Customer Reviews

Bodies of Evidence: The Shocking True Story of America's Most Chilling Serial Murderess... From Crime Scene to Courtroom to Electric Chair

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As presented by authors Chris Anderson and Sharon McGehee in their true crime saga, BODIES OF EVIDENCE, a remarkably physically unattractive Florida woman named Judias "Judi" Goodyear began her career of poisoning the men in her life with arsenic in 1971. Her initial victim was her husband James, and her windfall from his murder was around $25,000. While there is no indication that Judi particularly disliked her victims, she clearly liked money better. Her next killing was that of Billy Ray Morris, her live in boyfriend, and by this time she was forging her victims'names to insurance policy applications and substantially increasing her payoffs. Goodyear although intelligent, cold, and cunning was also a little goofy and somewhere along the line, for reason that are unclear to me, she changed her three children's and her surnames to Buenoano, the Spanish equivalent of Goodyear.

Money was predictably getting tight as the family was living well from the insurance proceeds and denying themselves nothing, so Judi needed to strike again. This time her victim was her oldest son, 20-year-old Michael, who had always had behavior issues and who was a source of embarrassment to the perfect image Judi liked to present. Unfortunately, he didn't die from the poisoning, which merely rendered him severely disabled, so Judi and her son James had to finish him off by dumping him out of a canoe, his leg braces firmly attached, and drowning him, thereby securing more cash from the splash. Her final intended victim was her boyfriend, John Gentry.
Gentry was smart enough to stop taking the arsenic laden capsules Judi gave him daily as vitamins, and though he was hospitalized, he did not die, which irritated Judi. So she arranged to have Gentry's car dynamited. Miraculously, Gentry lived, which was the beginning of Judi's end. The rest of the book deals, interestingly and without superfluous and boring detail, with Judi's three trials and her eventual sentencing.

Goodyear/Buenano's story is fascinating and the authors move the story along well providing all of the necessary information, while not feeling the need to present every tedious available scrap. For example, in the trial segments, they summarize information when possible. And the research in BOE is outstanding.

While the writing is for the most part pretty good, there were enough substandard instances that I feel some are worth mentioning. First, the authors occasionally use the omniscient style of writing, which I heartily dislike, to bring drama to a story that already has plenty: "Detective Ted Chamberlain clicked his way down the shiny tiled lobby of the intensive care unit..." with "Detective Rick Steele striding briskly slightly behind him." This is no more than fabricated hooshwah. The authors could and should have simply had them walking, or just as well, not mentioned it at all.

As for Chamberlain, who was clearly a main source of information, there is enough hero worship involved to become irritating. The authors try to present him as a hard-bitten, dogged cop who never gives up on a case. While this may all be true, they depict him in such a way that he basically seems crude and ignorant, particularly based on quotes they attribute to him: "'That's mighty white of you, Buddy.'" and "'Look, woman,'" Chamberlain panted. "'There's nothing wrong with you.'" and "'Woman, what are you talking about'?" I don't believe that the authors know that Chamberlain actually said any of this, but while fabricating these quotes, they are presumably trying to give the reader an accurate picture of Chamberlain's personality. And it isn't pretty. "Woman??!!" Who but a clod calls women `Woman'?"

Trial witnesses only infrequently reply or respond to questions. Instead they "retort", "quip", and "rejoin", even when the word used is inappropriate, so that the authors can vary their usage. The fact that "quip", "rejoin", etc., are not synonymous with "reply" or "answer" does not seem to concern them.

Witness Mary Beverly "shuddered as she remembered Bobby Joe's easy good natured grin." Ridiculous. Did they interview her later and ask the witness why she had shuddered, if she in fact done so at all? Maybe she was cold.

And finally, in what may well be considered the climax of this ludicrous style of writing: "God save your soul", Johnston ejaculated. Several involuntary mental scenarios, none of them pleasant, resulted from my having read this sentence.

BODIES OF EVIDENCE is a fast paced, well-researched read with a plot line that is consistently interesting. The poor writing occurs often enough to be worthy of mention and for me to deduct one star in my rating, but it is not pervasive enough, especially when Anderson and McGehee are presenting the results of their extensive research, to ruin a book I found over all quite enjoyable. I believe that true crime devotees will like this book.

Judias Buenoanos had many men in her life; most of the are dead.

But her last victim wouldn't die. His survival would prove to be her death sentence.

Surviving a car bombing, John Gentry would tell police about numerous events leading up to his near death experience; events that would point the finger at his live-in girlfriend Judi.

Once police began digging into the life of Judias Buenoanos, the evidence began to mount....evidence of more than the attempted murder of Gentry but in the deaths of her her husband, a past boyfriend, and her first born son.

What kind of person kills those who trust her the most? And why?

Bodies of Evidence: The Shocking True Story of America's Most Chilling Serial Murderess... From Crime Scene to Courtroom to Electric Chair by Chris Anderson and Sharon McGehee seeks to answers those very questions with a detailed recounting of Judias Ann Lou Welty Goodyear (Morris) Buenoano's life and crimes.

Overall, this is an interesting book; an indepth look at the epitome of a black widow.

However, the trial accounts are edious and seem to be direct from trial transcripts - with a few paragraphs of narrative tossed in for good measure.

But not enough to keep me from skimming through over 100 pages of this book.

On a five star rating, I give Bodies of Evidence: The Shocking True Story of America's Most Chilling Serial Murderess... From Crime Scene to Courtroom to Electric Chair three stars. It's okay, but it'll never be considered a "best" of the true crime genre.

Bodies of Evidence, the true story of Judias Buenoano Florida's serial murderer parallels obliquely, the recent case of Casey Anthony found not guilty of supposedly killing her two-year-old daughter Caylee Anthony. Many followers of the case felt irrationally angry when 22-year-old Casey jury found her innocent of her daughter's death.

To all those angry people I suggest reading author Chris Anderson's "Bodies of Evidence." Even though, the true story of Judias Buenoano dates from 1984, in contrast to Casey Anthony's case of 2011, both cases, for one, heavily depended on circumstantial evidence. Second, in both cases the name "Belvin Perry" plays a significant role. Third, both cases took place in the state of Florida. The reader of "Bodies of Evidence," will notice the circumstantial evidence in the Buenoano cases were, one will say, "concrete circumstantial evidence" while in the Casey Anthony case the circumstantial evidence, in my opinion, is "emotional circumstantial evidence." Belvin Perry, prosecuted one of the several "cold calculated" murders planned and executed by Judias Buenoano. As Orlando, Florida's prosecutor at the time in 1985, Belvin Perry successfully had murderer Judias Buenoano sentenced to die in the electric chair for the murder of her first husband by arsenic poisoning. In 2011, the now judge Belvin Perry, presided over the case of Casey Anthony in Orlando Florida who also faced the death penalty if convicted in the death of her two-year-old daughter Caylee Anthony.

Judias Buenoano was found guilty of murdering her first husband. To her first husband she was known as Ann Shultz of Rosalind, New Mexico. She was then a nineteen-year-old nursing student. Her husband had mysteriously died after returning from Vietnam in 1971. She was later found guilty of poising him. She not only collected on his life insurance benefits, but his military pension as well. To her common-law husband, she was Judy Goodyear, a widow and mother of 3 children, 2 sons and 1 daughter. Her common-law husband also died of unexplained medical complications in 1978 and Judias Buenoano collected on his life insurance benefits. Her oldest son, Michael Goodyear, was paralyzed by unexplained toxic exposure while home on leave from the Army. He died under questionable circumstances by drowning at the age of nineteen. She had taken both sons fishing in a lake where she supposedly pushed her crippled son Michael Goodyear overboard out of the canoe they were using. Even if Michael tried to swim, there was no way he was going to surface from the deep water since he had two leg-metal-braces and a prosthetic device on him. Again, Judias Buenoano collected on the insurance benefits. By this time, she had collected, in life insurance benefits, hundreds of thousands of dollars from the death of her loved ones. She was tried, prosecuted and sentenced to life and finally to death in the electric chair in Orlando, Florida in 1985.

The Judias Buenoano case in the 1980s and the Casey Anthony case in 2011 are significant in that in both cases the jurors impartially and correctly followed the judicial system to its perfect and intending meaning. Thus, if the jury in the Judias Buenoano case had found her not guilty even in one of the murder charges, the jury would have done an injustice; it would have been a miscarriage of justice. On the other hand, an injustice would have taken place in the Casey Anthony case if the jury had found her guilty; here too, it would have been a miscarriage of justice. This is not to say that Casey Anthony did or did not commit a crime, it only means the crime could not be proven beyond a reasonable doubt.

Reading "Bodies of Evidence" and examining both the Buenoano and Anthony cases the reader will perhaps arrive to the same conclusion I did. That is, the United States of America justice system is the best in the world and has been proven, in my opinion, to be perfect by the outcome of both the Judias Buenoano and Casey Anthony cases. The symbol of justice is alive and well.

I strongly suggest to all who are still angry about the outcome of the Casey Anthony case to read "Bodies of Evidence." Reading "Bodies of Evidence" will help understand the decisions made by the jurors in both cases. The reader should then give those jurors a hearty salute for the impartial, unbiased, just, and right decisions they made in both cases. If Casey Anthony did commit a crime, a Higher Law will take care of it during or after her lifetime. These two cases indirectly show the American judicial system works as it was meant to work. We should all be proud of our justice system.