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Crime Files #12
Smoke, Mirrors, and Murder and Other True Cases
Includes Ann Rule's insider commentary on the Mary Winkler murder case
REAL-LIFE MURDER. REAL-LIFE MYSTERY.
In some murder cases, the truth behind the most tragic of crimes crystallizes with relative ease. Not so with these fascinating accounts drawn from the personal files of Ann Rule, America's #1 bestselling true-crime writer. What happens when the case itself becomes an intractable puzzle, when clues are shrouded in smoke and mirrors, and when criminals skillfully evade law enforcement in a maddening cat-and-mouse chase? Even the most devoted true-crime reader won't predict the outcome of these truly baffling cases until the conclusions revealed in Ann Rule's marvelously insightful narrative: An ideal family is targeted for death by the least likely enemy, who plotted their demise from behind bars.... A sexual predator hides behind multiple fake identities, eluding police for years while his past victims live in fear that he will hunt them down.... A modest preacher's wife confesses to shooting her husband after an argument -- but there's more to her shattering story than meets the eye. These and other true cases are analyzed with stunning clarity in a page-turning collection you won't be able to put down.
REAL-LIFE MURDER. REAL-LIFE MYSTERY.
In some murder cases, the truth behind the most tragic of crimes crystallizes with relative ease. Not so with these fascinating accounts drawn from the personal files of Ann Rule, America's #1 bestselling true-crime writer. What happens when the case itself becomes an intractable puzzle, when clues are shrouded in smoke and mirrors, and when criminals skillfully evade law enforcement in a maddening cat-and-mouse chase? Even the most devoted true-crime reader won't predict the outcome of these truly baffling cases until the conclusions revealed in Ann Rule's marvelously insightful narrative: An ideal family is targeted for death by the least likely enemy, who plotted their demise from behind bars.... A sexual predator hides behind multiple fake identities, eluding police for years while his past victims live in fear that he will hunt them down.... A modest preacher's wife confesses to shooting her husband after an argument -- but there's more to her shattering story than meets the eye. These and other true cases are analyzed with stunning clarity in a page-turning collection you won't be able to put down.
464 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published December 1, 2007
390 people are currently reading
2324 people want to read
About the author
Ann Rule
141 books4,536 followersAnn Rule was a popular American true crime writer. Raised in a law enforcement and criminal justice system environment, she grew up wanting to work in law enforcement herself. She was a former Seattle Policewoman and was well educated in psychology and criminology.
She came to prominence with her first book, The Stranger Beside Me, about the Ted Bundy murders. At the time she started researching the book, the murders were still unsolved. In the course of time, it became clear that the killer was Bundy, her friend and her colleague as a trained volunteer on the suicide hotline at the Seattle, Washington Crisis Clinic, giving her a unique distinction among true crime writers.
Rule won two Anthony Awards from Bouchercon, the mystery fans' organization. She was nominated three times for the Edgar Awards from the Mystery Writers of America. She is highly regarded for creating the true crime genre as it exists today.
Ann Rule also wrote under the name Andy Stack . Her daughter is Goodreads author Leslie Rule.
She came to prominence with her first book, The Stranger Beside Me, about the Ted Bundy murders. At the time she started researching the book, the murders were still unsolved. In the course of time, it became clear that the killer was Bundy, her friend and her colleague as a trained volunteer on the suicide hotline at the Seattle, Washington Crisis Clinic, giving her a unique distinction among true crime writers.
Rule won two Anthony Awards from Bouchercon, the mystery fans' organization. She was nominated three times for the Edgar Awards from the Mystery Writers of America. She is highly regarded for creating the true crime genre as it exists today.
Ann Rule also wrote under the name Andy Stack . Her daughter is Goodreads author Leslie Rule.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 165 reviews
March 6, 2011
As someone who has spent decades working with teenagers, I know how naive they can be. It's long been my opinion that every teen—especially every young woman—should be required to read two or three books by Ann Rule, just so she can begin to understand how perfectly normal, and even attractive, a truly evil person may seem.
Smoke, Mirrors, and Murder, however, illustrates another point altogether regarding the trajectory of human lives: that no matter how well one begins in life, it's never too late to make a terrible, or even fatal, mistake. In general, these are stories about people in midlife—often well-educated and well-established people—who stepped off some sort of psychological cliff, with horrendous results for themselves and others.
In another departure from the pattern of other books by the same author, the cases described here tend not to be tidy: what happened and why is not always clear. Why was a woman found dead in her bedroom, the victim of a mysterious fire? Why did a young wife and mother suddenly decide to kill her husband? What really went on behind the walls of some of these apparently happy American homes?
In my opinion, reading an Ann Rule book is a dose of reality we all should have from time to time.
Smoke, Mirrors, and Murder, however, illustrates another point altogether regarding the trajectory of human lives: that no matter how well one begins in life, it's never too late to make a terrible, or even fatal, mistake. In general, these are stories about people in midlife—often well-educated and well-established people—who stepped off some sort of psychological cliff, with horrendous results for themselves and others.
In another departure from the pattern of other books by the same author, the cases described here tend not to be tidy: what happened and why is not always clear. Why was a woman found dead in her bedroom, the victim of a mysterious fire? Why did a young wife and mother suddenly decide to kill her husband? What really went on behind the walls of some of these apparently happy American homes?
In my opinion, reading an Ann Rule book is a dose of reality we all should have from time to time.
January 27, 2019
Poorly combined and far too long on the narrations; a few of these cases held immense repetition of witnesses, sources, forensics etc. coupled with too much of her own interpretations about/for them. Her declarative sentence structured prose is often elemental and effusive at the same time in repeats of a "feeling" or possibility. I find that style particularly didn't work within this mainly domestic violence abuse and long term relationship studies collection. One of the cases was highly interesting and concerning spontaneous combustion. That one was 3 star.
May 6, 2014
Finished the book this morning. I used to love Ann Rule's books but was never much interested in the short stories although with most of them in each book there was one long story.
Now that I have picked this book to read I can say I did enjoy some of the stories she wrote.
