While They Slept: An Inquiry into the Murder of a Family by Kathryn Harrison
On the night of April 27, 1984, an 18-year-old named Billy Gilley Jr. beat both his sleeping parents to death with a baseball bat. When his 11-year-old sister came to investigate, he beat her so that she later died. He then went to his 16-year-old sister, Jody, told her they were free and demanded that she leave their small Oregon town with him. They didn’t get far…
Disturbing to say the least. Interesting story. But again, here’s a book where the author has inserted a personal story that I think has absolutely no relevance to the story being told. The psychology of survival and recovery of the two surviving children was fascinating.
