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    The Darkest Night: Two Sisters, a Brutal Murder, and the Loss of Innocence in a Small Town
    The Darkest Night: Two Sisters, a Brutal Murder, and the Loss of Innocence in a Small Town
    The Darkest Night: Two Sisters, a Brutal Murder, and the Loss of Innocence in a Small Town
    Ebook371 pages6 hours

    The Darkest Night: Two Sisters, a Brutal Murder, and the Loss of Innocence in a Small Town

    By Ron Franscell

    4/5

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    About this ebook

    Casper, Wyoming: 1973. Eleven-year-old Amy Burridge rides with her eighteen-year-old sister, Becky, to the grocery store. When they finish their shopping, Becky's car gets a flat tire. Two men politely offer them a ride home. But they were anything but Good Samaritans. The girls would suffer unspeakable crimes at the hands of these men before being thrown from a bridge into the North Platte River. One miraculously survived. The other did not.

    Years later, author and journalist Ron Franscell—who lived in Casper at the time of the crime, and was a friend to Amy and Becky—can't forget Wyoming's most shocking story of abduction, rape, and murder. Neither could Becky, the surviving sister. The two men who violated her and Amy were sentenced to life in prison, but the demons of her past kept haunting Becky…until she met her fate years later at the same bridge where she'd lost her sister.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherMacmillan Publishers
    Release dateDec 9, 2014
    ISBN9781466886940
    Author

    Ron Franscell

    Ron Franscell is the acclaimed author of numerous books. Specializing in both fiction and nonfiction, his true-crime work Morgue: A Life in Death was a 2017 Edgar Award finalist. Having spent thirty years as a newspaper journalist, he won many national awards. A native of Casper, Wyoming, he currently resides in San Antonio, Texas.

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    Reviews for The Darkest Night

    4/5

    16 ratings6 reviews

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    • 4/5
      3.75 starsIn a town in Wyoming in 1973, 18-year old Becky and her 11-year old sister Amy went to pick up some groceries. By the next morning, Amy was dead in a canyon, thrown of a high bridge, and Becky somehow managed to survive the night with a broken pelvis after having been raped and also thrown off the bridge. The author was the girls’ neighbour. The book not only looks at the crime, but it also looks at Becky and Amy’s lives, the lives of the two convicted murderers/rapists, and the author thinks back on his own life in the small town where it happened. The first half of the book was the most interesting, where it focused on the crime and aftermath, including the trial. The next part of the book follows Becky’s life, as well as Ronnie’s and Jerry’s, in jail for their crimes. The books slips a little (at least I found it less interesting) as it looks closely at an autobiography written by Ronnie; as the author scrutinizes the autobiography, it becomes more clear why he includes as much of it as he does in the book. But, it is due to this section that I brought my rating down to just under 4 stars.
    • 5/5
      This book was hard to read. I couldn't imagine trying to write this and keep an unbiased attitude. I believe justice wasn't at all fair to Becky and Amy. Their murderers deserved the death penalty. Even though Becky didn't die that night, a piece of her did.

      1 person found this helpful

    • 4/5
      September 24, 1973 started like any other day in Casper, Wyoming, the events that transpired that evening into the next day changed life for everyone. Eleven-year old Amy Burridge and her half-sister Becky Thomson had been abducted from a local store, Amy was thrown off the Freemont Canyon Bridge, afterwards Becky was raped by the two men that had abducted them and was also thrown off the bridge. Becky survived, Amy did not.Ron Franscell lived next door to Amy and Becky. Because of that we get a uniquely personal view of the account. Besides learning biographical details of the people involved we also learn how the town was affected by this horrifically violent crime. This book is about more than the murderers, the victims, the crime and trial. It is about a town and how one act can have widespread consequences.Becky struggled with PTSD, with survivor guilt, she self-medicated with alcohol and drugs. She was quite possible the victim of another sexual assault. She lived in fear of the men who raped and tried to kill her. In 1992 they were seeking a new trail, as unlikely as it was they would be successful, she feared they would one day be free. In July she returned to the bridge where it all started and as the back cover of the book states: “she met her fate . . . at the same bridge where she’d lost her sister.”This is an extremely detailed account of this tragic event. Some have said it was too long, and took too many side trips into the history of the town and other people, I found it rich in detail and well rounded, never boring and recommend it.

      2 people found this helpful

    • 4/5
      completed: June 5. Very sad story. 8.5
    • 5/5
      In September 1973, I was a clueless and naive kid, having grown up secure and safe, surrounded by family, friends and neighbors in Casper, Wyoming. Across town, still warm with the lingering summer, two sisters ran an errand to the 15th grocery store. Leaving the store the girls found their tires flat and were lured into a car. It was an area I passed by frequently and would not have known the dangers any more than Amy or Becky. Jerry Jenkins and Ron Kennedy slashed the tires of the sisters’ car while they were in the store, setting themselves up to be rescuers with the offer of a ride. I was not the only naive resident as even the girls’ mother found no reason for concern when the sisters called to check in and report they had a ride home. The ride and the men driving turned brutal. Hours later two young girls were thrown from the top of the Fremont Canyon bridge.The author, Ron Franscell, lived next door to the family and was destined to write Becky’s story. Living in Casper at the time, remembering the lynch talk among the people of Casper and having my first taste of fear was not the entire story. Franscell tells of Casper and it’s growth, of Becky Thompson, her family and of two men convicted of rape and murder. He fills in details and shares familiar names and places involved. Fall eliminates the questions of what had happened, since most in Casper, like myself, were fearful and concerned, but were on the periphery. Ron Franscell writes from his heart, educates with meticulously researched facts and with knowledge from his personal history. He manages to look deeply and fairly into the lives of the unredeemable for a clinical look at the crime.

      1 person found this helpful

    • 3/5
      A good read, but I felt it might have dragged on a bit too long, especially at the very end. Maybe a little too much philosophizing that didn't really strike home, at least for me. A compelling and very sad story of a crime committed at random against two sisters. A touching connection between the two. Also some good local color describing Caspar, Wyoming and the people who lived there. I very much liked the idea of including one killer's "autobiography" and then deconstructing it and explaining what it showed about his character. Sad book, better-than-average true crime investigation, with no stone left unturned.

    Book preview

    The Darkest Night - Ron Franscell

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