By Their Father’s Hand ~ Monte Francis

E-book, Kindle
Pub. Date: May 2007
Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers
Non-fiction

The True Story of the Wesson Family Massacre

Marcus Wesson had complete control over his household, he controlled how his daughters dressed, what they ate, where they worked and who they talked to. When he started to lose that control, when two of his daughters realized what he was doing to them was wrong and tried to leave, taking their children with them he took drastic action.

He was the father of the nine children killed that day, the mothers were his wife, his daughters and his nieces. Although it is possible he didn’t pull the trigger, prosecutors believed that he was ultimately responsible for the deaths.

This book takes us through the events of the day, the history of the family and the trial. It is horrifying and detailed, you can tell that there was extensive research done. Something that I also appreciate is Mr. Francis tells us how he arrived at conversations reported in the book. Whether through interviews he conducted or testimony from the trail about what was said. The book in detailed about what happened, but not sensationalized, it reads more like a newspaper account then a novel. The author did not inject himself into the account by including what he felt or thought, he does report interviews he did with family members and his attempts to keep in touch, to let them know that somebody cared about what happened.

I gave this book 3 stars and recommend it to True Crime fans.