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Body Hunter
To the people of Olney, Texas, 39-year-old Faryion Wardrip was an upright, respected citizen. Then, in January 1999, investigators linked him to the female victims of three unsolved rape/murders. Smart police work matched a sample of Wardrip's DNA to the semen... He then confessed to the three murders, and one more, and is now on death row.
- GenresTrue CrimeNonfiction
320 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1999
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Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews
February 26, 2017
In fairness to Patricia Springer, she has a very difficult task in this book. Any book about a serial killer has to find a way to organize what is inherently a very complicated story, especially if, as in this case, the killer crosses jurisdictional lines.
Between 1984 and 1986, Faryion Wardrip murdered five women, Terry Sims, Toni Gibbs, Debra Taylor, Ellen Blau, and Tina Kimbrew. After Kimbrew's murder he turned himself in--but did not confess to the murders of Sims, Gibbs, Taylor, and Blau. He was sentenced to 35 years, of which he served 11 before being released on parole. He got a job, remarried, was extremely active in his church. And two years later, cold case investigators looking at the Sims and Gibbs murders were able to get DNA, first to link the two crimes, and then to prove that Wardrip was the killer. He was arrested for the murder of Terry Sims in 1999. He confessed to the murders of Sims, Gibbs, and Blau--and then to the murder of Debra Tayor, for which no one had even considered him a suspect. He pled guilty at his trial and was sentenced to death in 1999, a sentence which still has not been carried out because the case is bouncing around the courts like a pinball. (Wikipedia says: "In 2008, a federal magistrate recommended that the death penalty be overturned because Wardrip received ineffective defense in his trial. On June 14, 2011, the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals reversed a lower court ruling that ordered the State of Texas to either give Wardrip a new sentencing trial, or agree to giving him a life sentence. The case will be sent back to the U.S. District Court for reconsideration.)
Faryion Wardrip is a person who raises a lot of questions about serial killers, and the course of the investigations of his murders raise a lot of questions about law enforcement and our legal system. Barry Macha, who relentlessly prosecuted Wardrip, also relentlessly prosecuted Danny Laughlin, who was innocent. Law enforcement officers in Wichita Falls ignored information they received, including information from officers in other jurisdictions, because it didn't fit their theory. Ken Taylor was hounded by Fort Worth police--and his life was torn apart--because they locked onto the idea that the husband is the most likely suspect. But then in 1999 everything turns around, and you get excellent detective work and interdepartmental cooperation . . . and at Wardrip's trial, while Macha and his team are performing brilliantly, the public defender falls apart, and you're left with more questions about whether Wardrip really got an adequate defense. So there are a myriad of really interesting questions that can be explored through the lens of Faryion Wardrip's case.
Unfortunately, Springer doesn't explore any of them.
She shows that what Ann Rule makes look easy is actually extremely difficult. She's a clumsy writer, exhibiting many problems that anyone who's taught beginning fiction writers (or ever looked at the Turkey City Lexicon) will recognize immediately. As an example, the first paragraph of Chapter 16:
And seriously, that's one example. Her descriptions of the murders are blackly, unintentionally comic, and she explains DNA at least three times, each time badly. She seems to suggest that Wardrip has Obsessive-Compulsive Personality Disorder, but she never either (a) makes it clear that she understands the difference between that and OCD or (b) indicates that Wardrip has been formally diagnosed. She has my hobby horse bad habit of writing from the victim's point of view and because she does that, it's impossible to tell, when she's writing from Wardrip's point of view, whether she's making it up or whether it's actually based on her interviews with him. She gives extraneous information that I can't tell what I'm supposed to do with. Her research is sloppy and inadequate (she says in one place that Wardrip is his parents' oldest son, but in another that his younger brother Bryce was afraid of Faryion and "their older brother" Roy (emphasis added). She talks about a learning disability, but it's not clear whether that's something Wardrip told her that she's repeating or something that she actually got independent confirmation of. When there are discrepancies (e.g., between Wardrip's version of his childhood and his brother Bryce's version), she doesn't seem to have made any effort to figure out which story is more accurate, nor does she indicate which story she thinks readers ought to believe. Should we disbelieve Wardrip on principle because we have ample evidence that he is a pathological liar? Or should we understand that his lying was in part caused by his parents' failure to get him help for his intense depression as a child and teenager? Bryce is certainly not an unbiased witness, so when he says that nothing Faryion says about his childhood is true, should we believe that?
If any serial killer's career is an Inferno, then the reader is Dante, and the true-crime writer has to act as Virgil, providing guidance and a clear path through the horrors. Springer fails to give either.
