and over. This was mainly because Jesse had 2 trials since the first one was dismissed. So, in the book the reader has to read what was said in the first trial only in different words. All of the forensic evidence involving the trial was also very repetitive and although it might have been an important factor in the case and trial, I found it to be a boring read!
It was very hard to read on how Jesse ran over Carrie’s body and said he liked the noise her head made as it popped when he ran it over with his big rig trailer truck. I felt bad for Jesse’s mom. She was even afraid of her own son after he threatened her too. She also had her own heartaches to deal with besides coming to terms with the murder her son committed. She also had to cope with the fact that her ex-husband (Jesse’s father) who everyone though had died at war, had not died after all, but had switched dog tags with another soldier and pretty much going AWOL after.
In the end, Jesse got what he deserved.
Overall, I found this book to be ok. I had never heard of this case before. One of the things that I found to be so gross about Jesse, the man who killed Carrie, was his sexual habits. One if the witnesses described how he would get off on sticking knitting needles in his penis. That is very odd! Another thing I found very sad for Carrie’s family was that the book states she was taking pills for Chlamydia at the time of her death. Even though she is dead, I think this is a sad fact to be put out there in the book for everyone to know.
Another thing that I didn’t like about this book was how it rambled on about pretty much the same evidence over and over. This was mainly because Jesse had 2 trials since the first one was dismissed. So, in the book the reader has to read what was said in the first trial only in different words. All of the forensic evidence involving the trial was also very repetitive and although it might have been an important factor in the case and trial, I found it to be a boring read!
It was very hard to read on how Jesse ran over Carrie’s body and said he liked the noise her head made as it popped when he ran it over with his big rig trailer truck. I felt bad for Jesse’s mom. She was even afraid of her own son after he threatened her too. She also had her own heartaches to deal with besides coming to terms with the murder her son committed. She also had to cope with the fact that her ex-husband (Jesse’s father) who everyone though had died at war, had not died after all, but had switched dog tags with another soldier and pretty much going AWOL after.
In the end, Jesse got what he deserved.
June 30, 2019
This book started out really interesting but then it just repeated itself so it made it seem like you read the book twice before it even ended....Also I felt there was zero respect for the victim by the author. I'm against burning books but I think I would start with this one.
December 10, 2020
It was good minus the two court battles and the course language.
April 16, 2012
The story of Jesse Pratt who is a twisted monster that rapes and murders his secretary while on a trucking business trip.
December 24, 2012
This book is very gory and disturbing. Jesse Clarence Pratt is a very sick man. I felt sorry for anyone who knew him.
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews