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    Deliver Us: Three Decades of Murder and Redemption in the Infamous I-45/Texas Killing Fields
    Deliver Us: Three Decades of Murder and Redemption in the Infamous I-45/Texas Killing Fields
    Deliver Us: Three Decades of Murder and Redemption in the Infamous I-45/Texas Killing Fields
    Audiobook10 hours

    Deliver Us: Three Decades of Murder and Redemption in the Infamous I-45/Texas Killing Fields

    Written by Kathryn Casey

    Narrated by Tanya Eby

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    About this audiobook

    Over a three-decade span, more than twenty women-many teenagers-died mysteriously in the small towns bordering Interstate 45, a fifty-mile stretch of highway running from Houston to Galveston. The victims were strangled, shot, or savagely beaten.


    The day she vanished, Colette Wilson waited for her mother after band practice. Best friends Debbie Ackerman and Maria Johnson loved to surf and were last seen hitchhiking. Laura Kate Smither dreamed of becoming a ballerina and disappeared just weeks before her thirteenth birthday.


    In this harrowing true crime exposition, award-winning journalist Kathryn Casey tracks these tragic cases, investigates the evidence, interviews the suspects, and pulls back the cloak of secrecy in search of elusive answers.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherTantor Media, Inc
    Release dateMar 17, 2015
    ISBN9781494580780
    Author

    Kathryn Casey

    Kathryn Casey is an award-winning journalist, who has written for Rolling Stone, TV Guide, Reader's Digest, Texas Monthly, and many other publications. She's the author of seven previous true crime books and the creator of the highly acclaimed Sarah Armstrong mystery series. Casey has appeared on Oprah, Oprah Winfrey's Oxygen network, Biography, Nancy Grace, E! network, truTV, Investigation Discovery, the Travel Channel, and A&E. She lives in Houston with her husband and their dog, Nelson.

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    Reviews for Deliver Us

    4/5

    39 ratings7 reviews

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    • 5/5
      I wasn't particularly acquainted with these murders which all occurred along a specific portion of the Texas I-45 near Galveston so it was all pretty much new information to me. This is my first true crime by this author also and I found her writing incredibly sympathetic to the victims and their families which I always appreciate when reading modern accounts of murder. This book covers a lot of information and many, many cases while covering a time period from the late '60s to 2000. Some victims had a short amount of time spent on them while others had chapters while Casey covered trials that brought their killers to justice. Casey manages to skillfully keep the abundant information from becoming an overload by presenting the Killing Fields' history in chronological order and revisiting cases when new evidence is found while following the future crimes. In the end, Casey names the most likely suspect in each case where viable persons of interest were suspected but evidence wasn't solid enough for an arrest. She also concludes that the sheer number of small town police, their methods and politics played a major role in the number of unsolved crimes in this area. I found this a quick, engrossing read and love Casey's writing style. I'll certainly seek out some of her other books.
    • 5/5
      Well-Researched and comprehensive; the author humanizes the victims and their families. She has journalistic integrity and a tireless need to understand what happened to these victims.
    • 4/5
      Casey tells the story of the I-45 Killing Field in this book. Fairly the book is well written. I gave it a 4 because really Casey does a better than credible job describing the different scenarios of individual victims, families, suspects, and even convicted killers. My initial instinct was to give this book a 3, but that's not really fair to Casey.

      The thing is, I hated the contents of this book. To many of the victims were high risk victims that were to much like my own family and family dynamic. I cried for the little girls that died so brutally because they are the same age and are involved in the same after school activities as my own daughter. The fact that so little justice is involved in the telling of these stories. Lets face it, we can face these books because the bad guys are caught! They pose no threat to our children. This isn't Casey's fault either, therefore I was forced to re-evaluate my impulse to blame the author for my discontent.

      So who would I recommend this book to? That's hard because we all like closure. It's out nature. We like books because they neatly sum up the stories and give us that needed sense of full circle. You don't get that from this book. As a result I do not think I would recommend this book. What I would say is that if you are seeking the psychological profile all clearly defined for you, this is not a good book for you.

      If you read these books as I do to get a concept of the sociopathy of the individuals capable of these types of crimes, then this might be a good book for you. You will not get to the end and get to diagnose the killer. No. What you will get is the ability to apply what you have already learned.

      My personal analysis is that there are multiple perpetrators involved in the i-45 murders. There is not a shared psychosis or anything so obvious. There are multiple killers with multiple MO's that can individually be analyzed to allow you to further your understanding of the abnormal mind.

      Casey made me cry with this one. I don't usually do that. This book tore at my heart and my mind. This book is not one for the weak constitution.

      Good luck.
    • 5/5
      I grew up in League City TX (where the literal Killing Fields is located). I went to school, worked, played, socialized with friends/families/loved ones of some of the victims. I only recently visited the actual field itself and it was a surreal experience. The way Mrs. Casey wrote this book was extraordinary. It really made each of the girls feel like actual people and not just case #’s and statistics. We as a community still hold our breaths until the day these cases can be solved.. if you are a true crime fan, this one is not to be missed.
    • 4/5
      Once in a while I feel the urge to read up on true crime, and Kathryn Casey is one of my go-to authors for the genre. Her writing style draws me into the stories instantly, and she does meticulous research for her books. This one is about a series of murders, some related and others now, committed in the relatively small area of the I-45 corridor in Texas. A series of young women were murdered in Galveston in the 1970s and 1980s, and the author (as well as most of the people involved in the cases) believe that most, if not all, are related. The killer has yet to be caught, although the author (and investigators) have a prime suspect or two. Casey also discusses the cases of other women who were murdered along the corridor in the 1980s and 1990s.Some of the cases are cold and will likely never be solved (the Galveston serial killer will likely never be brought to justice; so much of the evidence has been misplaced and lost over the years that there is literally almost nothing to work with at this point), but some are still active to this day. William Lewis Reece, who was listed as a suspect in two of the murders (Laura Smither and Jessica Cain, as well as the murder of Tiffany Johnston in Oklahoma), has finally been indicted in all three of these murders and will be going to trial for them in the future. One of the most interesting things about this book is that it focuses on the victims - their lives, their stories, etc. Many true crime books focus on the killer(s) almost exclusively, with victims only appearing for a few paragraphs or so. Part of Casey's choice to shift the focus is required - in many of these cases, a perpetrator has not been caught and likely never will be, so there is no choice but to focus on the victims. But on the cases where a perpetrator is heavily suspected or even caught, the author still pays a great deal of attention to the victims. The book is well-written and I'd recommend it to those who enjoy reading true crime - but if you want or need endings that are tied up nicely at the end in a bow, this book isn't for you. Many of the cases will never be officially closed or solved.
    • 5/5
      An excellent book by Kathryn Casey covering the murders in what is considered the "Texas Killing Fields". So many young teens and young women went missing and were murdered in the 1970s to 1980s. Kathryn tells the story of many of the victims and the search for them, along with their loved ones stories. It was very interesting. The cases are not all connected, although some are. There was more than one serial killers working the area, making it extremely difficult for detectives. But the victims' stories survived and are told here. It was a great book! Very well written and researched. I highly recommend this book. It is a must read for true crime addicts (like myself).
    • 5/5
      Whenever I read Casey's true crime books, I am struck by how she gives a voice to the victim who can no longer speak. Horrific people exist in this world and it's easy to pretend that evil people do not exist. These victims call from the grave for people to be vigilant always and everywhere. Hopefully this book will bring forth additional information which will allow the families to find closure for their sorrow.