Between 1984 and 1986, Faryion Wardrip murdered five women, Terry Sims, Toni Gibbs, Debra Taylor, Ellen Blau, and Tina Kimbrew. After Kimbrew's murder he turned himself in--but did not confess to the murders of Sims, Gibbs, Taylor, and Blau. He was sentenced to 35 years, of which he served 11 before being released on parole. He got a job, remarried, was extremely active in his church. And two years later, cold case investigators looking at the Sims and Gibbs murders were able to get DNA, first to link the two crimes, and then to prove that Wardrip was the killer. He was arrested for the murder of Terry Sims in 1999. He confessed to the murders of Sims, Gibbs, and Blau--and then to the murder of Debra Tayor, for which no one had even considered him a suspect. He pled guilty at his trial and was sentenced to death in 1999, a sentence which still has not been carried out because the case is bouncing around the courts like a pinball. (Wikipedia says: "In 2008, a federal magistrate recommended that the death penalty be overturned because Wardrip received ineffective defense in his trial. On June 14, 2011, the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals reversed a lower court ruling that ordered the State of Texas to either give Wardrip a new sentencing trial, or agree to giving him a life sentence. The case will be sent back to the U.S. District Court for reconsideration.)
Faryion Wardrip is a person who raises a lot of questions about serial killers, and the course of the investigations of his murders raise a lot of questions about law enforcement and our legal system. Barry Macha, who relentlessly prosecuted Wardrip, also relentlessly prosecuted Danny Laughlin, who was innocent. Law enforcement officers in Wichita Falls ignored information they received, including information from officers in other jurisdictions, because it didn't fit their theory. Ken Taylor was hounded by Fort Worth police--and his life was torn apart--because they locked onto the idea that the husband is the most likely suspect. But then in 1999 everything turns around, and you get excellent detective work and interdepartmental cooperation . . . and at Wardrip's trial, while Macha and his team are performing brilliantly, the public defender falls apart, and you're left with more questions about whether Wardrip really got an adequate defense. So there are a myriad of really interesting questions that can be explored through the lens of Faryion Wardrip's case.
Unfortunately, Springer doesn't explore any of them.
She shows that what Ann Rule makes look easy is actually extremely difficult. She's a clumsy writer, exhibiting many problems that anyone who's taught beginning fiction writers (or ever looked at the Turkey City Lexicon) will recognize immediately. As an example, the first paragraph of Chapter 16:
"John, this is Judy Floyd with Gene Screen. I was able to collect a saliva sample from the cup you sent me. I'll be able to make a comparison," the DNA expert told Little, indicating there had been enough of the salivary excretion to perform the test.
(161)
And seriously, that's one example. Her descriptions of the murders are blackly, unintentionally comic, and she explains DNA at least three times, each time badly. She seems to suggest that Wardrip has Obsessive-Compulsive Personality Disorder, but she never either (a) makes it clear that she understands the difference between that and OCD or (b) indicates that Wardrip has been formally diagnosed. She has my hobby horse bad habit of writing from the victim's point of view and because she does that, it's impossible to tell, when she's writing from Wardrip's point of view, whether she's making it up or whether it's actually based on her interviews with him. She gives extraneous information that I can't tell what I'm supposed to do with. Her research is sloppy and inadequate (she says in one place that Wardrip is his parents' oldest son, but in another that his younger brother Bryce was afraid of Faryion and "their older brother" Roy (emphasis added). She talks about a learning disability, but it's not clear whether that's something Wardrip told her that she's repeating or something that she actually got independent confirmation of. When there are discrepancies (e.g., between Wardrip's version of his childhood and his brother Bryce's version), she doesn't seem to have made any effort to figure out which story is more accurate, nor does she indicate which story she thinks readers ought to believe. Should we disbelieve Wardrip on principle because we have ample evidence that he is a pathological liar? Or should we understand that his lying was in part caused by his parents' failure to get him help for his intense depression as a child and teenager? Bryce is certainly not an unbiased witness, so when he says that nothing Faryion says about his childhood is true, should we believe that?
If any serial killer's career is an Inferno, then the reader is Dante, and the true-crime writer has to act as Virgil, providing guidance and a clear path through the horrors. Springer fails to give either.
September 2, 2010
This is what i wrote back then in 2004 (and I must say I am laughing about my review now. they look like letters to friends lol) :
November 20 2004 I am nearly finished. It is a very interesting book with shocking photo's. I am so grateful that DNA has been discovered so we can catch the real criminals. Right now I am at page 251 at the trial. I could not believe that after hearing those accusations his wife is still behind him.
Update some hours later Finished. An interesting true crime book. My grade would be a 7.5 but because of the attention to the victims i am going to grade it 8
(edit I have decided to change my 8 into a 7 because a lot in the book was repetition
November 20 2004 I am nearly finished. It is a very interesting book with shocking photo's. I am so grateful that DNA has been discovered so we can catch the real criminals. Right now I am at page 251 at the trial. I could not believe that after hearing those accusations his wife is still behind him.
Update some hours later Finished. An interesting true crime book. My grade would be a 7.5 but because of the attention to the victims i am going to grade it 8
(edit I have decided to change my 8 into a 7 because a lot in the book was repetition
July 7, 2015
I was bored, well not really bored, just seemed like she was novelizing or fictionalizing parts, almost making the killer a sympathetic person so i was losing interest. Then it seemed to pick up and get rather interesting. Then we got to the trial and zzzzz
By the way, i wonder how any criminals ever get caught in Texas, police have such a case of tunnel vision!
