Customer Reviews

And the Sea Will Tell

5 star:		(57)
4 star:		(18)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(6)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

It's going on four years since I read "And The Sea Will Tell" & it's the haunting sense of Palmyra that's stayed with me--the setting is brilliantly evoked. I loved the deliberate slow pacing (appropriate to how things might have felt for the couples staying at Palmyra), rich detail & strong sense of the characters. It's amazing how rich a sense of people & place can be developed by completely immersing yourself in the facts of one case & that's why the best true crime works so well--because you CAN know so much, including details you wouldn't at first expect to know, such as what people likely were thinking, within reasonable doubt--& this is certainly among the very best true crime. If it weren't for another of Bugliosi's books ("Helter Skelter") this would be on my true crime top ten list. Bugliosi's books are ALL a must-read for criminal justice enthusiasts, each outstanding in its own way, despite his ego. This one is everything other positive reviews have said and also a case study in how to convey an excellent sense of place in writing.

Although this book is based on one of Bugliosi's actual cases, it is far more riveting and spellbinding than any fiction thriller could ever be. (No doubt many writers of fiction wish they could come up with something this good--I know I do!) Bugliosi is a fine writer and does a wonderful job of characterization as well as weaving a haunting spell of mystery around the events portrayed. I did not agree with Bugliosi that Jennifer was not guilty, but that didn't take away from my overall fascination with the book. A sad book, but one with a haunting end that readers will find hard to forget.

Part 1 is an account of a neat couple --good people-- who, at the husband's behest, sailed to an uninhabited tropical atoll to get away from it all and ended up getting murdered by a brainsick felon on the lam.

Part 2 is the story of the subsequent criminal proceedings. Aware of Mr. Bugliosi's illustrious record as a prosecutor, I considered this part one big happy ending from the outset, looking forward to an account of his dramatic show and cogent case against the murderer. I was dismayed to learn that he was instead retained to defend the murderer's girlfriend in a separate trial. What makes it a great story is that the defense faced overwhelming obstacles and was at times on the brink of losing it all! By no means is this Mr. Bugliosi crowing about his stellar performance in some slam-dunk case. This is the story of a remarkably unconcerned and ungrateful Adult Child of an Alcoholic (who displayed classic symptoms of that syndrome) who went to slaughter with far better representation than she deserved, an embarrassing record of suspicious conduct around the time of the murders, and a blithe, lazy attitude toward trial preparation.

You can guess the outcome of the trial considering that this book was written, but it still has a tense ending regarding what the defense team went through during deliberation. How the jurors' dispositions compared to the lawyers' guesses is another thing to look forward to.

This is a nonfiction novel rather than one of Mr. Bugliosi's indignant harangues but as usual, I learned a lot about criminal process and jurisprudence. He also lets us in on small aspects of his personal life and I enjoyed this, too. And while I am convinced that "Jennifer Jenkins" is innocent of murder, I think she should win an Oscar for acting stupid in regards to that werewolf she was shacking up with.

UPDATE: Buck Walker was released on 8-28-2007! Go to the Federal Bureau of Prisons site, click Inmate Search, and search for WESLEY G. WALKER. Unbelievable. "And I say to myself, what a wonderful world..."

This true crime story is actually divided into two "books" or chapters: The Crime and Justice. The first "book" describes the events leading up to a couple's murder on a secluded tropical island. Vincent Bugliosi describes in vivid detail the setting and characters. Photos of the people involved and maps of the island make this an even more riveting read. I was unable to put it down until I reached the second chapter: Justice. At this point, I was dying to know how the couple was murdered, what evidence was found, etc. But in this part of the book, the author describes the events leading up to the trial, his doubts about his clients innocence (even though he swears he just knew that she was innocent) and all of the wrangling he had to do with the judge and DA. Details of the murders are revealed just a tidbit at a time as they come out in trial. At this point I quickly began to lose interest. If you enjoy learning about the prep work that a lawyer must do before trial, and enjoy understanding the thought process during the trial, then this would interest you. I found myself skimming the pages to find what had been discovered about the murders.

