Customer Reviews

The Burn Farm

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

 

 

This is a movie-worthy horror story about Sheila LaBarre, a very mean woman who lives alone in a house in the middle of New Hampshire nowhere. She recruits men into her home, using sex as bait, and then abuses them, slowly, agonizingly, until they are dead. The opening scene is so scary I think it will stick with me forever. If you think you've heard it all, read this story. The weirdest part is all of it is true.

Book says the story is a sort of updated Hansel & Gretel, which is pretty accurate, except there's no Gretel. Just a series of Hansels. and one very wicked witch.

The Burn Farm is an excellent case study on the argument of what actions define a defendant as insane and whether the Constitutional burden changes with a plea of mental defect.

Sheila LaBarre was molested as a young child by her father and line of men who she addressed as "Uncles."

Did would this abuse as a child create the woman who would seduce vunerable young men to her isolated New Hampshire farm where she beat them, killed them, and then incernerated their bodies?

LaBarre's history as outlined in The Burn Farm by Michael Benson is interesting, yet the chapters wherein her sanity was called into question was what most captured my attention.

Was Sheila LaBarre insane or just a fatally vicious person? I'd be interested to hear your thoughts.

The New Hampshire jury has rendered it's verdict on Sheila's sanity. As for me, my mental jury is still out.

Another terrific book by Michael Benson. To me it is the true crime stories that are the most chilling and this book is one of the scariest books I have read in a long time. I highly recommend this book.

Excellent book. I read alot of true crime books and this one held my attention from beginning to in. The author did a great job. This is probably one of the few books that I have read where I felt that mental illness played a large part in the murders. My heart goes out to the family members of the victims who died in such a horrific way. I wish the police had done more to save Kenny before it was too late.

This is the first book Ive read about this case. I thought this book relayed the story very well, and was easy to follow through the ins and outs of this womans mixed up life. This is the first book I have read from Michael Benson, and I do appreciate the authors details and how the book was never hard to follow. This was such a lengthy case and Benson did a wonderful job of putting it all in one book. Never boring, never repeating, impeccably researched. The book details the exhausting investigation of all involved while the crime scene was being picked over with a fine tooth comb. I would recommend this book for any true crime reader.

Well researched and documented with great photos, this is a terrific book about a very unique crime committed by a twisted female serial killer. Well done.

It was almost unbelievable to me how people associated with the "villain" in this true-crime drama could not forsee
something like this happening & prevent what inevitable did occur. At times I was very frustrated reading this story, to the point where it was almost unenjoyable.

Anyone who came into contact with this woman would agree that she definitely wasn't playing with a full deck. Whether she was just eccentric, or actually mentally ill is the question. Even those who are mentally ill are still responsible for their actions if they know right from wrong. She definitely knew what the laws of man say about killing, but what if she felt she was doing God's will? Only she knows for sure, but this book gives readers an opportunity to ponder that situation. It also gives a sad glimpse of what happens when the disadvantaged in society fall into the wrong company.

I bought both The Burn Farm and Wicked Intentions. They all cover the story of Sheila Labarre. However, the similarity ends there. This book is a waste of money because of the reasons listed below.

- It has 16 pages of photos but none of them shows the portrait of the murderer. There is only one photo showing the left-hand side of her face. Consequently, I don't know what the murderer looks like after reading this book. On the contrary, W.I contains only 8 pages of photos. Yet, they hold 7 photos showing the frontal side of Sheila's face. One was taken when she's baby. Another when she was in court.

- More than half of this book, from page 181 to 370, is used to describe what happened during the jury selection and inside the court room. It's boring. On the other hand, W.I., covers those events in only 50 pages from 294 through 333.

- The worst thing is the anti-climax writing style. Right on page 1, the author called Sheila a bitch and said she burned her victims. This is a direct quote from the first page "The witch -- a black widow dominatrix witch --...She burned her victims while quote Daniel 3..."
Contrarily, the author of W.I did not conclude that Sheila killed people right on the first page.

Out of more than 590 items reviewed by me on Amazon, this is one of the worst.
I'd like to confirm that I have nothing to do with Kevin Flynn, the author of Wicked Intentions. As said above, I bought both of the books. I'm just trying to warn other readers not to waste money as I did. You don't have to take my words. Just spend about 15 minutes in the book store to browse it and you will see what I meant.

This book was much better written than the last book I read about these murders. I would recommend this book. Lots of details and easy to follow.