A Death In White Bear Lake

A mother’s search for the son she gave up uncovers terrifying secrets in a Minnesota town in this “masterfully depicted true-crime tale” (Publishers Weekly). In 1962, Jerry Sherwood gave up her newborn son, Dennis, for adoption. Twenty years later, she set out to find him—only to discover he had died before his fourth birthday. The immediate cause was peritonitis, but the coroner had never decided the mode of death, writing “deferred” rather than indicate accident, natural causes, or homicide. This he did even though the autopsy photos showed Dennis covered from head to toe in ugly bruises, his clenched fists and twisted facial expression suggesting he had died writhing in pain. Harold and Lois Jurgens, a middle-class, churchgoing couple in picturesque White Bear Lake, Minnesota, had adopted Dennis and five other foster children. To all appearances, they were a normal midwestern family, but Jerry suspected that something sinister had happened in the Jurgens household. She demanded to know the truth about her son’s death. Why did authorities dismiss evidence that marked Dennis as an endangered child? Could Lois Jurgens’s brother, a local police lieutenant, have interfered in the investigation? And most disturbing of all, why had so many people who’d witnessed Lois’s brutal treatment of her children stay silent for so long? Determined to find answers, local detectives and prosecutors rebuilt the case brick by brick, finally exposing the shocking truth behind a nightmare in suburbia. A finalist for the Edgar Award, A Death in White Bear Lake is “a distinguished entry in the annals of crime documentary,” and a vivid portrait of the all-American town that harbored a sadistic killer (The Washington Post).

Get the Summary of Barry Siegel's A Death in White Bear Lake in 20 minutes. Please note: This is a summary & not the original book. "A Death in White Bear Lake" chronicles the harrowing story of the murder of Dennis Jurgens, a young boy who died under mysterious circumstances while in the care of his adoptive parents, Harold and Lois Jurgens. The case, initially neglected by the authorities in the 1960s, was brought back to light in 1986 by Dennis's biological mother, Jerry Sherwood, who sought justice for her son. The investigation, led by detectives Ron Meehan and Greg Kindle, revealed a history of abuse and a flawed system that failed to protect Dennis...

"The 14-year-old casually reached for the book Treblinka, by Jean-Francois Steiner in the History stacks at the Hinsdale, Ill., public library. She paged through, glancing at the table of contents and random pages and was horrified by what she read. Why had no one told her about the German death camps? Why did she know so little about World War II? Decades later, we open Barbara Wojcik's own book, Bud's Jacket, to the inspiring story of James "Uncle Bud" Wilschke. Shot down over coastal France in 1943, the American bombardier and his fellow airman, Robert Neil, find themselves on a desperate trek through Nazi-occupied Europe, hoping to survive and return to their UK squadron base. Including extensive research and visits to the original sites, Bud's Jacket is a tale of adventure, courage and determination. On a broader level, Wojcik pays tribute to the citizen "helpers" at all levels of French society who risked life, liberty and property to harbor Allied evaders from what good people then and now consider the forces of evil." -Dave Engel, Wisconsin Rapids, Wis., City Historian, Publisher River City Memoirs: Home Front Author Just Like Bob Zimmerman's Blues: Dylan In Minnesota

They used to be partners--Greg Monarch and Ira Sullivan, a couple of do-good lawyers in central California. But it all went bad for Ira. Bad enough that he wakes up in jail one day staring at a death sentence for murder. Only Greg Monarch has a prayer of getting him off--if he's willing to cross certain ethical lines. Layer by layer, Greg peels back a tissue of lies--and at the rotten core he comes to Sandy Polson. Sandy says she was with Ira the night of the murder, says she saw the whole thing. The prosecution believes she's the perfect witness. But what if Monarch could persuade Sandy to tell the truth? Wouldn't Sandy then become the perfect witness for the defense?

