Customer Reviews

Abandoned Prayers: The Incredible True Story of Murder, Obsession and Amish Secrets (St. Martin's True Crime Library)

5 star:		(41)
4 star:		(12)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(6)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

The author, Gregg Olsen delivers with this one! Well written, researched and crafted, Olsen weaves a tale that will pull the reader into a world (thank God) most of us will never see. I don't want to give away any surprises but I will say that in the end I began to wonder if its possible that some people are born without a soul much less a conscience. Go ahead, buy it and read it, I highly recommend it, but be prepared this Amish tale aint about quilts and growing corn.

This is probably My top pick for the best true crime book of 2004..It is equaled only by Jack Olsens~I~Which I read this year as well..This was a very well written book My True crime book club on yahoo groups all talked alot about this one..I have enjoyed reading Gregg Olsen over the years and he is getting better with each book. I wont give the story away here but it tells the story of the death of "little Boy Blue" with an Amish twist,..Great True Crime! Keep em coming Mr Olsen.

Being an avid researcher of the Amish, and also living in Lancaster County, PA, my interest in the Amish cultures and traditions have grown immensely. In reading this book, though, it shows that there aren't any cultures in the United States that are void of sick, twisted, & demented individuals. There are always those few people that are just evil in actions and life. It's just so unfortunate that this little boy and his mother were the innocent victims of this horrible individual. The book itself was an excellent read, and I would recommend it to everyone. It's just horrible that there were so many innocent victims and it's unfortunate that Mr. Stutzman was released.

I was passing through a Book Fair recently and eyed a stack of books devoted to "true crime". I'd sworn off the genre some time ago due to its unsettling nature but was convinced by a passerby that this one was more a case of bad parentubg than gruesome child abuse. I am not so sure now.

We learn a little from every book and in this one it is the world of the Amish, their secrets and way of life. The villian left the the religious community with his son after the suspicious death of his wife. He set out on what can only be called an orgy of casual, gay sex and murder. The authorities are still not sure how many he killed or if he killed his own son (because he knew too much). He was convicted of abandonment then brought up on another murder and convicted. He was suspected in the death of his wife (fire) and son (suffocation or intentional exposure to sub-zero weather) and in 1990 was the chief suspect in the murder of yet yet two more gay men. He seemed to be destroying anyone who could link him to what he perceived as the unpardonable sin.

Throughout it all he proclaimed his innocence, got amnesia, found God, quoted Scripture while negotiating for movie rights and, incredibly, retained a cadre of folks who felt sorry for him. Gay groups raised funds, religious folk visited, women were supportive...it defies any kind of rational thought. Great book.

This book was written so well you almost felt like you were in the heartland while the search for Eli Stutzman was going on.

This book describes in cruel detail how selfish people can be. Many people in the book chose their anonimity over the well being of a child. People see a child "groping" men and rather than expose who they really are, they keep quiet and let a child suffer. Another watches in disgust as Eli masturbates with his child in the bed with him...

If just one person would have come forward; little Danny might a young man today.

And what a joke that Eli Stutzman is paroled..... his wife is dead, his son is dead, his roommate is dead.... all of which are the hands of this "mis-understood" Amishman..

I hope Eli dies a slow and painful death.

This is one of the best written true-crime books I've read. I recommend it strongly, however be prepared to shake your head in disbelief as to what this man did.... and basically got away with.

This book was one of the best books that I have read! It was very well written; I couldn't put it down! Even though, I feel that justice didn't prevail in this case, I am glad that I read the book. It really opened my eyes to some of the horrific events that occur in our country. The author expained important facts about the Amish and their beliefs, as well as outlined the perp's descent into his murderous actions against the ones that professed to love, including his Amish wife and his innocent son. He was also suspected in three other murders in the gay community, one of which got him a little time in jail! Highley recommend this book, even if the ending is a bit of downer!

Having trouble imagining the words "Amish man", "murderous parent", "gay stud muffin" and "whacko" in the same sentence? What about in the same sentence used to describe one man? In the words of Dewey Cox: How's your mind? Blown? Well, it should be.

Eli Stutzman - Amish farmer, race horse trainer, thief, drug addict, staggeringly promiscuous gay man, horrible husband, lousy date, despicable house guest and the worse father ever - is nothing is not a modern day renaissance man. Name two things that don't belong together and they can probably both be used to describe Eli. This book tells two stories simultaneously. One is about Little Boy Blue, a young boy who's corpse is found in a ditch on Christmas Eve. The other is about the boy's father, Eli, who left the boy in the ditch. On the one hand we have people of conviction and dedication who seek to do right by a boy they never knew in life. On the other hand, we have Eli.

