Whatever Mother Says...: A True Story of a Mother, Madness and Murder (St. Martin's True Crime Library) [Mass Market Paperback]

Wensley Clarkson (Author)

Book Description

Series: St. Martin's True Crime Library | Publication Date: March 15, 1995

To neighbors, she was the brave single mother...

Raising her five kids alone in a rundown section of Sacramento, Theresa Cross Knorr seemed like the ultimate survivor. But her youngest daughter, 16-year-old Terry, told police another story: one almost too terrible to believe.

But accused of imprisoning her children in a house of horrors...

According to Terry, Theresa-no longer the petite brunette she once was-had turned insanely jealous of her pretty eldest daughters and enlisted the help of her two teenaged sons in a vicious campaign against their sisters.

Of beating, torturing and killing her own flesh and blood...

Terry's gruesome tale told how Theresa had drugged, handcuffed and shot 16-year-old Suesan, allowing her wounds to fester, until the day she ordered her sons to burn their sister alive. Next, Terry said Theresa severely beat 20-year-old Sheila and then locked her in a stifling broom closet, so that when the girl finally starved to death, her brothers dumped her body in the same desolate mountain range where they had cremated Suesan.

She could be one of the most evil murderesses of our time...

It took Terry five agonizing years to convince authorities to investigate her grisly accounts of burning flesh, starvation and torture...of a mother from hell, so sadistic and so deranged, she had become her children's own executioner.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Wensley Clarkson was one of Britain's most successful young journalists before moving to Los Angeles with his wife and their four children in 1991-an experience that inspired his book, A Year in La La Land. His other books-which have sold in more than a dozen countries-include the tabloid newspaper expose Dog Eat Dog, a biography of the actor Mel Gibson, plus four best-selling true-crime books Hell Hath No Fury, Like A Woman Scorned, Love You to Death Darling, and Doctors of Death.

Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback: 288 pages
• Publisher: St. Martin's Paperbacks (March 15, 1995)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0312955421
• ISBN-13: 978-0312955427
• Product Dimensions: 6.7 x 4.1 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (62 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #488,704 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

110 of 113 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Very sad,made me cry, January 8, 2000

By 

Ellen - See all my reviews

This review is from: Whatever Mother Says...: A True Story of a Mother, Madness and Murder (St. Martin's True Crime Library) (Mass Market Paperback)

I read this book a couple of years ago under another title which I think was called The Worst Mother In The World. This is the only true crime book that I have ever read that actually made me cry.I consider myself pretty hardened to this type of reading but I felt so sorry for the children in this family having such an evil,nutcase of a mother. It's little wonder that children growing up in the violent and sick environment that these poor kids had turn out to be killers and develop severe mental problems. The thing that gets me,and you hear this all the time,is that although friends and neigbours and even family members knew that this mother was a sandwich short of a picnic - nobody tries to help these poor kids! This woman was a manipulative sadistic woman so consumed with jealousy that her daughters were prettier than her that she tortured them killing two out of three in the end.The worst thing is,is that she enlisted the help of her own sons to get rid of the bodies! These children endured severe beatings,starvation followed by mountains of food fed forcefully until they were sick and made to eat the vomit,they were drugged,made to drink enough alcohol until they passed out and eventually one of the daughters was shot by her own mother while being held in place by her two brothers because her mother was a lousy shot an didn't want to miss. Not only was she shot but as she didn't die,her mother nursed her back to health.I won't tell you how the bullet was removed as I don't want to ruin the next set of unimaginable events for you. This book is not one of the most well written that I have read but the story makes up for that.Very sad,Your worst nightmare come true,I only hope that someone does to the mother what she did to her kids.Makes you gasp.Will stay in your mind.A must for all true crime readers but not for the faint hearted.

25 of 27 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars WHATEVER MOTHER SAYS, September 1, 2003

By 

"valeska_" (The Pacific Northwest) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Whatever Mother Says...: A True Story of a Mother, Madness and Murder (St. Martin's True Crime Library) (Mass Market Paperback)

This book is EXCELLENTLY well written. No dry parts at all. I couldn't put it down. All about the WORST mother ever! It gives you a look at each of her children, and each of her husbands (she was actually acquitted of murdering her first one!), as well as telling the story of her, from childhood.

I thought it was wonderful the way, he wrote about her children, especially the daughters. It made me feel as though I knew them, and it made me feel great empathy for them. They had their own hopes and dreams, and it's incredibly sad they couldn't live to have freedom.

I CAN'T BELIEVE ANYONE WOULD GIVE THIS BOOK LESS THAN 5 STARS, JUST BECAUSE WENSLEY CLARKSON DIDN'T WAIT UNTIL AFTER HER TRIAL, OR THAT IT WAS "YUCKY" Really! What do you expect from a true crime book? If you have delicate sensitivities you shouldn't read this genre.
Well researched. Excellent book. One of the most gripping I've read in a while.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Only part of the story, September 13, 2005

By 

movie luver (Texas) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Whatever Mother Says...: A True Story of a Mother, Madness and Murder (St. Martin's True Crime Library) (Mass Market Paperback)

This book seemed kind of rushed to me as though the author was trying to get it out quickly, hence the non ending. It's an ok read, although I find a few things he says a bit hard to swallow. Suesan's "demonic voices", and horns on her head?
What Theresa Cross did to her children was unforgivable. She is a sick individual and the fact that no one intervened on behalf of those kids is even worse.

I think this book goes well with another book on the same subject. "Mother's Day" by Dennis McDougal. If you read both books you will get a more complete picture. (Theresa Cross got 2 life sentences for the murders of her daughters). There is also alot more information on Terry the only surviving daughter.
My only complaint about "Mother's Day" is that there are no pictures.

So get both books if only to see who the victims are and to have more in depth information.