Customer Reviews

Secret Lessons

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Tells the story of Richard Van Hook, a popular teacher at an elementary school who was accused of molesting and raping the children in his charge. It is well written and has an easy to read style, if not easy to read subject matter.

In my personal opinion, Dick Van Hook was not the only criminal here. I think most of his fellow teachers are beneath contempt. You can understand, if not condone, his family's animosity (although we are talking about children here). But for other teachers to call these little girls "sluts, tramps, whores", and to show no regard for their feelings and mental health is despicable. Their attitude shows quite clearly that the children were right NOT to go school personnel for help.They, and the principal, should all be ashamed of themselves. They don't deserve to have the privilege of teaching.

It's not uncommon here for people who "knew" the subjects of true crime books to share their views. I would love to see those teachers come here and defend calling 10-12 year old little girls the names they did.

Don Weber and Charles Bosworth's SECRET LESSONS is the story of a pedophile grade school teacher, Richard Van Hook, who, in his hometown of Collinsville, IL., for years sexually molested his female students. As his depravity progressed, his victims' ages decreased from high school age students until he was preying on 10 to 12 year old girls. In some cases he actually had intercourse with them. The story is as much about the town of Collinsville as about the girls and Van Hook. Rather than believe that a popular hometown boy from a well respected family could have committed such acts, many of the citizens and Van Hook's fellow teachers instead villified the young girls, to the point of calling them names. When the District Attorney in St. Clair County refused to indict Van Hook, DA Don Weber of neighboring Madison County found a way to gain jurisdiction over the case. The book deals with the investigation and prosecution of Van Hook as well as the trauma experienced by his victims.
SECRET LESSONS is well written and fast paced. The only criticsm I have is that the second half of the book is really at least as much about Weber as it is about the victims and Van Hook. Weber clearly has a very high opinion of himself and is quite self-congratulatory. And although he deserves to be commended for the over-and-above-the-call-of-duty dedication he displayed in prosecuting Van Hook, it does get a little tiring to continually read, for example, Weber's every thought, witness by witness, about his opponent's and his performance during the trial.
In spite of this flaw, SECRET LESSONS is a good book about an interesting case, and true crime fans will enjoy it.

I moved to the town of Caseyville, IL right after this happened. I didn't catch much of the news at the age of 12/13, so don't recall the story. I came across the book at a grocery store. I love true crime. Do I like what they do, NO. The brain that they have, or don't have, it's just amazing how somebody can do such a thing.

Okay back to this book. I started reading the back of it and all I saw was Caseyville, IL on it. Okay for those of you unaware of Caseyville, at the time of this, you blinked you have missed the town. It was a neat town though. We had a little convient store, a barber shop, a drug store, a gas/service station, a few churches, an ice cream shop, that was a little walk and some other bussines. We had the school a Police Dept and the Library at that time was attached to the Police dept. You had to go in their door and go upstaris. Even though we had a nice time, I always felt unwelcome, really unwelcome. Not many people talked. But we had a clan of us and we pretty much stuck together. I noticed though the Junior High we attended never accepted ANY of the girls for stuff. Like cheerleading, never saw a Caseyville girl in there, even the ones that had been cheerleaders since first grade. Some I understood why they weren't chosen, but others should have been, over ones that were. I figured there was a reason just wasn't sure. We wound up moving again and life goes on. On April 3rd of 1994 I read the back of this book and noticed Caseyville, and well, had to read it. Holy Cow, it explained to me all these years later, why the town was they way they were. The scary part of that book was knowing who some of the girls were by reading about them and realising I could have been one of them. For some reason my parents delayed on our move. I will admit I didn't know who a couple of them were, but for the ones I did, it was crazy in my mind. I would just be reading and apologize to the girls, of course I am not going to mention names, but to be able to say "Oh my goodness that's..." was just mind boggling. For what that man did to these girls then cower away by killing himself, I hope he enjoys his life in hell. His wife ought to have some shame for attempting to side with him and lie for him. Tsk, tsk, tsk.

Now as far as the writing. It was fine to me, but yet again, I lived there, so thier descriptions were correct. I guess I was more awed as to knowing the girls and the families than paying attention to "writing" itself.

If I didn't know that this was a true story, I would think it was a great piece of fiction... complete with a shocking ending. An easy read that is impossible to put down.

Girls gender socialization in our society can be harmful and this story shows how socialization of females can lead to female victimization. This true story is a good account of how the criminal justice system and school system can sometimes fail.