While They Slept: An Inquiry into the Murder of a Family [Hardcover]

Kathryn Harrison (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 10, 2008

Early on an April morning, eighteen-year-old Billy Frank Gilley, Jr., killed his sleeping parents. Surprised in the act by his younger sister, Becky, he turned on her as well. Billy then climbed the stairs to the bedroom of his other sister, Jody, and said, “We’re free.”
But is one ever free after an unredeemable act of violence? The Gilley family murders ended a lifetime of physical and mental abuse suffered by Billy and Jody at the hands of their parents. And it required each of the two survivors–one a convicted murderer, the other suddenly an orphan–to create a new identity, a new life.

In this mesmerizing book, bestselling writer Kathryn Harrison brilliantly uncovers the true story behind a shocking and unforgettable crime as she explores the impact of escalating violence and emotional abuse visited on the children of a deeply troubled family. With an artistry that recalls Truman Capote’s In Cold Blood, Norman Mailer’s The Executioner’s Song, and her own The Kiss, Harrison reveals the antecedents of the murders–of a crime of such violence that it had the power to sever past from present–and the consequences for Billy and for Jody. Weaving in meditations on her own experience of parental abuse, Harrison searches out answers to the question of how survivors of violent trauma shape a future when their lives have been divided into Before and After.

Based on interviews with Billy and Jody as well as with friends, police, and social workers involved in the case, While They Slept is Kathryn Harrison’s unflinching inquiry into the dark heart of violence in an American family, and a personal quest to understand how young people go on after tragedy–to examine the extent as well as the limits of psychic resilience. The New York Times called Kathryn Harrison’s The Kiss “a powerful piece of writing, a testament to evil and hope.” The same could be said about While They Slept.


PRAISE FOR WHILE THEY SLEPT

“Harrison does a magnificent job of sorting through the heartbreak of a family tragedy. By adding insights into her own life, she brings us a little closer to understanding the resilience of the human spirit and the irrevocable damage and unforeseen consequences of child and sexual abuse.”
–USA Today

“The result of Harrison's masterful embellishment is a fascinating and comprehensive examination of the before and after of a brutal triple murder, of the cyclical nature of violence and of the tragic ineffectiveness of our social support systems…While They Slept does not provide the easy answers we hope to discover in ‘just the facts,’ but it offers instead the richer and more enduring illumination of ‘the story.’”
–L.A. Times

“Her telling brings moral clarity to the dark fate of a family: the daylight gaze of narrative itself as a form of empathy.”
–New York Times Book Review, cover review

“A powerful account…This excellent book will be devoured by educators who try to come to grips with the lasting effects of the traumas of childhood.”
–Deseret Morning News

“Harrison offers careful research and obvious concern… While They Slept’s real horror is in how many potential helpers were aware of the abuse and were unable to help. This is a heartbreaking read.”
–Rocky Mountain News

“Kathryn Harrison pulls the reader through the story of the 1984 triple murder in Medford–our own backyard–with such speed and excitement it feels like you’re watching an episode of Law & Order: Criminal Intent…Harrison perfectly paces the revelations of new characters, who add critical information and perspective to the Gilley murder.”
–Willamette Weekly

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

In the early morning of April 27, 1984, outside Medford, Ore., 18-year-old Billy Gilley bludgeoned his parents, Bill and Linda, and his 11-year-old sister, Becky, to death. He believed his act would allow him and his 16-year-old sister, Jody, to free themselves from an abusive home. Comprising extensive interviews with both Jody, a Georgetown graduate and victims' rights advocate, and Billy, serving three consecutive life sentences in Oregon, Harrison recounts the trial, where Jody was the prosecution's star witness, and attempts to understand the Gilleys' troubled family history. Despite differing accounts from the now estranged siblings on the severity of their parents' abuse, it's clear that both parents routinely engaged in verbal and physical cruelty. Billy claimed his murder of Becky was unintentional, but it sealed his fate. Novelist and memoirist Harrison (The Kiss) attends admirably to detail, and her dissection of the effects of violence on both perpetrators and victims is thorough. But by bookending the account with musings on her incestuous relationship with her own father—already addressed in both her fiction and nonfiction—Harrison dilutes the power of the Gilleys' story. (June 17)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From School Library Journal

Adult/High School—Nearly 25 years ago, 18-year-old Billy Gilley killed his parents and 11-year-old sister by hitting them repeatedly with an aluminum baseball bat. His then-16-year-old sister was not attacked, although she was in the house the night of the event. Harrison explores both what led to Gilley's actions and how those actions have colored his surviving sister's life. Jody Gilley, who is now a successful and well-educated woman, cooperated with Harrison to delve into the drama. Imprisoned in eastern Oregon, Billy Gilley also worked with the author as she accumulated information, questions, and theories about the crime. As stark as is the violence described here, so too is the emotional development of the causes and the results of that violence on both surviving children. Readers who are interested in human psychology will be fascinated by this study, which is accessible and nuanced by switches between reporting both past and present. And teens who may find cathartic release in reading about a true parricide will also see the shades of gray the events have left on Billy and Jody Gilley's current self-images.—Francisca Goldsmith, Halifax Public Libraries, Nova Scotia
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 304 pages
• Publisher: Random House; 1 edition (June 10, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1400065429
• ISBN-13: 978-1400065424
• Product Dimensions: 6 x 1.1 x 9.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 2.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (38 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #683,339 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Author Photo by Joyce Ravid.

