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5.0 out of 5 stars
"Evil ... it screams in ... that room until someone can exorcise it., November 10, 2009
This review is from: Wicked Intentions: The Sheila LaBarre Murders - A True Story (Hardcover)
"Beyond the puzzle of atoms lies the puzzle of the soul ... Dust may be witness to crime, but energy is witness to rage ... and that energy haunts a room ... And that energy is sometimes called evil, and it screams in the quiet of that room until someone can exorcise it."
These are author Kevin Flynn's words describing the ghost-like energy left behind in a room where a crime has been committed.
Wicked Intentions: The Sheila LaBarre Murders - A True Story is written by a reporter who followed the ghoulish case of Sheila LaBarre in conjunction with the Epping police in a New Hampshire town. Flynn presents his facts and personal observations in such a fascinating order and with such macabre detail that from the earliest pages, a horror/mystery reader gets sucked inside
Wicked Intentions.
Police in Epping had grown accustomed to the outlandish ranting and raging of Sheila LaBarre via phone, via fax, by letter, and in person. The sheer volume of LaBarre's complaints about mistreatment in stores, complaints about infringement by neighbors on her 115 acre farm, and complaints that Epping authorities did not address her concerns, in a real sense, caused police to consider Sheila LaBarre as an eccentric kook whom they'd rather not deal with.
"They seemed like tall tales, the kind of stories that rise from the crags of mist at dawn on cold pastureland."
Reporter Flynn learns that Sheila had lived with Dr. LaBarre on his horse farm for several years. Although they'd never married, she assumed the wealthy doctor's name. She loved his horses and was terribly fond of rabbits. She often referred to them as "my babies."
Sheila and the doctor had a tumultuous life together. Gradually, she came to control his life and his chiropractic practice. On nights when she ousted the doctor for reasons unknown, he slept in a small trailer parked nearby in a shed-like area. Incredibly, Dr. LaBarre altered his will so Sheila would inherit his home, his property, and his prized horses.
From an older neighbor, Flynn hears of Michael. "Mikey" was a developmentally disabled young suitor the neighbor had seen, stumbling down the dirt road leading from the LaBarre farm. A severe gash on his head dropped blood so badly that it left a noticeable trail in the snow. According to the neighbor, part of Mikey's ear was ripped. Limping past the stunned neighbor, the bleeding man whispered, "Sheila."
"She was warm as pie to strangers but would turn on you quickly. She was like a fist full of bees."
Flynn explains how Mikey served as a virile young boy-toy for the insatiable sexual appetite of Sheila LaBarre. But in a life/death struggle between the couple, LaBarre had stabbed him in the head with a pair of scissors. Neighbors indicated that although the young man had returned to the farm after Sheila's mood swing reversed, he grew very thin and sickly looking. His skin took on a strange unearthly looking shade. Within a short time, Mikey seemed to "walk off the edge of the earth."
Another muscular young suitor fell under the sensual spell of Sheila LaBarre. Like Mikey, Kenny was semi-retarded but thought he knew enough to manage his own affairs. Meeting Labarre through a telephone chat-line, he, too, moved to the LaBarre farm where another turbulent love affair erupted.
Slowly weakened by nicotine ingested in his food and by physical beatings where he would refuse to hit a woman, Kenny quickly grew extremely weak. Unequipped mentally to deal with LaBarre's chaotic web of deceit, the once muscular and healthy youth allowed himself to be overpowered by whatever Labarre told him.
Wicked Intentions reveals that because of her own horrifying childhood, Sheila LaBarre had a particular hatred for child molesters. She forced innocent Kenny to admit on tape that he was a pedophile. Within a short time, neighbors noticed that Kenny seemed to evaporate.
It was inquiries by Kenny's mother that eventually brought down controlling Sheila Labarre. Concerned about her semi-retarded son's welfare, she asked Epping police to investigate. Arriving at the Labarre home, police found a burning pile of debris atop which sat a barrel. Sticking out from the burn pile was a human bone with barbecued flesh attached. Like Mikey before him, Kenny had been disposed of.
What atrocities befell these two men -- possibly others -- and how they were carried out by sensual Sheila LaBarre, are just a few of the many horrors described in
Wicked Intentions. The book tells of the gruesome evidence uncovered inside LaBarre's home. In detail, it explains the proceedings at her trial, and the jury's final verdict.
As a reporter, Kevin Flynn has done an excellent job assembling researched data to keep any reader turning page after page, even knowing the trial's eventual outcome. This gruesome book includes photographs of Sheila Labarre, her victims, her home and the rock strewn road leading to it, along with pictures within the courtroom itself.
Many times in
Wicked Intentions, Kevin Flynn displays a clever flair for descriptive words and sentences. When he describes the entrance door to LaBarre's home: "Spider webs caulked the outline of the porch lamp fixture, its bulb bare." It is easy to imagine those tiny white silken webs most people have seen in the narrow cracks of their own homes.
I would recommend
Wicked Intentions to any mature reader looking for a suspenseful tale of shocking proportions. Normally when media headlines erupt with news of a serial killer, rarely is a woman suspected. But this book may change your thinking. You may ponder that any perversion is possible depending on the state of the human mind. Like the jury in Sheila Labarre's trial, you will find yourself trying to decide if she was truly insane or an immoral woman guilty of unspeakable crime.
Review written by Regis Schilken
Author of:
You Know When
Demons of Justice
Tears of Deceit
The Island off Stony Point
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