A corporate lawyer tells how he stumbled onto the trail of a female serial killer and devoted five years to bringing her to justice after she murdered his neighbor's daughter for insurance money. 20,000 first printing.
Book Description
Editorial Reviews
From Publishers Weekly
At church in Louisville one day in 1987 a woman named Bobbie Roberts asked another parishioner, corporate lawyer Steven Keeney, for help: her daughter, Deanna, had fallen to her death along the Big Sur coast of California earlier that year, and now her insurance company was balking at paying benefits. What emerged was a scandal of far greater magnitude. Soon Keeney uncovered evidence suggesting that Deanna had been pushed off the cliff by her traveling companions, B. J. and Virginia McGinnis, a married couple who had secured a life insurance policy on her the previous day. After further investigation, Keeney came to suspect that over 20 years Virginia McGinnis had killed her three-year-old daughter, her mother and her ex-husband, as well as committing crimes of shoplifting, forgery, theft and arson. Heilbroner ( Rough Justice ) does a respectable job of reporting how Kenney learned of McGinnis's childhood of poverty and abuse. But in his courtroom coverage, surprisingly, this former New York City prosecutor cools down his potential potboiler through a pedestrian analysis of the 1992 trial. B. J. McGinnis, who was indicted, died in prison before being tried; Virginia McGinnis was sentenced to life imprisonment. Photos not seen by PW. BOMC alternate; movie rights have been optioned; condensation rights to Reader's Digest; author tour.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Library Journal
In 1987, Steve Keeney, a Louisville, Kentucky, corporate attorney totally unfamiliar with criminal law, was approached by Bobbie Jo Roberts for advice because her insurance company would not pay the proceeds of her daughter's life insurance policy. Keeney quickly discovered that Virginia McGinnis, the woman with Roberts's daughter when she fell to her death from a cliff in Big Sur, California, had an astonishing history. McGinnis had lived in six homes, all of which had burned to the ground; her three-year-old daughter had died of accidental hanging; her mother and second husband perished mysteriously while under her care. Yet McGinnis had avoided suspicion for more than 30 years. Freelance writer Heilbroner recounts Keeney's tireless efforts to bring McGinnis to justice in a nonfiction narrative that reads like a classic thriller. Readers will find it very difficult to put down. Highly recommended.
- Sandra K. Lindheimer, Middlesex Law Lib., Cambridge, Mass.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.
- Sandra K. Lindheimer, Middlesex Law Lib., Cambridge, Mass.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.
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0 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Different Perspective than the Normal True Crime Book,
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This review is from: Death Benefit: A Lawyer Uncovers a 20-year Pattern of Seduction, Arson and Murder (Hardcover)
This book is the true story of a tax attorney who does a favor for a woman in his church. He ends up solving several out-of-state murders that the police didn't even recognize as homicides. After pushing law enforcement and district attornies in these states for years, they finally listen to him. This is a completely different type of true crime book than anything I've read.
0 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Gift,
This review is from: Death Benefit: A Lawyer Uncovers a 20-year Pattern of Seduction, Arson and Murder (Hardcover)
I ordered this book as a gift as I already have the book. It was in amazing shape, and I appreciate the fast service. Thanks so much.
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