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In Plain Sight
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Group read of In Plain Sight
message 51:
by
Fishface
(new)
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rated it 3 stars
Jun 04, 2018 05:11PM
Sure, but you don't always have to. Many's the time I've come across a book with a photo of the criminal on the jacket, which breathlessly describes him as irresistable to women because he's so gosh darn handsome and devastatingly charismatic. And he's a total mope. Now the cast of characters in this book is just too unusual for anyone to try to go down that road. It's all about what's going on between their ears.
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Lady♥Belleza★✰ wrote: "WHY DID NO ONE TELL ME I SPELLED SIGHT WRONG?!!"Hahaha....I was wondering!
message 54:
by
Lady ♥ Belleza, Gif Princesa
(last edited Jun 05, 2018 07:52AM)
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rated it 4 stars
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It took me until now to realize you were talking about the case I posted about. Duhhhhhh, my brain is frozen I think.
Now if I hear you wrote the book I'll just have to show myself out!
Lady♥Belleza★✰ wrote: "Kathryn wrote: "That's the Whitaker case. So tragic. "It took me until now to realize you were talking about the case I posted about. Duhhhhhh, my brain is frozen I think.
Now if I hear you wrot..."
No me, but I think there are a couple of books on the case, including one written by the dad.
Fishface wrote: "Sure, but you don't always have to. Many's the time I've come across a book with a photo of the criminal on the jacket, which breathlessly describes him as irresistable to women because he's so gos..."I run into this. It's pretty funny. But sometimes it's the package, the charisma and the looks, and in person people find them irresistible while that doesn't come through in the photos. Ana Trujillo in POSSESSED is like that. People found Ana intoxicating, but in the photos - especially the later ones of her - she doesn't look at all beautiful.
Fishface wrote: "Hmm, then maybe it's just that Texas authors are more likely to publish the details of the flakier cases. I wonder...I, personally, am thrilled to be reading about another multiple murderer nickn..."
There are others?
Koren wrote: "Kathryn wrote: "Koren wrote: "Fishface wrote: "It's hard to believe the beautiful, happy woman in the photos inside the book is the same person as the shagged-out creature with the bloodhound face ..."I think a lot of folks compare the descriptions and the photos. The last three books have had the photos scattered throughout rather than in a special section. Overall readers seem to like that.
Mod
It took me until now to realize you were talking about the case I posted about. Duhhhhhh, my brain is frozen I think.
..."
Savage Son was the one I read. I found, interestingly enough, by looking at the footnotes in the wiki article.
Corey Mitchell, right? Corey passed away years ago. Really sad.
Kathryn wrote: "Fishface wrote: "Hmm, then maybe it's just that Texas authors are more likely to publish the details of the flakier cases. I wonder...I, personally, am thrilled to be reading about another multip..."
Only one I know of. I followed his case because he got busted right in the town where I grew up. There's no book on him but here's his Murderpedia page:
http://murderpedia.org/male.A/a/armst...
They both go by Eric, too!
Mod
I think I posted about that when it happened. Heart attack right?
Lady♥Belleza★✰ wrote: "Kathryn wrote: "Corey Mitchell, right? Corey passed away years ago. Really sad."I think I posted about that when it happened. Heart attack right?"
I had totally forgotten that Corey died.
I don't believe one word out of Kim Williams mouth.
I haven't heard her say anything yet! Of course her mugshot is on the back of the book. She may have good reasons to lie like a rug.
Fishface wrote: "I haven't heard her say anything yet! Of course her mugshot is on the back of the book. She may have good reasons to lie like a rug."***Possible spoiler alert***
Apparently she is not too bright. I have not seen her intelligence addressed but I'm not buying the excuse that it is her drug-addled brain. I'm about 220 pages in and he has just killed Mike and Cynthia so I'm guessing there is more to come about her.
Well, there are all the opioids she's on, too. That doesn't improve the way anyone thinks.
I’m not buying into her “victim mentality” at all!! She had so many chances to say something! I don’t care how many drugs she was on...
I'm really conflicted on my feelings about Kim. On one hand, I feel she may really not have realized exactly how unhinged her husband was, when she, herself was barely conscious most of the time. And with her illness and failing looks, maybe she felt she had no one, but Eric. She didn't want to lose him, therefore she put up with/condoned his actions and behavior. But, then her enthusiasm for that mobster Facebook game and taking out people has me wondering if maybe she was enthusiastic about Eric's plans as well. This is all a bunch of rambling and I'm only about 200 or so pages in, so I guess I have plenty of time to form a concrete opinion.
Ashleigh wrote: "I'm really conflicted on my feelings about Kim. On one hand, I feel she may really not have realized exactly how unhinged her husband was, when she, herself was barely conscious most of the time. A..."Just finished the book. I would recommend you wait until you get to the end before you form an opinion about Kim. You might be surprised. I was expecting she would use the excuse of being under the influence of drugs to try to get off. Well...I wont say anymore...
On the subject of Kim's drug use...I was curious about how she kept on getting all the drugs. Was Eric getting them for her? It hardly seems like she had the ambition to go to the doctor and make up all the stories she would have to do to get that many drugs. In my experience as a nurse, it seems like it is getting harder and harder to get that many narcotics legitimately.
Kathryn, I love the way you ended the book...with a puzzle. Makes it seem interactive. However, I am totally clueless and cant wait to see if others have any idea.
Lady♥Belleza★✰ wrote: "Kathryn wrote: "Corey Mitchell, right? Corey passed away years ago. Really sad."I think I posted about that when it happened. Heart attack right?"
Yes. Very sad. Corey did die of a heart attack.
It's interesting reading what all of you are thinking about Kim. The drugs were prescription drugs through her doctor. Eric wasn't orchestrating that. Why the doctor would prescribe such heavy doses, I mean she had liquid morphine in the refrigerator, is beyond me. Absolutely crazy. This was five/six years ago, and I think it has gotten harder since then to get opioids, perhaps? There are issues in this books readers are going to have to decide for themselves about, like whether or not Eric was over-prosecuted for the computer monitors. Was he treated fairly? (Not that anything justifies his actions.) Another is Kim's role. I personally see her as part dupe, part victim, and part cheerleader. I don't know if Eric would have done this without her. He seems to have craved having an audience. What do you think?
As to the emails at the end: No one has solved the puzzle yet. Perhaps they're totally benign, some kind of game Eric played, but when I showed him those emails he sincerely blanched. He looked shocked. So I do wonder.
Regarding the drugs: I only know from working in long-term care that it is getting harder to get those drugs legitimately. On the street could be a different matter.
Koren wrote: "Regarding the drugs: I only know from working in long-term care that it is getting harder to get those drugs legitimately. On the street could be a different matter."On the street you can get a year's supply of heroin for the same price as a small handful of Oxys or Percodans or whatever. Of course the heroin may have been cut with anything from rat poison to Drano, but we all have budgets to worry about.
I usually dont read the reviews for a book until I'm done as they too often contain spoilers. I might read them when I am deciding if I want to buy a book but by the time I get the book I have forgotten what they said. So now that I am done I went to Amazon to read the reviews for this book. 119 reviews, almost all 5 star reviews with a few 4 stars. One 4 star review had nothing but praise and said they couldn't wait for your next book so I'm wondering why they only gave it 4 stars. No reviews less than that. Congratulations Kathryn! Well deserved in my opinion. I will post a review later. I haven't decided what I want to say.
Kathryn wrote: "It's interesting reading what all of you are thinking about Kim. The drugs were prescription drugs through her doctor. Eric wasn't orchestrating that. Why the doctor would prescribe such heavy dose..."Kathryn,
Your comment wondering if Eric would have done this without Kim and how he seemed to need an audience really seems right on target to me. I hadn’t considered that aspect of it before.
I still can’t see how she could hear the threats and not tamp it down
or take action, but Eric ultimately made the choice to kill. Thanks for your insight!
Kathryn wrote: "It's interesting reading what all of you are thinking about Kim. The drugs were prescription drugs through her doctor. Eric wasn't orchestrating that. Why the doctor would prescribe such heavy dose..."About the opioids: we're just coming out of a crazy phase in medical history when the common belief was thar you have a "right" to be pain-free at all times. When I was in college, a person in agonizing pain with 2 days to live still wouldn't be given opiates "because they might get addicted." Somehow the pendulum has swung all the way to doctors saying bat-crap-insane things like "if you're really in pain, you can't get addicted" and "I can tell you're not an addictive personality, so there's no danger." And now look where we are. Now that we're knee-deep in bodies they're finally startung to see the problem. But I think many, many MDs still don't realize that opioids inherently create dependency. Kim could just be a doctor-shopping painkiller seeker or she could just have one of those clueless doctors.
Koren wrote: "I usually dont read the reviews for a book until I'm done as they too often contain spoilers. I might read them when I am deciding if I want to buy a book but by the time I get the book I have forg..."Thanks, Koren. Yes, the reviews are amazing. I'm truly grateful. Readers are just the coolest people. Thanks for reviewing, when you're ready.
Fishface wrote: "Kathryn wrote: "It's interesting reading what all of you are thinking about Kim. The drugs were prescription drugs through her doctor. Eric wasn't orchestrating that. Why the doctor would prescribe..."She told me the drugs were all from one doctor, and that every time she complained about pain, he wrote a new prescription. It's interesting that she got off them with relative ease and now just takes an anti-inflammatory when she has a rough day. I do wonder if she hadn't been so sick and so addicted if she would have made better choices. She could truly have stopped Eric at any time. But perhaps she wouldn't have. You know, there is this whole thing about toxic couples, who perhaps wouldn't kill as individuals, but they become lethal together.