When I began reading this book, I felt very little fondness or compassion for the "hippie" couple, Jennifer and Buck. However, the story never ceased to hold my interest and kept me wanting to know more about the two couples who unwittingly found each other on this desolute island. By the time Vince Bugliosi took on the case of Jennifer Jenkins, I was spellbound by his inexhaustible and brilliant pursuit of a "not guilty" verdict for this woman who seemed to be as guilty of murder as anyone could be. Yet, by the time he presented his summation at the trial, I was praying that Jennifer would be found innocent because Vincent Bugliosi proved to me, beyond a reasonable doubt, that she was, in fact, innocent. This is one book I will never forget.

Half murder mystery, half courtroom drama, "And the Sea Will Tell" makes for brisk reading. Part One tells the story of two couples--the murder victims and their suspected killers--who land on Palmyra Island around the same time in 1974. By including descriptions of the island's geography and history, the authors set the scene for the drama quite well. (Note: Interested readers should see the March 2001 issue of National Geographic Magazine, which features a color feature on Palmyra to commemorate its recent acquisition and designation as a nature preserve.) Part Two, which begins after both suspects are apprehended, describes four trials--first each is tried for theft, then for murder. As one might expect, Bugliosi's client is last to bat in a trial which makes for the climax of the book. The division between the two parts is pretty clunky: it's a good guess that Henderson wrote Part One and Bugliosi Part Two, with obvious, major differences in style. In criticism, it must be said that Bugliosi has an ego to match his courtroom reputation, and many readers may well be turned off by his apparent self-promotion, which at times jumps right off the page. Also, those who read Bugliosi's "Outrage" will find much that's familiar here, since his later book borrowed heavily from this one in discussions of legal doctrine and strategy. Overall, however, I highly recommend the book for both true-crime mystery buffs and trial lawyers, who will find many gems in Bugliosi's blow-by-blow analysis of trial testimony.

I enjoyed this book overall. The first half sets up the murder mystery, while the second is devoted to Mr. Bugliosi's defense of his client. Both halves were engrossing, although I found, as other readers did, Mr. Bugliosi's ego comes through loud and clear and made for offputting reading at times in his description of the trials.

Still, his summation makes for a fascinating study in how great defense attorneys work (I thought he was especially clever in insinuating that those who took issues with Jennifer's behavior were "strict Puritans," thus indirectly shaming those jurors who might think ill of her). I can see how they were swayed by his arguments and appreciate the care he took to make them (and explain them in the book).

This book also shows, as in the Simpson case, the difficulties state prosecutors face in squaring off against high-profile defense attorneys. I couldn't help but get the impression that many jurors were taken with Bugliosi's persona and celebrity status thanks to the Manson case. I also wonder why the prosecutors didn't exploit his contradictory argument that Jennifer acted independently of Buck while on the island, yet "her reality became his reality" when she was lying to cover up the theft when they were back in Hawaii. You can't have it both ways, which is why I still believe she bears guilt for this crime.

All in all, it was a great read, not quite as gripping as Helter Skelter, but nearly so. I highly recommend this book and hope someday another author will take a look at this fascinating case.

This book started off as a typical true crime book of the Ann Rule variety, and ended up being a transcript of hundreds of pages of trial; the latter was a bit dry. Bugliosi does a good job of convincing the reader that his client was completely innocent (so why did he give her a fictitious name in the book?), but I still have my doubts. All in all, it is more a book about his courtroom style than the crime itself. I thought that it could have been 30% shorter if he left out everything that was repeated. But, this was a book about Bugliosi, not Stephanie Stearns (alias Jennifer Jenkins).

Vincent Bugliosi is a great lawyer, a great thinker a great writer...not necessarily in that order.

But anyone conversant in cases like those of OJ Simpson and Sacco and Venzetti will know that winning in court isn't the same thing as being right and losing in court isn't the same thing as being wrong.

Sadly, And the Sea Will Tell is inadvertantly the story of how even a great thinker, lawyer and writer like Bugliosi can come into the service of the wrong side.

Here's what happened.