Kathryn Harrison was born in 1961 in Los Angeles, California, where she was raised by her mother's parents. She is a graduate of Stanford University and the Iowa Writers Workshop, where, in 1986, she met her husband, the novelist Colin Harrison. They had a first date on Friday, April 25, and on Monday, April 28, they moved in together. The Harrisons married in 1988, and live in Brooklyn with their three children. Kathryn writes novels, memoirs, personal essays, biography, and true crime. She is a frequent reviewer for the New York Times Book Review, and teaches memoir at Hunter College's MFA program in Creative Writing, in New York City.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

37 of 38 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars An author and a murder..., June 14, 2008

By 

Jill Meyer (United States) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: While They Slept: An Inquiry into the Murder of a Family (Hardcover)

I've read a few of Harrison's books over the years (though not The Kiss, which is about an incestuous relationship with her father)and think she's a fine writer. As she amply shows in her latest non-fiction about the murder of a family by the 19 year old son, who spares one sister, while killing his second sister and his abusive parents.

The book is about how both the brother (locked up in an Oregon prison for life) and his sister, who made a productive life for herself, including a degree from Georgetown College, have lived in the years since the murder.

The ONLY reason I'm giving this book four and not five stars is the way Harrison inserts her own "story" into that of the Gilley siblings. Now, I know WHY she did it, but I would have rather read a straight forward account of the crime and aftermath, rather than have to deal with Harrison's intrusion into the story.

I know that Norman Mailer inserted himself as writer into "Executioner's Song" about Gary Gilmore and, of course, Truman Capote did the same in "In Cold Blood". Maybe Kathryn Harrison's writing isn't quite as good as Mailer or Capote's or maybe the crime she wrote about just isn't as compelling as the ones written about by Mailer and Capote.

In any case, the book is well worth reading. Most readers probably won't be as put off by Harrison's story told in tandem with the Gilleys'.

20 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Is The Topic Given True Justice?, July 4, 2008

By 

Jill I. Shtulman (Chicago, IL USA) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: While They Slept: An Inquiry into the Murder of a Family (Hardcover)

Kathryn Harrison is an immensely gifted writer. I read one of her earlier novels, Exposure, many years ago, and was enthralled with her perceptions, intuition, and tone. As most of her fans know, she was also the victim of an incestuous relationship with her own father, which she documents in her non-fiction work, The Kiss.

And herein lies the problem with her latest non-fiction work, focusing on the April morning when young Billy Gilley, Jr., murdered his sleeping parents and younger sister, allowing only his cherished sister, Jody, to survive. Jody somehow psychically survives this violent night, and, in fact, becomes Chief of Staff for President Clinton's National Campaign Against Youth Violence, among other things.

Harrison conducts many face-to-face interviews with Jody and Billy, who are estranged. It doesn't take long, though, for the reader to realize that this book is less about their tragedy than Harrison's own. She writes, "For a long time I understand my pursuit of the Gilleys' tragedy as driven my identification with the two older of the family's children: with Jody, in whom I saw an outline of my better self, intelligent and capable...then with Billy, whom I allowed to represent the wounded and murderously angry child that I was..."

Based on her transference to the Gilley tragedy, Harrison goes into deep analysis of Jody and Billy. At times, I almost felt as if I were reading a psychiatrist's transcript. One example: "It seems likely to me that Billy's memory is inspired by his wish for a grandmother who was powerful enough to save him -- a woman with a weapon she was willing to use..." Examples like this abound. Since the author has had massive therapy but is not, in fact, a trained psychiatrist, these passages sometimes seem arrogant.

Moreover, Harrison seems unaware, at times, of how her own tragedy colors her perception of the Gilley tragedy. For example, her distaste of Thad -- who became a self-appointed guardian to Jody -- is palpable. My own read is that he made a major difference in Jody's life, but he is a father figure, which, I believe, is threatening to the author. (And yes, I'm aware I'm doing precisely what I'm accusing Harrison of doing!) There are other examples of this as well.

Ultimately, the reader finds out more about Kathryn Harrison than Jody and Billy Gilley. The escalating violence, the suspense, the redemption -- all are dulled and the characteristic nuances of this gifted writer don't show through. While I recognize the courage it took for her to accept and write this book, I believe it hits too close to home for her to give true justice.

18 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars A book about Kathryn Harrison and Kathryn Harrison's feelings. Yawn., July 4, 2008

By 

Niki Yapo "bibliophile" (San Francisco, CA United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: While They Slept: An Inquiry into the Murder of a Family (Hardcover)

The author had a unique and rare opportunity to explore and report the murder of a family and the aftermath of its effects on the remaining members of the family as well as the murderer. Instead, she barely went into any depth about what led to this heinous event. She interjects with her own familial tragedy and compares herself with Jody and Billy and their tragedy. I can't help but be annoyed and find it slightly narcissistic and presumptuous of her to assume that we are interested in her life and how it relates to The Gilleys. I bought the book because the NY Times gave it a stellar review however, that particular review was misleading. The author is clearly not an investigative reporter. Objectivity and in depth reporting are what make true crime fascinating to read and this book lacks both components ("Just the facts, m'am"). While I sympathize with the author's own familial misfortune, I bought the book to read about The Gilleys not Kathryn Harrison. The author would benefit from reading Truman Capote's "In Cold Blood" or Vincent Bugliosi's "Helter Skelter". All in all, this book was a waste of time to read.