In September 2005, Liz Seccuro's world turned upside down when she received an apology letter from the man who had raped her twenty-two years earlier. The rape, which occurred when she was a seventeen-year-old freshman at the University of Virginia, was reported to the campus police, but their inquiry led nowhere. The man accused of raping her left the university soon after, and Seccuro tried to put the incident behind her, starting a business and a family, but like all survivors of trauma, the memory was never far from the surface.
The letter brought it all back. Seccuro bravely began an e-mail correspondence with her rapist to try to understand what happened, and why. As the correspondence continued, Seccuro found the courage to do what should have been done all those years earlier-prosecute him. She began appearing on national television and radio to talk about the case. Several crime dramas and a John Grisham novel, The Associate, were based on her experience. She had found a way to end a terrible story, but once judicial proceedings began, she found that what she thought occurred at that UV A frat party was only the tip of the iceberg. The investigation revealed at least two other assailants, numerous onlookers, and a wall of silence among the fraternity members that persisted two decades later.
Liz Seccuro's inspiring, unflinching memoir is about experiencing terrible trauma-and the power of justice to heal.
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The rape by William Beebe of University of Virginia freshman Seccuro at a 1984 fraternity party was only the beginning of a terrible ordeal. First, the local hospital didn't process rape kits and told her to drive to D.C. for help. Then, university officials insisted campus, rather than Richmond, police handle the crime and dismissed her with condescension. Twenty-one years later, Seccuro receives a letter from her rapist asking for forgiveness. Even though it brings on panic attacks, she writes back and presses charges. The legal battle and media attention only give Seccuro more resolve that her actions, however belated, are right, for herself and the victims of countless rapes that are never prosecuted, thus never giving them a chance for justice. The book includes a transcript of the preliminary hearing, with its shocking revelation of what Seccuro endured that night. This brave account reveals an alarming array of mishandling, poor judgment, and obfuscation or outright lies from university officials and from students at the party, and shines light on a systemic lack of concern and care given to rape victims. (Jan.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
Embarking on a family vacation, Seccuro received a letter that shattered her life for the second time. It was a letter of atonement from the man who raped her when she was a college freshman at the University of Virginia. She’d been drugged and remembered only fragments of what happened to her, but the letter brought back panic attacks and depression as she struggled to recall the violent assault and with how she should react to her attacker’s request. Seccuro intersperses her actions after receiving the letter with flashbacks to her freshman year in 1984, when she got little assistance from the university and mixed reactions from friends and family. Should she dredge it all up to bring her attacker to justice? What would be the cost to her personally and to her husband and young daughter? She’d been working as a counselor for rape victims. What did she owe them? Seccuro recalls a harrowing journey through memory and the realities of the legal process as she decided to stand up for herself and all rape victims even as others criticized her for not simply accepting the plea for forgiveness. --Vanessa Bush
Liz Seccuro was born in New York, New York, grew up in Westchester County and went to the University of Virginia. An event planner by trade, she now lives with her husband and 2 young children in Old Town, Alexandria, Virginia and spends each summer in Long Island, New York. She loves to cook (most of her Amazon purchases are cookbooks!),surf, stand up paddle (SUP) garden, read, discover great music and great wine and take the occasional Core Fusion or SLT class. She is a collector of hotel silver, first edition books, vintage fashion and stray friends. She enjoys social media and supports many local and national charities dealing with human rights, literacy, children and the fight against AIDS. She has her own foundation to support victims of sexual assault: STARS www.starssurvivors.com
Liz travels the country signing this very book and lecturing to many groups on the issue of sexual assault, domestic violence and dating violence. She spends time lobbying on Capitol Hill for these issues as well. Despite the subject matter, Liz has a wicked sense of humor and an easy laugh.
She hopes to meet you soon. "Crash Into Me" is her first book. Hopefully, her next one will be about unicorns and rainbows, but she hopes you'll read this very important one! Follow her on Twitter @LizSeccuro
The first thing you should know about Liz Seccuro is that she is a gifted writer. This is an extremely well written book. There are several books on the market today that have been written by sexual assault survivors. "Crash Into Me" stands out among them because of its precise attention to every detail, the quality of the writing that makes you feel like you are sitting down talking with your best friend, and the intensely compelling indictment of the most notorious revictimizing college administration in the nation of rape survivors - the University of Virginia. I worked in the Dean of Student's office at the University of Virginia for several years with every living member of the administration talked about in this book. Everything Liz Seccuro says about them is consistent with my experience there. It is about time someone as brave as she has come forward to tell the truth.
"Crash Into Me" is not only a substantial contribution to the scholarship on rape trauma, it is a must read for everyone who cares about other people. Sexual assault survivors will find themselves in the words of Liz Seccuro's experience. College students will learn more about the reality of campus rape and the systems that aren't always there to help them. Present and future college administrators will learn everything not to do from the way he University of Virginia mishandled most every aspect of the situation. Police officers will learn how to treat a survivor with respect from the heroic actions of the police chief who went back decades later to help right a wrong done so many year ago. Criminologists will get a look into the motivations of a deeply disturbing offender who came back to haunt a woman years after a brutally raping her. Everyone who reads this compelling book will be a better person, a more informed potential juror, and a more empathetic individual for the next rape survivor who decides to open up to them. Everyone should read this book!
Wow!"Crash Into Me" is ultimately a story about forgiveness and justice. I have been thinking about this all day after having read the book last night in one sitting. Liz was the victim of a violent CRIME. There is a difference in forgiving the harm done to one and bringing justice to the perpetrator of a violent CRIME. Liz takes the reader on an unforgettable journey with a jaw-dropping honesty that is rare. I was hooked from the first chapter when I felt as if I were riding in the car with her as she opens the envelope that lay atop the pile of mail in her mailbox. The contents change her life. Her rapist begins a conversation with her 20 years after the fact,asking forgiveness while dredging up the hurt and horror of a rape never atoned for. Rape is the hidden crime in America today. Many young women have been the victims of men with drugs dropped into martinis. Girls who wake up in a motel room confused and bloodied are often accused of drinking too much or wearing the wrong clothing. Liz was a victim of a violent campus rape at the young age of 17 and it took years to bring her victimization to light and finally to some degree of justice. This story is a page turner filled with riveting detail. Everyone should read it! Are you a parent with a daughter? Read it. Are you a parent with a son? Read it. Are you a victim of rape? Read it. Are you a lover of justice? Read it. Do you lack compassion for those whose lives have been crashed into by rape of some other injustice? Definitely, read it!
In "Crash Into Me", author Liz Seccuro tells the story of the brutal rape that was committed against her when she was a college freshman; of her rapist's apology and plea for forgiveness more than twenty years later; of her difficult quest to bring her rapist to justice; and of the profound emotional ramifications that the rape has had on her, which continues to this very day.
Ms. Seccuro tells her story in such a way that at some times is difficult to read, given the graphic and ugly details of the rape and its aftermath; while at other times is riveting and compelling, to the point where you *can't* put the book down and you *have* to keep reading.
What i found most impressive was Ms. Seccuro's ability to make the reader empathetic to her experience--*empathetic*, not just sympathetic--even if the reader is not herself/himself a sexual assault survivor. Ms. Seccuro has the uncanny ability to put the reader in her shoes and enable the reader to emotionally *feel* what she felt as she was going through her experience, which is no minor feat. It is *this* ability to make the reader feel empathetic that sets this book apart from other books, and sets Ms. Seccuro apart from other writers.
I highly recommend "Crash Into Me" as a "must read" book.
