Customer Reviews

Cruel Death

5 star:		(20)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I had heard of this case when it happened; I had actually been in the criminals' scrapbook store in Altoona while visiting my sister. Shortly after that, my sister called to tell me that the owners of the store she had taken me to were accused of murdering a couple in Ocean City. I couldn't believe it! While I followed the case after that, I was glad to have a book come out about it. The book was very well written, showing all sides.

This is by far the most disturbing book I have ever read. I read it in a weekend, staying up well after midnight and reading it every waking minute until I finished it. I just could not stop reading because I wanted to find out what happened next. The acts that the Sifrits committed against the victims are unimaginable and parts of the book are extremely gruesome; it is definitely not a book for the faint of heart. It has been a few weeks since I read the book and I still can't stop thinking about it.

Ever since I heard about this case I've been looking for a book to get more details. This book does not disappoint! This is a case of two young people, each with a potential for greatness, who drag each other down into a lifestyle fueld by alochol and drugs. This leads to the senseless murder of an innocent couple in a bizarre game of power control. Each of the suspects claims a vastly different scenario to the killings, and this book does an excellent job of protraying both sides and all of the facts.

This is well written and very compelling reading. I couldn't put it down. The author delves into everyone involved: victims, perpetrators, detectives and attorneys. It is very gruesome in some parts but helps paint the overall brutatlity of the crime. The only complaint I have is the author didn't really explain how the female criminal, Erika, ended up becoming the murderous person she became.

Erika Grace was an only child.

And, is often the case with only children, Erika always got her way and anything she wanted.

Until she met and married Benjamin "BJ" Sifrit, a former Navy SEAL with a penchant for violence.

Combine his desire to kill and her sociopathic nature; and you get one night of thrill killing in Ocean City, Maryland.

A situation which Daddy couldn't buy Erika's way out.

Joshua Ford and Martha "Geney" Crutchley were just looking for a fun weekend getaway. Instead an act of kindness would lead to their brutal deaths.

Lured to Ocean City's Rainbow Condominiums penthouse suite, Ford and Crutchley would be murdered, dismembered, and their body parts tossed in to various dumpsters.

After the motiveless murder, their killers would continue partying and enjoying a Memorial Day weekend vacation.

Yet one deadly sin would be their downfall: greed.

When Erika and BJ decided to burglarize a local Hooter's, they weren't counting on getting caught; but a silent alarm alerted Ocean City police to a possible crime occurring at the location.

Police had no way of knowing that the crime to which they were responding would end up seeming minute in comparison to the discovery of an even greater, more horrendous crime.

Even seasoned true crime readers will be appalled at what follows as detailed by veteran true crime writer M. William Phelps in his latest book: Cruel Death.

This 435 page book details a Navy SEAL's transformation into a cold-blooded killer, a college basketball player's fall from grace, and a father's determination to prove his little girl is not the monster everyone else knows her to be.

5 stars for CRUEL DEATH. I read this book in just a few days - could not put it down. A cold-blooded couple who were able to laugh it up & party after brutally murdering innocent strangers they met on a bus. Author Mr. Phelps did a great job putting this story together. CRUEL DEATH is a must read for true crime fans.

This is the ballad of two of the most pathetic losers to ever team up. We have Erkika and "BJ" Sifrit, a young married couple who enjoy such fine things as snorting mounds of Xanax, excessive alcohol abuse, snakes, tattoos, and horror movies. They consider themselves to be a modern day "Mick and Mallory" and "Bonnie and Clyde". Unfortunately, they managed to get caught only a day or two after their brutal thrill killing of two vacationers when they got collared robbing a Hooters. Erika is obsessed with Hooters..the sad thing is the only job she would ever be able to get there would be in the kitchen so she steals their merchandise instead. I disagree with many of the reviews on here in that I don't think Josh and Geney should be expected to have known what danger they were in. They were drinking and smoking pot with Erika and BJ and therefore probably developed a false sense of familiarity because of this. Plus, you just don't think these two kids would invite you back to their condo to shoot you then dismember you in the bathroom.

If you are interested in this case, I would advise watching one of the many TV docs about it and forgoing this book. I have read other books by Phelps and don't recall ever being this irritated with his writing. First of all,

This.
Drove.
Me.
Nuts.

Seriously, he wrote like this throughout the book. I read to learn things and I felt this book was written at about a fourth grade reading level. Also, this book is responsible for putting a graphic image in my mind they will never go away. None of the other sources about this case chose to mention the aspect of the crime I am referring to and Phelps did include a disclaimer at the beginning of the story that some of this is surely not meant for the victim's families to read. However, he chose to include it and I am sick to my stomach for it.

This book is a true crime based on two shocking and cruel murders. Phelps tells the story in a way that unlocks the personalities of the people involved, bit by bit, so that you are interested in every page.

What is so horrifying about the murders is the way it plays against all our expectations. The woman involved in the murders, Erika, didn't grow up deprived, surrounded by crime. On the contrary. She came from a lovely middle class family. She grew up in a small town, safe and happy. Pictures of her in high school, mugging for the camera, wearing basketball uniforms, a grin on her face, all collide shockingly with the person she became.

And Phelps shows, clearly, just how she changed into that person. Until she became a drug soaked, narcissistic, thrill seeker who could slice into another woman as if she were cutting a piece of cake.

Her marriage to B.J., a Navy SEAL, was the pairing of two people who loved to play on the edge. They stole from Hooters restaurants and sold the loot on eBay. They also ended up murdering two people--and perhaps may have murdered others.

This is a shocking, but absorbing book. You won't be able to put it down.

i really enjoyed this book....loved the way the story was told...it wasn't one chapter about this and the next chapter about something totally different, it was the story!!!! Great book....i never read books more than once, but i might just read this one again....the gore was bad, but just bad enough to make me not gross out but understand what happened....oh my gosh....loved it!

Fans of true crime will not be able to put down "Cruel Death". Erika Grace is the only child of doting and loving parents. She meets Benjamin(BJ)Sifrit Navy Seal, and after a quick romance the two get married. Sounds sweet, but the pairing of these two psychopaths is anything but especially when you add their drug and alcohol addictions, pet snakes, alligators, guns, knives, and the fact that they rob various stores with a special affection for "Hooters". The Sifrits weekend holiday getaway to Ocean City Maryland, would prove fatal for Martha "Geney" Crutchley and her boyfriend Joshua Ford. After meeting on a bus ride to a local bar the foursome decide to continue the party at Erika and BJ's condo. What happens next is what Hollywood horror movies are made of - after Erika realizes her pocketbook is "missing" the couple mentally torture Geney and Joshua until the two realize there is no way out. After shooting Geney and Joshua, the Sifrits dismember the couple and throw their bodyparts in dumpsters. Had they not been caught robbing a Hooters they probably wouldn't have been connected to the murders. Erika and BJ won't get away with murder, or will they? find out for yourself, you won't be disappointed.

I am a fan of Phelps as a true crime writer. Most of his books I would rate 4-5 stars. Not this one. And not because his usual, fine writing is lacking.

The problem is: the crime just isn't that compelling a read because the murderers are not very interesting people. The poor little rich girl meets the handsome bad boy and they form a rather predictable, combustible relationship.

Unfortunately, we get way more in depth information than we need ( or want ) about these not very interesting people which makes the book a bit dull.

I've read my share of poorly written books about interesting cases but this is one of the few times I've read a well written book about a boring case. Mr Phelp's talent deserves better.