I bought the book and am reading it now. It is very hard to put down and even though I don't know any of the players in this story personally, I am familiar with the names since I used to live in Chester, IL.
One of the local papers had a front page story this past week about the book. The editor of the paper is from Percy, IL which is where Ron Coleman is from, and it has been obvious throughout the whole ordeal that there is bias in the reporting. I do believe the paper tries to give equality, but the personal feelings of the editor still shine through.
According to the article, Ron Coleman states that his family would get a room for Sheri's family for the funeral and Mario told him they weren't coming down. He reports that they received paperwork trying to block the funeral and that they had nothing against Sheri's family, however, it is being "painted" as they did.(in the book, I presume)
Ron Coleman states that his family was not interviewed for the book. He claims to have wanted to talk to Cuneo, but not until the trial was over. He complains that he doesn't know how the book can be a true story since Cuneo didn't speak with him. Coleman is apparently particularly hot over a direct quote in the book attributed to him, "Anybody who believes my son did this, leave my church right now!" I haven't gotten to this part of the book yet, but supposedly he made that statement in his church as things were heating up. Some members did in fact leave the congregation.
"That is lawsuit material," the Journal reports Ron Coleman as saying. According to him, he would never say anything like that. Cuneo corroborated the statement with "at least three independent people". Cuneo rebutted the accusation that he didn't get back to Coleman for interview saying that he had been told by a church secretary that if Coleman wished to speak to him, that she would call him. She never did apparently. Other family members refused interviews.
Coleman still hangs on to the idea that his son did not get a fair trial. He said that they counted it up and the defense only received 48 minutes of questioning during the trial. He stated that due to conflict of interest, the appeal will be held in Springfield or Chicago. In the Journal article, Ron Coleman said that Chris told him if he loses his appeal, he is fine with Sheri and the boys being moved closer to her family. Coleman expressed the feeling that if his son was in fact guilty, "let's face the truth and move on with our lives."
Just to give you all a rundown of what is being said locally by the media. I paraphrased to give the gist.
Tonight, I'm sure I'll stay up late once again to read more of the book.