This book's long story was The Deputy's Wife which was really good and interesting.
The short story I liked most was the Chemist's wife.
I was stalked and pestered by one ex and back in the days there was nothing you could do.(He loved to phone me and hang up constantly but not just me also by dad who he called in the middle of the night many a times. Until my dad made it so that when he was called during the night the phone calls were directed to my ex's parents. He stopped and that was the end of it. I never gave him any attention cause that is what they want. At first he sent me lovely text messages but when I did not reply those texts got angry. I still did not reply and never have.
I am glad to see that stalking is much more known now but I imagine there is still not much cops can do if a man does not care what happens to him. He must control her no matter what.
The Chemist's Wife was a story like that. Most of the time stalkers are very cowardly men who have righteously so very low self esteem and that is why they need to control their women. I despise those men and I really hope more and more women do not accept that behaviour but alas a lot of women still think they deserved it. NO you did not deserve to be treated like crap!!
Very scary and sad story.
Another story I liked which was quite unusual was The Painter's Wife where the woman was kidnapped by an escaped convict. Because I heard this story for the first time it was exiting.
The Antiques Dealer's Wife was interesting as well. Only surprise was the outcome.
The Truck Driver's Wife disappointed me only because I was eager to know what had happened to then found out this was an unsolved case.
Would love to know what really happened.
Then the lost story.
The Preacher's Wife was good too I only wondered why Ann Rule did not add the infamous bar picture of Mary Winkler if it upset so many people. Here I thought it upset people because she was smiling but no they were upset because when you are religious you are not supposed to go to a bar. Geez louis. No Do your drinking alone when you are home and while we are at it, keep your porno pics and movies also there Hypocrites much?
All in all a good read. There was one weird thing though. Ann Rule is talking about abused women and that there are now many places they can go to but then she writes this about Mary Winkler......
"Had she found her self esteem early in their marriage he probably would have backed down on his demands about her weight and the small things she did that annoyed him"
Is it weird that to me this reads like blame the victim. Yes I know Mary might not have been a victim but Ann Rule does not know for sure she is not and this reads like if she would have just found her self esteem poor Mathew would not have to correct her?
All in all a satisfying book.
Now that I have picked this book to read I can say I did enjoy some of the stories she wrote.
This book's long story was The Deputy's Wife which was really good and interesting.
The short story I liked most was the Chemist's wife.
I was stalked and pestered by one ex and back in the days there was nothing you could do.(He loved to phone me and hang up constantly but not just me also by dad who he called in the middle of the night many a times. Until my dad made it so that when he was called during the night the phone calls were directed to my ex's parents. He stopped and that was the end of it. I never gave him any attention cause that is what they want. At first he sent me lovely text messages but when I did not reply those texts got angry. I still did not reply and never have.
I am glad to see that stalking is much more known now but I imagine there is still not much cops can do if a man does not care what happens to him. He must control her no matter what.
The Chemist's Wife was a story like that. Most of the time stalkers are very cowardly men who have righteously so very low self esteem and that is why they need to control their women. I despise those men and I really hope more and more women do not accept that behaviour but alas a lot of women still think they deserved it. NO you did not deserve to be treated like crap!!
Very scary and sad story.
Another story I liked which was quite unusual was The Painter's Wife where the woman was kidnapped by an escaped convict. Because I heard this story for the first time it was exiting.
The Antiques Dealer's Wife was interesting as well. Only surprise was the outcome.
The Truck Driver's Wife disappointed me only because I was eager to know what had happened to then found out this was an unsolved case.
Would love to know what really happened.
Then the lost story.
The Preacher's Wife was good too I only wondered why Ann Rule did not add the infamous bar picture of Mary Winkler if it upset so many people. Here I thought it upset people because she was smiling but no they were upset because when you are religious you are not supposed to go to a bar. Geez louis. No Do your drinking alone when you are home and while we are at it, keep your porno pics and movies also there Hypocrites much?
All in all a good read. There was one weird thing though. Ann Rule is talking about abused women and that there are now many places they can go to but then she writes this about Mary Winkler......
"Had she found her self esteem early in their marriage he probably would have backed down on his demands about her weight and the small things she did that annoyed him"
Is it weird that to me this reads like blame the victim. Yes I know Mary might not have been a victim but Ann Rule does not know for sure she is not and this reads like if she would have just found her self esteem poor Mathew would not have to correct her?
All in all a satisfying book.
June 11, 2021
Another collection of true crime stories by Ann Rule, maven of the genre, and although some editing would be appreciated, the tales serve as a warning to naive young women. Women were not the first victims of murder in this volume, which is generally so commonplace that many readers take it for granted. Years ago I started the Green River Killer by Ms Rule and it remains the only one that I was unable to finish due to the seemingly endless slaughter of women.
Now if only Florida would be discovered by a great true crime writer. There’s a treasure trove of bizarre stories that begs to be told.
Now if only Florida would be discovered by a great true crime writer. There’s a treasure trove of bizarre stories that begs to be told.
June 11, 2011
Only Ann Rule can creap me out and cause me to rethink true-life circumstances. This book took me to places that I didn't want to go but couldn't help myself when I ran into it faster each page. Amazingly real, as real-life can be, this is a book that I will read again and probably again...whew! People are really like this...I know people like this and reading about it brought the reality back to me. Wow. I'm still freaked out about it. So happy that my personal story turned out much better. Oh, to admit the dark side of our own hearts. This is a collection of stories that will make you think. Quite possibly help you see a place in your own soul that is thankful for life...no matter how difficult things may be.
December 9, 2009
Most of the cases in this book were set in WA state. The book started with a domestic violence case that did not end in murder. There were other DV cases in this book because the author wanted to make the public more aware of the different faces of DV.
The most interesting thing I have ever read is the chapter about a woman who seemed to self-combuste. She was all that burned while laying in her bed. The bed didn't burn even though she was laying on it....the police found no foul play, nothing for a cause of death. Ms. Rule documented a few other cases where death was called self-combustion.
The most interesting thing I have ever read is the chapter about a woman who seemed to self-combuste. She was all that burned while laying in her bed. The bed didn't burn even though she was laying on it....the police found no foul play, nothing for a cause of death. Ms. Rule documented a few other cases where death was called self-combustion.
March 6, 2017
If this collection doesn't cure you of that abhorrent coinage The [Male Noun]'s [Female Noun], nothing will.
*"The Deputy's Wife": Seattle WA 2001: Just when I think the bar can't get any lower . . . Bill Jensen, a former King County Deputy, conspired while in prison awaiting trial on charges of felony domestic abuse to have his wife, his sister-in-law, and his two children murdered either so that he could (a) inherit a fortune he believed his wife and his sister had inherited (even though he had squandered most of his wife's share already) or (b) so that he wouldn't have to go through divorce proceedings and admit to his wife how much money he'd lost gambling. (Murder is cheaper than divorce.) Jensen was bullying, spiteful, vindictive, selfish, poisonously egotistical, abusive, and finally just irredeemably cruel. Fortunately, the man he approached about the hit on his family decided he didn't actually want to be a murderer for hire, and when Jensen made the final arrangements, he made them to an undercover cop wearing a wire. Poetic justice is sometimes deeply satisfying.
*"The Antiques Dealer's Wife": Seattle WA 1960: Raoul Guy Rockwell was something else. He murdered his wife Manzanita and his 18-year-old stepdaughter Dolores, dismembered them in his attic and disposed of the bodies so that only parts of them were ever found (fragments of Dolores were discovered in the septic tank of their home; Manzanita's legs were fished, one at a time, out of the Columbia River). Six months later, before anyone knew what had happened to Manzanita and Dolores, he divorced the woman he'd murdered, claiming she'd left him and taken thousands of dollars with her (thousands of dollars which, arguably, the Rockwells never had), and within four days had married another woman, Evelyn Emerson. He conned Evelyn's mother out of $10,000 to buy First Nations artifacts from Canada (itself a venture that was semi-legal at best), then convinced a third woman (who didn't know he was married to Evelyn) to abandon her husband and go with him to Portugal. He abandoned that woman in San Francisco and vanished. He was eventually found, but he was never tried for Manzanita & Dolores' murders.
*"The Truck Driver's Wife": Seattle WA 1976: This may or may not be a case of spontaneous human combustion. If it isn't, it is truly difficult to come up with an explanation of Dorothy Jones' death.
*"The Convict's Wife": Salem OR 1971: Every time I try to summarize this case, it comes out sounding like a John Steinbeck novel. So, career criminal George Light takes his wife Doris Mae and his five small children from Illinois to Salem (Oregon) where they squat in an abandoned farmhouse. George's brother Larry gets out of Joliet and follows them to Oregon. Larry has a long-held grudge against George for sending him up the river, and he doesn't like the way George treats Doris Mae. Within a few months, the inevitable happens: Larry kills George and buries him in a shed behind the house. Doris Mae was an accessory, in that she held the door for Larry to drag George out. Larry then gets arrested for brawling, and Doris Mae gets evicted because the house is unsafe. (Nobody realized until much later that she had no actual right to be there.) Larry gets out of jail; he and Doris Mae and the children disappear. Three years later, Larry--in prison in Illinois again--gets an attack of conscience and confesses, directing police to the location of the body, which they would never otherwise have found.
*"The Chemist's Wife": Seattle WA 1975: Every Woman's Nightmare: This man abused, stalked, and terrified his teenage, common-law wife. When he realized that she really meant to leave him, he kidnapped her and drove her from Texas to Seattle, just in time for Christmas with her grandparents. When he started to abuse her again, her grandfather tried to stop him. The abusive stalker nutjob murdered her grandfather, nearly murdered her grandmother, and fled, taking his wife with him again. Mercifully, he was apprehended before he could hurt anyone else. He was convicted of second-degree murder.
The only time I've ever seen Rule commit the Blame the Victim fallacy is in her introduction to this case: "In the end, this [domestic abuse] seems to be an insoluble problem, one that might be avoided only if women could see beyond the romantic facade of a suitor who promises her the world while he is steadily separating her from her family and her friends" (284). The victim isn't the one responsible here (and the victim isn't always a woman, either--Rule says in her introduction to the last case that she had a guy call her on that (although that case is actually the same old familiar pattern of male abuser/female victim up until the woman picks up a shotgun)--nor is the relationship always heterosexual). It's not her job to avoid being abused. It's his job to not abuse her. I'm all in favor of cooperation here: self-reliance and accepting responsibility for oneself. But don't put the blame for the situation on the victim's failure to avoid it. Put the blame where it belongs, on the person (male or female) committing abuse.
*"The Painter's Wife": Pasco WA 1978: Michael Anderson escaped from prison and hid in the basement of a middle-class family's home. When he was discovered, two days later (!), he tied up the woman's two teenage sons (and a friend), beat her mostly unconscious, and kidnapped her. He threatened to, but did not actually, rape her. He imprisoned her in her own trunk. Then he decided to rob a big box store, and did so, taking the store manager hostage as well. The store manager, Doug Parry, was a former EMT who'd changed careers because he was tired of getting into high-risk situations. (Irony punches you in the face. Roll D20 for damage.) Parry kept his head and talked Anderson into getting a motel room instead of killing them. He then managed to alert the desk clerk without tipping off Anderson, which meant that Anderson was apprehended and neither hostage was killed. Anderson was given multiple life sentences, to run consecutively, meaning that he might actually spend, or have spent, the rest of his life in jail.
