Customer Reviews

The Bigamist: The True Story of a Husband's Ultimate Betrayal

5 star:		(15)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

A strange and powerful story which I read straight through till the wee small hours. Absolutely fascinating! The incredible complexity of Will's plotting demonstrates more than just his basic contempt for the rest of humanity, after all, he must have realised he'd be found out sooner or later based on his previous scams. It's as if he wanted to inflict maximum hurt on the women involved; as if he were seeking revenge for something?

When I first read the blurb on Amazon, I admit to wondering, just a little, how one could be taken in by the whole CIA agent story and all that flowed from it, but his elaborate attention to detail and the way in which others were enrolled to support the story made it clear that the author was faced with such an overwhelming preponderance of "evidence" that she had little choice but to believe it. Jordan is clearly an actor of Oscar-worthy ability.

Once the foundation had been established, the familiar control mechanisms that underpin most types of relationship abuse had something to work on: the insistence on trust, the isolation from others, the erosion of independence, the demands for emotional (and, in MTT's case, financial) investment that make one feel that while it may be a shipwreck, it's YOUR shipwreck, you've paid for it, and you'll cling to it as it goes down. Even towards the end, Mary Turner Thomson struggled to believe in a chimaera, because it owed her the validation of having been worth it - a bill that would never be paid.

What I, and, I'm sure, other readers, would like to know is: who constituted his back-up team? To a certain extent, he played his women off against each other, but someone must have been helping him set up his intricate deceptions. And to what extent were his family involved?

A strange side-effect of reading the book was to wonder how I could possibly validate myself. The positive aspects that Will manifested are close enough to my own personality to be disturbing. I appreciate that that is because, to be effective, the sociopath has to be a good mimic, but how do the rest of us demonstrate that we're the real deal? The Bigamist: The True Story of a Husband's Ultimate Betrayal

The most shocking aspect to this true-life tale is that Will Jordan has absolutely no remorse, compassion, or guilt - his lies were clearly so beguiling because no sane person would ever suspect anyone would go to such unbelievable lengths of sustained deception. Read this book then tell everyone you know about what happened to these women (for there are multiple victims of this crime and Mary TT tells more than her own story) and send them out to buy it, for the reader recognises that no one is immune to the workings of a sociopath. I was fortunate enough to meet the author recently, and thankfully she has emerged from what she describes as the prison this man kept her in and is rebuilding her life. She is a confident, witty and intelligent woman and one of the best things to come from this brutal experience is that telling the stories that had been previously kept hidden has led to her new career and her talent is now being harnessed as a writer. Looking forward to the next book Mary.

What a crazy true story. Reads like a soap opera, hard to believe. Yet Mary's sincerity and vulnerabilities. make this a compelling read. How might each of us irrationally believe what we want to believe? Mary's book provides a few lessons at best and at the least it is well written and interesting.

Mary Turner Thompson was sucked into a web of lies by a fantastic story teller-now it is her turn to relay this story of deceit. After meeting a man online, she quickly falls in love and becomes pregnant. He disappears frequently but always has a reason why (including being a Department of Defense operative and CIA agent). When Mary discovers documents pointing another family, he quickly comes up with reasons for this. As his story begins to unravel and Mary realizes she has been lied to, other wives and women he conned come forward. However, this is after plunging Mary into debt after constantly requesting money and making empty promises of repayment, a better life, but most of all-support.

It is difficult to put into words all the emotions I felt when reading this book, realizing this is a true story. Writing this book makes Mary a stronger person than most. Cutting this horrible man out her life makes her book ideal reading for all abused women. I am grateful Mary wrote this book, as it is making me more conscience of my relationship decisions.

When I began reading this book I started thinking "how could you be so stupid?" But even at the end there are still unanswered questions about Will's (her husband/con artist) life. Although these anomalies are not enough to make me believe Will ever told the truth-it shows she was not a stupid women and looked for small details to corroborate his lies.

I highly recommend this book to all readers-and I thank Mary Thompson for writing this book, I enjoyed it and learned a lot.

I purchased this book for my Kindle out of idle curiosity, and then found it to be stunningly honest and insightful. Some people have left reviews doubting the facts of the story (which can be corroborated by checking the Internet), but they missed the point -- being drawn in by a sociopath is an insidious process that targets kind, loving, vulnerable people of all types, no matter their degree of "intelligence." What Mary experienced is an emotional crime that starts slowly and becomes a physical, mental punishment through fear and intimidation and ambiguity.

Through this book, Mary has taken a stand for all the people who have been robbed of their love, trust, money, and stability by someone with no remorse or conscience: the shame belongs to the predator, not the prey; the stupidity belongs to the predator, not the prey. Mary has great courage to tell her story, and gives voice and validation to the anguished targets who are devastated by sociopaths.

The book is straightforward and honest. My sister has gone through a similar situation with a sociopath; although the events in my sister's case are different from Mary's, the continual practices of manipulation, dishonesty, and cruelty-masked-a-love are the same. As I read this book, I witnessed how Will Jordan created his trap, and then his control. He is a master of exploitation, with no concern for anyone outside of himself. And yes, he had a network to help him--most criminals do: other prey he's manipulated, ignorant people who enable him, or fellow sociopaths who enjoy share his illness.

I recommend this book for the edification and inspiration it provides, not the dumbfounding details. It's the true story of a survivor.

I bought this book for .89 because reading the preview caught my attention. I have never read a book on a bigamist and it is something we hardly hear about. It took me less than a week to read this book because once you get started you do not want to put it down. There are some parts I feel carried on and repeated itself, but I reminded myself it was the author just telling her story. I am shocked that Will Jordan did not take blame for what he had done to all those women. It makes you think who is really out there.

This book popped up on my recommendations due to some other book I bought. I was a little skeptical but driving to the library would have cost more in gas.

There was a big part of me that wanted to really berate this woman for not seeing what was right in front of her. But all in all the book was a good read and by the end my eyes were a little more open for having read it so I gave it 4 stars, the author earned them. I am sure it was not an easy task to lay your failures bare to the world and be judged for them.

But what I still do not get is how even if he was telling the truth, would that ever have been good enough? And why would you label them a "hero"? If someone told me they had the job this fellow claimed I would RUN as fast as I could away from them. My whole lifes philosophy is first, do no harm.

This is a very intriguing, fast-paced book detailing the lies and deceit one woman suffered through while being strung along by a man she thought was "the one", but turned out to be a monster. It's amazing how Jordan was able to spin so many tales in order to make previous lies make sense with what he had already said, and was able to masterfully make MTT his puppet, controlling her every move. However, like a few other reviewers, I had to question Turner about 2/3 of the way through the book. With Jordan constantly asking her for money she was never repaid and all the red flags she saw before the final bombshell came, why did she give him so many chances? To me, it seemed that after the 5th or 6th time he failed to get her money back or stood her up, she should have left him and moved on with her life. After all, all he was doing was being an emotional, mental, and monetary drain on her. I guess either Jordan was just that good and truly did have the power of manipulation, or MTT simply gave him many, many more chances than he deserved.

This is a fascinating and well written account of the harm caused by the abuse of a one man against many women. It is so important that women know how to protect themselves from predators such as the man in this true story. I think every woman should read this, the more information we have the better we can protect ourselves, our friends and our family.

This book was well written. I thoroughly enjoyed it. I actually couldn't put it down; I took it everywhere with me. It's sad that someone like Will/Bill would go to such great lengths to con someone. And all of the children!! Well, I guess that was necessary to create the bond. I think Mary was a Hero for writing about something so personal and sharing it with others. Wish her well in her future endeavors.