| The Darkest Night: Two Sisters, a Brutal Murder, and the Loss of Innocence in a Small Town | 
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Avg. Customer Rating:   (based on 26 reviews)
Sales Rank: 1858
Category: Book
Author: Ron Franscell
Publisher: St. Martin's True Crime
Studio: St. Martin's True Crime
Manufacturer: St. Martin's True Crime
Label: St. Martin's True Crime
Languages: English (Unknown), English (Original Language), English (Published)
Media: Mass Market Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 320
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.3
Dimensions (in): 6.7 x 4.1 x 1.1
ISBN: 0312948468
Dewey Decimal Number: 364.15230978793
EAN: 9780312948467
ASIN: 0312948468
Publication Date: March 4, 2008
Release Date: March 4, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Product Description
Casper, Wyoming:1973. Eleven-year-old Amy Burridge rides with her eighteen-year-old sister, Becky, to the grocery store. When they finish their shopping, Becky?s car gets a flat tire. Two men politely offer them a ride home. But they were anything but Good Samaritans. The girls would suffer unspeakable crimes at the hands of these men before being thrown from a bridge into the North Platte River. One miraculously survived. The other did not.
Years later, author and journalist Ron Franscell?who lived in Casper at the time of the crime, and was a friend to Amy and Becky?can?t forget Wyoming?s most shocking story of abduction, rape, and murder. Neither could Becky, the surviving sister. The two men who violated her and Amy were sentenced to life in prison, but the demons of her past kept haunting Becky?until she met her fate years later at the same bridge where she?d lost her sister.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 21 more reviews...
 Tragic story September 8, 2008
4 out of 4 found this review helpful
I was 5 years old when this crime occurred. Despite being a Montanan, I hadn't heard of this Wyoming crime before seeing this book. The book is well written and fairly well organized. It is a very good book and one that I couldn't put down for long.
However, although it's interesting, I didn't think the excerpts from Ronald Kennedy's unpublished autobiography needed to be included. It was long and out of place. I'd much rather have read a life sketch of Becky and Amy. Although there was a slight one of Amy, there wasn't much on Becky. We learned about the killers' personal and family histories, but not that of the victims. I felt that was a tad unfair.
Because other Natrona County and Casper area crimes were included in the book, I felt that the murder of Lisa Kimmell, who was kidnapped from a Casper area rest stop, held hostage, raped, and then murdered and thrown off Government Bridge in 1988 should have been included as well. It wasn't solved for 14 years, but was publicized nationally over the years.
Personally, I do hope that Kennedy and Jenkins rot in the hot place. The death penalty sentence should never have been overturned in my not so humble opinion.
You Won't Forget It September 5, 2008
5 out of 6 found this review helpful
This has to be one of the most haunting crime stories I have read. The torture, both mentally and physically, these two young girls were subjected to is gut wrenching. The residual result of survivor guilt for one will tear your heart out.
I must say the writer does repeat himself over and over again. This became frustrating causing me to skip through the book to the actual case.
One other comment...It bothered me that the writer would write many pages of the book using one of the murderers memoirs that the murderer had written while in prison. I don't think we needed to know about the murderer's own book of "memoirs." There were so many excerpts of it published in this book. I didn't quite understand why. It wasn't necessary. We were already informed of his past. Perhaps not giving it a title would have been a better choice. And I certainly didn't think it was appropriate to name a chapter of the book after the name the murderer chose for his own title for the memoirs. I'm sure the sociopathic murderer enjoyed reading his memoirs in the book. He's just that kind of murderer. Just my opinion.
 A little disappointed September 1, 2008
1 out of 12 found this review helpful
This was not written well. Elimate the repeated and repeated and repeated sentences the story could be told in a book 1/3 size of the purchased book. Elimate the repeated and repeated and repeated sentences the story could be told in a book 1/3 size of the purchased book. Elimate the repeated and repeated and repeated sentences the story could be told in a book 1/3 size of the purchased book. See what I mean.
 One of the most horrific crimes in American history... August 21, 2008
9 out of 9 found this review helpful
The story Becky Thompson and Amy Burridge is one that continues to haunt the American psyche more than three decades later. The darkness that these poor girls were subjected to goes beyond evil, into the realm of the demonic. I would like to say that these events were unique, but unfortunately they are not, as evidenced by other such true accounts in books like:
Pure Murder (Pinnacle True Crime)
and
Sex Kill: Lust crimes that shocked a generation!
...which are well worth reading. The lesson to be learned here is that vigilance must always be maintained in dealing with strangers or even casual acquaintances - and that trusting too easily can mean the difference between life and death.
Haunting. July 29, 2008
10 out of 10 found this review helpful
Amazon Kept Recommending this book to me and I would ignore it because I had never heard of the Author.I found it in the book store the other day,decided to pick it up. I'm so glad I did! This book is so different than the regular True Crime that we usualy see.It goes more into the effect of what a Horrible crime does to the Survivor,Community as well as the Author.It is a very well written,touching story.It has broken my heart and this case will stay with me for a lifetimeI highly recommend it for not only True Crime readers but for everyone.
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