Sleep In Heavenly Peace

by M. William Phelps

The New York Times–bestselling journalist and serial killer expert recounts a tragic case of infanticide—including an exclusive interview with the killer.

It started with a horrifying discovery in an Arizona self-storage the abandoned bodies of three infants wrapped in plastic. Dianne O’Dell, a mother of eight children, admitted the babies were hers. She claimed they’d died of natural causes; that she’d been impregnated by her father when young; that her own mother had forced her into teen prostitution.

O’Dells life story ran a horrifying thread from tranquil Kauneonga Lake, New York, to the mountains of the Southwest. But would it lead a jury to grant her mercy? Or would she pay the price for committing the worst crime a mother can commit?

Genres: True Crime, Nonfiction, Crime, Audiobook, Biography

468 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 2006

About the author

Crime, murder and serial killer expert, creator/producer/writer and former host of the Investigation Discovery series DARK MINDS, acclaimed, award-winning investigative journalist M. William Phelps is the New York Times best-selling author of 30 books and winner of the 2013 Excellence in (Investigative) Journalism Award and the 2008 New England Book Festival Award. A highly sought-after pundit, Phelps has made over 100 media-related television appearances: Early Show, The Today Show, The View, Fox & Friends, truTV, Discovery Channel, Fox News Channel, Good Morning America, TLC, BIO, History, Oxygen, OWN, on top of over 100 additional media appearances: USA Radio Network, Catholic Radio, Mancow, Wall Street Journal Radio, Zac Daniel, Ave Maria Radio, Catholic Channel, EWTN Radio, ABC News Radio, and many more.

Phelps is also a member of the Multidisciplinary Collaborative on Sexual Crime and Violence (MCSCV), also known as the Atypical Homicide Research Group (AHRG) at Northeastern University, maintained by NU alumni Enzo Yaksic.

Phelps is one of the regular and recurring experts frequently appearing on two long-running series, Deadly Women and Snapped. Radio America calls Phelps “the nation’s leading authority on the mind of the female murderer,” and TV Rage says, “M. William Phelps dares to tread where few others will: into the mind of a killer.” A respected journalist, beyond his book writing Phelps has written for numerous publications—including the Providence Journal, Connecticut Magazine and Hartford Courant—and consulted on the first season of the hit Showtime cable television series Dexter.

Phelps grew up in East Hartford, CT, moved to Vernon, CT, at age 12, where he lived for 25 years. He now lives in a reclusive Connecticut farming community north of Hartford.

Beyond crime, Phelps has also written several history books, including the acclaimed, New York Times bestselling NATHAN HALE: The Life and Death of America’s First Spy, THE DEVIL’S ROOMING HOUSE, THE DEVIL’S RIGHT HAND, MURDER, NEW ENGLAND, and more.

Reviews

[Misty Marie Harms · Rating 3 out of 5]

Dianne O’Dell, a mother of eight children, has a secret. Her secret resides in boxes inside a storage facility. When she stopped paying the storage fees, her unit is sold. As the new owner starts to unpack what is inside, he makes a horrifying discovery. The remains of three infants are inside. As the detectives start their interrogation of Dianne, they learn that the children that survived, born in hospitals, were products of her marriages. The babies that died at birth, born at home, she said they were, "bastards."

I found Phelps to be repetitive in this one. It was like he was trying to stretch it out to reach 400 pages. He could have made it smaller, and it still would have still made the same impact.

🐱🐱🐱

[Jeannie · Rating 1 out of 5]

I give up...I've been trying to get interested in this book for weeks and it's just too painful. Not due to the subject matter, which IS painful enough, but this book just isn't going anywhere, it's so repetitive. She denies, they accuse, she denies, she lies, they accuse, she tells more lies, they accuse, it's back and forth and not only boring but confusing. I started to wonder exactly how many babies did die. I hated the way this book was written. It's like this...lay the facts out and let them speak for themselves, if the author had done that, this book would have been about 100 pages long at the most. Enough to tell the truth.

[Carol Ann · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is a truly terrible story about a woman who kills her newborns when there is no father on the scene. She totes these remains around in boxes and suitcases until she tires of it and leaves the remains in a storage unit.