*"The Minister's Wife": Selmer TN 2006: Mary Winkler killed her husband Matthew, a minister in the Church of Christ. She shot him in the back with his own shotgun, most likely while he was sleeping. The big unanswerable question is why. There's certainly evidence that Matthew was domineering and abusive, emotionally if not physically. Mary Winkler had gotten herself involved in an email scam; their bank account was overdrawn by $5,000 they did not have and (although I do not understand the ins and outs of it, she herself had done something illegal). Mary claimed that she'd only been acting on Matthew's instructions, and that she killed him (a) because she couldn't stand his abuse and his sexual kinks any longer (Matthew liked anal sex; Mary did not. Matthew liked pornography; Mary did not.), (b) because she couldn't stand his way of shutting up a crying baby any longer (she claimed he pinched their infant daughters' noses shut and suffocated them into silence, which, if true, means that Matthew Winkler probably very narrowly avoided committing infanticide at least once), and (c) in a fugue state, without fully understanding what she was doing. It's really hard to see how she could have gotten the shotgun down from a high closet shelf without fully intending to commit homicide with it. Her defense largely hinged on learned helplessness: she claimed she didn't understand the check kiting scheme--it was all Matthew's fault; she claimed she didn't know how the shotgun worked and was shocked when it went off in her hands.
The other way to look at it is: Matthew was domineering, all paterfamilias Father Knows Best asshole and into kinks Mary did not share. She was up to her eyeballs in a bank fraud, and the day she murdered Matthew was the day they were both supposed to show up at the bank to discuss the matter. The Church of Christ does not sanction divorce, and as a minister, Matthew would certainly never have agreed to it. She wanted him gone and she made it happen.
It's like one of those optical illusions. Is it a vase or two profiles? To what degree was Mary genuinely not responsible for the disaster she made of her life and to what degree was she a cold-blooded murderer?
There is no case in this collection called "Smoke, Mirrors and Murder."
*"The Deputy's Wife": Seattle WA 2001: Just when I think the bar can't get any lower . . . Bill Jensen, a former King County Deputy, conspired while in prison awaiting trial on charges of felony domestic abuse to have his wife, his sister-in-law, and his two children murdered either so that he could (a) inherit a fortune he believed his wife and his sister had inherited (even though he had squandered most of his wife's share already) or (b) so that he wouldn't have to go through divorce proceedings and admit to his wife how much money he'd lost gambling. (Murder is cheaper than divorce.) Jensen was bullying, spiteful, vindictive, selfish, poisonously egotistical, abusive, and finally just irredeemably cruel. Fortunately, the man he approached about the hit on his family decided he didn't actually want to be a murderer for hire, and when Jensen made the final arrangements, he made them to an undercover cop wearing a wire. Poetic justice is sometimes deeply satisfying.
*"The Antiques Dealer's Wife": Seattle WA 1960: Raoul Guy Rockwell was something else. He murdered his wife Manzanita and his 18-year-old stepdaughter Dolores, dismembered them in his attic and disposed of the bodies so that only parts of them were ever found (fragments of Dolores were discovered in the septic tank of their home; Manzanita's legs were fished, one at a time, out of the Columbia River). Six months later, before anyone knew what had happened to Manzanita and Dolores, he divorced the woman he'd murdered, claiming she'd left him and taken thousands of dollars with her (thousands of dollars which, arguably, the Rockwells never had), and within four days had married another woman, Evelyn Emerson. He conned Evelyn's mother out of $10,000 to buy First Nations artifacts from Canada (itself a venture that was semi-legal at best), then convinced a third woman (who didn't know he was married to Evelyn) to abandon her husband and go with him to Portugal. He abandoned that woman in San Francisco and vanished. He was eventually found, but he was never tried for Manzanita & Dolores' murders.
*"The Truck Driver's Wife": Seattle WA 1976: This may or may not be a case of spontaneous human combustion. If it isn't, it is truly difficult to come up with an explanation of Dorothy Jones' death.
*"The Convict's Wife": Salem OR 1971: Every time I try to summarize this case, it comes out sounding like a John Steinbeck novel. So, career criminal George Light takes his wife Doris Mae and his five small children from Illinois to Salem (Oregon) where they squat in an abandoned farmhouse. George's brother Larry gets out of Joliet and follows them to Oregon. Larry has a long-held grudge against George for sending him up the river, and he doesn't like the way George treats Doris Mae. Within a few months, the inevitable happens: Larry kills George and buries him in a shed behind the house. Doris Mae was an accessory, in that she held the door for Larry to drag George out. Larry then gets arrested for brawling, and Doris Mae gets evicted because the house is unsafe. (Nobody realized until much later that she had no actual right to be there.) Larry gets out of jail; he and Doris Mae and the children disappear. Three years later, Larry--in prison in Illinois again--gets an attack of conscience and confesses, directing police to the location of the body, which they would never otherwise have found.
*"The Chemist's Wife": Seattle WA 1975: Every Woman's Nightmare: This man abused, stalked, and terrified his teenage, common-law wife. When he realized that she really meant to leave him, he kidnapped her and drove her from Texas to Seattle, just in time for Christmas with her grandparents. When he started to abuse her again, her grandfather tried to stop him. The abusive stalker nutjob murdered her grandfather, nearly murdered her grandmother, and fled, taking his wife with him again. Mercifully, he was apprehended before he could hurt anyone else. He was convicted of second-degree murder.
The only time I've ever seen Rule commit the Blame the Victim fallacy is in her introduction to this case: "In the end, this [domestic abuse] seems to be an insoluble problem, one that might be avoided only if women could see beyond the romantic facade of a suitor who promises her the world while he is steadily separating her from her family and her friends" (284). The victim isn't the one responsible here (and the victim isn't always a woman, either--Rule says in her introduction to the last case that she had a guy call her on that (although that case is actually the same old familiar pattern of male abuser/female victim up until the woman picks up a shotgun)--nor is the relationship always heterosexual). It's not her job to avoid being abused. It's his job to not abuse her. I'm all in favor of cooperation here: self-reliance and accepting responsibility for oneself. But don't put the blame for the situation on the victim's failure to avoid it. Put the blame where it belongs, on the person (male or female) committing abuse.
*"The Painter's Wife": Pasco WA 1978: Michael Anderson escaped from prison and hid in the basement of a middle-class family's home. When he was discovered, two days later (!), he tied up the woman's two teenage sons (and a friend), beat her mostly unconscious, and kidnapped her. He threatened to, but did not actually, rape her. He imprisoned her in her own trunk. Then he decided to rob a big box store, and did so, taking the store manager hostage as well. The store manager, Doug Parry, was a former EMT who'd changed careers because he was tired of getting into high-risk situations. (Irony punches you in the face. Roll D20 for damage.) Parry kept his head and talked Anderson into getting a motel room instead of killing them. He then managed to alert the desk clerk without tipping off Anderson, which meant that Anderson was apprehended and neither hostage was killed. Anderson was given multiple life sentences, to run consecutively, meaning that he might actually spend, or have spent, the rest of his life in jail.
