Bitter Blood: A True Story of Southern Family Pride, Madness, and Multiple Murder (Onyx) [Paperback]

Jerry Bledsoe (Author)

Book Description

Series: Onyx | Publication Date: April 1, 1989

In this unrelenting real-life drama of three wealthy families connected by marriage and murder, Bledsoe recounts the shocking events, obsessive love, and bitter custody battles that led toward the bloody climax that took nine lives. Reissued to coincide with Bledsoe's new hardcover Blood Games (11/91).

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

This book recreates a complex case that claimed nine lives, one of the more shocking crimes of recent years. The links in all the deaths were Susan Lynch and her cousin Fritz Klenner, each from a prominent, upper-middle-class Southern family. The murders began with the shootings of Lynch's ex-mother-in-law and ex--sister-in-law in Kentucky, and continued with the slayings of her parents and grandmother in North Carolina. What connected the killings was the bitter divorce between Susie and her husband Tom, and the impending custody battle for their children, particularly since it became increasingly clear that Susie regarded the boys as pawns in a power struggle. The deaths that she prepared for her two sons, and which inadvertently killed her and Klenner as well, provide a dramatic climax to this account of families too blind to realize that well-bred folk can be dangerous. Bledsoe wrote an award-winning series about the case in 1985 in the Greensboro (N.C.) News & Record. Photos not seen by PW. BOMC, QPBC and Mystery Book Club alternates.
Copyright 1988 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

• Paperback: 576 pages
• Publisher: Onyx (April 1, 1989)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0451402103
• ISBN-13: 978-0451402103
• Product Dimensions: 6.9 x 4.2 x 1.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (65 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,412 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #1 in Books > 4-for-3 Books > Nonfiction > True Accounts > True Crime
  • #2 in Books > 4-for-3 Books > Literature & Fiction > Genre Fiction > Movie Tie-Ins
  • #10 in Books > Biographies & Memoirs > True Accounts > Serial Killers

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

33 of 34 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Good true crime read, July 24, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Bitter Blood: A True Story of Southern Family Pride, Madness, and Multiple Murder (Onyx) (Paperback)

I am not huge true crime genre reader, but Bledsoe writes a story about two murders in the south during the mid-80's that captured my interest. Bledsoe does deep and wide investigative research into the infamous murders of a widow and a daughter in Kentucky and how they were connected with another multiple murder in Winston-Salem.

In detail, Bledsoe portrays the various players. The reader gets an engrossing detail into the detectives that researched the case. In addition, the victims' lives were intimately discussed. The story reads like a mystery, taking the reader through the possible suspects. Ultimately, the victims were related to a bitter child custody battle between Tom Lynch and his ex-wife Susie Lynch and the shocking insanity of the criminal becomes clearer.

I didn't know anything about this case before reading the book. It was a little slow to start, often times tedious. I felt at times that Bledsoe was giving me more information than I needed or cared to know. However, as the book progressed, the details that Bledsoe were revealing were more relevant and showed the nature behind crime. Bledsoe had definitely done his research. The book also asks more questions than it answers -- leaving the window open to speculation and ones questions that probably will never be answered.

25 of 27 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Bledsoe at his best, October 7, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Bitter Blood: A True Story of Southern Family Pride, Madness, and Multiple Murder (Onyx) (Paperback)

I was in N.C. when the climax of this book occurred (TV stations broke into programming to warn motorists/viewers to avoid certain streets because of the slow moving police chase.) Later, I worked in the newsroom of the Greensboro News & Record when Jerry's account of the murders was published. It captivated the entire piedmont triangle area for a week; no one could stop talking about it. In the newsroom, we knew for certain it would be published in book form long before the contracts were signed - it was that compelling. We kidded each other as to who would be cast in the movie - again, long before the ink had dried on Jerry's book contract.

When the book was finally published, it was nothing short of a true crime masterpiece. This is the true crime book with which to judge all others. Jerry is a masterful writer, a spinner of tales, a good old boy in the finest southern sense.

Buy the book. You won't regret it.

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars What a story, May 5, 2006

By 

J. Wilson (Warrenton, VA United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Bitter Blood: A True Story of Southern Family Pride, Madness, and Multiple Murder (Onyx) (Paperback)

Jerry Bledsoe has created an incredible examination of the murders of Delores and Janie Lynch in Kentucky, and Nanna, Bob and Florence Newsom in North Carolina. All of the victims, murderers, and their family members' lives, hopes and personalities are delved into, and we get a good picture of what happened. Why, unfortunately, is a matter of speculation, but with all the information provided we can come up with an understanding. Many of Susie Lynch's family wouldn't believe she would knowingly be involved in those murders, and ultimately in the deaths of her boys, even after evidence suggested otherwise. And for years Fritz Klenner was able to deceive everyone about his education, his career, and his dark side. I believe Susie was just as fanatical and paranoid as Fritz and they fed off each other. The two of them ultimately lost touch with reality completely and sacrificed two young innocent boys, in what for them seemed to be the only solution. As I read the final "chase" scene, I wondered if it could have been prevented. Sadly, it may well have if the SBI had not withheld information, and their politics had not gotten in the way. What I found remarkable was the Kentucky State Police homicide detective's determination to get the whole truth and continue his investigation on Susie Lynch even after her death and when the easy way would be to just close the case. In sum, this is an engrossing book and I would highly recommend it.