Deadly Whispers

by Ted Schwarz

An account of the murder of Kathy Bonney by her own father describes how Tom Bonney's multiple personality disorder resulted in the murder of his own daughter at the hands of Hitman, one of his eleven personalities. Original.

Genres: True Crime, Nonfiction

298 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published August 1, 1992

Reviews

[Fishface · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting story of a unique and quite appalling crime with a rare version of the insanity defense. This isn't the best-written book I've ever seen, but the story stands on its own because it's so weird. The author gives you the essentials without boring you to death or being too melodramatic. This is another example of the author missing the point of the story he's writing. He seems to take the stance that any mental illness, including multiple personality, is a 'Get Out Of Jail Free' card. He goes so far as to call the McNaughton Rule "unfortunate"! Give me a break; man, no matter how badly abused he was as a child, this guy knew it was wrong to put 11 bullets into his daughter's face and he took steps to hide what he did. It's right there in your own book, Ted. Thank Scrod the jury made the right call!

[Angela · Rating 2 out of 5]

I won't rehash the crime here, but I felt as though the author went into the writing of the book with the belief that this man had multiple personalities. It's definitely not an investigative telling of the events, merely a rehashing of court documents and transcripts of interviews. In the end he writes that the neither the wife nor the convict would speak to him about any of it (apparently the wife wanted money to be interviewed). It seems to gloss over the childhood torture Bonney endured to lead to a possible disassociation. Repeating the same incidents which were discussed in court multiple times throughout the book. In the end even though the author clearly believed it to be true, I was not convinced that Bonney had MPD.

[Lynne · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book was so badly written, it was like watching one of those A&E true crime specials - the ones where they just kept repeating everything over and over between too-frequent commercial breaks? The author clearly had a vested interest in convincing the reader that multiple personalities (not an accepted diagnosis in the psychiatric community) was valid.

The author's prejudice against the prosecutors was palpable, although he offered no new information or speculation. It was a painful read.

[Terry Coffman · Rating 4 out of 5]

This true crime story became a made for TV movie with Tony Danza playing the father who was driven to murder his teenaged daughter by one of his multiple personalities and playing a prominent part in the story was the wife, who believed in her husband's innocence until she finally came into contact with harsh, cold reality.