*"The Minister's Wife": Selmer TN 2006: Mary Winkler killed her husband Matthew, a minister in the Church of Christ. She shot him in the back with his own shotgun, most likely while he was sleeping. The big unanswerable question is why. There's certainly evidence that Matthew was domineering and abusive, emotionally if not physically. Mary Winkler had gotten herself involved in an email scam; their bank account was overdrawn by $5,000 they did not have and (although I do not understand the ins and outs of it, she herself had done something illegal). Mary claimed that she'd only been acting on Matthew's instructions, and that she killed him (a) because she couldn't stand his abuse and his sexual kinks any longer (Matthew liked anal sex; Mary did not. Matthew liked pornography; Mary did not.), (b) because she couldn't stand his way of shutting up a crying baby any longer (she claimed he pinched their infant daughters' noses shut and suffocated them into silence, which, if true, means that Matthew Winkler probably very narrowly avoided committing infanticide at least once), and (c) in a fugue state, without fully understanding what she was doing. It's really hard to see how she could have gotten the shotgun down from a high closet shelf without fully intending to commit homicide with it. Her defense largely hinged on learned helplessness: she claimed she didn't understand the check kiting scheme--it was all Matthew's fault; she claimed she didn't know how the shotgun worked and was shocked when it went off in her hands.
The other way to look at it is: Matthew was domineering, all paterfamilias Father Knows Best asshole and into kinks Mary did not share. She was up to her eyeballs in a bank fraud, and the day she murdered Matthew was the day they were both supposed to show up at the bank to discuss the matter. The Church of Christ does not sanction divorce, and as a minister, Matthew would certainly never have agreed to it. She wanted him gone and she made it happen.
It's like one of those optical illusions. Is it a vase or two profiles? To what degree was Mary genuinely not responsible for the disaster she made of her life and to what degree was she a cold-blooded murderer?
There is no case in this collection called "Smoke, Mirrors and Murder."
January 2, 2018
Rule usually starts off her volumes with a longer case up front, and shorter cases towards the end. I thought that this one read as filler honestly. She just seemed to find out stories concerning wives that she could write about. There are not a lot of satisfactory stories in this one.
The Deputy's Wife (5 stars)-Sad story of a woman who finally realizes her husband is not someone she wants to be with anymore after suffering verbal and physical abuse by him. Her husband, a former deputy seems hell-bent on getting the money he thinks he is owed. He sets up a hit-man plot when he goes to jail to take out her, their two children, and her sister. Terrible man from beginning to end.
The Antique Dealer's Wife (2 stars)-I don't like stories where people get away with their crimes. And the man in question, Raoul Guy Rockwell gets away with murdering his wife and her daughter by her first marriage. Rule includes some follow-up with her alluding to the fact that Rockwell continued on and got married twice after his first marriage. I don't know if it's true or not, but in the end I was not satisfied with the fact he went on without having to pay for his crimes.
The Truck Driver's Wife (1 star)-Rule actually puts forth a hypothesis that the woman in this story who is found dead on fire spontaneously combusted. It made no sense to me. This is also the second story in this volume where you don't get a true sense of ending since you don't know who did this or why.
The Convict's Wife (2 stars)- I ended up feeling for the convict's wife in this one. She marries one man who beats and abuses her on a daily basis. He forces them to move repeatedly. When his brother (who he dimed on) gets out of jail she can tell he is attracted to her. So one wonders how truthful the brother in this case was about the wife being involved with a plan to murder his brother. I didn't buy it myself.
The Chemist's Wife (2 stars)-I don't even get why they are calling a 16 year old girl who was dating a 20 something man a wife. I felt sorry for the family in this story since due to the actions of the younger woman when she finally tires of being abused by her long timer partner, tries to leave him, and he stabs her grandparents in front of her.
The Painter's Wife (2 stars)-True story of a woman abducted from her home when a convict escapes from the nearby jail.
The Minister's Wife (2 stars)-I hated this story at the time when it occurred. We get into the story of Mary Winkler who murdered her husband while he was sleeping. I still think it was a miscarriage of justice that she got barely any time and was free to go on with her life. I never bought the battered woman story that she and her defense team put out there.
The Deputy's Wife (5 stars)-Sad story of a woman who finally realizes her husband is not someone she wants to be with anymore after suffering verbal and physical abuse by him. Her husband, a former deputy seems hell-bent on getting the money he thinks he is owed. He sets up a hit-man plot when he goes to jail to take out her, their two children, and her sister. Terrible man from beginning to end.
The Antique Dealer's Wife (2 stars)-I don't like stories where people get away with their crimes. And the man in question, Raoul Guy Rockwell gets away with murdering his wife and her daughter by her first marriage. Rule includes some follow-up with her alluding to the fact that Rockwell continued on and got married twice after his first marriage. I don't know if it's true or not, but in the end I was not satisfied with the fact he went on without having to pay for his crimes.
The Truck Driver's Wife (1 star)-Rule actually puts forth a hypothesis that the woman in this story who is found dead on fire spontaneously combusted. It made no sense to me. This is also the second story in this volume where you don't get a true sense of ending since you don't know who did this or why.
The Convict's Wife (2 stars)- I ended up feeling for the convict's wife in this one. She marries one man who beats and abuses her on a daily basis. He forces them to move repeatedly. When his brother (who he dimed on) gets out of jail she can tell he is attracted to her. So one wonders how truthful the brother in this case was about the wife being involved with a plan to murder his brother. I didn't buy it myself.
The Chemist's Wife (2 stars)-I don't even get why they are calling a 16 year old girl who was dating a 20 something man a wife. I felt sorry for the family in this story since due to the actions of the younger woman when she finally tires of being abused by her long timer partner, tries to leave him, and he stabs her grandparents in front of her.
