Letters from Prison: Voices of Women Murderers

by Jennifer Furio

Letters from Prison: Voices of Women Murderers, is a first-ever compilation of letters solicited through direct correspondence with women who have been condemned for murder. In the women's own words, they detail their backgrounds and what drove them to their crimes, and they comment on their current mindsets.
The women's stories shed light on the common traits - and the profound differences - that may exist between female perpetrators. Each woman offers a different perspective, but most shared shockingly difficult childhoods, filled sadly with neglect, sexual abuse, and drug addictions. The words of these women haunt and transfix even the most skeptical reader. In the end, the reader will find it impossible to deny the "human character" of these condemned women.

Genres: True Crime

235 pages, Paperback

First published February 14, 2001

Reviews

[Jeannie · Rating 1 out of 5]

This author and this book really irritated me. It was interesting to read about the womens case histories, the crimes they had committed that put them into prison but then the letters started. I felt the author "sucked up" big-time. now we're talking about women who murdered their children, come on, I know they had horrible childhoods, been with men who abused them,etc but..don't we all know of women who have had lives like this, they don't murder their children! I'm sorry but there is NO excuse for that! NONE! The author (who has children) came across has tolerant of why they had murdered them,
"I understand..blah,blah,blah...
I also felt the author patronized each criminal in a different manner, be-friending them to get what she needed to put this book out. There was only one woman in the whole book that I felt didn't deserve to be in prison for what happened, the author should of jumped on that case and helped her in some way, out of all of the them she was the one whom the author should of cared about the most.
Personally I think the book is rubbish and it pissed me off!

[Carol · Rating 1 out of 5]

The letters from the murderers were interesting, displaying varying degrees of manipulation and self-awareness. What bothered me (and apparently many other readers) is the sycophancy of the author, who either was manipulated by the women or so badly wanted this book that she manipulated them to get it done. I do not feel sympathetic toward the girls who sodomized and burned to death a teenage peer, for example. There’s an interesting sociological study in these women’s experiences and crimes, but this book isn’t it.

[Esther · Rating 1 out of 5]

Wow. I can't even begin to describe how bad this book is on so many level. Most of the "facts" she reports on these cases is completely one-sided, wrong and biased toward the murderer.

She totally is sucking up to these criminals, I assume, to get them to write to her. But, then it seems as if she believes their lies.

Poorly researched and completely devoid of balanced reporting.