Was she afraid of him turning on her? She had plenty of evidence that he couldn't handle disappointment!
I do believe that she was afraid of Eric, at the same time she loved him. There was physical evidence in the house that backed up Kim's stories about Eric shooting his guns, etc. I have a quote in the book about how some saw Eric and Kim's relationship as oddly symbiotic, and I think that's probably accurate. They were connected in a very twisted way.
Started my next TC book, a book of short crimes by M. William Phelps called Murderer's Row. Just a few pages into the book and it mentions the game Dungeons and Dragons. I'm thinking "wow, didn't Kathryn's book also mention Dungeons and Dragons"? I've never seen this game but it sounds like it has a lot of violence in it. Have there been any studies about the correlation between violent video games and crimes committed?
Not that I know of, but the game is pretty controversial. Take a look. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dungeon...
One of the requirements for me to give a 5 star rating to a TC book is that is has to have something unique. Frankly, I'm tired of spouse killers. This book certainly fits the requirement.
Koren wrote: "One of the requirements for me to give a 5 star rating to a TC book is that is has to have something unique. Frankly, I'm tired of spouse killers. This book certainly fits the requirement."Thanks, Koren. Yes, this is a strange one.
One of the really gratifying things about the reviews is that some of the ones on Amazon are written by people in Kaufman and those who know people in the book. There's a new one that just went up today like that. It's so reassuring to read that I got the story and people right. I try hard to be balanced, so this is really important to me.
One of the things that I'm really living about this book, is that I actually feel connected to the people. They aren't just "characters" in a book. I can feel that they are real people with real lives. That's something I struggle a lot while watching/reading true crime; that feeling that these are REAL people. I feel disconnected a lot. I've cried real tears over these people. And I actually had to take a break from reading because I was reading about one particular person and her fears and knowing what was going to happen to her in the end, it was too much. I'm hoping to pick it back up again when I'm in a better frame of mind. But, I will definitely pick up more of your novels after this!
Thank you, Ashleigh. You know, I get attached to the people, too. Such tragedies.
Koren wrote: "Have there been any studies about the correlation between violent video games and crimes committed? "There was a lot of talk about this when Dungeons and Dragons first came out -- well before the first violent video game, I think we were all still playing Pong in those days! -- and there have been several studies. None of them show any clear connection between real life violence and video-game or RPG violence. Everyone asks about it all over again when the newest Adam Lanza comes along. The truth may be simply that violent people are unlikely to enjoy Candy Crush as much as they enjoy Black Ops, but mainly because they were already violent people.
Fishface wrote: "Koren wrote: "Have there been any studies about the correlation between violent video games and crimes committed? "There was a lot of talk about this when Dungeons and Dragons first came out -- w..."
Good point.
I remember when Columbine happened I was in Junior High and people tried to blame Marilyn Manson for it.
Mod
I'm about 2/3 of the way into the book and I'm starting to see where the killer went wrong. He made an elementary error -- is anyone but me in this group familiar with the fatal flaw in Sideshow Bob's homicidal plans? This guy has exactly the same problem.
Mod
THE STORY OF WHITE SETTLEMENT
I knew there was something about this guy's name that snagged in my mind. Eric Lyle Williams reninds me of Erik and Lyle Menendez, 2 other guys who decided to bite the hand that fed them...
Fishface wrote: "Koren wrote: "Have there been any studies about the correlation between violent video games and crimes committed? "There was a lot of talk about this when Dungeons and Dragons first came out -- w..."
I read some studies recently, and the conclusions were that children predisposed to being aggressive display increased aggression with exposure to violent video games. So it may be one of multiple factors. I think with Eric it was more the role playing that instilled this duplicity in him. He was one thing on the outside, but had this secret personality he hid from most people.
Well, it sounds in the book as if plenty of people felt funny anout him.
You know, it's one of those "hair on the back of your neck" things. Their instincts warned them, Eric made the occasional bizarre statement, but up until the theft trial, he was pretty much accepted. Because there was that other Eric with his dimples and crooked smile, and most didn't think he'd REALLY do anything.
Yeah, but he went farther than the average bear in doing somerhing nobody thought him capable of. He's no Gary Ridgway, but still.Do you suppose that's why the courts went after him so big in the first place? So much of the legal system, in spite of all the rules and regs, is about your public image and the way people see you.
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Obsessed with True Crime
Books mentioned in this topic
Helter Skelter: The True Story of the Manson Murders (other topics)Savage Son (other topics)
The Laughing Gorilla: A True Story of Police Corruption and Murder (other topics)