The Painter's Wife (2 stars)-True story of a woman abducted from her home when a convict escapes from the nearby jail.
The Minister's Wife (2 stars)-I hated this story at the time when it occurred. We get into the story of Mary Winkler who murdered her husband while he was sleeping. I still think it was a miscarriage of justice that she got barely any time and was free to go on with her life. I never bought the battered woman story that she and her defense team put out there.
August 24, 2019
This was fascinating making it hard to put down. Some of the murderers in this book are still out there! Ann Rule tells their ages now and of course, they are old.
If you are interested in true crime this is a good book. I guess the last story was the saddest one. I sure wish someone had helped Mary out of her bad marriage.
If you are interested in true crime this is a good book. I guess the last story was the saddest one. I sure wish someone had helped Mary out of her bad marriage.
June 14, 2023
One thing I know I’ll never tire of is Ann Rule’s writing. Every time I pick up one of her books I know it’s a guaranteed good read and there’s something very priceless about that! This wasn’t my absolute fave by her but I still thoroughly enjoyed it. I prefer her longer stories over her shorter ones and this collection was mostly shorter ones. My favourite had to be the spontaneous combustion one, normally I prefer true crime stories with conclusions but this one was just so fascinating! The other stories were excellent as well but that one really stood out from the rest for me.
February 22, 2018
Overall, it was okay. The best section was about the death of the truck driver's wife, who may have been murdered or may have been a victim of spontaneous human combustion. Hard not to find that interesting!
December 22, 2023
Ann Rule has always been one of my true crime writers. She gives you the facts with no muss, no fuss. This book was part of a stack of True Crime books recommended by a librarian at my local library. It’s a short stories regarding true crimes. Some I really enjoyed
November 17, 2021
The first 2 stories in this book were great - but the rest were just.. meh - especially the last story I was so bored but the first one makes up for the rest of the book - could have been its own book for me!
September 16, 2023
Engaging, I like Ann Rule books, they move right along without giving all the unimportant details. This was a good vacation book.
September 13, 2011
Number 12 in Ann Rule's Crime Files series.
With those unfamilar with Ann, these are true crime stories. The theme of this book was wives' tales. With the 'book length' feature being 'The Deputy's Wife'. In this book I found several cases where I definately thought that Justice had not been served.
I started with Book #1 of the series A Rose For Her Grave & Other True Cases which was quite chilling, but I don't beleive I've read all tweleve so far, but the first seven at least, then jumped to this one.
Just a quick synopsis case-by-case:
Deputy's Wife: Saddily, kind of predictable. Husband came from a broken home, and foster homes. Wife has blind loyality in him, always hoping things/abuse will improve until they reach the breaking point. What I noticed in this case was that the abuse really seemed to escalate after the husband started to have pain issues, and could no longer do many of the things he had enjoyed doing in the past. Fortunately, the wife survives his murder attempt, and the husband does serve a lengthy jail term.
The Antique Dealers Wife: Very strange case of Raoul. I'm passing judgement on this one. I'm sure he did it, but there was no court case. Raoul lived out his life w/o jail. The wife and her daughter were both murdered in this one, and brutally disposed of, by the popular ladies man, who quickly re-married after this wife 'disappears', and then he quickly vanishes out of her life with another lady. Truly no justice in one.
The Truck Driver's Wife: Well, it wasn't the husband. He was out trucking at the time. This was a gruesome one with the wife was killed by a fire in her own house. It was a mystery as to how or who (if anyone) was involved. The time table is so tight - who could have been in that house? The KFC was still warm when the authorities arrived. One theory was spontanious combustion, but from what I understand, that doesn't seem possible in this case. Another where no justice is served, and the murderer still on the loose.
The Convict's Wife: OK, wives... you know you're asking for trouble marrying a convict. And when his convict brother shows up...
The Chemist's Wife: This one was truly a cruel abusive husband. Not sure how with the extent of his cruelity that this isn't noticed early on, but it wasn't before it was too late, and they were considered legally married. One danger sign was that the 'wife' started dating the 'husband' when she was only 15, and he was 26! The victim in this case turns out to be the wife's grandfather when he tries to protect her on Christmas day. The wife was likely to be a victim too, but the police arrive in time.
Painter's Wife: This marriage was fine. The case concern's an escaped convict who hides out in the victim's home, and once discovered, kidnaps her.
The Minister's Wife: I thought this was perhaps the most upsetting case. And in this case, the wife kills the husband. This wife gets caught up in a get rich quick scam, and suddenly owes the banks $5000. Money she doesn't have, and her husband doesn't know about. On the morning that the bank informs her that she needs to come in with her husband to have a little talk... she shoots him in the back with a shotgun, disconnects the phone, and grabs the girls and drives off from Tenessee to the Gulf of Mexico, without calling anyone to inform them her husband is bleeding to death. There is a trail and her sentence for this crime? 310 days in jail! Despite being found guilty. I think because made out that she was an abused wife, and conveneantly couldn't remember facts when questioned (all due to the abuse she claimed). This was a national case, and even Oprah interviewed her. She's out here in the real world running around free.
With those unfamilar with Ann, these are true crime stories. The theme of this book was wives' tales. With the 'book length' feature being 'The Deputy's Wife'. In this book I found several cases where I definately thought that Justice had not been served.
I started with Book #1 of the series A Rose For Her Grave & Other True Cases which was quite chilling, but I don't beleive I've read all tweleve so far, but the first seven at least, then jumped to this one.
Just a quick synopsis case-by-case:
Deputy's Wife: Saddily, kind of predictable. Husband came from a broken home, and foster homes. Wife has blind loyality in him, always hoping things/abuse will improve until they reach the breaking point. What I noticed in this case was that the abuse really seemed to escalate after the husband started to have pain issues, and could no longer do many of the things he had enjoyed doing in the past. Fortunately, the wife survives his murder attempt, and the husband does serve a lengthy jail term.
