Sins of the Father: The Landmark Franklin Case - a Daughter, a Memory, and a Murder

by Eileen Franklin, William Wright

A woman describes her journey from an abusive childhood to parenthood and the discovery of long-hidden memories of a horrifying crime, her father's brutal murder of her best friend

Genres: True Crime, Nonfiction

353 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1991

Reviews

[Joshua · Rating 2 out of 5]

Two stars because while it's okay for a pot-boiler, it's also complete bullshit. Normally I wouldn't even bother leaving a review for a book that I read over a decade ago during middle-school, but judging by the comments too many people are taking Franklin at face value when the reality is that she was a liar and fantasist, her doctor a quack of the lowest order, and this case the death knell for the legitimacy of repressed/recovered memories as a valid psychological field of study. So yeah. Read it if you want, but do your own due diligence.

[Rae · Rating 3 out of 5]

A fascinating true-crime case of a daughter who repressed, for twenty years, the memory of her father raping and murdering her best friend. The case set quite a legal precedent because it was tried mostly from the details in her memory. It is fairly well-written without a lot of legal lingo.

[Koren · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book was published in 1991, which I assume was at the height of the 'repressed memory craze" so that may have jaded my opinion. This woman 'suddenly' remembers seeing her father kill her friend when they were little. I was skeptical so that may have swayed my opinion of this book. About half way through the book I did a search to see what happened to the characters and found out that 4 years after the book was published the father was exonerated through DNA testing (which I assume was not available 4 years prior to the publication of the book) and another man was charged and found guilty.

[Nadia Kebaier]

DNF. Sagen er fascinerende og spændende, men bogen var desværre meget skuffende. Der mangler logik i beskrivelserne og forklaringerne, og sproget er af meget ringe niveau. Måske skyldes det en dårlig oversættelse, jeg ved det ikke. Første DNF i flere år.

[Amy Davis · Rating 4 out of 5]

A lot of sad material and very descriptive. At times it drags but a good read for knowledge about the case.

[Jennifer Day · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of my favorite genres is true crime and I've read probably hundreds of them but this was the second one I ever read (Helter Skelter was first). Sins of the Father is a very disturbing story that really helped bring repressed memories to the forefront of many cases. Some people think that the phenomenon is completely fake (perhaps sometimes it is) but the way Eileen Franklin tells her horrifying story of a childhood filled with beatings, rapes by incest, her own father not only participating in sexually assaulting her but also holding his young child down so others could defile her, and watching her father first rape and abuse her best friend before killing her and then hiding the body seems to be too detailed and depraved for me to believe she was making it all up. This true crime novel is NOT for the faint of heart or for those that don't handle graphic violence well. It is detailed and so horrifying that I couldn't stop reading it. I needed to know what happened. I needed to know if her father was punished, although I know he wouldn't be punished in the matter I would choose as it would be considered "cruel and unusual". I would've castrated him and told every single inmate in the prison exactly what he had done to children (Including his own FLESH AND BLOOD) and then simply looked the other way as the inmates inflicted the same tortuous behavior upon him. But that's just me. If you're interested in true crime and have a strong disposition and a strong stomach then I recommend you read this one. I first read it as a young teenager and I've likely read it at least 10 times in the ensuing years. It still disturbs me even though I know what's going to happen.

[Fishface · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fascinating whodunit with the tangled themes of recovered traumatic memories, an unsolved killing and someone who may have spent time in prison for the wrong reason. This went down at the height of the recovered-memories craze, around the same time of the publication of DADDY WAS THE BLACK DAHLIA KILLER. That helps to cast doubt on what the author says but it sure doesn't prove anything.

[All Booked Out · Rating 5 out of 5]

The book i read when i was about 15. Pure heart breaking and just.......i have read three times.
Since its release the judgement has been overturned.....her father released.