What do you think?
Rate this book
A Trail of Corn
Book by Walker, Keith
- GenresTrue Crime
770 pages, Hardcover
First published April 1, 1995
21 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
December 12, 2016
A whopping, 755-page rethinking of the Stephanie Bryan murder and the execution of Bud Abbott. This book is either heavily fictionalized, or the author interviewed every living soul associated with this case -- every juror, witness, courtroom spectator, friend of the family, attorney, journalist and rubbernecker. This book started to seriously bog down during the court proceedings, when he subjected the reader to every single word of every sidebar discussion; the book would have been half the length if he had summarized all that stuff for us. He also could have dispensed with the frequent descriptions of how everyone's hair was combed, whether he was handsome and youthful-looking for his age, whether the coat she was wearing had cuffs on the sleeves and whether her fingers were pointing north by northwest as she laid them on top of her purse. Only in the last 50 pages did he really start to make his case that Bud Abbott was framed, and there was enough there to really make me wonder, but if he had spent more time investigating and less focusing on inessentials like the color of Georgia Abbott's hair, I would have gotten much more out of it.
January 21, 2013
I have already given a summary description of this praiseworthy work in my review of Harry Farrell's "Shallow Grave in Trinity County". Mr.Farrell has been with this tumultuous and(whichever side one takes),quite horrifying case from Day One.From his position as the prosecution's favorite reporter,he has,at nearly the last possible moment chosen to issue a mass of previously confidential materials which he claims lays Abbott's much questioned guilt beyond any reasonable doubt
Mr.Walker occupies a similar position as decades long confidant to the Abbott family and its numerous supporters.He is the last living witness to, and chronicler of,one of the most hewn but ever vigorous defenses in the history of contested murder cases.
Both his and Farrell's works are unique and absolutely indispensable to any future student of the case.
The difference is that Mr.Farrell has worked with official LA archives.The archives will be there when the next researcher(and there will be more than one) comes along to check him out.Mr.Walker's manuscripts and documents are his private collection.He owes it to posterity,and to Burton and Elsie Abbott,to see that they are likewise permanently preserved(and quickly)in a museum or other institution of learning.
Undoubtedly Mr. Walker ,and the late Elsie Abbott,would have done things quite differently if they had known of the many exculpatory statements which the District
Attorney's apparently concealed from them,and from us,for half a century.At the time Abbott went to his death there was no law which required the prosecution to notify the defense when it uncovered witnesses or evidence favorable to a defendant,even when as in Abbott's case it meant that the man would certainly die without that evidence.
Elsie Abbott spent many years building an inferential case against her brother. She once actually succeeded in getting it before a grand jury.Neither she nor Keith Walker ever knew that very shortly after the discovery of the murder Diana Westbrook (the next door neighbor of Otto and Leona Dezman )called the police to say that she heard screams coming from the Dezman garage very shortly after the time of Stephanie's disappearance and that later the same evening someone stole the shovel from her garage.
Who were the Dezmans?In the unlikely event that any reader here doesn't know,the Dezmans were Georgia Abbott's employers at an extremely fashionable beauty salon and Otto Dezman was present when Georgia Abbott discovered Stephanie Bryan's purse in her basement.Dezman later claimed that it was he who insisted that the police be called and that otherwise we would never have heard of the discovery at all.The Abbotts, of course, insisted that Burton had instituted the call.But they did not know that Mrs.Westbrook's evidence,true or false, gave Dezman every incentive to throw as much suspicion on them as he could.Nor did they know Abbott know that the first policeman on the scene immediately noted,"while Georgia Abbott was relating her information...Dezman was interjecting himself vigorously into the conversation...in such a manner that those present thought Dezman was her husband..."
Two of the few other most damning witness against Abbott were Leona Dezman and a restaurant proprietor named Kathy Greene.Despite Otto Dezman's overt hostility Leona constantly professed that she was Georgia's friend and would support her under oath if necessary.Both women had seen Burton leave for a fishing trip at 11 a.m.He would have been many miles from LA when Stephanie was abducted.
Actually Mrs. Desmond had,with her husband,been cycling all the key information to the prosecution for months and happily took the stand for the prosecution to swear in contradiction to her many previous statements that she had talked with Abbott at the beauty salon at three in the afternoon within the hour of Stephanie's last certain sighting.
Abbott claimed that at three o'clock he was eating at Kathy's restaurant,far from LA, and gave a very particular description of the "dusty blonde" waitress.
When Kathy followed Leota to the stand and swore that she didn't employ any dusky blonde waitresses the case against Abbott was sealed according to the jury member who spoke after the trial.And this despite the fact that defense put on four reputable witness who talked with Abbott,and/or saw his automobile hundreds of miles from LA later the same evening
Actually Kathy did employ a blonde waitress who gave DA Coakley a statement hostile to Abbott but Coakley ,knowing full well that Kathy was lying about her waitresses,elected to put her perjured evidence in any way as being the more effectual course.It was.
Long after Burton's death,Keith Walker and Elsie Abbott found the second dusty blonde waitress,Eleanor Hunt(Walker,721) working Kathy's that fatal afternoon.She unhesitatingly confirmed Burton's lunch at 3 P.M.story and,unlike any of the other witnesses,pro or con,volunteered a very precise description of the very faded but remarkable print design on his shirt.But it was very late and there was no longer any court to hear her.
Farrell,who published two years after Walker,obviously knew about this witness but chooses to ignore her.
And so it goes...and will go.Right now it is just possible that DNA techniques could finally resolve this tragic story one way or the other.But the State has bitterly-and,so far,successfully-fought the defense efforts to test the surviving forensic evidence.And time is running out.