M. William Phelps has the story down pat, but he is the most repetitive writer I have read in years. I thought I would go mad reading and rereading the same facts. I ended up scanni9ng pages that I had already read in an earlier chapter just to remain sane.

[J.H. Moncrieff · Rating 3 out of 5]

2.5 stars

This book was twice as long as it needed to be. Somewhere, there must be a contingent of true crime lovers who hanker for repetition and learning about the childhoods and professional backgrounds of every lawyer and cop involved in each case, given how many of these books include this info. As for me, I really couldn't care less about the prosecutor's military background, let alone read about it twice, especially since it had no bearing on the events in this book.

And in the end, even with all the repetition and excruciatingly detailed biographies and resumes of everyone remotely involved, there are no clear answers. Did Odell murder her children? If so, why? And why did she put herself in a situation where their remains would be found? Why did she implicate herself to the police, and not bother to get an attorney until it was too late?

Not all crimes have answers, but the author bent over backwards to explain the things that didn't need explaining. Why leave the important stuff blank?

[Jeanine · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a story.

[Susan · Rating 2 out of 5]

I just could not stand the way the author laid out the chapters. Mini-chapters within a chapter go back and forth between modern days and the past, or one person then another. It makes for very disjointed reading, as well as much repetition when the author has to repeat things that would not have been necessary had the story been more straightforward. And his sentence structure was maddening. I mean, I use a lot of commas, but Phelps' use is very confusing. I found myself continually re-reading sentences to figure out what he actually meant. This book is my least favorite of those I have read by this same author.

[Jlsimon · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book tells the story of Diane O'Dell. Honestly I think Phelps does a great job at providing primary sources for this book. Much of it is based on the trial and interviews with O'dell herself. I cannot say I connected with anyone in this book which always makes a tougher read for me, but you can't have everything. I cannot relate to anyone in this book.

Was O'dell abused by her parents? Phelps thinks so. Was she as profoundly sexually abused, turned out by her mother to turn tricks? I don't know. Seems a lot like O'dell was trying to justify her behaviors. Was she deathly afraid of her mother even after she was an adult and could have walked away from the toxic relationship? I find that very very hard to believe. Who in their right mind or even a wrong mind continues an abusive relationship with a parent after they enter their 30s? You might even say to yourself, "Well women stay in abusive relationships with husbands, why not with mothers?" The answer in this case for me is simple, she might not have taken a stand to protect herself, but who can stand by and watch their mother kill their babies? No one. There is no other documented case like this that I have ever encountered. I think she's a liar, and I think Phelps did his utmost to fairly represent her side even when the truth is that O'dell had a choice, and she chose not to protect the life of her children. Phelps's position is that she belongs in a hospital, not prison. I haven't met her, but having learned of her through his eyes, I still cannot agree. I think she is as much a monster as any other murderer. I see no remorse, only justification coming from her.

So what emotion does this book inspire? Anger. I felt angry and frustrated, not with O'dell, for her I feel contempt and repulsion. I am actually a little angry with Phelps for not feeling like this woman is getting exactly what she deserves. I know, not rational. Feelings should not be judged, feelings are feelings. But somehow I can't help mine either. I am annoyed. Perhaps angry is to strong of a word....

What scene of this book is most striking? When the babies were found.

Who would I recommend this book to? I have no idea. True crime readers is obvious. Perhaps psychology majors, but I don't think you can get much value from a psychological aspect unless you buy into the PTSD aspect of O'dell's story. Since I don't believe her I don't know if there is much value there. Perhaps there is one other valuable aspect for the psychology student, that being the extent human beings will go to to justify their actions. O'dell blames her two dead parents, people who cannot defend themselves. That's pretty brave of her.

This story is repulsive, but a worth while read all the same because as I enjoy the study of both true crime and psychology I gained from this book. My primary gain was when Phelps educates his audience on the difference between homicide and murder. He explains that homicide does not necessarily mean murder. It can mean a number of things. Homicide can be accidental, manslaughter, justifiable, murder, and so on. Murder is always homicide, but homicide is not always murder. I liked that. As a result I can still say Phelps never disappoints.