One might expect to feel a bit of sympathy or at least pity for a young man who comes to understand that he is something that his society can never accept or acknowledge. It can't be easy to be gay and Amish. It's not an easy society to understand either. The low Amish don't allow electricity or buttons, but they let the young sow their wild oats during "rumspringa" and forbid kissing but allowing "bundling", aka, sleeping together fully clothed. Girls who allow favors too freely are known to bundle "too hard." Eli consorts with a few hard bundling gals before settling down with a nice Amish girl who, wouldn't you know it?, up and dies during a barn fire. The neighbors help Eli raise a new barn after which Eli promptly gets up to activities in the barn that aren't on the floor plan. You'll never look at a barn the same way after hearing about a few of Eli's drug and sex barn parties. Barn burners, indeed. Eli leaves the Amish community and embarks on a series of relationships made possible by the 1970s equivalent of Craig's List, The Advocate. The best part of Eli's schtick is that he keeps his Amish clothes for costume parties. Apparently broad brims are quite the turn on in certain circles. More than once while reading this book I found myself humming Weird Al's "Amish Paradise" - yes, even Ezekiel would have thought Eli's mind was gone. The law catches up with Eli but he doesn't get what he deserves. Not surprising since what he deserves involves being burned alive in his own barn and that's just for what he did to his son.

Few writers could tell a story that encompassed the restrictive lives of the "low" Amish, the gay scene of the late 1970s and the police investigation into the death of a child without giving into hyperbole or cliches. Gregg Olsen is that rare writer who can not only avoid those pitfalls he can deliver an entertaining book.Whether he's writing about white trash, Munchhausen by proxy or Amish Boys Gone Wild, Olsen writes about his subjects and their beliefs with genuine compassion and respect. Olsen may pass judgement but he never looks down on his subjects. His talent and his integrity make Olsen's books a must for the library of every series True Crime fan.

In this true life account of the actions of a former member of the Amish community, we find out the details of the life of an evil man, but are left wondering why. Perhaps the answer is known only to the perpetrator, or perhaps he doesn't understand himself. Narcissism at its worst.

I'm an avid "true crime" reader and was recently turned onto author Gregg Olsen by a friend. I purchased his book in my hometown of Jackson Twsp Ohio. Being a resident of Ohio and living very near to the Amish Community I found the book particularly interesting. My husband and I are within 10 minutes from the Massillon Community Hospital where Eli was once employed. It gave me goose bumps reading that he was once so close to where I lay my head at night! This book is absolutely RIVETING! A true page turner to coin a phrase! Gregg keeps you utterly spellbound as you read from page to page! YOU WILL NOT PUT IT DOWN! So, to all the true crime fans out there...FASTEN YOUR SEAT BELTS for an awesome, mind bending journey through the mind of a severly tortured individual! I would reccomend this book to anyone!
Bravo Gregg! AND PLEASE KEEP THEM COMING!
L, Owens
Ohio, USA

The actual story of the murder is a real page turner. However, there is a LOT of sexually graphic content that made me want to hurl. I only read one of the descriptions of the ways gay men have sex...something called "RIMMING"...Good GOD...that was enough...and I actually got sick; physically sick from that description. I had been skipping over all the other areas of sexual descriptions but "rimming" didn't sound like a sex thing to me until I read it...after that I was careful not to read any of the other descriptions of what gay men do...although I don't think there is anything that can be worse than "rimming". Jesus. That was just too disgusting.
The actual murder case however, is an excellent read and the court trial on this freak. Eli Stutzman is a real filthy type of "thing"...he is less than human in my eyes. He is a horrible person who deserves to be tortured slowly to death IMHO. Sick? Yes; perhaps. But no excuses for this filthy freak.
The poor child in this book suffered terribly; so another recommendation is to not read the book at all if child abuse really upsets you as the description of what was done to this poor baby is also graphic and very upsetting. In order to read this book, you need to have a very strong constitution. If squeamish, don't read it. Had I known about the extreme graphic sexual content, I would NOT have bothered to buy this book...because there is a LOT of that throughout the book. There is mention of a lot of ways gay men have sex; and after reading the section on "rimming", I just skipped over all the other descriptions. That is what made this book only a 2 star for me...it would have been an excellent book without all that nasty crap. Simply saying he was engaged in an intimate encounter with each lover would have been sufficient. I wish I hadn't wasted my money on it.