Over the years, I have read and enjoyed Kathryn Casey’s Texas-centric true crime books, including Deadly Secrets, She Wanted It All, and Shattered. TC is my “guilty pleasure” genre, and I have read a TON of books, ranging from the truly terrible to the incredibly interesting. And I was happy to receive a copy of Ms. Casey’s latest, In Plain Sight, from William Morrow (Harper Collins) and Edelweiss, in exchange for my honest review.
This is a bizarre story about crimes I had never heard of that apparently were huge national news stories when they happened…so it would not have been surprising to have the author assume prior knowledge on the part of the reader, leaving ignorant readers like me wondering WTF? Fortunately, Ms. Casey lays out the story in such a way that is easily understood, providing an incredible amount of detail (and great photos, always a plus for true crime junkies – we like to visualize the wackos).
Kaufman County, near Dallas, is the scene of the crime(s). The first murder was an attack on Mark Hasse, a prosecutor heading into work from his car one morning in January, 2011. Despite eyewitnesses, the authorities are stumped, spending lots of time looking at the ABT (Aryan Brotherhood Texas), thinking this was a hit in revenge for him putting so many of them behind bars. About two months later, a couple named the McClellands are massacred in their home, despite having dozens of guns nearby. Oh, and both the primary target in the second event (Mr. MClelland was the District Attorney) and the prosecutor regularly wore guns, particularly due to their unease about a really creepy guy named Eric Williams.
Eric was one of those guys who yearns to be a copy/Ranger/military officer – basically wants to carry a gun and use it on bad guys. An Eagle Scout, her rigidly followed rules – except the ones he thought shouldn’t apply to him. Like when he was working for the County and decided to help himself to computer equipment and supplies, taking them despite knowing there was video surveillance of the area.
After losing his job as Justice of the Peace, Eric and his wife Kim are facing hard times. They have lost their significant income and health insurance, which is a BFD since Kim is an addict who takes a boatload of pills and liquid morphine, keeping her stoned most of the time. She goes along with Eric’s plan to exact revenge for everyone he thinks has wronged him, starting with Hasse and McClelland. Eric brazenly lives right near the scenes of the crimes, and rides his Segway around, in plain sight of the massive number of officers working on solving the crimes. It’s only a matter of time…
Ms. Casey does her usual meticulous reporting of both the facts of the crime and the tings that made the criminal(s) behave the way they do. No, it isn’t literature, but it is terrific true crime, as expected. Five stars.