Powell case will be turned into crime book

[hollyblue]

The bizarre twists and turns in the case of missing West Valley City mother Susan Powell have all the makings of a true crime novel.
And now, the case will become just that: Renowned crime writer Ann Rule — who has tackled the stories of serial murderer Ted Bundy and the Green River Killer, Gary Leon Ridgway, during her 35-year career— plans to publish a book on the story of Susan Powell, who disappeared two years ago, and her husband, Josh, who killed himself and his two sons in a fiery blaze earlier this month.
Chuck Cox, Susan Powell’s father, confirmed Tuesday that he and his wife Judy will meet with Rule on Thursday as the Seattle-based author continues work on a project about his daughter and son-in-law.

http://www.sltrib.com/sltrib/news/53561249-78/powell-cox-case-rule.html.csp

 

[Yellow Rose]

I LOVE Ann Rule. Her books are very well put together and wonderfully investigated.

 

[GateKeeper]

Sadly,this is ONE book that will NOT have a happy ending.

...thinking of you Susun.

 

[Nova]

I'm sorry to pick, but Ann Rule doesn't write "true crime novels." She write true-crime, nonfiction books and I'm sure her treatment of the Susan Powell case will be one of those.

 

[watcher9]

There will probably be a movie made of this case also.

Today I was watching the movie Bitter Blood (again) made from a book of the same name and saw so many similarities to this case. For those who don't remember, it was about bitter custody battles that ended when the mother along with her two sons and her lunatic cousin boyfriend blew themselves up back in 1985 to avoid being arrested.

Everyone knew the boys were in danger but a judge allowed the mother to keep them anyway. LE could have arrested the boyfriend earlier for another crime (impersonating a doctor) but instead they were concentrating on building their case for the murder of five people. They held off doing anything until it was too late.

Since that was sixteen years ago, I guess nothing was learned and nothing has changed.

[ame="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bitter_Blood"]Bitter Blood - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia[/ame]

 

[Sulamith]

There will probably be a movie made of this case also.

Today I was watching the movie Bitter Blood (again) made from a book of the same name and saw so many similarities to this case. For those who don't remember, it was about bitter custody battles that ended when the mother along with her two sons and her lunatic cousin boyfriend blew themselves up back in 1985 to avoid being arrested.

Everyone knew the boys were in danger but a judge allowed the mother to keep them anyway. LE could have arrested the boyfriend earlier for another crime (impersonating a doctor) but instead they were concentrating on building their case for the murder of five people. They held off doing anything until it was too late.

Since that was sixteen years ago, I guess nothing was learned and nothing has changed.

Bitter Blood - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

I have read "Bitter Blood". I do not see any similarities between that story and Susan Powell's disappearance. Susan never filed for divorce nor was there any child custody battles between Susan and Josh Powell.

 

[watcher9]

I haven't read the book and don't know if the movie was a fair representation.
I would be interested in reading the book though.

I was not talking about Susan at all.

I saw similarities between Josh and Fritz (the boyfriend). They were both suspected murderers.

I was talking about later after Susan disappeared when the grandparents were trying to keep the boys safe and Josh was being allowed to have visitation rights over their protests. In the movie the father was trying to get custody of his sons to keep them safe but the judge kept overruling his protests.

The grandparents knew and everyone else knew that Josh had killed Susan. LE already had evidence with the blood on the floor and Susan's note and that the boys were already talking and drawing pictures about their mother's death that night. I assume LE was trying to build their case of murder by finding Susan's body. In the movie, LE had already determined that Fritz had murdered those five people, but were still building their case.

There was an upcoming evaluation hearing with Josh. In the movie, there was an upcoming custody hearing where the mother's father was going to testify for the boy's father and against her.

In the end Josh ended up blowing himself and his two sons up. In the movie, Fritz and the mother blew themselves up along with her two sons.

Why couldn't they have arrested Josh earlier for the terrible pictures on his PC or for murder as a way to keep him behind bars before that fateful day? Just as in the movie where LE didn't arrest the boyfriend earlier for another crime nor did they get him with murder charges before that fateful day in 1985. (I know, hindsight.)

Sixteen years later and there is still a problem with minors being allowed to stay with suspected murderers.

I hope I have explained myself a little better.

 

[Sulamith]

I haven't read the book and don't know if the movie was a fair representation.
I would be interested in reading the book though.

I was not talking about Susan at all.

I saw similarities between Josh and Fritz (the boyfriend). They were both suspected murderers.

I was talking about later after Susan disappeared when the grandparents were trying to keep the boys safe and Josh was being allowed to have visitation rights over their protests. In the movie the father was trying to get custody of his sons to keep them safe but the judge kept overruling his protests.

The grandparents knew and everyone else knew that Josh had killed Susan. LE already had evidence with the blood on the floor and Susan's note and that the boys were already talking and drawing pictures about their mother's death that night. I assume LE was trying to build their case of murder by finding Susan's body. In the movie, LE had already determined that Fritz had murdered those five people, but were still building their case.

There was an upcoming evaluation hearing with Josh. In the movie, there was an upcoming custody hearing where the mother's father was going to testify for the boy's father and against her.

In the end Josh ended up blowing himself and his two sons up. In the movie, Fritz and the mother blew themselves up along with her two sons.