In the summer of 1937, with the Depression deep and World War II looming, a California triple murder stunned an already grim nation. After a frantic week-long manhunt for the killer, a suspect emerged, and his sensational trial captivated audiences from coast to coast. Justice was swift, and the condemned man was buried away with the horrifying story. But decades later, Pamela Everett, a lawyer and former journalist, starts digging, following up a cryptic comment her father once made about a tragedy in their past. Her journey is uniquely personal as she uncovers her family's secret history, but the investigation quickly takes unexpected turns into her professional wheelhouse. Everett unearths a truly historic legal case that included one of the earliest criminal profiles in the United States, the genesis of modern sex offender laws, and the last man sentenced to hang in California. Digging deeper and drawing on her experience with wrongful convictions, Everett then raises detailed and haunting questions about whether the authorities got the right man. Having revived the case to its rightful place in history, she leaves us with enduring concerns about the death penalty then and now. A journey chronicled through the mind of a lawyer and from the heart of a daughter, Little Shoes is both a captivating true crime story and a profoundly personal account of one family's struggle to cope with tragedy through the generations.

Year after year, one after another, the babies of Marybeth Tinning died - nine children in 14 years. Incredibly, neither police nor coroners, doctors, social workers or neighbours suspected anything. The vague verdicts of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome fooled even Marybeth's husband. On 4th February 1986, however, six weeks after the last baby's death, even he had to face the unthinkable - as his wife was charged with their murder. This book tells the story of Marybeth Tinning's children, her arrest and subsequent trial.

Doug Bard has been a detective with the sheriff’s department in La Graciosa, California, long enough to know the score. Now that an influx of upscale chain stores and luxury housing has turned sleepy Chumash County into a boom town, the last thing anyone wants is crime casting a shadow over the prosperity. But Bard also knows he’s not the kind of man who can write off a double fatality as a tragic accident—especially when all his instincts tell him it was murder. When a devastating housefire claims the lives of a kindly local retiree and his eleven-year-old piano student, District Attorney Angela Stark wastes no time declaring the blaze a mishap. But the verdict just doesn’t sit right with Bard. Inconclusive but troubling clues—marks on the dead girl’s neck, a strange bootprint on a kicked-in door—are enough to make the veteran detective buck the party line and fight to keep the case open. It’s a stand that puts the renegade Bard at odds yet again with his superiors. Until a suspect surfaces. Placed at the scene of the deadly fire by an eyewitness, Jed Jeremiah is a backwoods loner with a homicide conviction in his past. But even as the sensational murder trial gets under way, the same instincts that told Bard there was foul play afoot now convince him that the wrong man may face the death penalty—and a calculating killer is still at large. Defying the sheriff and the D.A. and putting his job on the line, Bard begins to dig for the truth. What he discovers is a shocking link to his own past—one that will put the people he loves most in deadly jeopardy. From crime scene to courtroom, Lines of Defense unravels a cunningly plotted tale of detection and justice. Michael Connelly has declared, “with Barry Siegel you don’t read a story. You feel it. You live it. And you always want more.” The third novel by the acclaimed author of Actual Innocence and The Perfect Witness brilliantly proves him right, on all counts.

THE INSPIRATION FOR THE NETFLIX DOCUMENTARY GIRL IN THE PICTURE Sharon Marshall was a brilliant and beautiful student whose future was filled with promise—until her murderous, fugitive father drew her into a lifetime of deception that became one of the most baffling cases in the annals of American true crime. A student at Forest Park High School near Atlanta, Georgia, popular blonde-haired Sharon Marshall was at the top of her class. Serving as a Lt. Colonel in the ROTC, she earned a full scholarship to Georgia Tech University to study aerospace engineering. She was the ultimate girl next door, sweet, generous, and well-adjusted. But Sharon had disturbing secrets so shocking and unique, they took more than a decade to unravel... This is the horrifying true story of a mysterious young woman caught in the violent web of the murderous fugitive she called her father—and a heartrending testament to the profound courage and perseverance of one woman trapped in the grip of extreme evil.