One of the first reviews on Amazon of our new book, The Unforgiven, comes from David Hendricks. His story involving the ax murders of his wife and three children was the subject of our first book, Reasonable Doubt. Give Hendricks’s review (and those of others) a look at https://www.amazon.com/Unforgiven-Untold-Womans-Search-Justice/dp/1543962009/ref=sr_1_fkmrnull_1?keywords=the+unforgiven+vogel&qid=1557672020&s=gateway&sr=8-1-fkmrnull#customerReviews
In relation to Mr. Hendricks’s review:
Being the true crime fanatic that I am, in combination with the fact that I am a born Boomingtonite I am fascinated by the Hendricks case. I am about 3/4 of the way through “Reasonable Doubt” right now . That being said, I clicked the link to David Hendricks’s Amazon review of your new book on the Hamm/LaGrone case….. And after reading the following quote, felt a twinge of uneasiness: “I ached for those poor children trapped in the car—dying and knowing it!”…….. I would like to emphasize that last line. “dying and knowing it!” It felt to me as if he was subconsciously wording it that way to inadvertently excuse his own killing of 3 children who never saw it coming and didn’t know they were going to die before they expired from a blitz style attack in the dead of night. Call me crazy but that one sentence chilled me to the bone! What are your thoughts on this?
Yours is a very interesting observation that hadn’t occurred to me. In the context of a belief that Hendricks killed his family, and in a way that they never “knew” it, I can see why you’d find the comment chilling. On the other hand, if you believe Hendricks is innocent of the crime, then the comment is generally empathetic or compassionate. I hope you’ll touch bases again after you’ve finished “Reasonable Doubt” (hoping you’re reading the updated version that came out a year ago) and maybe even review it on Amazon, Goodreads, etc. And I also hope you’ll read “The Unforgiven” too. Thanks for your interest and comment, Amy.
I just got finished reading The Unforgiven and have lots of questions. But I’ll start off with one for right now. Was the car they were in that went into the lake stick shift or automatic? I can’t understand why in the world she was trying to tell him how to back the car up?
The vehicle had an automatic transmission, the control mechanism mounted on the steering column. In the weeks to come, we’ll be posting on this website a couple of videos–one shown in court is of the prosecution’s test of the actual car, sending it into the water; the other (not shown in court) is a defense test with a similar car on a similar incline. Both are quite interesting. Ref Hamm telling LaGrone how to back up, clearly there was some apprehension about being so close to the water. Thanks for reading the book. I hope you’ll do an online review on Amazon, Goodreads or the like.