Welcome to The Official Websleuths Investigative Book Club !

[Janet Smith]

When Toni blurted out “The two girls that were with are planning on killing somebody tonight.” I wonder why Jimmy and Brandon didn’t take Hope and Toni more serious. I just don’t think Hope and Toni really knew what they were in for and what they could/would possibly be charged with.
Of course this was years ago.

 

[SensibleCrime]

As I read I was thinking how this goes into how people will join in on things even if they feel it's off. They get caught up in adrenaline and forgetting its real life. Kinda like large protests, it starts with one and escalates. People act differently with friends. How much of this was immaturity and not understanding the gravity of actions like murder. Laughing and gloating but later realizing how dirty she (Melinda) felt. So many times when they heard her I was like now is a second chance stop it, let her go.

Melinda and Laurie were so incredibly screwed up that I'm not necessarily surprised at how bad it was. I think I'm more appalled at the girls that just went along. Most people don't get violent unless someone does something to them personally.

 

[PeachesVonTT]

Melinda and Laurie were so incredibly screwed up that I'm not necessarily surprised at how bad it was. I think I'm more appalled at the girls that just went along. Most people don't get violent unless someone does something to them personally.

Yes, as much of a psychopath teen girls can be, they still know right from wrong. They had several chances to get help.

 

[tricia]

@SensibleCrime said "After you knew about Melinda's history you could see why she could feel so threatened by a romantic rival and how she could be so violent at such a young age."
Exactly @SeinsibleCrime. What happened to Melinda to make her turn to such a violent and cruel way of handling basic teenage jealousy is something we need to understand to help prevent it from happening to another teenager.
@Stellie said
>What I find odd is that this book is written from the prospective of the killers. Until I got to the body being found and the posing did I get the biggest hit from the victims side.
These girls didn't even appear to realize how far they had went."
Jones usually does things a bit differently than most crime writers. What frightened me is that, as you pointed out, the girls didn't realize how far they had gone. They didn't realize the hell they were about to face, along with their families, and the victims' families.

 

[tricia]

When Toni blurted out “The two girls that were with are planning on killing somebody tonight.” I wonder why Jimmy and Brandon didn’t take Hope and Toni more serious. I just don’t think Hope and Toni really knew what they were in for and what they could/would possibly be charged with.
Of course this was years ago.

You have to wonder about the guilt everyone who had even the slightest inkling of what was going to happen must be feeling to this day.

 

[Avalona]

Just finished the first 30 pages and I was like I can’t get past the fact that that girl lived as long as she did in that trunk after all the times they went back to “quieten” her. Truly horrific what that poor girl went through. Feeling very disgusted with humans in general right now. I just can’t understand how things like this happen.

 

[Ghostwheel]

So far this book goes between every single detail and then jumping around. I need to do some research into where the information came from. First Toni and Hope go up to Amanda's house, but then Toni says it was Laurie and Hope (which would make sense if trying to minimize her own role). Need to read more.

The title says to me that Laurie was the real instigator, but I've read more than 30 pages but not all of it.

I have also discovered I am not one to need to know every miniscule detail unless it matters to the final story.

 

[SensibleCrime]

There was a white guy who shot up a black church. Sure enough he'd talked about it. His friend just didn't think he meant it. He said he was drunk and people say stupid things when they're drunk.

 

[DreamHorse]

Hi Everyone, I live in Indiana and remember when this happened. Shanda was only 12! Truly horrific senseless crime. I got so caught up in reading that Imlost track of time

 

[BeadstringingGenie]

I had trouble wrapping my head around what torture Shanda endured. How were any of the girls able to interact with parents as if everything was normal? Or call their friends to tell them about their "adventure"?

 

[Ghostwheel]

Why do you think this type of horrific crime with teenage girls didn't happen say in the fifties?

I think maybe they did to a lesser degree, we just did not hear about it. But traveling between cities would not have been as prevalent, and so not as easy to dispose of bodies.

 

[BeadstringingGenie]

Hi Everyone, I live in Indiana and remember when this happened. Shanda was only 12! Truly horrific senseless crime. I got so caught up in reading that Imlost track of t

I'm in Indiana as well, but don't remember hearing about it at the time. I asked a friend who lived in the area when it happened what she knew, and she said she'd tell me more about it after I finished the book.

 

[SensibleCrime]

I think maybe they did to a lesser degree, we just did not hear about it. But traveling between cities would not have been as prevalent, and so not as easy to dispose of bodies.

It seems like in the past women seemed to do things like this with men more than other women. Charles Starkweather and Caril Ann Fugate went on a murder spree in 1958. He was very much "batman" and she was very much "robin." On the other hand, traditionally women have abused their children with and without involvement from men.

 

[Ghostwheel]

Melinda and Laurie were so incredibly screwed up that I'm not necessarily surprised at how bad it was. I think I'm more appalled at the girls that just went along. Most people don't get violent unless someone does something to them personally.

I have seen in my readings that people "go along" for one of two reasons. 1) They get into a situation they have no idea how to get out of and are scared of being hurt themselves or 2) They already have a tendency towards doing what the others are doing, but are conflicted because they KNOW their inclination is not morally correct or right. Like dipping a toe in the water or living vicariously by watching. That one is the one that bothers me a lot.

 

[DreamHorse]

I'm in Indiana as well, but don't remember hearing about it at the time. I asked a friend who lived in the area when it happened what she knew, and she said she'd tell me more about it after I finished the book.

Hey fellow Hoosier, at the time I worked for a Circuit Court Judge, knew prosecutors and publisher defenders, so I was exposed to crimes on a daily basis.

 

[DreamHorse]

I just watched the Pamela Smith trial from 1991 on TrialTvLive. It is the first trial nationally televised. She was a 22 yo teacher who manipulated teenage boys to kill her husband. It was called having an “affair” with her 15yo student, now we rightly call her a pedo.

 

[PeachesVonTT]

Does anyone think Melinda would have gone through with the murder without Laurie? I found Laurie to be especially disturbing.

 

[LinJen2]

Going to miss out. My back is giving me hell right now.

 

[tricia]

Just finished the first 30 pages and I was like I can’t get past the fact that that girl lived as long as she did in that trunk after all the times they went back to “quieten” her. Truly horrific what that poor girl went through. Feeling very disgusted with humans in general right now. I just can’t understand how things like this happen.

I KNOW. What the hell were these kids thinking? I can't wait for Aphrodite Jones to tell us more about that part of the story

 

[tricia]

Does anyone think Melinda would have gone through with the murder without Laurie? I found Laurie to be especially disturbing.

I think it was a perfect storm of teenagers getting together. That combo was combustible.