Customer Reviews

Once upon a Time: A True Story of Memory, Murder and the Law

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Spoiler Alert: I'm a trial lawyer in Cal., and have some information for those looking for updates. First, as to the book, it's very well written, and you feel like you are at the trial. My quibble might be that it is clear that the author just personally liked the prosecutor better than the defense lawyer, and put her performance and the descriptions of her in a much better light than the defense, even though objectively, as a trial lawyer, from my reading, the defense attorney did the best he could with a biased judge.

UPDATE:

For those interested, I think you can Google Franklin vs. Duncan to find the federal court decision overturning the conviction in 1995. The federal appeals court agreed in overturning the conviction, and the prosecutors decided not to retry the case. My take is that the father was a horrible, abusive, depraved person, but that the evidence he committed this particular crime was flimsy to non-existent. The book does a good job in showing how the cops, prosecutor and jury believe what they want to believe, and how they can twist the evidence to fit what they want to believe.

The grounds were that the trial judge was wrong to let the prosecutor argue that the defendant's silence when his daughter asked him whether he did it when he was in jail indicated guilt, because a criminal defendant has the right to remain silent and that cannot be used against him. The trial court also was in error by refusing to let the defense present evidence that every single detail of the crime that the daughter came up with had been published in newspapers and mentioned on TV. The prosecutor argued that the details the daughter gave could only be known by someone who had witnessed the crime, and they all matched up with the actual scene and body, but then the judge wouldn't let the defense show she could have read the stuff in the paper. The federal court was also very disturbed by the prosecutor implying to the jury that the information wasn't publicly known, when she knew that it was known, and the court thought the prosecutor may have induced perjured testimony. The trial court also indicated there was evidence the daughter committed perjury in testifying that she didn't discuss the facts of the case with her family, that she didn't watch press reports and that the memory was not induced by hypnosis. Her mom and sister, who backed her up in the trial, now claim that she was lying. The conviction was thrown out only on the jailhouse silence and the refusal to permit evidence of the press coverage, but the court was clearly disturbed by the other issues.

FURTHER UPDATE:

The father, after his release, sued the cops, the prosecutor, his daughter and the state's expert witnesses for conspiring to violate his rights. In 2002, the federal appeals court held that the witnesses had immunity from suit for various reasons. I think an Internet search of Franklin vs. Terr may turn that up.

Very well written, but disturbing story of a woman's repressed memory of child abuse, rape and murder. I have no doubt that Eileen Franklin's father was guilty of some of Eileen's accusations, but I'm uncertain whether or not he murdered her friend. Eileen seems to have a lot of emotional issues that made me question her credibility, in addition to her constantly changing stories. But her mother, brother and sisters were able to corroborate on the abuse so at least some of what she said must have been true. I was engrossed in the book and had a hard time putting it down. Harry Maclean has done a great job.

ONCE UPON A TIME is absolutely gripping, and an example of true crime writing at its insightful best. Maclean is a master of the genre, and the case itself is fascinating. The family dynamics are horrific and tragically true -- and that means people lie to themselves and others with terrible consequences. The man accused of murdering a child was uncouth, unfaithful, disgusting, abusive ..and innocent. This book is important for anyone who thinks our justice system should react like an outraged victim instead of bending over backwards in the assumption of innocence. Even then, emotion and violations of the Constitution can put the wrong people behind bars. For reasons of literary brilliance, coupled with social relevance, I cannot lavish enough praise on ONCE UPON A TIME by Harry Maclean

I have a repressed memory of this case from my childhood (ha ha). No, I remember all the hoopla that came about when all these people began "remembering" things that happened to them as children, even at ages where you really can't remember anything. Sexual abuse seemed to be the common theme but this case dealt with that and a murder as well. This author writes with incredible detail and insight...yes, the trial scene is very long but if you are really interested in this case, you will know everything when you're done (I never want to read the evidence list of the rock, shoe, dress, etc again). Eileen Franklin is a very troubled lady who most likely took things that did happen to her in her life and created a fantastic account of witnessing her childhood friend's murder. I am sure she was abused by her father but that he likely did not commit the crime of murder. I don't feel bad that he spent seven years in prison. That is not nearly enough to atone for the way he treated his family. I wonder if Eileen's "heavy drug use" could have caused some of this. It is alluded too but not really dwelled upon. Certainly that could lead to some false memories and much of her instability. I wonder how she feels about her life now, 20 more years later and if she still believes her father killed Susan Nason or if she knew it was a lie all along.

The body of seven year old Susan Nason was found murdered, the result of a savage beating, in 1969 in San Mateo Co., CA. Twenty years later, George Franklin, by then in his 50's was charged with her murder, the result of a "recovered memory" of his daughter Eileen. The recovered memory was the sole basis for the charges against Franklin and is the basis for this book, ONCE UPON A TIME, by Harry MacLean. In his excellent true crime book, IN BROAD DAYLIGHT, MacLean proved himself an outstanding writer, and this book does nothing to change my opinion. He writes intelligently, reportorially, and without filler. The best feature of this book is the astoundingly in-depth research MacLean provides on the Franklin family over a 30-year period. This research is crucial to understanding Eileen's recovered memory of her father killing Nason as well as her subsequent actions, and the reader will feel almost like he/she is living with the Franklins during those 30 years. This is not a pleasant proposition.