[Eva-Marie Nevarez · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another true crime story that just breaks my heart. I don't even know what to say about things like this that happen. Definitely a "good" true crime book if you want to see just how sick and evil some people are.
**I just reread the back of the book and remember more than I did before**
This is about a woman, Dianne Odell, that stored the bodies of three of her infants in a self-storage unit until a man found them in seaked boxes for over twenty years. This happened in 2003 and before that, in 1989 a long-dead infant was found in a suitcase in a car that Odell owned. She wasn't prosecuted because of the statute of limitations.
She maintained that all four infants had died of natuarl causes. Eventually Odell blamed her overbearing mother for causing her to murder her babies.
I don't remember what happened with the court case but this was a "great" true crime book in that it really makes you wonder how the hell a person can be so evil. This woman is undeniably evil and hearing the story, if you can handle it, will haunt you.

[Heather · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book became a bit of a non entity for me. The beginning was interesting but it then became laboured and overly detailed with very few facts being turned into many pages. To be honest it should have been a short story, based on the information and the trial outcome.
Talk about a flat ending...... in fact I was going to give it three stars, having written this I have decided on two. Sad to say it feels like it was a sad human story sensationalised to make a longer true crime book.

[Janice · Rating 5 out of 5]

Third time isn't a charm

Not for Dianne Odell, anyway. Her story revolves around the most heinous crimes, infanticide. Not just one child born alive only to die shortly after birth, Odell, a serial infanticidous, is responsible for four dead babies. The last three, left behind in boxes in Arizona after being taken on a nomadic tour of the United States by Odell, are discovered after the storage locker they were in was bought by an unsuspecting guy licking to find treasure in what others have abandoned. The treasure turns out to be horror when he unsealed three of the boxes and finds the mummified remains of three children. Other papers in the box point to Dianne Odell, mother of eight living children, now living back in her native rural New York, and the investigation begins to find out if she is just an unfortunate woman whose three babies died shortly after death of natural causes or a woman who played God with the inconvenient "bastards" she whelped.

As with all his books, M William Phelps does a masterful job of entertaining narrative and excerpts from the participants in this tragic tale. His research is thorough and his interviews with all involved bring dept and reality to this the most heartbreaking of stories.

[Katie · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 Stars
I have to say, I'm not a fan of the title - it's super corny. However, the story sounded macabre and intriguing, so I downloaded it.
I enjoyed the way the story unfolded, with the short chapters alternating between the discovery of the babies, and the story of her life that Odell had told. Things got slightly confusing about 1/3 into the book when the timelines got closer together. I lost track of some of the names of investigators once or twice, and what year the story had got to.
I think there are a lot of questions surrounding the case regarding the abuse Odell may have suffered, her mental state, how she was treated by police, her relationship with her mother, and of course how culpable she was in the death of the babies.
I really like True-Crime books like this, where the reader is left with questions and loose ends. They are reminders that you don't always get the neat confession and the simple truth tied up with a bow like on TV and films. Real life events are complex and sometimes there's only one person who can say what happened, but you don't know if you believe them anyway.
A very good True-Crime book.

[DolphinBlue · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting but bogged down in quotes and irrelevant details

As with many books in this genre, it was bogged down with quotes and detailed sccounts. I would have preferred more edited, descriptive narrative and less blow-by-blow detailed accounts of interviews and events.

While we are used to fiction meandering at times and containing much that doesn't directly contribute to the advancement of the plot, our tolerance for that in a true crime story is a bit less. We are reading an account of something that actually happened; extraneous trivial details about an ancillary character's personal life, for example, often do not add anything to the enjoyment of the story.

Likewise, I would have preferred some events to be summarized rather than quoted; it gave the feeling, at times, that the author was not capable of relaying events in his own words.

The story also suffered from a bit of repetition. Cumulatively, these criticisms felt like the author was ensuring the book passed the weight test.

Otherwise, the story was interesting, and I'm glad I read it.