The Antique Dealers Wife: Very strange case of Raoul. I'm passing judgement on this one. I'm sure he did it, but there was no court case. Raoul lived out his life w/o jail. The wife and her daughter were both murdered in this one, and brutally disposed of, by the popular ladies man, who quickly re-married after this wife 'disappears', and then he quickly vanishes out of her life with another lady. Truly no justice in one.
The Truck Driver's Wife: Well, it wasn't the husband. He was out trucking at the time. This was a gruesome one with the wife was killed by a fire in her own house. It was a mystery as to how or who (if anyone) was involved. The time table is so tight - who could have been in that house? The KFC was still warm when the authorities arrived. One theory was spontanious combustion, but from what I understand, that doesn't seem possible in this case. Another where no justice is served, and the murderer still on the loose.
The Convict's Wife: OK, wives... you know you're asking for trouble marrying a convict. And when his convict brother shows up...
The Chemist's Wife: This one was truly a cruel abusive husband. Not sure how with the extent of his cruelity that this isn't noticed early on, but it wasn't before it was too late, and they were considered legally married. One danger sign was that the 'wife' started dating the 'husband' when she was only 15, and he was 26! The victim in this case turns out to be the wife's grandfather when he tries to protect her on Christmas day. The wife was likely to be a victim too, but the police arrive in time.
Painter's Wife: This marriage was fine. The case concern's an escaped convict who hides out in the victim's home, and once discovered, kidnaps her.
The Minister's Wife: I thought this was perhaps the most upsetting case. And in this case, the wife kills the husband. This wife gets caught up in a get rich quick scam, and suddenly owes the banks $5000. Money she doesn't have, and her husband doesn't know about. On the morning that the bank informs her that she needs to come in with her husband to have a little talk... she shoots him in the back with a shotgun, disconnects the phone, and grabs the girls and drives off from Tenessee to the Gulf of Mexico, without calling anyone to inform them her husband is bleeding to death. There is a trail and her sentence for this crime? 310 days in jail! Despite being found guilty. I think because made out that she was an abused wife, and conveneantly couldn't remember facts when questioned (all due to the abuse she claimed). This was a national case, and even Oprah interviewed her. She's out here in the real world running around free.
April 12, 2012
So far very uneven set of stories about domestic violence:
The first story (The Deputy's Wife) was in serious need of editing. It was WAAAAY too long.
The Antique Dealer's Wife was interesting and I almost think I may have heard of this on a Cold Case File episode or something from the ID channel.
The Truck Driver's Wife was also interesting, even if there was not a definitive conclusion. Sometimes there is no right answer.
The Convict's Wife was just sad - two brothers who seemed destined for bad ends from the start and a woman just trying to get out of a bad situation and ended up in a worse one.
The Chemist's Wife is a story of obsessive love - a girl cannot get out of her relationship and the end is tragic. There are so many warning signs - the man isolates her from her family and friends, becomes overly controlling, and eventually violent. A textbook case of obsession and abuse.
The Painter's Wife was interesting. A woman is kidnapped from her home by an escaped convict who also takes a man from the store he worked at.
The Minister's Wife deals with a notorious case from Tennessee. A few minor things made me think that she did not do her homework on this case (or at least the person doing her research just phoned it it (FYI azaleas and crepe myrtles don't bloom at the same time - I know because I live in Tennessee).
The first story (The Deputy's Wife) was in serious need of editing. It was WAAAAY too long.
The Antique Dealer's Wife was interesting and I almost think I may have heard of this on a Cold Case File episode or something from the ID channel.
The Truck Driver's Wife was also interesting, even if there was not a definitive conclusion. Sometimes there is no right answer.
The Convict's Wife was just sad - two brothers who seemed destined for bad ends from the start and a woman just trying to get out of a bad situation and ended up in a worse one.
The Chemist's Wife is a story of obsessive love - a girl cannot get out of her relationship and the end is tragic. There are so many warning signs - the man isolates her from her family and friends, becomes overly controlling, and eventually violent. A textbook case of obsession and abuse.
The Painter's Wife was interesting. A woman is kidnapped from her home by an escaped convict who also takes a man from the store he worked at.
The Minister's Wife deals with a notorious case from Tennessee. A few minor things made me think that she did not do her homework on this case (or at least the person doing her research just phoned it it (FYI azaleas and crepe myrtles don't bloom at the same time - I know because I live in Tennessee).
January 12, 2008
Ah, true crime, my guilty pleasure. :)
I've only read a couple of Ann Rule's books before, and it took me a while to get into the first story, but once I was in, I was done for. Most of these were older stories: one from 1960 and several from the 1970s. A fascinating look at how crime never really changes and how criminology has; one case ("The Antique Dealer's Wife") would be a shoo-in conviction today, but with no DNA testing available at the time, never went to trial. "The Deputy's Wife," the book-length story, is from 2004, and is a chilling depiction of domestic violence.
The last story, "The Minister's Wife," is also modern, the Matthew and Mary Winkler case that spent so long in the headlines in the last couple of years. I thought it was the weakest of them all, since it relied the most on court testimony and the least on interviews with the principals.
"The Convict's Wife," for no apparent reason, is the one that's had me whipping around to look at shadows since I read it. I might sleep with a light on tonight. :)
I've only read a couple of Ann Rule's books before, and it took me a while to get into the first story, but once I was in, I was done for. Most of these were older stories: one from 1960 and several from the 1970s. A fascinating look at how crime never really changes and how criminology has; one case ("The Antique Dealer's Wife") would be a shoo-in conviction today, but with no DNA testing available at the time, never went to trial. "The Deputy's Wife," the book-length story, is from 2004, and is a chilling depiction of domestic violence.
The last story, "The Minister's Wife," is also modern, the Matthew and Mary Winkler case that spent so long in the headlines in the last couple of years. I thought it was the weakest of them all, since it relied the most on court testimony and the least on interviews with the principals.