If something is not done very soon,Burton Abbott will take his place with our legendary great American defendants,Lizzie Borden , Bruno Richard Hauptmann,and a few others whose fascination lies in the fact that they are perpetual chess puzzles to be placed back on the board again and again as we explore yet untried gambits.
And that will be sad because either way terrible wrongs were done here to a number of attractive and sympathetic people.And if justice is still possible,they deserve to receive it.After all,isn't justice what Burton Abbott asked for
Mr.Walker occupies a similar position as decades long confidant to the Abbott family and its numerous supporters.He is the last living witness to, and chronicler of,one of the most hewn but ever vigorous defenses in the history of contested murder cases.
Both his and Farrell's works are unique and absolutely indispensable to any future student of the case.
The difference is that Mr.Farrell has worked with official LA archives.The archives will be there when the next researcher(and there will be more than one) comes along to check him out.Mr.Walker's manuscripts and documents are his private collection.He owes it to posterity,and to Burton and Elsie Abbott,to see that they are likewise permanently preserved(and quickly)in a museum or other institution of learning.
Undoubtedly Mr. Walker ,and the late Elsie Abbott,would have done things quite differently if they had known of the many exculpatory statements which the District
Attorney's apparently concealed from them,and from us,for half a century.At the time Abbott went to his death there was no law which required the prosecution to notify the defense when it uncovered witnesses or evidence favorable to a defendant,even when as in Abbott's case it meant that the man would certainly die without that evidence.
Elsie Abbott spent many years building an inferential case against her brother. She once actually succeeded in getting it before a grand jury.Neither she nor Keith Walker ever knew that very shortly after the discovery of the murder Diana Westbrook (the next door neighbor of Otto and Leona Dezman )called the police to say that she heard screams coming from the Dezman garage very shortly after the time of Stephanie's disappearance and that later the same evening someone stole the shovel from her garage.
Who were the Dezmans?In the unlikely event that any reader here doesn't know,the Dezmans were Georgia Abbott's employers at an extremely fashionable beauty salon and Otto Dezman was present when Georgia Abbott discovered Stephanie Bryan's purse in her basement.Dezman later claimed that it was he who insisted that the police be called and that otherwise we would never have heard of the discovery at all.The Abbotts, of course, insisted that Burton had instituted the call.But they did not know that Mrs.Westbrook's evidence,true or false, gave Dezman every incentive to throw as much suspicion on them as he could.Nor did they know Abbott know that the first policeman on the scene immediately noted,"while Georgia Abbott was relating her information...Dezman was interjecting himself vigorously into the conversation...in such a manner that those present thought Dezman was her husband..."
Two of the few other most damning witness against Abbott were Leona Dezman and a restaurant proprietor named Kathy Greene.Despite Otto Dezman's overt hostility Leona constantly professed that she was Georgia's friend and would support her under oath if necessary.Both women had seen Burton leave for a fishing trip at 11 a.m.He would have been many miles from LA when Stephanie was abducted.
Actually Mrs. Desmond had,with her husband,been cycling all the key information to the prosecution for months and happily took the stand for the prosecution to swear in contradiction to her many previous statements that she had talked with Abbott at the beauty salon at three in the afternoon within the hour of Stephanie's last certain sighting.
Abbott claimed that at three o'clock he was eating at Kathy's restaurant,far from LA, and gave a very particular description of the "dusty blonde" waitress.
When Kathy followed Leota to the stand and swore that she didn't employ any dusky blonde waitresses the case against Abbott was sealed according to the jury member who spoke after the trial.And this despite the fact that defense put on four reputable witness who talked with Abbott,and/or saw his automobile hundreds of miles from LA later the same evening
Actually Kathy did employ a blonde waitress who gave DA Coakley a statement hostile to Abbott but Coakley ,knowing full well that Kathy was lying about her waitresses,elected to put her perjured evidence in any way as being the more effectual course.It was.
Long after Burton's death,Keith Walker and Elsie Abbott found the second dusty blonde waitress,Eleanor Hunt(Walker,721) working Kathy's that fatal afternoon.She unhesitatingly confirmed Burton's lunch at 3 P.M.story and,unlike any of the other witnesses,pro or con,volunteered a very precise description of the very faded but remarkable print design on his shirt.But it was very late and there was no longer any court to hear her.
Farrell,who published two years after Walker,obviously knew about this witness but chooses to ignore her.
And so it goes...and will go.Right now it is just possible that DNA techniques could finally resolve this tragic story one way or the other.But the State has bitterly-and,so far,successfully-fought the defense efforts to test the surviving forensic evidence.And time is running out.
If something is not done very soon,Burton Abbott will take his place with our legendary great American defendants,Lizzie Borden , Bruno Richard Hauptmann,and a few others whose fascination lies in the fact that they are perpetual chess puzzles to be placed back on the board again and again as we explore yet untried gambits.
And that will be sad because either way terrible wrongs were done here to a number of attractive and sympathetic people.And if justice is still possible,they deserve to receive it.After all,isn't justice what Burton Abbott asked for
April 15, 2021
I was interested in this book because the murder happened in Trinity County in Northern California... I went in to the book excited because I knew nothing about it except that the locals had certain opinions about the guilt of Burton ... In this 755 page book I believe the author interviewed everyone possible and gave a court account of every single day... by the the time I got to the end I did not care one way or another how it ended. Once I start a book, as a general rule of mine, I am obligated to finish it... I may rethink that rule. Now I will try and gain back these last 3 months I have lost. Luckily it was during the pandemic and I had no where to go. I wanted to love this sooooo much....
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews