Customer Reviews

She Wanted It All: A True Story of Sex, Murder, and a Texas Millionaire

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4 star:		(8)
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In this charming tale of Texans just having fun--all right, all right! I've read too many true crime tales from the state of Texas to be objective, I admit. Here are three good ones, just to prove my point:

Poisoned Dreams: A True Story of Murder, Money, and Family Secrets (1993) by A. W. Gray;
Final Justice: The True Story of the Richest Man Ever Tried for Murder (1993) by Steven Naifeh and Gregory White Smith; and
Open Secrets: a True Story of Love, Jealousy and Murder (1994) by Carlton Stowers.

Kathryn Casey's She Wanted It All (2005) is an extraordinarily researched, incredibly detailed and amazingly well-organized story that is even better than any of that fine trio, and for once the Texas judicial system, despite some initial stupidities, gets the job done right, thanks mainly to prosecutor Allison Wetzel who bested famed defense attorney Dick DeGuerin in a case that could easily have been lost.

The villain is blond, blue-eyed, sexy Celeste (née Johnson) Beard, a woman who found that life was always a case of "too much is never enough." She was actually raised in California, the adopted daughter of Edwin and Nancy Johnson. She claims to have been sexually abused by her adoptive father, but one can clearly see in Casey's mesmerizing narrative that it was the adoptive mother who was not only a psychological abuser, but something of negative role model for the kind of controlling, selfish, neurotic, abusive, sociopathic murderess that Celeste would become.

The primary victim of the story is Steven Beard, a self-made Texas millionaire who in his seventies had recently lost his beloved wife of over forty years. (Of course, there were many victims of Celeste. As with most sociopaths, almost everybody who knew Celeste was victimized in one way or another.) He is the "old fool." He falls for her even though she is young enough to be his granddaughter; and like so many of her men, even though he begins to see (after it's too late) that she is evil, he can't let her go. Part of the reason is that he also fell in love with her identical twin daughters, Jennifer and Kristina, who helped to rejuvenate his life by giving him a purpose as their stepfather. One can only feel sorry for such a man, and think how ironic it is that before he lost his wife and met Celeste he was in charge of his life, a successful man who was well-liked and admired. But Celeste laid him low.

Celeste is an interesting study, a kind of femme fatale on steroids. The portrait that Casey draws of her in these pages is that of an attractive and vital woman with a gift for persuasion, for acting, for bullying, and for the confidence game; a woman with a pathological need to control others and to acquire money and to spend it recklessly; a woman with a terrible need to be surrounded by people, but a woman with no love for anyone but herself. She was also a sexual predator who used and disposed of men at will, a woman as experienced in sex as a prostitute. Furthermore, she had the manic/depressive's bipolar nature that drove her from the depths of depression to the heights of reckless abandonment--sometimes almost simultaneously.

People like Celeste tend to die young or end up in prison. Somebody kills them or they kill themselves, or they get caught and exposed. Celeste got caught. Ironically, what did her in was the person she felt she had the most control over. That is, her "favorite" daughter, Kristina, who was so in thrall of "Mommie Dearest," as the twins liked to call her, that she would do whatever her mom told her to do and could not, no matter how hard she tried, ever go against her mom. She was psychologically cowed in one way and in another way she formed part of a dependency relationship in which she, the daughter, found herself doing everything she could to help her mother get safely through another day.

Add to this mix Tracy Tarlton, a middle-aged lesbian with a history of mental illness who fell madly in love with Celeste, and what we have is a scenario in which a kind of turbo'ed madness runs amuck. As the story nears its climax there is a nice natural irony that develops when Celeste hires Donna (née "Don") Goodson who cons her out of several thousand dollars by pretending to hire a hitman to kill Tracy.

One wonders what might have happened had Celeste not been stopped. Presumably she would have spent all her inherited millions and then found a new victim. However she was caught, and clearly the central event that led to her being caught was when Kristina finally saw the light and was able to escape from her mother's psychological dominance. Casey points to what she considers the turning point on page 325 when Kristina hears her mother say, "I hired somebody to kill Tracy." That statement ends Chapter 16 and begins Chapter 17. It a demarcation point before which Kristina's loyalty was to her mother and after which it was to herself. Yet one suspects that for Kristina to make this transformation of loyalty, she had to have help and she had to have some kind of ongoing relearning experience. One suspects that Justin, Kristina's boyfriend, was the person who gave her the strength to overcome her mother's psychological dominance. Once Celeste lost control of Kristina, her whole world fell apart.

Bottom line: She Wanted It All is one of the best true crime tales I've ever read. I promise all true crime fans that once you open the book and start reading you will burn some midnight oil. I would have read all 448 pages in one fell swoop except that I do have an occasional life. As it happened it took me two sessions.

"She Wanted It All" is an extraordinary book and a "must read" for any true crime reader.

I have read all of Ann Rule's books and, in my opinion, Kathryn Casey has put herself in that same league with this book. She grabs hold of the reader right from the very first page and never let's go. It's a fascinating story. I simply could not put this book down and finished it in two days.

If you are a fan of true crime books, I HIGHLY recommend "She Wanted It All." I give it ten stars!

"She Wanted It All" represents another success for Kathryn Casey. Once again, the authoress sets the scene in Texas- this time in the city of Austin. The protagonist in SWA is Celeste Beard. She is best described as a career hedonist -and overt gold digger. Celeste can stand with the worst of the villains so well known to true crime fans. She has her wealthy husband murdered; the better to enjoy his fortune without having to stay married to the guy. The quirk to SWA is that Beard uses a lesbian lover named Tracey Tarlton to do the deed. There is little suspense in SWA, since the killing occurs just inside the front cover-before the standard acknowledgements and prologue! SWA then unfolds in classic flashback fashion as the readers wait for the wheels of justice to turn. One could carp that SWA is a tad lengthy and that an editor with a sharp blue pencil could have reduced it. That point is minor because Casey tries hard to fully portray the major characters. (There are a few of them!) It is also hardly Casey's fault that the Austin authorities took so long to charge Tracey and Celeste. Is justice done? This reviewer tries not to reveal endings. My amazon friends will have to read SWA for themselves but true crime aficionados will not be disappointed. Those curious about the "Ann Rule rule" need not worry. The centerfold photos actually perform their function of humanizing the major actors without revealing the ending. The back cover teases but likewise divulges little of importance. Well done! This reviewer could visualize a screen version of SWA in a latter day film noir milieu. In her prime, Barbara Stanwyck have been a perfect Celeste. William Bendix could have been the husband. What a pair! Meanwhile, we have the book to keep us company. A closing thought: Amazoners are encouraged to read Casey's first work, "The Rapist's Wife". Finding RW is a major challenge but to do so will be worth the effort. Now that authoress Casey has 3 works to her credit, true crime lovers can eagerly await a fourth.

No eloquent writing here... (from me, not Kathryn!) I just want to share! I have read LOTS of true crime and most of it is very poorly written. This book is an EXCELLENT read! Great depth to characters, very well written. An intriguing story and Kathryn is a master story-teller. Don't tell me about Ann Rule (and I have read most of her books) - Kathryn Casey stands on equal (if not higher) footing here. I highly recommend this book.

I am an Ann Rule true crime fan and have not found another author able to even approach Ann's abilities as a researcher and writer. I have now. Kathryn Casey is head and shoulders above any other true crime writer out there and runs a close second as my most favorite author. She is a meticulous researcher and an even better writer. Her story flows and is easy to read. "She Wanted It All" was my first Kathryn Casey book, but it won't be my last.

This is one of the best true crime books I have ever read! I am a true crime book addict, having read hundreds of them, and I highly recommend this one for a book you cannot put down. Kathryn Casey is one of the very best true crime writers. I read another of hers called A WARRANT TO KILL which was also excellent and hard to put down. She is a great writer who obviously does her homework. In a genre where you may encounter some poor writing, her work really stands out. I would not hesitate to buy any book with her name on it. Unfortunately her first book THE RAPISTS WIFE is out of print but you can still get used copies here at amazon.com. Hopefully she will write many more spellbinders like this one.

Kathryn Casey did her research on this book. In the beginning it started out a little slow but got better and better as time went on! However, I must say with out the beginning there would be no way for the reader to 'understand' and 'comprehend' the abuse that Celeste occured during childhood. Nor would you see that innocent children lived horrendous lives!
Towards the middle of the book Casey really lays it on. You don't want to put the book down and are wanting to find out every detail!
One of the best True Crime books I have read!

The main character of this true crime book is one of the most evil women I have ever read about. She had no redeming features in the book and functioned only on greed.
It was riveting from start to finish.
I felt so sorry for Mr. Beard's children, being deprived of their Father, who surely had several more years on this earth if Celeste's had not plotted with others to kill him.
Ms. Casey obviously got a lot of cooperation from the people involved in the story to get so much detail. When I was reading it I felt like I was right there. She ranks up there with Thomas Thompson and Jack Olson in my opinion of true crime writers.

I'm very particular about the true crime that I read and this book did not let me down, I loved it. I don't read gory, grisly true crime books, but rather those that probe into family betrayal and the perpetrator's history, past behavior and pecularities. The author creates a clear picture of the people in the story, drawing the reader in. I can almost visualize Celeste (the murderer) and her sociopathic behavior. Kathryn Casey writes almost as well as Ann Rule, the queen of this genre of true crime. I also read "A Warrant to Kill" and it is equally intriguing. I've been disappointed by other authors that attempt this kind of writing but lack the skill and credibility to create a full and rich characterization of the story and the lives it touches. This author hits her mark. I look forward to further books from Kathryn Casey

Being a true crime sleuth, I used to think Ann Rule was the best true crime writer ever. This book wiped my thought on that completely away. This author had such an amazing way of telling a great story, kept the book flowing from one page to the other, had amazing details about all of the characters. It felt like I was actually there witnessing it all myself. And the courtesy photos were superb too. I like to check back and forth while reading who the main characters are while I'm on that certain chapter. And while I did say "characters" I do know these are true stories. Still after I read this story, I went online to find out more about everyone involved. I have recommended this book to all of my fellow true crime pals.