During the summer of 1974, two couples descended on Palmyra island, a little atol in the south Pacific populated mainly by birds and sharks. Amazingly, one of the couples -- Mac and Muff Graham -- was wealthy. (Why a wealthy couple would even WANT to be on such an island when they could be so many other places we'll leave for another day.) The other couple, Buck Walker and his ertswhile girlfriend Jennifer Jenkins, made even the Clampetts of Beverly Hillbillies seem high society.

And to add to the mix, Walker had a prior criminal record for armed robbery...WITH THE FULL KNOWLEDGE OF JENNIFER JENKINS. He was on the run from the law for a criminal drug charge...WITH THE FULL KNOWLEDGE OF JENNIFER JENKINS. And his purpose in coming to the island was to he could start growing and selling marijuana...WITH THE FULL KNOWLEDGE OF JENNIFER JENKINS. (It therefore follows naturally that it's more likely that Walker's admitted criminal actions in killing the Grahams would also have at least known if not acquiesced in by Jenkins.)

At trial, Bugliosi rhapsodized about "reasonable doubt" like a medivel trubadour and he obtained a result, largely based on his claim that if two people show up dead, the other two who remain are not necessarily responsible for their murders.

Not surprisingly his client at the end didn't even have the class to immediately thank him for his hard efforts, instead choosing to nitpick little areas where she thought he could have done better.

To his credit, I found no evidence in this book that Bugliosi actually ever considered the extreme absurdity of his position and extreme tragedy of the outcome he helped bring about.

I'm not saying this isn't a good book or that you shouldn't read it. I guess it's just part of the game that if we're going to have people as skilled at persuasion as Bugliosi so undoubtedly is, that eventually they'll even end up deceiving themselves.

As a fan of mystery stories, both real and fictional, I was drawn to the premise of "And The See Will Tell" by Vincent Bugliosi. It is the tale of two couples living on a supposedly deserted South Pacific atoll that ends with two people losing their lives with very little evidence as to how it happened. Bugliosi not only serves as the author, but also the defense attorney in a case that sought to bring justice to one of the accused killers over a decade after the grisly murders took place in 1974.

Jennifer Jenkins and Buck Walker couldn't have been a better example of opposites attract: Buck was a convicted felon while Jennifer, not exactly spotless in her record, was certainly peaceful and nonviolent. Yet she fell in love with Buck and would do anything for him, even aid him in his flight from the law. It was Buck's idea to sail to Palmyra Island, a deserted atoll in the South Seas, where they could live off the land and no one would be the wiser. Jennifer went along with Buck, never dreaming of the nightmare they would encounter there. For Palmyra, far from deserted, was a place of interest and stopping point of many travelers, including Malcolm and Eleanor Graham, experienced sea travelers who planned to spend at least a year at Palmyra, having sailed form Hawaii on their beautiful boat the Sea Wind.

The two couples who found themselves living upon Palmyra couldn't have been more opposite: the Grahams were conservative and extremely prepared for their voyage, while Buck and Jennifer were certified hippies, inexperienced at sea and surprisingly unprepared to deal with life on the atoll, which gave almost every visitor a discomforting vibe. When Buck and Jennifer return to Hawaii aboard the Sea Wind, the reader knows that something horrible has happened to the Grahams, but Bugliosi chooses to keep those details for the second part of the book. The first part is told through third-person narrative, recounting the events that unfolded on the island, and Buck and Jennifer's subsequent arrest when they return to Hawaii: with the Grahams no where in sight, murder is the immediate conclusion.

The second part of the book is told through Bugliosi's first-person narration, a recounting of how he became acquainted with the case and served as a defense lawyer in the murder trial, evidence existing in the bones of Eleanor Graham being divugled by the sea several years after that fateful trip. "And The Sea Will Tell" is a riveting case and a very thorough examination of the murder trial, perhaps almost too thorough at times. There are numerous footnotes to expound upon testimony and court procedures, which can slow down the narrative. Vincent Bugliosi certainly knows that he is a good lawyer and lets this be known, which can read as rather pompous at times, but his attitude only enhances the story in the end rather than distract from it. And while justice may have been served in this trial, the truth as to what actually happend on Palmyra with these two couples is still shrouded in mystery, for no one, not even the sea, is telling.