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| The Darkest Night: Two Sisters, a Brutal Murder, and the Loss of Innocence in a Small Town | 
 enlarge | Author: Ron Franscell
Publisher: St. Martin's True Crime
Category: Book
List Price: $6.99
Buy New: $3.21
You Save: $3.78 (54%)
New (33) Used (15) from $3.21
Avg. Customer Rating:  30 reviews
Sales Rank: 1444
Media: Mass Market Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 320
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.3
Dimensions (in): 6.7 x 4.1 x 1.1
ISBN: 0312948468
Dewey Decimal Number: 364.15230978793
EAN: 9780312948467
ASIN: 0312948468
Publication Date: March 4, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Condition: Brand New and Factory Sealed Item Fast Shipping
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| Customer Reviews:
 An Excellent True Crime Book! May 24, 2008
12 out of 12 found this review helpful
The author, Ron Francsell, was a boy himself when this brutal murder, rape, and abduction occurred in his picturesque hometown of Caspar, Wyoming in September 1973. I was in diapers then. His memories and research are first rate about Amy and Becky Burridge, two sisters, who go to the Thriftway market to pick up items for their mother. The author was wise not to change the names of anybody in the book. It's pretty brave of him. Their car has a flat tire that was just fixed and two men agreed to help them. The two men, Jerry Jenkins and Ronald Kennedy, were career criminals. They orchestrated the flat tire in order to abduct and rape the older sister. After hours of pure torture and torment by their abductors, they drive their victims to the Fremont Canyon Bridge where they send Amy and Becky to their sure deaths but one survives. The older sister would survive the harrowing ordeal but barely, traumatized for the rest of her life. Frightened and horrified, a couple rescue her and bring her to the hospital where she recounts the whole ordeal and night of torture. The whole town of Caspar, Wyoming has never fully recovered and the names of Jerry Jenkings and ROnald Kennedy sends chills down even the toughest of people.
Terror in the Heartland April 10, 2008
10 out of 12 found this review helpful
"The Darkest Night" by Ron Franscell is a testament to the evil that men do and its effect on not just the tragic victims or their shattered families, but on a whole community that suddenly find themselves living in a climate of fear. Even though this accounting of these horrendous acts of degradation and brutality happen in 1973, the passing of time does nothing to dull the terror and pathos.
And if your still in the mood for more retro blood and heartache, checkout the last two crime books I have enjoyed: Hellcats, Vixens, & Vicedolls: Women, Crime, and Kink of the Fifties and Convicts, Jailbirds, and Reform School Girls: True Life Tales of Crime and Punishment in the 1950s.
I was there, reading the book brought me back again May 20, 2008
10 out of 10 found this review helpful
It was a chilling time in Casper, especially when you knew the girls. The book brought so many memories back to life again. I could not put the book down, even tho I knew what happened, I was hoping the ending had changed after all this time, naturally it hadn't and the tears just kept falling, just like Becky. WOW what a great book, when's the movie? Great job Mr. Franscell!
 Haunting. July 29, 2008
10 out of 10 found this review helpful
Amazon Kept Recommending this book to me and I would ignore it because I had never heard of the Author.I found it in the book store the other day,decided to pick it up. I'm so glad I did! This book is so different than the regular True Crime that we usualy see.It goes more into the effect of what a Horrible crime does to the Survivor,Community as well as the Author.It is a very well written,touching story.It has broken my heart and this case will stay with me for a lifetimeI highly recommend it for not only True Crime readers but for everyone.
A tragic shapshot in time burned in the reader's eye forever April 13, 2008
9 out of 9 found this review helpful
Author Ron Franscell captures a moment in time that burns itself into the reader's heart, mine and soul. He accomplishes the impossible by making a 35-year-old tragedy excruciatingly real just as though it is happening today in the reader's own home town.
From his eloquent description of a jury on page 88 to his brutally honest appraisal of Wyoming's prison system on pages 267 and 268, this writer makes no apology for wearing his heart and his emotions on his sleeve. He emphasizes how both he and the town of Casper, Wyoming were forever changed in one dark night by one unforgiveable act.
The proof that Ron Franscell is a master of his craft is one paragraph on page 199 where he speaks of victim Becky Thompson. He describes this courageous young woman: "She died because she had already been murdered many years before. She fell from such a height that it took nineteen years to hit the bottom. She was crushed beneath something bigger than she was." Writing just not get any better than that.
There was only one disappontment in the book and that is the fact that the author does not include a readable copy of poem by artist Michael Carr that is pictured with his "urban petroglyph" on the canyon walls under the Fremont Canyon Bridge. I would like to know what it says.
This book reminds me a great deal of "Justice Waits" by Joel Davis. Both authors were directly affected by the murders they wrote about and both men are superb writers.
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