The underlying questions in this book are: 1. Does "recovered memory actually exist? 2. If so, how can its accuracy be measured? And 3. Did Eileen Franklin actually recover a memory at all? These, along with related subplots, make ONCE UPON A TIME a fascinating and thought provoking book.

The book is divided into two sections, the first 202 pages dealing with the dysfunctional Franklin family from 1969 to 1989, the dysfunction consisting of verbal and physical abuse including George's sexual abuse of his daughters. Section two, pages 205-469, covers the preparations for trial and the trial itself. Section 1, as fine as any social research you'll find in true crime, flies by. Section 2, while containing neither irrelevant material nor filler, is very long, and begins to drag, though not enough that I wanted to stop reading. I will not report the results of the trial, but will say that there were subsequent developments in the case over the next 8 or so years and that this information can be found on line.

A quote on the book's cover written by the late Jack Olsen, in my opinion the best writer ever of true crime reads, "A superb reporter, MacLean avoids the cheap shot, the easy sensationalism, the fakery and glitz that mark so many books in this genre." Exactly.

Though I think the trial section could have been shortened - not drastically, but somewhat - I still feel that ONCE UPON A TIME is a five star book and I highly recommend it.

As a former trial lawyer and judge I have often observed the difficulties that arise when judges and juries must make difficult factual determinations based solely upon the memory of witnesses. Even short term memories can be shaded by many factors. A witness may not be lying, but believes what he or she is testifying to is the truth, even when based upon a faulty memory. In Once Upon a Time Harry MacLean delves into the even murkier area of repressed and now recovered memories from years long past. This book takes a fascinating look at the role eye witness accounts based upon memory have in our judicial system. This exhaustively researched and well written true crime and courtroom thriller will have you marveling at how dysfunctional one family can be. The book also raises serious questions about how accurate our judicial system is in judging guilt and innocence. Once Upon a Time can be enjoyed on many levels: it is an exploration of sociology and psychology, a gruesome but gripping true crime story and an amazing courtroom drama.

Brilliant law facts, psychological experts and one really screwed up family will keep you glued to this book. The repressed, recovered memory may very well exist; however, I would never have convicted Mr. Franklin on that alone. The way Eileen kept changing her story to fit the facts is very bothersome to me. I have no doubt the defendant did some, if not all of the things he was accused of but convicting him on a self-professed liar's word alone with absolutely not another shred of evidence is horrifying. The Susan Nasons of the world deserve justice but it certainly must be proven. If she were my daughter, I'd still be wondering if we had the right man.

Do you remember in 1990 when Eileen Franklin suddenly remembered a twenty one year old repressed memory of her father bludgeoning her schoolmate to death with a rock? And that her father was convicted of murder based solely on her repressed memory? And that then repressed memories were a thing? And that two opportunistic women wrote "The Courage To Heal"- a bestseller which said, "all your life's problems arose because you were molested by your father, even though you don't remember being molested by your father. Science just discovered repressed memories and they're surprisingly common. So imagine your father molesting you, and if you can imagine it, it's true because OMG, repressed memories! They are so real."? And all across the nation, neurotic women remembered being molested by their fathers? It was a huge deal in 1990, mostly forgotten now, just one of those weird witch hunt phenomenons the media occasionally whips up which cause people who watch too much TV to panic, like the Satanic Daycares of the late 80s.

McLean does a great job explaining how the accusing daughter was nearly as bad as her completely messed up father, who no doubt molested and beat his children. Eileen Franklin's father was scum, but he didn't kill her schoolmate. McLean provides a fascinating, exhaustively detailed account of a beyond the pale messed up family. McLean thoroughly explains what the detectives at the time could glean about the murder of the schoolchild. Mostly, this is a very good book.

It falls apart at the end, with its pages and pages of courtroom activity. Most of the courtroom stuff is interesting, since this case set a precedent that convictions can be based based solely on repressed memories. But the courtroom parts don't get that far into the legal ramifications of the case; they just report what happened. Several unnecessary paragraphs are devoted to other dramatic murder cases being held in the same courthouse. McLean writes about those cases to contrast how much media attention the Eileen Franklin case garnered compared to more probable, more violent cases, but it doesn't work. It only distracts from the main story.

Aside from that small criticism, this is definitely worth a read.

Very interesting writing and a great read. You won't find a dull page in this book. The price is right too.

This is a very well-researched, excellently-written book of a controversial murder trial. My only complaint about the book is that the publisher seemed to take a snooze in proof-reading. I have the book on Kindle; throughout, I kept encountering similar mistakes over and over again, such as "Franklin s" instead of "Franklin's." It is such a shame that the publisher did such a poor job of editing.