Welcome to The Official Websleuths Investigative Book Club !

[tricia]

Well I hope so since most, if not all, are out of prison now. I think Laurie is still in but Im not sure.

This is what we need to ask Aphrodite Jones when we have her on

 

[tricia]

RSBM

I, personally,, have a very hard time understanding how anyone can NOT know right from wrong in some situations, though. How can one NOT know killing someone is wrong? They were exposed to normal society, it's not like they lived in a "killing is just fine" bubble (that I could understand better).

But I have no frame of reference. I can't have you so I'll kill you? You made me feel bad so I'll kill you? I might get closer to having a concept if it was "torture you" instead of "kill you", and maybe that was the actual goal. To inflict pain, and death was just a by product of that goal.

That could be. This is what drives me crazy is we will never really know WHY. No matter what the girls say how could we ever believe them?

Hi all. A new member of WebSleuths and the book club here

WECOME. SO GLAD YOU MADE IT.

 

[watergirl62]

I just ordered my book so hopefully I can catch up before the second meeting.

I'm excited! The only true crime book I've ever read is Helter Skelter.

 

[NeilC]

There’s something to be said about the human brain not being fully developed until 25 years of age. I’m not excusing the behavior, but there’s no thought of consequences…also the girls involved in the crime were all abused in some way. Again, not an excuse but some of them lived in such demented environments, how can they know right from wrong? I find the back stories give some insight into how things can get so crazy.

Looking forward to the zoom! I don’t share much about my true crime interests with people I know…they aren’t as passionate about it as us folks… is passionate the right word? I just always wonder, ‘why’? How did it get to this point?

Exactly right, Jo_sews, the girl’s backstories begin to explain so much of this, especially Melinda and Laurie. Those girls had horrible upbringings. I’ve worked in the juvenile justice and adult corrections systems and so much can be understood by looking at how people are raised. I think it was a psychotherapist who did an assessment on Melinda and testified that she functioned emotionally on the level of a 3 or 4 year old. I think this book does give us some good information about the girl’s backgrounds and just how awful their parents were.

I’m looking forward to the zoom, too!

 

[NeilC]

I finished the book yesterday. I’m a fast reader and tend to have a nonfiction and fiction book going at the same time. I really “enjoyed” this one. Feels weird to say I liked it when the event was just so horrendous and learning about the backgrounds of the girls made me so sad.

Melinda really didn’t have much of a chance given the level of abuse in her household and a mother who ignored it. I know that many people have survived this (and worse) and have not gone on to torture and murder an innocent girl. But imho, it explains a lot. It really was a failure of Child Protective Services, too. I believe they were called to Melinda’s home and never followed up.

Laurie’s background is awful, too, and it seems that she needed attention from a healthy adult who could have recognized that she has some serious psychological issues. It sounds like Laurie was close to her grandma and when she passed, Laurie’s life really took a dark turn.

I have one critique about the format, but it’s probably just personal preference. Chapters are dedicated to each girl and their respective stories are told so we go through basically the same information on the torture and murder over and over. I would like to ask the author why she did it this way and I’m sure she has good reasons. It was hard for me to tell the nuances in the stories and (admittedly) I found it difficult to keep hearing the same thing. I think a timeline of what we know happened may have been enough. It seemed to me that each girl was telling the story to minimize their own responsibility and I’m not sure we really know what actually happened or who did what that night. Again, I really liked the book and it’s a story that needs to be told.

I appreciated the Epilogue and how the author highlights how the community was questioning how this happened and what they may have learned from this. The school system, the child welfare system, parents, friends and neighbors all failed Shanda.

 

[Jo_sews]

Exactly right, Jo_sews, the girl’s backstories begin to explain so much of this, especially Melinda and Laurie. Those girls had horrible upbringings. I’ve worked in the juvenile justice and adult corrections systems and so much can be understood by looking at how people are raised. I think it was a psychotherapist who did an assessment on Melinda and testified that she functioned emotionally on the level of a 3 or 4 year old. I think this book does give us some good information about the girl’s backgrounds and just how awful their parents were.

I’m looking forward to the zoom, too!

I worked for a while in a mental institution helping to train the patients to work in a coffee shop, to gain some work experience. The range of functionality was diverse, some of the patients seemed totally zoned out (probably heavy meds) and I wondered, ‘how did these people get this way.’ And then their parents came to visit. Then I got it. And what really amazed me was the therapists, many of them really needed therapy!

 

[Jo_sews]

This is what we need to ask Aphrodite Jones when we have her on

I looked it up, they are all free now.