Tarfumes.com - House of Evil: The Indiana Torture Slaying (St. Martin's True Crime Library)

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Manufacturer: St. Martin's True Crime

Average Customer Rating:

Binding: Mass Market Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 364.15230977252
EAN: 9780312946999
ISBN: 0312946996
Label: St. Martin's True Crime
Manufacturer: St. Martin's True Crime
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 256
Publication Date: 2008-07-29
Publisher: St. Martin's True Crime
Release Date: 2008-07-29
Studio: St. Martin's True Crime

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Editorial Reviews:

In the heart of Indianapolis in the mid 1960’s, through a twist of fate and fortune, a pretty young girl came to live with a thirty-seven-year-old mother and her seven children. What began as a temporary childcare arrangement between Sylvia Likens’s parents and Gertrude Baniszewski turned into a crime that would haunt cops, prosecutors, and a community for decades to come…

When police found Sylvia’s emaciated body, with a chilling message carved into her flesh, they knew that she had suffered tremendously before her death. Soon they would learn how many others—including some of Baniszewski’s own children—participated in Sylvia’s murder, and just how much torture had been inflicted in one HOUSE OF EVIL

Spotlight customer reviews:

Customer Rating:

Summary: Boring and no depth.
Comment: A crime as terrible as this deserves much more detail and in depth research. Instead, all we get is mostly courtroom testimony (not even court room drama) and basic, on the surface facts. Nothing that delves into the lives of any of the characters or really why they did what they did.

I would not suggest buying this book.

Customer Rating:

Summary: Very Good Book
Comment: This was a very good book. I recommend getting it. Its worth the 7 dollars paid.

Customer Rating:

Summary: Just ok book
Comment: I watched the movie that was on Showtime or whatever and was instantly interested in reading the book because I wanted to learn more about this poor girls life and what lead up to her death. I was disappointed in this book. There isn't enough detail about exactly what happened to her and half the book is the courtroom which bored me to tears.

Customer Rating:

Summary: Page Turner
Comment: I read this book in two days. I hadn't even heard of this crime until I bought this book. The author explains why it was reprinted in the preface. It was well written and well structured. Great read. I'd highly recommend it to all you true crime readers. It's one of those crimes that will haunt you for a long time.

Customer Rating:

Summary: Same story with minor amendments
Comment: I once owned the reprint of this book, but was so disturbed by what I read that I very scarcely read it and eventually gave it to someone who needed it for research this past spring. Last month I decided to give it another chance and bought this new paperback version. For those who have not heard this story, let me tell you something: This tale of the sadistic side of human nature is just as horrific the second or third or tenth time around as it is the first. To this day, my head spins and my stomach churns as I think of the unspeakable horror that sixteen-year-old Sylvia Likens endured at the hands of her monsterous caretaker, her equally heartless children, and their demented friends. This is a story that in four years time has NEVER left my memory and probably never will. If you do decide to read about this, prepare to be shocked as this story is told with a terrifying realism that should only exist in our nightmares.

As for the differences between this publication and the original, this book is in fact the same book, except that: 1. This book is a traditional paperback book as opposed to the copy with the original red vellum cover (hence, the steep price tag for the latter); 2. There is an added foreword as well as an updated afterword; and 3. The photos have been moved to the very middle of the book as opposed to the random placement in the original, including two or three never-before-seen pictures. There are also some very minor amendments such as the name of the song that Sylvia sang at night and the change in spelling of her older sister's name ('Dianna' as opposed to 'Diana'). Since this is more or less the same publication, and neither better nor worse than the first copy, I'll give it the same rating as I did originally: 4 stars.

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