Love Me or Else: The True Story of a Devoted Pastor, a Fatal Jealousy, and the Murder that Rocked a Small Town
Written by Colin McEvoy and Lynn Olanoff
Narrated by Pam Ward
3.5/5
()
About this audiobook
When Mary Jane let her feelings be known, the Pastor gently pushed her away. But her obsession only grew stronger when she became convinced that he was romantically involved with a younger church member, a woman named Rhonda Smith.
Rhonda was doing volunteer work in the church office one day when she was shot to death in cold blood. The trail of evidence led police to Mary Jane, and soon other suspicions were raised: Was she also involved in the mysterious death of her own father fifteen years earlier? This is the shocking true story of love, worship, and murder in one American small town.
Colin McEvoy
Colin McEvoy and Lynn Olanoff are reporters for The Express-Times, a daily newspaper based in Easton, Pennsylvania. They covered the Rhonda Smith murder case extensively and it was during a jailhouse interview with them that Mary Jane Fonder first acknowledged responsibility for her crime. They wrote about the Fonder case in the St. Martin’s True Crime book, Love Me or Else. Colin and Lynn have been married since 2008. Lynn is a graduate of Drew University in Madison, New Jersey, and Colin graduated from East Stroudsburg University in East Stroudsburg, Pennsylvania. They currently reside in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania.
Related to Love Me or Else
Related audiobooks
Buried Memories: The Bloody Crimes and Execution of the Texas Black Widow Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5If You Only Knew Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Dead Reckoning Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Sins of the Son Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Overkill Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Deadly Secrets Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Under Cover of the Night: A True Story of Sex, Greed, and Murder Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Cruel Doubt Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Careless Whispers: The Award-Winning True Account of the Horrific Lake Waco Murders Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Good Wife: The Shocking Betrayal and Brutal Murder of a Godly Woman in Texas Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsPlaying With Fire: The True Story of a Nurse, Her Husband, and a Marriage Turned Fatal Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Eye of the Beholder: The Almost Perfect Murder of Anchorwoman Diane Newton King Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsMurdered Innocents Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Alice & Gerald: A Homicidal Love Story Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Blind Faith Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Love and Death in the Sunshine State: The Story of a Crime Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5And Then She Killed Him Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5A Death in White Bear Lake: The True Chronicle of an All-American Town Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Losing Jon: A Teen's Tragic Death, a Police Cover-Up, a Community's Fight for Justice Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Possessed: The Infamous Texas Stiletto Murder Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Death Trap Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Death in Texas: A True Story of Marriage, Money, and Murder Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Betrayal in Blood: The Murder of Tabatha Bryant Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Dark Heart: A True Story of Sex, Manipulation, and Murder Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The North Country Murder of Irene Izak: Stained by Her Blood Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Kill For Me Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Because You Loved Me Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Fatal Jealousy: The True Story of a Doomed Romance, a Singular Obsession, and a Quadruple Murder Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Murder For You
The Ghosts That Haunt Me Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Road to Jonestown: Jim Jones and Peoples Temple Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Five: The Untold Lives of the Women Killed by Jack the Ripper Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5If You Tell: A True Story of Murder, Family Secrets, and the Unbreakable Bond of Sisterhood Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Mindhunter: Inside the FBI's Elite Serial Crime Unit Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5In the Name of the Children: An FBI Agent's Relentless Pursuit of the Nation's Worst Predators Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5We Were Once a Family: A Story of Love, Death, and Child Removal in America Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The I-5 Killer Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Trigger: Narratives of the American Shooter Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The House of Gucci: A True Story of Murder, Madness, Glamour, and Greed Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Memorial Drive: A Daughter's Memoir Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Written in Bone: Hidden Stories in What We Leave Behind Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5After Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Invention of Murder: How the Victorians Revelled in Death and Detection and Created Modern Crime Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Evidence of Love: A True Story of Passion and Death in the Suburbs Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Obsession: The FBI's Legendary Profiler Probes the Psyches of Killers, Rapists, and Stalkers Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Maniac: The Bath School Disaster and the Birth of the Modern Mass Killer Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Our Little Secret: The True Story of a Teenage Killer and the Silence of a Small New England Town Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Conviction: The Untold Story of Putting Jodi Arias Behind Bars Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5While Idaho Slept: The Hunt for Answers in the Murders of Four College Students Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Little Shoes: The Sensational Depression-Era Murders That Became My Family's Secret Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Deliberate Cruelty: Truman Capote, the Millionaire's Wife, and the Murder of the Century Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Murderer Next Door: Why the Mind Is Designed to Kill Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Man Who Played with Fire: Stieg Larsson's Lost Files and the Hunt for an Assassin Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Death's Acre: Inside the Legendary Forensics Lab--The Body Farm--Where the Dead Do Tell Tales Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Whoever Fights Monsters: My Twenty Years Tracking Serial Killers for the FBI Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Poisoner's Handbook: Murder and the Birth of Forensic Medicine in Jazz Age New York Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Reviews for Love Me or Else
9 ratings2 reviews
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The narrator is exceptional in the way she creates the various voices and phrasings. She really made the material better. The book itself was well-written and organized and presented the case fully. A great listen!
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The authors of this book are local journalists for an Easton, PA newspaper. Because my local library is hosting a book discussion next week with the authors in attendance, in anticipation of attending the session, I read this fascinating true crime story based on a local murder.A debut novel for the journalists, it is exceedingly well written and engrossing. Rhonda Smith, a 42 year old attractive woman was murdered in cold blood, point blank with two gunshots to the head in a rural Springtown, PA church. The body was discovered by a friend, long-time member and cleaning person of the church. Her frantic 911 call alerted the police that something was wrong...very, very unusually wrong for an area known for its beautiful countryside and wholesome life style.Saddened, terrified and concerned, the church members grew suspicious as they grieved the loss of a beloved parishioner. As the web of intrigue centered primarily on a 66, unattractive, socially inept choir member, the church and the community were increasingly in shock.Stalked by Mary Jean Fonder, Rev. Gregory Shreaves previously alerted the church council that Mary Jean's behavior was frighteningly obsessive. Numerous rambling messages left on the pastor's answering machine were an indication that she needed to be told to cease. Acting as "Christians" the council did nothing.Increasingly paranoiac and spinning out of control, Mary Jean held fast to the unfounded notion that her target was infatuated with Rhonda.Using a gun previously purchased when she was fired from a local restaurant, Mary Jean Fonder slipped into the rural church when Rhonda was working in the office and eliminated what she believed to be her competition.Sadly, Mary Jean's reality was not grounded in any reality.When overwhelming evidence confirmed both the motive and the method, Mary Jean steadfastly claimed innocence.A jury felt otherwise and today she serves a life sentence. As a side note, years prior to her murder of Rhonda, Mary Jean's father went missing. Facing severe health problems, it was highly unlikely that her father walked away from the property by himself. This case has never been solved.Recommended!