Small Sacrifices

Small Sacrifices by Ann Rule

From Publishers Weekly This searching analysis of the shooting of three children in Oregon by their mother devolves into a study of personality. In May of 1983, Diane Downs drove to a Williamette Valley hospital emergency room with her children, all gravely wounded; one did not survive the first hour, and the other two were disabled for life. Downs initially told of a "bushy-haired stranger" who had committed the crime, but frequently changed her story. Under police questioning she recalled her childhood with a cold, domineering father who abused her sexually, her weak mother, a rape by one of her bosses, her failed marriage and many men with whom she had sex. One of these men, whom she claimed to love, did not want children, and that may have prompted the crime, speculates the author. The greatest strength of this book is the exploration by ex-policewoman Rule (The Stranger Beside Me of the aberrant personality of Downs, who is now imprisoned and not eligible for parole until 2009.

7/10

So I have this love/hate relationship with true crime books. I think they are fascinating. I love reading about things that actually happened. I like looking at the for-real pictures. Im just really interested in the crazy things that crazy people do. What sucks is when its starts to really sink in that these real crazy things are REAL CRAZY THINGS.

How do you sleep at night after looking at black and white pictures of ordinary looking people that have done these horrible things? Or looking at family portraits of families that no longer exist?

But still every once in awhile I go to furthest corner in the basement of Recycled Books (Denton Tx - best book store ever) and end up walking away with at least a handful of true crime books.

This is actually one that I just reread. I had an old copy that I think I sold at a garage sale so I picked up another one the other weekend. It was a lot better than I remembered. Its the story of Diane Downs, a lady that shoots her children because she thinks her ex-boyfriend will come back to her if she doesnt have any baggage. Only one of her children dies but the other two are severely injured.

The book is really well written...Ann Rule is the best at true crime. Diane Downs is seriously fascinating. Possibly one of the most interesting people I have ever read about. She had all these people convinced she was just an innocent mother and that someone else had attacked her and her kids.

To me one of the creepiest things about this lady is looking at her pictures. She has the scariest eyes I have ever seen. Ann talks about them in the book (but of course I cant find it to quote it!). Her eyeballs float in her eye sockets. Like there is a lot of white space underneath her actual eyeball. Im pretty sure Ann said a lot of serial killers have this same issue ( dont remember what its called)...so for your own safety stay away from people with eyes that look like this: