Customer Reviews

Someone cry for the children: The unsolved Girl Scout murders of Oklahoma and the case of Gene Leroy Hart

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I was a girl scout at Camp Scott when this happened, and knew one of the girls killed. This is the first time I have really found out what happened that night. I am absolutely convinced by what Michael and Dick Wilkerson had to say that Hart was responsible. I was too young to understand it then. This case has profoundly affected my life and this book gave me a bit of closure.

Biggest criminal case in Oklahoma history. Acquital of a known rapist who escaped from prison to rape and murdered 3 children (while at a Girl Scout camp). DNA was not available at the time of the murders (late 70s), but a test similar to DNA was done in '89 that shown that the odds were 3 in 5 that Hart did it. DNA was attempted in early '02, but there was not enough to get a result. What did happen was an unethical, Big City defense lawyer (despite being told by the court not to discuss it) told the jury that Hart was already serving 300 years - thus the jury reached a compromised verdict. The DA from Tulsa (Buddy Fallis) came in to the small county to do the case. This case still haunts Buddy to this day and it was his reason for him to leave criminal law altogether. The defense attorney brags about his acquital and uses it to go speak to other defense attorneys on how to perpetrate a fraud on the people (the jury).

It was very interesting to me as a Cherokee and living in the area where the murders occured. I kept an open mind while reading the book without predjudice. The writers did a wonderful job telling the story of their investigation; I didn't want to put it down. It was afterall, the story of their investigation, it doesn't make it an absolute truth. I still don't believe that Gene Hart killed those little girls. No one that I know does, or at least couldn't have done it without help from another person. Rumors and tales still circulate around about who really did kill those girls. The person believed to many, to have actually committed the murders, has passed away. So the mystery still lingers.

I am from Oklahoma and remember when this all happened. The book is written from the standpoint of two detectives who worked the case. The recent DNA findings (2002) didn't mean that Hart was not guilty. They simply could not get enough DNA to process it. The DNA that was collected meant 1 in 7000 chance of an Indian matching that info (Hart did match that one). Whether the book is biased or not it is still very informative.

I am in the middle of reading this book for the second time. I find it to be fascinating, sad, educational and informative. I was very young when this tragedy happened - I do not remember it at all. I regret the deaths that the book is about. I also think that readers should take advantage of the opportunity to learn more about the cultures and belief systems that may be different than some but that still surround many of us. The agents that worked on the case are portrayed in a way that makes me homesick - their humor, their determination, their respectfulness to each other, their interactions with each other - makes me miss being in Oklahoma. It's different there.

I wasn't born when this happened, but had a grandfather who was part of the Oklahoma Highway Patrol's search party. This book was very informative, disturbing, and intense. I have also watch the documentary on this book and can't help but feel so very terrible for the families of those babies, and that they got the right man.
Great Book!

I am a professional Girl Scout and want to be a director of a Girl Scout camp. I read this book and was in disbelief that this could happen. I was not born yet when this story took place and had only recently heard of the case when I purchased the book. It helped me see the responsibility camp counselors have.

my brother worked on this case. it was a bad case. the cherokee indians would hide gene leroy hart. he was all over northeast and southeast oklahoma. indian religion figures big into this. it still does. indians have their own court, their own law, they practice it today. a chreorkee indian said at the court house, if he did it, he will die in prison, he did. the oklahoma state bureau of investigation did the best job they could. they had indian trackers just like the calvary used in the 1800's. the indians called them traitors. a bad situation then, a bad situation now. i think a lot about the families of these little girls and the little girls. a terrible thing. lawmen from all over oklahoma did what they could, they were outmanned and outgunned. my brother said hart did it. there is no closure for a case like this. closure is a word doctors want to use.

When the world appears to "have gone crazy", it's good to know there are people who still care about the victims of violent crime. For many officers and detectives that pursue violent criminals, the evils they see change them forever. That comes across in this book.

I remember this event very well. I was acquainted with Gene Hart and thought he was a nice man. I live in the area of the murders and when I drive by the camp I get chills knowing the killer-killers are still out there. I know those little girls are in heaven and I feel awful for the parents. The book was an excellent and descriptive book. I don't know why children were left alone in a tent without an adult. Local rumor has it that from evidence there were three different people involved. I do know for sure that the killers will rot in hell.