Cannot recommend this.
By the way, i wonder how any criminals ever get caught in Texas, police have such a case of tunnel vision!
Cannot recommend this.
August 2, 2021
Overall: 3 stars. A well-researched look at the Faryion Wardrip case - one I knew nothing about beforehand - that is hampered by melodramatic prose
This was written in 2001, and I think you can tell in the sense that the prose is a little dated and overly-dramatic. We’ve got “pretty young nurses” and “handsome faces” and sentences like “Feelings of inadequacies became a cloak Wardrip wore.” It’s melodramatic, almost mushy, writing that detracts, in my opinion, from the overall story of the case which is actually quite interesting. Wardrip was arrested, put on parole, and appears to have made some sort of attempt at rehabilitation and maintaining a normal life without murdering anyone else...until he’s arrested again for past crimes. That’s certainly not a criminal arc I’ve read much of: it’s also interesting that Wardrip appears to be something of a spree killer, or at least a very disorganized serial killer: he seems to have put no forethought at all into these murders.
The book includes lots of good interview details and covers the trial, which is something I always appreciate. Overall, it’s an interesting case and a well-research book: just be warned that it’s pretty melodramatic in tone.
CW: my Kindle version had very graphic crime scene photos at the end
This was written in 2001, and I think you can tell in the sense that the prose is a little dated and overly-dramatic. We’ve got “pretty young nurses” and “handsome faces” and sentences like “Feelings of inadequacies became a cloak Wardrip wore.” It’s melodramatic, almost mushy, writing that detracts, in my opinion, from the overall story of the case which is actually quite interesting. Wardrip was arrested, put on parole, and appears to have made some sort of attempt at rehabilitation and maintaining a normal life without murdering anyone else...until he’s arrested again for past crimes. That’s certainly not a criminal arc I’ve read much of: it’s also interesting that Wardrip appears to be something of a spree killer, or at least a very disorganized serial killer: he seems to have put no forethought at all into these murders.
The book includes lots of good interview details and covers the trial, which is something I always appreciate. Overall, it’s an interesting case and a well-research book: just be warned that it’s pretty melodramatic in tone.
CW: my Kindle version had very graphic crime scene photos at the end
November 11, 2023
Faryion Wardrip is the star of Body Hunter and in a drug fueled rage, he murdered five women in North Texas. After killing victim number five he confessed and was given a thirty-five year sentence.
In prison, the repentant young man found Jesus and with AA meetings and anger management classes was saved and after being paroled, Wardrip married a second wife, All was well in Farion's world until better DNA technology linked him to four other murders that he conveniently failed to mention in his initial confession.
A guilty plea at trial took the case to a penalty phase to determine either a life sentence or death by lethal injection. The book was published twenty years ago and a web search gives an update. Body Hunter is a good read.
In prison, the repentant young man found Jesus and with AA meetings and anger management classes was saved and after being paroled, Wardrip married a second wife, All was well in Farion's world until better DNA technology linked him to four other murders that he conveniently failed to mention in his initial confession.
A guilty plea at trial took the case to a penalty phase to determine either a life sentence or death by lethal injection. The book was published twenty years ago and a web search gives an update. Body Hunter is a good read.
Read
October 11, 2021This is by far the best book concerning faryion wardrip that I have read. It makes you feel you are actually there. Much better than the scream at the sky book. Highly recommend .
January 10, 2025
Kept my attention and covered everything thoroughly. Well written true crime book!
July 20, 2021
A fascinating story! Well written and kept me interested all the way through. Pat Springer’s detailed research can be seen throughout.
March 10, 2015
I read this book because my dad was one of the lead investigators on this case for Wichita Falls Police Department. I knew the case from his perspective and want to see the rest of the story. I would have given it 5 stars but the use of some much figurative language didn't seem to fit with the tone of the story. It always pulled me out of story for a moment.
I would recommend it for fans of true crime or anyone who grew up in Wichita Falls in the 80's and remembers the murders.
I would recommend it for fans of true crime or anyone who grew up in Wichita Falls in the 80's and remembers the murders.
January 24, 2012
True crime-a spree ended by prison, marriage and an apparent turn around...but psychopaths are not cured. I am always interested in the thinking of the criminal and I am not sure this guy's sorrow was genuine, I have my doubts.
Want to read
February 26, 2016#
NC
Own in paperback.
FS: "The cold December air chilled twenty-year-old Terry Sims and her friend Leza Boone as they walked to the parking lot of Bethania Regional Health Care Center in Wichita Falls, Texas."
LS: "Only then can the hail storm by withstood, if not forgotten."
NC
Own in paperback.
FS: "The cold December air chilled twenty-year-old Terry Sims and her friend Leza Boone as they walked to the parking lot of Bethania Regional Health Care Center in Wichita Falls, Texas."
LS: "Only then can the hail storm by withstood, if not forgotten."
April 13, 2017
It was very intense at times but it kept you wanting to read more
Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews