Forever and Five Days [Mass Market Paperback]

Lowell Cauffiel (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 28, 2010

Here is the dramatic story of Catherine Wood, a suburban wife and mother, and Gwendolyn Graham, her lesbian lover, two nurse's aides at the Alpine Manor nursing home in Grand Rapids, Michigan, who smothered five helpless patients to death. Photo insert.

--This text refers to an alternate Mass Market Paperback edition.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Cathy was the lively one--the bleached-blonde star of the nurses' aides' lunchroom--the one who enjoyed scripting an ever-changing soap opera from the lives of the nursing-home staff. Gwen was the pug-nosed newcomer with a little girl's dependency and desire to please: she doted on Cathy, and was honored to be chosen as her lover. They turned a respected Michigan nursing home into their playground for frivolous games and practical jokes. Then Cathy got worried that Gwen was cheating on her, so she suggested a love pact that would bind them together "forever and five days." Gwen carried out her wishes, and smothered five patients in their beds. It's a story with a large cast of characters--the employees of the nursing home, the individual patients and their loving families, the outsiders who wondered and worried. Lowell Cauffiel does a good job of letting us into their lives, and into the world of make-believe that allowed these murders to go unnoticed for so long. --This text refers to an alternate Mass Market Paperback edition.

From Publishers Weekly

Ex- Detroit News writer Cauffiel makes an auspicious debut in the true-crime genre with this sensitive and searching story of the murders of at least six nursing home patients in Grand Rapids, Mich., in 1987. The killers were two aides at the home: Cathy Wood, a divorced mother who had turned to lesbianism, and Gwen Graham, long gay. Wood was a brilliant, manipulative individual who enjoyed stirring up trouble; Graham was a harder, more physical woman, capable of violence. They told others about the slayings but were not believed, principally because Wood was known as a congenital liar who delighted in "mind games." She finally convinced her ex-husband of the murders, telling him that she and Graham had killed for fun and excitement. The authorities apprehended Wood first and she turned state's evidence. Graham got five life terms and Wood a sentence of 20 to 40 years. What makes this study noteworthy is Cauffiel's discreet handling of the killers' homosexuality (a restraint not shown by media at the trial) and the excellent concluding section of analyses by a number of psychotherapists which help explain what motivated the crimes. Photos not seen by PW.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

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Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback: 320 pages
• Publisher: Pinnacle Books; Reprint edition (April 28, 2010)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0786022272
• ISBN-13: 978-0786022274
• Product Dimensions: 6.7 x 6.3 x 1.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (22 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #370,164 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

25 of 27 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars From the Author, November 4, 2000

By 

Lowell Cauffiel "author" (Los Angeles, CA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Forever and Five Days (True Crime) (Mass Market Paperback)

In the interest of accuracy to serious readers, I feel it necessary to respond to Roxanne Marcianti's review here. Ms. Marcianti makes a number of charges and assumptions which have no basis in fact. First, not a single sentence of "Forever and Five Days" is "padded" and the book contains not a single passage of "fictionalization." Everything in the work has been meticulously researched and documented with hundreds of hours of taped interviews, court transcripts, police reports and other proven methods of journalistic research. Furthermore, Ms. Marcianti's charge that I did not interview the two perpetrators in this book is simply careless reading on her part. The book's "Author's Note" makes quite clear the sources of all the material in "Forever and Five Days," including stating that the perpetrators were interviewed extensively. Apparently, she didn't bother to read it, or chose to ignore it completely -- which, by the way, makes her "review" libelous in that it maliciously ignores the facts. I would suggest Ms. Marcianti apply the same standards of research and accuracy she expects in my books to her own reviewing skills.

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars if you want cheap superficiality, look elsewhere please, November 28, 2001

By 

Thomas G. Shaw "resident of hellveiw" (lorain, ohio United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Forever and Five Days (True Crime) (Mass Market Paperback)

I have been a fan of Mr. Cauffiel's books for several years now.
His books are NOT tedious or difficult to read--they are meticulously researched and the subject matter revealed layer by layer to the interested reader. Infused in the narrative of his books is a deep respect for the parties involved and dare I say, some subtle humor as well. For me, this makes for wonderful reading. Fans of superficial, rush-to-market, cheap accounts of lurid crimes and criminals should look elsewhere, not criticize one of the finest true crime writers out there.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Long and detailed, but a worthwhile book., December 31, 2000

By 

Kelly Lynn (Baltimore, MD) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Forever and Five Days (True Crime) (Mass Market Paperback)

I do agree with other reviewers-a good editor could have made the difference in this book. It was long and detailed in sections, difficult to wade through, but, nonetheless, a worthwhile story. The only part left undone for me was how the nursing home management could allow such employees to behave in the manner as they did on the third shift. Cathy and Gwen were such heartless human beings to have cheated these older people out of what little dignity they had left. It appears that Cathy will always continue her sadistic, manipulative behavior; never sorry for what she has done nor the lives she has selfishily destroyed. Ashamed to admit it, but this is one person I would like to see sitting on death row.