"The Convict's Wife," for no apparent reason, is the one that's had me whipping around to look at shadows since I read it. I might sleep with a light on tonight. :)
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
June 26, 2016
Towards the end of Ann Rule's career, she began going back and digging up old cases that she wrote on for detective magazines. Some of these had been unsolved back then, some of them remain unsolved... Then, she would put them together in a book and call them her crime files series. Usually, this series has a really good case in the beginning and a number of less interesting cases in the back.
However, this one reads like an issue of True Detective Magazine. The inclusion of unsolved cases doesn't help it and her lack of ability to actually get inside the story, as she did in best work, just is missing here. One gets the feeling that she was simply going through old case files, and trying to build a book and failing miserably, in this case. That's not to say that there were not some solid and interesting cases in this volume, just that the it reads much more like a newspaper reporter's work than an actual book. Nothing overly in-depth...
I'll be avoiding her case files in the future.. Even when I buy them on the discount table at the library sale.
However, this one reads like an issue of True Detective Magazine. The inclusion of unsolved cases doesn't help it and her lack of ability to actually get inside the story, as she did in best work, just is missing here. One gets the feeling that she was simply going through old case files, and trying to build a book and failing miserably, in this case. That's not to say that there were not some solid and interesting cases in this volume, just that the it reads much more like a newspaper reporter's work than an actual book. Nothing overly in-depth...
I'll be avoiding her case files in the future.. Even when I buy them on the discount table at the library sale.
August 5, 2018
As with all of these anthologies, some stories are better than others.
There's no wonder that the Mary Winkler case is still interesting to people; based on Ms Rule's story, there was a lot about the history of the couple's marriage that never came to light. The story of the testimony that her lawyers got from her was fascinating; they seemed to be able to get her to open up, to remember things, which the prosecution and everyone else seemed unable to do. I was puzzled by the Winkler in-laws suing her for a $2 million civil, wrongful-death sort of judgement, 'on behalf of the daughters (their grandkids)'. Where on earth did they think Mary, who at best was a substitute teacher, would get so much money?
There's no wonder that the Mary Winkler case is still interesting to people; based on Ms Rule's story, there was a lot about the history of the couple's marriage that never came to light. The story of the testimony that her lawyers got from her was fascinating; they seemed to be able to get her to open up, to remember things, which the prosecution and everyone else seemed unable to do. I was puzzled by the Winkler in-laws suing her for a $2 million civil, wrongful-death sort of judgement, 'on behalf of the daughters (their grandkids)'. Where on earth did they think Mary, who at best was a substitute teacher, would get so much money?
February 27, 2008
I finished this up last night and had to say I enjoyed it as I have almost all of Ann Rule's books. Her paperback's are usually short stories of cases she has followed over the years and this one was good as it included quite a few from the Seattle area. They were all focused on abused women with the last one being a man. The last one was the case of the preacher's wife Mary who killed her husband and ran off with their three children before being found in Alabama. She is one odd duck from reading this story. I enjoy the way Ann really draws you into the people in the stories so you feel as if you really could have known them.
April 1, 2016
I love watching true crime on tv and decided to finally read a book in that genre. I chose Ann Rule because she was the queen of true crime writing. This particular book was a compilation of some of the stories she had written about. I was engrossed right away and couldn't put it down. I now know why Ann Rule's books are so popular. In the first story "The Deputy's Wife", she survives her ordeal, but it was scary reading about it. I like that Ann added resources for victims of domestic abuse at the end of this story. The other story that I am still thinking about is "The Truck Driver's Wife". I won't give details, but it truly is a mystery!
February 11, 2008
Ann Rule is the only true crime I ever read. She tries to give a voice and a memory to the victims of the crimes, and she tells the stories in a sensitive way, with a minimum of gore or sensationalism.
Whenever I read her books, it's always so unbelievable to me how these women lie to themselves and don't pay attention to what their senses are telling them!
Rule's stories are constant reminders to trust yourself and don't try to silence that little voice inside you that says something's not quite right about a person or situation.
Whenever I read her books, it's always so unbelievable to me how these women lie to themselves and don't pay attention to what their senses are telling them!
Rule's stories are constant reminders to trust yourself and don't try to silence that little voice inside you that says something's not quite right about a person or situation.
January 23, 2011
I had trouble putting this one down. Each story was different, and I prefer shorter stories that don't get dragged down by incessant details. The story of the possible spontaneous human combustion felt a little out of place to me in this book. I felt it belonged more in a "Strange but True" book. It is so sad that too many men all over from every culture feel it is alright to dominate and control and belittle and abuse women. Very poignant stories.
February 4, 2011
I have become a big Ann Rule fan. I started listening to her books on Cd, but liked them so much, I'm starting to get them in paperback now.
This particular book was about different wives that were murdered and in the last one, a wife who was the murderer. Rule gave a fascinating, balanced take on the Mary Winkler case. I love everything about how Ann Rule covers these true, crime cases. She advocates for the many women who are victims and wants justice to be done.
This particular book was about different wives that were murdered and in the last one, a wife who was the murderer. Rule gave a fascinating, balanced take on the Mary Winkler case. I love everything about how Ann Rule covers these true, crime cases. She advocates for the many women who are victims and wants justice to be done.
August 1, 2011
I like all her books. They have good photos of the people, the tone she uses is factual but sympathetic toward the victim, and intrigue. I have a sociology major and took criminal justice, so these books are right up my alley. I can't read or watch that fake CSI stuff.
July 5, 2019
I love reading Ann Rule's true crime books because they are based in Seattle, Portland and other places in the PNW. Although Ann has since passed away, her direct, factual writing style about true horrific crimes continues to fascinate, especially since I live in the PNW.
June 8, 2012
This isn't one of my favorites but I enjoyed it still. I grew tired of the actual stories, not Rule's writing, and I think it might simply be because I wasn't in a t.c. mood.
February 3, 2009
It troubles me that Ann Rule so easily finds so many stories to write about--it means there is just that much scariness and evil in this world!
May 12, 2011
OK book - like her full length novels better and I think her first books were also better but being an Ann Rule fan, I will always read anything by her.
August 21, 2016
I Liked this but. But then Again I love all her books. Some of these stories left me speechless as to how many deranged people is out in this world. and how many gets away with murder.
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