And Then She Killed Him

by Robert Scott

A TwoTime Widow Leading A Double Life

Miriam Giles ran away to Colorado to bury her violent pastbut this seductive, charismatic widow had a dark side that could never stay buried. After finding the "sugar daddy" she was looking for in Alan Helmick, her new marriage seemed happy. Then, two years later, Alan met a gruesome fate. Returning home from errands, Miriam found him lying in a pool of blood. Miriam showed police a cryptic note warning her to "run, run, run." But Miriam was no distraught housewife. She was a master manipulator always able to stay one step ahead of her unwitting partnerand the lawuntil now.

Case seen on Dateline

Includes dramatic photos.

Praise for Robert Scott and Shattered Innocence

"Compelling and shocking. . .a groundbreaking book." Robert K. Tanenbaum

"Fascinating and fresh. . .a fastpaced, informative read." Sue Russell

Genres: True Crime, Nonfiction, Crime, Audiobook, True Story, Mystery, Thriller

320 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 2012

About the author

Robert Scott was an investigative journalist and crime expert.

Reviews

[J.H. Moncrieff · Rating 3 out of 5]

2.5

This book dragged on and on and on. I kept putting it down, and found it incredibly hard to stay focused. It's an okay story, but told in a dull way, with too many details and way too much repetition. And yet, there's no clear picture of who the victim was and what he was like.

[Valerity (Val) · Rating 4 out of 5]

A rather bizarre story of a black widow type 2nd wife who plots and murders her hubby after a seemingly happy marriage. She turns out to be quite a long time criminal of sorts before turning to murder, and her 1st husband was killed in a similar fashion, although it was ruled a suicide back then. Leaves some questions, for sure. She lies to and swindles family too. Quite a tale.

[Charlene · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fairly interesting look at how one person can control and manipulate another person in order to drain them of all the resources they can get. I find it interesting how similar some people are to viruses or parasitic species when they try to drain the host of as much as possible and then even kill and move on to another host. I really enjoy seeing how people lie-- and seem so damned convincing at times -- despite incredibly solid evidence that makes it extremely clear they are lying.

[Angela · Rating 3 out of 5]

true crime saw this on 48 hours.

[Alisi ☆ wants to read too many books ☆ · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ug. Very slow book. Very boring in places. It took me two days to finish this muck.

[Patricia Davis · Rating 2 out of 5]

Long drawn out

I like true crime but this book is poorly written. The murder happens right away and then it's just long and drawn out to the point that it was difficult to finish. You start to get your hopes up at the very end that a different outcome than the obvious will happen. I won't say more in case you want to have a story that will put you to sleep almost all the way until the very end. In my opinion it's not worth your time unless you want to sleep ....

[Leslie Jonsson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Rather typical true crime book on the murderer Miriam Hemlick, who killed her Husband for money. What I've learned in reading true crime over the years is that if your spouse wants a large life insurance policy on you, run away-leave skid marks if needed. Not much insight is given into Miriam's actions in this book.

[Mel]

Didn't keep my interest. I did not finish it. I wanted to read because I had watched the 48 Hours special on this story.

[Annie Booker · Rating 5 out of 5]

An interesting book about a case I hadn't heard of before now. Well written.

[Shawn Graves · Rating 2 out of 5]

I lied. I didn’t finish this book, but that was the only way to get it off of my “Currently Reading” list. I made it through 37% of the Kindle edition before giving up. This probably made a pretty good episode of “48 Hours”, and maybe a fair magazine article. But as a book, this is just so dry and tedious. There is nothing here that helps me understand or care about any of the people involved...except the victim, and I could only care about him as a victim, not a person. This follows the investigation minute by excruciating minute in the most boring “the facts and only the facts, ma’am” way. When I realized I was a week into the book, only 37% done, and searching Netflix for an excuse not to pick up my Kindle...I called it quits.

A much better true crime story is “A False Report: A True Story of Rape in America” by T. Christian Miller and Ken Armstrong. That book kept me riveted, made me resent work or anything else that kept me from reading, and made me care about the people (even, the perpetrator...or at least care about how he came to be a rapist).

[Riccol · Rating 3 out of 5]

I thought this was written in a mercifully straightforward way - sparing us the minutiae of the court proceedings and trial - and in fairly chronological order. However, it may have been a bit too straightforward as it had no "character build-up". There was very little to help us get to know the victim or his daughters or the perpetrator herself so it inspired no emotion, just an idle curiosity as to what her sentence would be.

That said, what really nagged me about this book is that after I was finished and looking at the pictures at the end of the book (I read it electronically) there was a picture of a blood-stained mattress in the home of the crime scene yet this was never mentioned in the text of the book. If it was important enough to include as a picture it must have had significance. Who's blood was it and what was the explanation for it being there? That this was omitted from even being mentioned, never mind explained, in the text, makes me wonder what else was left out of this story.

[Kathleen Riggs · Rating 3 out of 5]

Miriam Giles is a charismatic woman who was looking for a sugar daddy and Miriam found it in Alan Helmick. Miriam is a two-time widow killing her first husband and leading a double life. I found the book lacking as Robert Scott tended to repeat himself a lot. Miriam was just a greedy manipulative woman who stole money for her own gain and disposed of men before getting caught by them probably divorced and reported to the police.
I am part of the ARC group for Wildblue Press and BookSirens and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

[Annika · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not knowing anything about this book, I started it because I wanted a true crime story. At first, I thought it was fiction, and poorly written, at that. When I realized it was indeed...true...crime...it was easier to accept because it reads very quickly, almost like a police report. It's not superfluous at all, basically the skeleton of a story. Just the facts, ma'am.

It's not terrible at all. It's kind of creepy, actually.

[Debbie Bass · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting book

I have mixed feelings about this book. The first chapter of two was about the crime and the rest of the book about the trial and investigation. I felt more could have been brought up in the beginning of the book about the past lives instead of during the investigation. It is worth reading.

[Susan Ashline · Rating 2 out of 5]

This started out as a 4-star book. But it got repetitive very quickly. Probably 200 pages could've been cut from this book. The author kept naming witnesses and what they'd seen and heard, and it was the same story each time, over and over. Then, the same info was repeated during the trial potion of the book. Beyond 100 pages or so, there was no value in this book.

[Stephen F. Johnson · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a very good documentary of a ruthless killer who probably murdered two husbands she really didn't love, except for their money. Well written, but a little tedious and slow moving places. I do recommend it for anyone interested in true crime stories.

[Catherine Lape · Rating 2 out of 5]

I enjoy some true crime. This case seemed intriguing. The book kind of dragged. It failed to delve into the victim and his family. There was never a personal connection with them. The story just seemed like it missed something.

[Jennifer · Rating 4 out of 5]

I can't believe I haven't seen the episode of 48 Hours about this crime. While the writing style isn't what I'm used to, I really enjoyed this book. Hopefully, I'll see the 48 Hours episode at some point.

[Joan Sherman · Rating 2 out of 5]

Redundant writing style.

This story could have been told in 1/2 the pages. It was interesting at first, then became the same incidents stated over and over.
If you like blow by blow courtroom accounts, it may be interesting to you. I just wanted the story.

[Sharron · Rating 5 out of 5]

An evil woman

This is is a book believing there wasn't ever enough money for this evil, manipulative woman. I was happy with the verdict although another was warranted. My hope and pray for this families healing

[Sheila Burke · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was good. This is the first book I've read by Robert Scott. I found this book well written and well paced, very explanatory and incredibly hard to put down. Very well worth the time to read.

[Karen Stock · Rating 2 out of 5]

While reading this book I kept thinking I’ve heard the story before. I think it was on 20/20 or dateline.
The book was a little boring.
I thought there might be more insight than the crime show about it, but there wasn’t.

[Sherron Wahrheit · Rating 2 out of 5]

Meh. I like the true crime genre, but I’ve yet to read a well-done account. Long and drawn out and tedious. I think I’ll stick to 48 hours and other video-based documentaries.

[Robbin K Jones · Rating 3 out of 5]

Miriam

She was annoying
It was clear she did it
She bragged about the things Alan did for her
She kept reminding the reader that she asked for nothing

[Candice · Rating 3 out of 5]

Spoiler Alert: She killed him.

[Rob · Rating 2 out of 5]

Average airport paperback true crime. Junky stuff for fans of the genre that you can power through. Horrible woman does something horrible gets caught in the end.

[Jennifer Callaway · Rating 3 out of 5]

Hard to follow

Interesting story but his writing style felt like I was reading bullet points. It was hard to stay interested and follow the details.

[Mallory · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars

[Liz Chalker · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very detailed factual account of evidence and testimony.

[Jim Swike · Rating 3 out of 5]

I didn't read enough to give a proper review. Enjoy!