The true story of Theresa Knorr, the twisted child abuser who murdered
her daughters--with the help of her sons--told by a former New York
Times reporter.
In June 1985, Theresa Cross Knorr dumped her daughter Sheila's body in
California's desolate High Sierra. She had beaten Sheila unconscious in
their Sacramento apartment days earlier, then locked her in a closet to
die. But this wasn't the first horrific crime she'd committed against
her own children.
The previous summer, Knorr had shot Sheila's sister Suesan, then ordered
her son to dig the bullet out of the girl's back with a knife to hide
the evidence. The infection that resulted led to delirium--at which
point Knorr and her two sons drove Suesan into the mountains, doused her
with gasoline, and set her on fire.
It would be almost a decade before her youngest daughter, Terry Knorr
Graves, revealed her mother's history of unfathomable violence. At
first, she was met with disbelief by law enforcement and even her own
therapist. But eventually, the truth about her monstrous abuse
emerged--and here, an award-winning journalist details the jealousy,
rage, and domineering behavior that escalated into homicide and
shattered a family.
A former reporter for the New York Times and Los AngelesTimes and
the author of true-crime classics including Angel of Darkness, about
serial killer Randy Kroft, and Blood Cold, about Robert Blake and
Bonny Lee Bakley, Dennis McDougal reveals the shocking depths of
depravity behind a case that made headlines across the nation.