[Lorie · Rating 4 out of 5]

This must have been

a very disturbing subject to not only research, but hear first person, to see visually even, the evidence photos. I can't imagine anyone but a very disturbed woman doing that to four babies, regardless of their paternity or (fear of mom!)
It's absolutely sick, however Phelps does it again, allows the reader to hear all sides of the story.

Journalism today is so biased, I can't bear listening to opinions, in the name of "news", yet Phelps clearly understands the concept of allowing the reader to work out in one's own mind, how they think about a subject. Journalists today could learn valuable lessons from his novels.

[Carol Johnson · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have read other works about Diane O’Dell, but I think that this was the most comprehensive and well written. I was pretty fascinated the whole way through although I can’t say I believed everything the woman said about her abuse. There were too many conflicting stories, and some of the things that she said were just ridiculous. The only real problem I had with it is that Phelps lumped Andrea Yates, in with a list of other child killers. Yates was proven to be psychotic and extremely mentally ill, and was operating under a delusion when she killed her five children. I just don’t think she should be listed with other people who have killed their children and who are in their right mind.

[Shirley Leavitt · Rating 4 out of 5]

Just finished reading this very sad account of a mother who killed four of her new born babies. She had given birth to three children by her first husband and five children by her live-in lover. The story goes into her life and tells how she suffered in her parents home growning up, but when she went on trial the jury still found her guilty and here in her fifties she'll be spending years in prison. This is the true story of Dianne Odell.

[Jennifer Ortega · Rating 2 out of 5]

A 2 to not for the story or the verdict or even the details…. A 2 because of just how repetitive this book is. We know the basis is the death of four babies but why state that almost every other line or on each page multiple times. The amount of times I almost gave up reading due to just the same things stated over and over again! No matter why, in the end I’d vote guilty, she failed to protect her children.

[Prescottl · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fantastic account of a mother who may have killed 4 of her 8 children as babies. The writing was so fluid that it reads like a novel. The author presented the characters and facts in smooth story lines such that the reader could decide which events and conversations were accurate vs intentionally misleading by the mother.

[Mary Bemis · Rating 1 out of 5]

Hard to read!

This was a hard book to read due to all the repetition throughout the book. It seemed to me that the author kept saying the same things over and over just changing the wording a little bit. I normally love true crime books, but this one was really bad. I would not recommend it.

[Alison · Rating 3 out of 5]

Shocking

A very difficult book to read. The author tries to present the story as best as possible, but you get the idea that the one person who knew the whole truth won't or can't share it.

[Sparklin C Reads · Rating 5 out of 5]

Hmm not sure how I feel about this book. Dianne in my opinion should have been sent to a mental hospital. So she could get some help. Her story is bizarre, yes she may have been abused growing up. Still that couldn’t possibly be the motive for killing four of her babies.

[Andrea Timm · Rating 4 out of 5]

Well written true story

I really enjoyed this read. It was well written and intriguing. I expected the ending to be different, but I would still recommend it.

[Diane Dachota · Rating 2 out of 5]

Dull, poorly organized and lots of repetition. Glad I only spent 99 cents on this book.

[Jenna · Rating 2 out of 5]

Nothing against the book; I just don't think "true crime" is quite my thing (although every once in a while I do read one).

[Malinda Howard · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good

The book is a good read...for true crime. The author really puts you there ...like you are making the the discovery of evidence right along with them.

[Kelly Conklin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great read about a local murder case.

[Pamela · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoyed this book, but will probably not read it again as I do with books I love. I did appreciate the excerpts at the end that allows the reader the ability to hear the subject’s own words.

[Lisa · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not sure what to believe on this one. Sounds like her word against deceased parents......

I enjoy M. William Phelps's writing though.

[Kim · Rating 2 out of 5]

Dnfed because at 300 pages I was bored and the book was repeating itself. This book desperately needs editing.

[cindy · Rating 2 out of 5]

Meh

Not his best work. Love this guy and am an an avid follower of his work but I truly struggled to finish this one. Sorry Sir.....

[Janet Northing · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not as good as the others I've read of his but ok