Love Hurts: The True Story of a Teen Romance, a Vicious Plot, and a Family Murdered

by Keith Elliot Greenberg

Alba, Texas. In 2008, Terry Caffey, a home health care aide and aspiring preacher, was asleep in his bedroom when he woke up to a barrage of bullets. His wife, Penny, was killed instantly. With blood pouring from five bullet wounds, among other serious injuries, Terry tried―but failed―to save his two youngest children before crawling out of his burning house. Meanwhile, Terry's sixteen-year-old daughter, Erin, was missing… Once Erin was found by local authorities, she claimed she had been kidnapped―but could not remember the details. It wasn't until Terry was fully conscious that he could explain what had really He'd been shot, point-blank, by two young men. One of them he did not know; the other was Charlie James Wilkinson. Charlie was Erin's nineteen-year-old boyfriend, forbidden from entering the Caffey home. Until Erin helped Charlie come up with a plan to do away with her disapproving parents once and for all…

Genres: True Crime, Nonfiction, Crime

256 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published December 1, 2010

About the author

Keith Elliot Greenberg is a New York Times bestselling author and producer for America's Most Wanted. In addition to producing programs for VH1, 48 Hours, MSNBC Investigates, the History Channel, and Court TV, among others, Greenberg has authored more than thirty nonfiction books and written for such outlets as Maxim, The Village Voice, The New York Observer, USA Today, Playboy.com, and US Weekly."

Reviews

[Julia · Rating 3 out of 5]

This true-crime book about a young sheltered teenage girl, who with her 18 year old boyfriend and their mutual friends, plot the murder of her parents and younger brothers so they can be together.
This book was sad, shocking and unbelievable. It also made me angry because there were several ways in which this crime could have been avoided.
The writing itself was just ok, the author seemed to contradict himself while describing people personalities and IMO there were some parts of the book that were not relevant to either the people involved or the crime itself. Even so, I would read other books by this author.

[Holly Morey · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the true story of the Caffey murders, which occurred in Alba Texas. It is a compilation of different opinions from friends and family members of the accused as well as the deceased. Mr Greenberg does not inject his own opinions but interviews many members of the press as well as the community. He presents all sides and allows the reader to form their own opinions.

[Ronnie Cramer · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sad story of a teenage girl who talks her boyfriend into slaughtering her family. Much of the book is devoted to the reactions of neighbors, family members, etc.

[Kari Beh · Rating 5 out of 5]

True story that will break your heart to know that a young daughter will have her family murdered just to be with a guy they did not like. The father is truly an inspiration to all people who fear the worse. GREAT book! The write is good too. It is a MUST READ!

[Ceeceereads · Rating 4 out of 5]

Having been familiar with this case after seeing it on a Piers Morgan documentary, I thought I knew all there was to know. After reading this book, turns out there was a lot under the surface that is worthy of exploration.

Teenage love, family life, stressors, personalities, and how it somehow came together to produce a catastrophic event. The author did a great job of describing it exactly how it felt- a crime so heinous in nature, no logical justification would suffice. Only a ‘how could this happen?’ And ‘why’.

It seemed that Erin Caffey was a ticking time bomb. A sheltered life, strict parents, a desire for boyfriends and freedom at odds with a Christian lifestyle. Resentment, manipulation and the desire to annihilate. This book paints a thorough picture of the perpetrators and how many who knew them in the community assumed them to be good kids. It’s a hard reach to think of normal teenagers doing a crime such as this and that is what is so mind boggling about it.

Thought- provoking, factual, very well presented. An interesting look at a despicable crime.
4.5 stars.

[Robert Andres · Rating 3 out of 5]

Small town. Wacky religion. Religious people. Poverty. Uneducated white trash. Guns. Texas. Red State. All ingredients to this kind of ess aych eye tee. The father is a complete moron. Stood by his daughter in the courtroom with his hand on her wrist. Blames it on "demons."

[Abigail Barrera · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was the most comprehensive book I could find on this case. It was a look at the community, people who knew the family, and had a lot of extra detail on the case I wasn’t able to find anywhere else.

[Nicole · Rating 3 out of 5]

Kind of drawn out; a few sentence/grammatical/spelling errors.

[Joleen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Too long. Went off into too many rabbit holes.

[Dawn · Rating 4 out of 5]

This true crime book is straightforward. The story was told in the original time-line without the back and forth time-lines in many true crime stories. I am not sure justice was truly served.

[Thomas Jones · Rating 5 out of 5]

It certainly does

So sad all the way around. Very well written. These kids ended innocence, then their very own lives as well.

[grace ritter · Rating 2 out of 5]

Was not my favorite true crime book but it was not bad. It has the details you need to understand the crime, but not too much more than that.

[Julie · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is one of the most disorganized books I've read in quite some time. It feels like a first draft. The author doesn't seem to be very clear on what he wants the book to be about. Is it the Caffey family murders or small-town crimes? At times, Greenberg throws in details about similar cases but they feel like just that...they were thrown in at random to draw comparisons on other murders but don't add anything to the narrative.

One of my brothers lives in Emory, Texas, and so I remember hearing much about the murders when they happened. I didn't know there was a book (of course there's a book, there's always a book now!) until I saw it in a brochure for Doubleday book club. Both my brother and I have now read it and felt the same way about the writing. It's a poorly written book about a horrific crime but does provide a fair amount of information and background on the teenagers involved. The author doesn't take sides and seems to stick to presenting facts and accounts without commentary. For that, it gets 2 stars.

[Andrea Watson · Rating 3 out of 5]

An interesting story, although presented in a bit of a disjointed manner. It seemed the author wanted to focus on the true crime side of the story but couldn't resist the religious angle too. Mr. Caffey's story is undeniably amazing but this presentation didn't seem to merge the two genres well.

[Karen · Rating 4 out of 5]

I can never get over the fact that kids are killing for such horrible things.

This 16yo girl planned her familys murder so she can be with the boy she liked after her parents made her break up with him. Really?!

I never had that thought even remotely cross my mind when I was younger...

[Sharon · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting book on a tragic event that should never have happened. No matter how well many parents know their children, it's very doubtful a parent will know everything that goes through their mind, or what they are capable of.

[Nicole Vasquez · Rating 4 out of 5]

I thought thiss book was a great book! and is a very good book for teenagers to read!

[Ashley]

#
NC
Own in hardback.

FS: "Don't leave me, Mom."

LS: "They had blonde hair and blue eyes and talked real good."

[Whitney Archer · Rating 2 out of 5]

A random find at work: read it because it was about a homeschooled Texas girl who murdered her family and I hadn't heard the story.