Why couldn't they have arrested Josh earlier for the terrible pictures on his PC or for murder as a way to keep him behind bars before that fateful day? Just as in the movie where LE didn't arrest the boyfriend earlier for another crime nor did they get him with murder charges before that fateful day in 1985. (I know, hindsight.)

Sixteen years later and there is still a problem with minors being allowed to stay with suspected murderers.

I hope I have explained myself a little better.

IMHO, I don't see any similarities between Josh Powell and Fritz Klenner. I think Fritz was more cunning than Josh. Fritz was evil but Josh seemed like a Neanderthal. I have not seen the movie, only read the book and pretty much needed a flow chart to keep up with all the murders.

Since I am not in LE I have no idea why they did not arrest JP. IMO it would seem that LE enforcement had enough on him to name him a suspect instead of a person of interest. And it really grinds my gears that WVPD still has Susan listed as a missing person instead of a murder victim..

Anyway, thank you!

 

[jmarple]

Fatal Friends, Deadly Neighbors by Ann Rule is now on sale. The first story in the book is about Susan and Josh. I just started reading it this morning and could hardly put it down.

 

[gwenabob]

Fatal Friends, Deadly Neighbors by Ann Rule is now on sale. The first story in the book is about Susan and Josh. I just started reading it this morning and could hardly put it down.

Thank you! I will be buying it immediately.

 

[redkatrampant]

I am taking notes. I bought it today and I am sad at all the info that WSers uncovered that is credited to other people.

 

[gwenabob]

I am taking notes. I bought it today and I am sad at all the info that WSers uncovered that is credited to other people.

Yep. You are right about that.

 

[jmarple]

I was a little disappointed that there was nothing in the book that hadn't been discussed here at WS. But for someone who hadn't followed the case, the book provides a good summary. JMHO

 

[passionflower]

Fatal Friends, Deadly Neighbors
I got my download for my kindle and read the first part
about Susan's marriage.
Oh, it was even worse than I could imagine.
and then old SP pervert should be locked up forever!
The P family is truely messed up JMOO
except the 1 sister and her husband that are friends with the Cox family.
The Christmas Box Angel is something I did not know.
Very good read and summary of the tragedies.

 

[gwenabob]

Fatal Friends, Deadly Neighbors
I got my download for my kindle and read the first part
about Susan's marriage.
Oh, it was even worse than I could imagine.
and then old SP pervert should be locked up forever!
The P family is truely messed up JMOO
except the 1 sister and her husband that are friends with the Cox family.
The Christmas Box Angel is something I did not know.
Very good read and summary of the tragedies.

I think Ann Rule could have spent a lot more time on SP and his uber-creepiness. She didn't mention how he watched in the motel room with his 11 year old daughter there. She didn't mention how he would tell his sons that "girls are only good for sex." I wish she would have really interviewed Jennifer and Kiirsi. She could have told more about how Josh insisted Susan ride her bike to work, but then when they switched, and Josh had to ride the bike to work, he suddenly felt the need to add a $1000 motor to it!! Or how Josh didn't like to "waste table food" on the boys and they should only eat scraps Josh didn't want. I was disappointed that she made this such a short story. It could have been a full length book on its own.

 

[diphi]

i just finished reading it. Too bad it was just one of several "short" stories that comprise the whole book. It's pretty light-weight, IMO. That Steve Powell is seriously screwed-up.

Has anyone heard if someone else is planning to write a real book about Susan's case in the near future?

 

[Dreamnine]

I just bought the Ann Rule book and, while I know nothing about this case, I understand from some of the Amazon reviews that the author got a few of her facts wrong.

So I have bookmarked this section of WS and will have a good read of it all later on after I've read Fatal Friends, Deadly Neighbors.

 

[Trident]

I am so sad Susan and her boys are gone. It would have been so much better if Josh had blown himself up all alone. It is even sadder that SP is gonna be walking around free after all the heartache he caused.

Ann Rule, while she does write a lot of true crime and I do read her books, is not one of my favorite authors. I hope someone else writes about this case without putting their own spin on it. Just the fact, m'am, that's all I want. I admit I didn't read this book yet, probably won't unless I get it from the library. Did she put her own spin on it?

 

[Dreamnine]

It's a reasonable summary of the case but fairly short. I believe Ann Rule could have done a better job.

I think she has lost her mojo; while this book is better than her last - True Crime Files #15 - it's not up to the standard of her earlier work.

 

[Dal Gal]

I received Ann Rule's book for Christmas, and am only a little into the first novella about the Powell's, but already am stunned at the poor research on the family history!

Rule uses an unsourced ancestry.com family tree to claim that Steven's grandfather Samuel L Powell, Sr. was a polygamist, saying that she "assumes" that the tree was created by Josh because it ends with Josh and Susan's family group! She claims that SLP1 married Ouita and his second wife Ella BOTH in 1926...with not a lick of readily-available research that would have shown that Ouita and SLP1 were divorced well before he remarried 21 years later!!!

Ella's son, who SLP1 adopted, is still alive...his mother and adopted-father are now labeled by a credible author as polygamists. Once I finish this novella and see if there are other blatant errors, I'm firing off an email expressing my disappointment in her shoddy research. It really lessens her credibility on other aspects of her writing an account of this case that I was REALLY looking forward to reading.

I've uncovered NO polygamy in any direct ancestry to Josh, so if you are reading Rule's book, disregard the insinuation that there is any. There are plenty of legit reasons to disapprove of certain Powells' actions...we don't a false one!