Customer Reviews

Shadows of Evil: Long-haul Trucker Wayne Adam Ford and His Grisly Trail of Rape, Dismemberment, and Murder (True Crime (St. Martin's Paperbacks))

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

 

 

I am a lawyer who works in the criminal area, and I have read dozens and dozens of true-crime books, several by Carlton Smith. But this one takes the cake as the worst I've ever read. The first part of the book (it literally took me several days to get through the first 50 pages) does nothing but try to justify why the book was written way before sufficient facts were known to make a complete and interesting book. Smith spends a lot of time talking about the law of jurisdiction, when and why documents can or should be kept under seal, etc. Then when he finally gets around to the characters of the story, he constantly indicates that he's not sure he's telling it like it was. For example, "Sometime in perhaps the mid-1970's, when Wayne was 14 or so, he was caught breaking into a store in Napa and referred to juvenile court. Because records of juvenile offenses are routinely destroyed in the state of California after ten years, there is no way to know for certain exactly what happened. It appears, however, that..." This is pretty typical writing in this book. The criminal records are sealed. The juvenile records are sealed. The divorce records are sealed. Some cases just require that, I know. But those cases are probably just not ripe for a book. It appears to me that Carlton Smith wanted to have the first book out on Wayne Adam Ford, whether it was a good one or not -- God forbid Ann Rule should get the story first! Well, this time I think I'll wait for hers. You should too.

The author spends a lot of his time trying to take the blame away from Woods by saying everything he's done is behaviour that could be caused from a head injury. He neglects to mention that the same behaviors could also be caused from a psychosis. He didn't have enough interviews or information about Woods to write an accurate account on the murders by Woods either. This is because the case hadn't gone to trial when the book was written and there was a gag order in place to ensure a fair trial. The author chose to write the book anyway, jeopardizing the trial. That is poor journalism. He should've waited until after the trial was over to write the book. This is a truly disappointing book. The whole book is spent blaming everyone involved in the investigation and trying to explain why Woods in NOT guilty (even though he confessed). I got the feeling the author was angry at the authorities for not bending over backwards to help him write this book and therefore used the book to try and make them look bad.

Absolutely awful. The author begins with a treatise justifying true crime writing in such a defensive posture that the reader wonders just what happened to this guy, whose previous books, while not top notch, were adequate for the genre.

He then relates in extra-excruciating detail his attempts to gain access to records he should know are not available to the public. Then he denigrates all of the uncooperative officials who were just doing their job by following the letter of the law.

There follows an incredibly incomplete description of the principals. The only person to get a break is the defendant. If I had seen the words "brain damage" supposedly caused by a period of unconsciousness caused by a routine auto accident one more time, I would have screamed out loud, and at length.

Awful.

Right off the bat you learn that this book is going to be incomplete and boring, due to the fact that the case has not yet gone to trial and a judge placed a gag order on all information and legal documents relating to this case. The author spends a lot of time making assumptions about the crimes as he has no access to any of the official documents and spends an inordinate amount of time trying to make a case for brain damage of the perpetrator due to an accident he sustained prior to the murders. It would have been a good book if he had waited until the case was dispensed and actually had some information to share.

I am an absolute fan of the true crime genre, but this book takes the cake as the worst true crime book that I have read. The bulk of this book is spent criticizing (implicity and explicitly) the police and government - NOT for failing to stop a serial murderer, but for failing to give the author documents that he felt he was entitled to. Moreover, the sympathetic justifications for Wayne Ford's atrocities was a bit too much to bear.
A true journalist would not let his own views taint the story that he is trying to tell. I don't think that I would rush to read another book by Carlton Smith anytime soon.

I echo previous reviewers' sentiments re: Mr. Smith's recounting of Wayne Adam Ford's crimes. This was not the author's best book. It did appear very unusual to read the author's views against capital punishment and his opinions re: the link between brain damage and criminal behavior on pp. 3-20. At first, I wondered if the author would ever get to the story of Ford's cimes! I usually don't care much for a true crime writer's opinions about crime and punishment; rather, I enjoy reading this genre for the historical information. I'm interested in the "what" rather than the "why". I look for facts....what types of cunning, stalking behavior are exhibited by criminals; what types of careless, naive behavior might be exhibited by victims; and what lessons should my family and I learn from these tragedies? It's important for us to realize the true nature of random acts of violence in modern America and what steps we should take to try to lower our own risks of becoming victims. To Mr. Smith's credit, however, I do think that he has written better true crime pieces: HUNTING EVIL was a remarkable work in which he demonstrated genuine writing talents, and I commend that book to all of you. All in all, if you read a lot of this genre, this certainly isn't the worst one that you'll read!

As with most of the other reviewers, I cannot believe that I paid for this book. The entire book blames the police, prosecutors and anyone else for the crimes of this man. He is not a criminal...he is mentally ill, as is anyone else in the book who does drugs, shoplifts, etc. It is a diatrabe against the death penalty also. When reading a true crime book, I do NOT want to be subject to the views of the author...just the facts, thank you. Rest assured I will never waste any money on another book by Carlton Smith.

This was one of the worse true crime books I have read. Normally I do not feel the need to review books but in this case I am compelled because the book is based on nothingness. It repeatedly tells the reader that everything is under a gag order or deleted so there really is no story here.... just pages and pages of disclaimers and citations to motions that have had all the "meat" deleted. Kinda makes you go, huh?

This book seems to depart from the usual "true crime" format. Rather than being written after the case was done it seems to have been written as the case was occurring. The legal system was suppressing the expected fine details about the criminal and the investigation which causes the book to be tantalizing but not satifying. I found the lack of finer details surrounding the actual mode of commission of each crime to be the most disappoiting aspect of the book. This, after all, is the "signature" of each criminal encountered in this type of book. Lacking some of the suspected to be interesting but not available evidence and investigative techniques used to detect and/or solve the crime is also disappointing. I think the book would be much better if it had been written after the case was ended so that it would have been more detailed and the story didn't leave the reader "hanging" for lack of a definitive ending. This is the only book I've read by this author so I don't know if this is his style of investigative writing or if this particular book is an exception to the rule. Reading reviews carefully and examining book discriptions should allow a reader to discern if this type of book is what they want or not. In summary, well written but lacked specific details and left me hanging.

This well-written book details the murders of four young drug-addicted women, murders characterized by author Carlton Smith as "the demented in pursuit of the desperate." Local law enforcement made zero progress in solving the crimes and the murders would have gone unsolved had not the perpetrator, 36-year-old Wayne Adam Ford, turned himself in for arrest. In his coat pocket, Ford carried a severed body part from one of his victims.

The author demonstrates in-depth knowledge and understanding of the workings of law enforcement and the criminal justice system. One fascinating chapter details the author's struggle to obtain public records and documents related to the case.

As a lawyer, I found the description of the withholding of public documents by California authorities particularly chilling. Our tax dollars pay for the production of court and prosecutorial documents, our Constitution guarantees a public trial, and democratic principles require that the government not act in secrecy when charging, accusing and trying a defendant. Yet all too often, petty bureaucrats in governmental offices throughout this land act as if no public document or disclosure laws exist.

Author Smith, at great personal expense, went the extra mile in obtaining a court order to allow him to view public documents that were illegally being kept secret by the local court. This is a fascinating side story, and Smith should be commended for his efforts to make the government follow its own laws, to obtain the documents needed to insure the accuracy and completeness of his book, and to protect the rights of citizens to see what their government is doing.