Mortal Danger & Other True Cases
March 26th 2010 04:42
Mortal Danger & Other True Cases Book Cover
I am a fan of Ann Rule. I have been for a long time. I remember a call centre manager in a small call centre I worked in first loaned me a copy of And Never Let Her Go. The story contained in those pages convinced me that where true crime was concerned Ann Rule was the best writer in the business.
Mortal Danger and Other True Cases, Volume 13 of her successful Ann Rule's Crime Files series is another hit out of the park for the true crime author. Following the same format as the previously reviewed A Rose for Her Grave, this volume starts with a novel length true story followed by several smaller pieces originally written as articles for various True Crime Detective magazines.
The novel length feature Mortal Danger is a harrowing tale of domestic abuse - a theme she carries through most of the stories in the volume - detailing the case of the charismatic John Branden and the object of his obsession Kathy Jewell.
Branden and Jewell met when she went to his clinic after a short illness that continued to spur her belief in healthy living and alternative therapies. Although he was married at the time the two were drawn to each other and after the end of his marriage the two began an affair that was to alter the trajectories of their lives.
Kathy Jewell was a self-sufficient career woman, working as an Airline Stewardess. John Braden was charming, handsome, refering to himself as a Dr and was the answer to her prayers. As their relationship grew John became more and more possessive and Kathy opens up her past and her life under his control to Ann Rule with what it seems no holds barred.
As the years went by and the violence and emotional abuse escalated, Kathy fought to free herself of the man she had once loved. Finally breaking free, her day of terror began as they were cleaning out the gardens of the small cabin they lived in in Oregan. Beaten and raped by the man she had loved it was a miracle she was able to break away as he went in search of his gun. Running to the neighbours house Kathy Jewell was saved and John Braden disappeared off the face of the earth.
Depsite police looking for him he went underground, protected by friends and family, free to continue finding women to support him and devote their lives to the only thing he valued, himself.
As Kathy tried to rebuilt her shattered life, hiding from John, living on a small island under an assumed name, and returning to work for the airline she had worked for for decades, she worried and feared for the next woman who would fall under his spell.
She had every right to worry. In the early years of the new millienium Braden met Turi Bently, a beautiful woman in her mid 60's recently divorced and financially secure. During the courtship phase her new man was everything she had hoped for, a second chance at love, someone who cared for her, loved her and honoured her. Turi was, by all accounts a loving, generous woman who was always there for anyone who needed her. Their whirlwind courtship ended in marriage and for the penniless Braden it must have seemed that all his ships had come in at once.
Almost before the ink was dry on their wedding certificate Braden began to tear at the life and the confidence his new bride had. Convinced the world was going to end and convinced beyond reason that he was the only thing - besides his two daughters - on the planet that should matter to anyone, Braden isolated his new bride from family and friends. The conclusion to their marriage was shocking and left Kathy Jewell racked with guilt.
Articles and features on domestic violence abound in today's media, but to hear this account from a strong, intelligent woman, to be given an understanding into exactly what occured beneath the shingled roof of their Oregan cottage is haunting. It's message of "get out while you can" is singularly important and singularly sad. Based on an eye witness account of the final night in the marriage of John and Turi it appears Turi had discovered what Braden had done back in 1999.
The other stories in Mortal Danger are equally sad, lives lost and others destroyed. Family lefft behind to try and figure out how to move on.
In the second story Written in Blood, a newly married couple with everything to live for are found brutually murdered in their own home. Despite the distance between their home their neighbour claimed to see a man running from the house in the early hours of the morning. To the detectives assigned to investigate, his story seems absurd, and the ammendments and added details tweak their interest. This story is shocking in that it could all have been prevented. The man - who had skipped parole to marry a woman he met while in jail for the murder of his mother many years ago - should never have been released and the scandal that followed destroyed the hopes and dreams of a republican candidate for the Presidency that eventually went to Barack Obama.
If I Can't Have You, tells the story of a young American woman, whose love of travel brought her to the man she felt would love her forever. Leaving family and country behind she settled in Switzerland with her new husband, only to find that nothing was what it seemed. Saddened and depressed, she flies home to America, contacting the American consulate in Bern to request her husband not be allowed to follow her back to the States. A paper work error provides the impetus to allowing a possessive husband the opportunity to fly to America and end the life of a loved daugher and sister in front of hundreds of witnesses at Sea-Tac Airport in Seattle.
Thirty Years Later tells the story of two young women, one 15 the other 28 who met death at the hands of a stranger. When read together the stories bare a remarkable resemblance and it's not until improvements in DNA and Forensic testing that the shocking conclusion is found and one family who have waited for 30 years can bring a sense of closure to the their murdered daughters thoughtless slaughter.
The final tale in this collection, Not Safe at Home, tells the story of a divorced mother who after thirty years of marriage finds herself alone for the first time in her life. Settling into a new home and meeting an unexpected second chance at love, Traia Carr can't help but feel time for her is running out. On the 4th of July weekend her prediction comes true and she is kidnapped by the last person she expected could, or would hurt her, raped and murdered, her body dumped deep in the woods on an Indian Reservation.
Rule's ability to weave prose with clinical details and forensic information is without competition. Standing in a class of her own she seems to have embraced her mission to make sure the victims are not forgotten, their tales and stories are told to live on long after they themselves have passed.
This is another book I bought in an airport newsagents and I couldn't put it down. If you are fan of Rules longer novel length works but are yet to give her Crime Files a go, or simply someone looking for a riveting true crime piece to read I can't recommend Ann Rule or her books highly enough.
For further information on Ann Rule please go here: Anne Rules Website
And if you are anyone you know is suffering domestic abuse, do not be silent and do not hope for a better day. Get out while you can. There are shelters and agencies in your local area - no matter where you are in the world - who can help you. Domestic violence occurs against women, men and children. Do not suffer in silence or think no one will understand.
For further information on Domestic Violence please go to:
Domestic Abuse Hotline for Men and Women
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