Murder In Little Egypt · Jodi Arias · R Kelly
Plus: A Silicon Valley murder for hire
the true crime that's worth your time
Another highly recommended Edgar Award nominee in our ongoing capsule-review series! Murder In Little Egypt by Darcy O’Brien (Edgar Award Nominee for Best Fact Crime in 1990) chronicles the crimes of one Dr. Dale Cavaness, an esteemed small-town doctor who was simultaneously a violent narcissist. His story and fate is inextricably linked to the cluster of communities in Southern Illinois known as Little Egypt. An 11-county region reliant on coal production and mired in poverty, Little Egypt as described by O’Brien as a place where family ties and local associations (and nothing else) matter, and a current of violence lays just below the surface.
Dr. Cavaness was raised in Little Egypt and seems very much of a piece with its rough and tumble, outlaw vibe. He left temporarily to join the military and then attend college and medical school, but settles back in the region to establish his medical practice. While his public persona as a medical genius compelled to serve the people of his home takes root, in private Cavaness was exacting extreme cruelty on his wife and four sons, lashing out in violent and unpredictable ways. He was also abusing his medical credentials to scam public assistance programs, driving under the influence (with a tragic outcome for young family who happened to encounter him on the road), attempting insurance fraud, and peddling methamphetamines.
When Cavaness’ oldest son Mark is found dead by shotgun blast on an isolated track of one his father’s farms, local law enforcement barely feigns an investigation. The state investigator assigned to the case takes it more seriously, and quickly comes to suspect Dr. Cavaness is responsible. It isn’t until seven years later, when a second of the doctor’s sons is found dead by gunshot wound in a remote area, that the carefully constructed persona of Dr. Cavaness begins to crumble. Because the second murder (that of Cavaness’s son Sean) took place in St. Louis, MO, investigators have no investment in the Cavaness myth, and quickly home in on Cavaness as their main suspect.
O’Brien is a very compelling writer, and does an expert job unpacking Little Egypt’s allegiance to their doctor: how desperate his patients were to see Cavaness as one of their own and how they believed demonstrating that loyalty reflected back positively on their community. But ultimately, Cavaness only showed as much of himself as he wanted others to see. I was struck by the many similarities between Cavaness and another murderous narcissist with a medical degree: Dr. Martin MacNeil, the Utah man who murdered his wife and stole his own daughter’s identity to give to his mistress.
This can be a tough read at times; it contains one of the grimmest crime-scene descriptions I’ve ever come across. And the details of the mental and physical abuse Cavaness subjected his family to are harrowing. But like many true-crime classics, the place a crime occurred and its people are central to this story, and O’Brien crafts the narrative expertly. This one will stick with me, and I recommend it highly. -- Susan Howard
Catch up on Susan’s previous Edgar nominee reviews:
Reelz is planning a series that interviews the intimates of notorious true crime figures. Deadline reports that the show is called The Friends Speak, and will be in a similar vein to Casey Anthony: Her Friends Speak, which apparently broke ratings records for the cable network. The show will kick off this Friday, December 8, with Jodi Arias: The Friends Speak, with future episodes and subjects to be announced later. -- EB
It’s nice to see how faithfully reports on allegations against R Kelly credit Surviving R. Kelly for his prosecution. I was thinking about this when I read the latest New York Times piece on the case, which reports on Brooklyn prosecutors’ allegations that Kelly bribed an Illinois state official to allow him to marry Aaliyah when she was 15 and he was 27.
Per the story, “Law enforcement scrutiny of Mr. Kelly intensified after several women spoke out publicly in a six-part Lifetime documentary, Surviving R. Kelly, which was released in January. After the documentary aired, prosecutors in Illinois, New York and Minnesota filed criminal charges against Mr. Kelly, leading to his arrest.” How wild is it that it’s a show from Lifetime (of all networks) that might bring this guy down? -- EB
A new book from a Pulitzer-winning reporter delves into a Silicon Valley hit. Mothers And Murderers: A True Story Of Love, Lies, Obsession ... and Second Chances is by Katherine Ellison, a reporter who in 1986 nabbed a Pulitzer for her role on a team that reported on the financial misdeeds of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos.
When her career was in her infancy, she reported on a fairly famous 1981 crime: the slaying of Howard Witkin, a Silicon Valley glass company executive whose ex-wife, Judi Barnett, was convicted of paying a 20-year-old potato chip delivery driver to gun him down. It gets weirder from there.
Early in her reporting, Ellison mistakenly identified Barnett as a named suspect, which spurred Barnett to file an $11 million libel lawsuit against the paper that ran the mistake, the San Jose Mercury News. When Barnett was eventually named (and convicted) the suit was dropped, but its impact remained with Ellison, she tells the paper that her error might have been self-sabotage, but it’s likely a lot of factors were at play.
“There are a lot of explanations,” she says, “I was diagnosed with ADHD at the age of 48. Maybe it was just that. Maybe it was a Freudian slip. Maybe I was so angry at my mother that I lashed out at a stranger. Maybe I just thought I was too cool to slow down and check my work, and it was a matter of arrogance. Maybe it was all of those things.” You can find Mothers And Murderers in Kindle or paperback form here. -- EB
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