Kill Grandma For Me (Pinnacle true crime) (Paperback)

~ Jim Defelice (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description

In the morning of December 31, 1994, a little girl ran barefoot through the streets of quiet Saugerties, New York, clad only in her night clothes and crying out in fear and pain. The story she told would shock the town: of a vicious murder and a teen couple's obscene, three-day orgy of sex and junk food. When police investigated the girl's claims, they found the body of her grandmother stuffed into the trunk of a car and began their pursuit of a killer. At first, suspicion fell on 15-year-old James Evans, a violently troubled teenager known to be a ticketing time bomb. But soon the terrible truth about his 13-year-old lover, Wendy, would come out. The angelic-looking honour student had convinced James to strangle her grandmother with a kite string. Then she took her own little sister prisoner, took her grandmother's money, and began an odyssey of sin.

Product Details

• Paperback: 320 pages
• Publisher: Pinnacle (December 6, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 078601282X
• ISBN-13: 978-0786012824
• Product Dimensions: 7 x 4.3 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (14 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,169,309 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Twisted attempt to justify "Kill Grandma", July 7, 2003

By	Kris Dotto "Bookworm Extraordinaire" (Phoenix, AZ USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Jim DeFelice's "Kill Grandma For Me" is a thin book whose subjects, Wendy Gardner and James Evans, are portrayed as a 1990s' Romeo and Juliet. Unfortunately for the original Romeo and Juliet, Wendy and James murdered Wendy's grandmother Elizabeth, and went on a shopping spree with money the woman had put back for bills on a limited income.

The story is lurid enough without DeFelice's prose, which approaches the ridiculous as he tries to dramatize a sordid situation. Both Wendy and James were born to dysfunctional parents, but where James was in and out of trouble (and one correctional facility), Wendy lived with her strict grandmother, who verbally (and possibly physically) abused her. James was a bully who terrorized younger kids; Wendy was having sex by the time she was 12. And the reason these two kids murdered an old woman was so that they could continue their affair unrestrained.

DeFelice should take care in choosing the subject for his next book. Wendy and James are far from sympathetic subjects--more like repellent reasons why parenthood should require psychological exams and licensing. As for the grandmother, I pitied her cruel death, but DeFelice hardly fleshed her character out at all.

"Kill Grandma For Me" will do if, like me, you have an hour to spend at a boring function and nothing else to read (like a bus schedule). Otherwise, anything else can replace it. And no, Wendy and James are not Romeo and Juliet--more like pre-destined America's Most Wanted.

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars bonnie b square, November 11, 2000

By A Customer

this has got to be one of the very worse books i have read. love true crime but this one put me to sleep. waste of money- what can i say?

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great true crime read..., March 9, 2007

By	L. E. Bowers (Virginia) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I believe the author did an excellent job of blending all the different parts of the story, backgrounds, crime, and court case into a book that reads like a novel. He does paint the main characters, Wendy and James, in a sympathetic light. However, when the killers are 15 and 13 years old, you can't help but feel sad. However, he never goes so far as to say punishment isn't deserved. It is just a sad story of two kids who made a very bad decision. Very well written.