Death Benefit: A Lawyer Uncovers a 20-year Pattern of Seduction, Arson and Murder

by David Heilbroner

For Steve Keeney, it began with a simple favor. A woman from Keeney's Louisville church, Bobbie Roberts, confided that her twenty-year-old daughter Deana had recently died in a cliff fall at Big Sur, California. Bobbie was now having trouble collecting burial insurance. Keeney, a successful corporate lawyer, agreed to help her cut through the red tape. The coroner's report stated that a couple named B.J. and Virginia McGinnis had driven Deana to a four-hundred-foot Big Sur cliff. The McGinnises said that when their backs had been turned, the girl had fallen "without a sound." Days after reading this report, Keeney was stunned to learn that Virginia had paid for a life insurance policy on Deana one day before the accident. Keeney suspected foul play, but Big Sur authorities quietly dropped the case: There were no witnesses other than the McGinnises. Undeterred, Keeney promised his client that he would try to find out the truth. A chilling portrait emerged. Virginia called herself a practical nurse, but people had dark memories of her "care." They recalled her three-year-old daughter, her husband, and her mother - all of whom died while alone with Virginia. A series of fires, thefts, poisonings, and insurance policies ran through her past. Keeney also discovered that both of Virginia's sons had been charged with murder. As Keeney was piecing the facts together, he realized he had uncovered a remorseless killer, one who beat the system for twenty years, collecting insurance along the way. Former prosecutor David Heilbroner, author of the highly acclaimed book Rough Justice, spent two-and-a-half years retracing Keeney's investigation, preserving accounts of many witnesses whose voices were never heard at Virginia's extraordinary two-month murder trial - a trial that literally took the jury to the edge of the Big Sur cliff. In Death Benefit, he crafts a meticulous account of both a killer's life and a Kentucky lawyer's dedication to decency and courage triumphant ov

Genres: True Crime, Nonfiction, Crime, 20th Century

353 pages, Hardcover

First published February 9, 1993

Reviews

[Lynda · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was an excellent true crime story about Virginia Coates and the trail of murders she left in her wake. The story begins with an inauspicious fall off a cliff by a young woman (Deanna) at a beautiful California resort. On that trip, Deanna is accompanied by Virginia and her husband B.J. The victim's mother, Bobbie Jo Roberts who lives in Kentucky, is devastated by the event but has difficulty collecting on her daughter's burial insurance. She solicits the help of an attorney she knows through her church to help her obtain the proceeds. The attorney, Steven Keeney, a young, successful partner at a prestigious law firm, agrees to help, figuring the case would be simple enough. Not so. This case is like an onion, each layer revealing more and more rotten layers. He discovers that this case develops into a murder mystery, not that just of Deanna, but possibly involving Virginia's ex-husbands and prior children. Fires also mysteriously appear when Virginia is around. Keeney spends time and effort in developing evidence of malfeasance and trying to convince California D.A.s to review the matter. Along the way, he engages the assistance of helpful detectives in Kentucky and California. The book is very well written and not dry at all. Just a small portion of the book is spent on the trial itself and the recitation is that of new material and not dry at all. The author excellently portrays the biographical background of Virginia Coates and how her childhood was a prelude to her life of crime. He also delves into the lives of the sons and husbands of Virginia Coates so that the reader can get a feel of how they easily were swayed by her. The author also provides the reader with glimpses of Keeney's personal life at work and at home which helps the reader understand the driven personality which never allowed him to give up on the case. I could not put the book down, so riveting it was. I highly recommend this one for those who love true crime and the book can be found at your local library.

[Katherine Addison · Rating 4 out of 5]

This one is the novel John Grisham should have written. A corporate lawyer looks into a death benefit claim as a favor to a woman in his church and ends up uncovering a serial killer with at least four murders under her belt: her three-year-old daughter, her second husband, her mother, and a hapless young woman who could be persuaded to make her murderer her life insurance beneficiary. Forensic Files has an episode about this case, "Financial Downfall," in which for some reason the victim's name is changed (from Deana Wild to Donna Hartman), even though the murderer's name is not, and the book (names unchanged) came out the year before. (They even re-enact the photographs and get the critical one wrong, wtf Forensic Files?) I swear I've seen another true crime TV episode about Deana Wild's death, but I can't remember which show. It was also apparently made into a TV movie, Justice for Annie.

The emphasis of episode and book are quite different. Forensic Files is all about the camera disc and its fifteen incriminating pictures; Death Benefit is all about the unraveling of Virginia Hoffmann Coates Rearden McGinnis' web. Both are fascinating.

[Donna Humble · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's a good book, but it's a bit repetitive. I did like the book, and the writing offered a lot of information. There were also glimpses into the back story that gave insight into how the people became the way they are.

[Sandy Ortega · Rating 1 out of 5]

I could not finish this book. Unfortunately it was a true story which is very sad. But the writer was boring

[Thomas Schulte · Rating 3 out of 5]

I first became aware of and intrigued by this case from the Forensic Files "The Financial Downfall" episode (2004).

A well-paced and detailed story of a business lawyer that ends up devoting more and more time to uncovering the decades-long murderous acts of Virginia Rearden Mcginnis, now dead at 74. Among serial killers I have read of, VRM is unusual for: being a woman, killing friends and family, enlisting various accomplices. Kudos to attorney Steven Keeney for such selfless acts of legal sleuthing.

[Jarrel Oliveira · Rating 4 out of 5]

This lady is the Carole Baskins of California. How she was able to avoid arrest, or perhaps go unscathed by so many suspicious incidents still baffles me to this day. This story is a sad one. Not simply for the victim involved but how many mistakes were made in the life of the perpetrator to get us to the point where a push or a slip become so blurred in the eyes of the law.

Highly recommend. Page turner for sure. Do NOT visit California beachside cliffs after reading this one.

[Rosemary · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was a sad true tale of a young woman's "accident" while hiking. It almost went undiscovered that it was murder. Her mother asked a lawyer at her church to help her with a $2,500 life insurance policy she couldn't get. The lawyer discovered that her daughter had much more life insurance paying off to people she barely knew. It is miraculous how the truth finally came out.

[Thom Dunn · Rating 4 out of 5]

Subtitle: A Lawyer Uncovers a Twenty-Year Pattern of Seduction, Arson, and Murder.

[Jody · Rating 3 out of 5]

True crime is not my cup of tea, but there was some hometown drama in this book so I had to check it out.