Badge of Betrayal: The Devastating True Story of a Roque Cop Turned Murderer [Paperback]

Joe Cantlupe (Author), Lisa Petrillo (Author)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Cara Knott was the archetypal All-American girl: at the age of 20, she was blonde, beautiful and in love. Craig Peyer was a by-the-book California Highway Patrol cop. After pulling Cara off a highway on the day after Christmas, 1986, Peyer murdered her. The resulting investigation, arrest and two trials (the first ended in a hung jury, the second in a conviction)p. 198 made headlines throughout the country. In their first book, the authors, reporters for the San Diego Union, portray Cara as almost too nice to be true, detail the criminal investigation and the trial machinations extensively, and reveal the innermost thoughts of the victim's family. But Peyer remains a mystery man; the authors fail to present any motive for the murder. Peyer had many times previously pulled young women off the road to a secluded spot, but why he killed Cara is never learned. Marjorie Huntington, a probation officer who interviewed Peyer, claimed he was bored and offers simply that "their fates became intermeshed," but that is far from the closure most readers would like. Photos not seen by PW.
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Product Details

• Paperback: 280 pages
• Publisher: Avon Books (Mm) (December 1991)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0380760096
• ISBN-13: 978-0380760091
• Product Dimensions: 6.9 x 4.2 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #552,768 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

17 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Book Serves Justice, July 11, 2002

By A Customer

This review is from: Badge of Betrayal: The Devastating True Story of a Roque Cop Turned Murderer (Paperback)

I was blessed to have been able to go to school with the victim and deeply affected as I watched the events of the tragedy unfold. I admit, I caught myself being critical, checking to insure the authors were true to the story. Through many tears I found that they accomplished the difficult job of trying to infuse the human drama into what could have been pages spent explaining legal manuevering and evidence collecting technique. Although some might think the book looses it's place as a unbiased documention of the case and legal proceeding because of the "too good to be human" portrayment of the Knott family, believe it or not, they were holding back.
This book is a MUST READ. It delivers in showing how people with charactor and courage during their darkest hours honored their precious daughter by focusing on the changes that needed to be made in order for our families to be safe. The court did not serve justice with it's sentencing, our authors do if just one person is safer because the Knotts dared to question the establishment, and Cara was memorialized to the world as she deserved.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Badge of Betrayal, September 2, 2009

By 

Jane Thompson (Georgetown, Texas USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Badge of Betrayal: The Devastating True Story of a Roque Cop Turned Murderer (Paperback)

This was a well-written true crime book, with characters truly defined. The story was gripping and the tragedy of the story well told