Customer Reviews

Preacher's Girl: The Life and Crimes of Blanche Taylor Moore

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I got this book out of my local library after seeing the TV movie starring Elizabeth Montgomery. The TV movie was based on this book. However, the movie did not even begin to scratch the surface of what Blanche Taylor Moore was really like. I was horrified to think that one human being could be this evil, yet appear perfectly normal. Her father was a terrible man, there was no question about that. He forced Blanche to do things that no child should have to endure. That is why Blanche probably turned out the way she did. It does not, however, excuse the terrible things she did to the people she supposedly "loved." It's a fascinating book.

There was a tv movie made about Blanche Taylor Moore. I believe Elizabeth Montgomery? played Blanche. I watched it and then went hunting for the book. I finally found it used, from a local bookshop. The tv movie doesnt even begin to cover what and who this woman was, the evil she caused and the lives she wrecked. The book is very graphic, but worth the reading. It reminds me of Helter Skelter by Mr. Bugliosi; you watch the movie version and go find the book. Tv movies leave a lot out.

Jim Schutze, the book's author, takes you inside the crimes committed by Taylor-Moore against lovers, husbands, and family members. In horrifying detail, Schutze describes how the poison used, arsenic, destroys the body from the inside, and the pain and torture it creates. At times, the descriptions may seem almost too graphic, particularly if someone leans towards being a "visual" person to begin with. Not for shock value, however. I am convinced that Schutze uses the graphic detail to take the reader into the victim or his (her? as suggested in the death of Isla Taylor) family, allowing the reader to "see" and feel what those around the victim felt and experienced. Horribly real in every way, but it's not easy to put this book down either.

This woman really was a wounded, sick individual and Schutze tells her bone-chilling story with grace and wit.