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The Last Rites
In May 1975 a decomposed body on Uilrich Rd in Fort Pierce, Florida was found by two fishermen. At first the body was listed as a Jane Doe. When she was identified, the investigation was hampered by all the ones who were talked to by law enforcement. The case went cold for a year, it was only after a prisoner had a case of consceince that the case was finally solved. Pauline Metler was buriend in an unmarked grave in Fort Pierce Cememtery and forgotten. She will never be forgotten again. This is her story.
204 pages, Paperback
First published July 12, 2011
10 people want to read
About the author
Yvonne Mason
50 books30 followersQuotes From Author by Yvonne Mason
“What you Don't Know About ME
Background: The eldest of five children, Yvonne was born May 17, 1951 in Atlanta, Georgia. Raised in East Point, Georgia, she resided there until 1970. Then moved to North Georgia, In 2006 she moved to Port St. Lucie, Florida where she currently makes her home. Licensed bounty hunter for the state of Georgia.
Education: After a 34 year absence, returned to college in 2004. Graduated with honors in Criminal Justice with an Associate’s degree from Lanier Technical College in 2006.
Awards: Nominated for the prestigious GOAL award in 2005 which encompasses all of the technical colleges. This award is based not only on excellence in academics but also leadership, positive attitude and the willingness to excel in one’s major.
Affiliations: Beta Sigma Phi Sorority
The Dream: Since learning to write at the age of five, Yvonne has wanted to be an author. She wrote her first novel Stan’s Story beginning in 1974 and completed it in 2006. Publication seemed impossible as rejections grew to 10 years. Determined, she continued adding to the story until her dream came true in 2006.
The Inspiration: Yvonne’s brother Stan has been her inspiration and hero in every facet of her life. He was stricken with Encephalitis at the tender age of nine months. He has defied every roadblock placed in his way and has been the driving force in every one of her accomplishments. He is the one who taught her never to give up.
“What you Don't Know About ME
Background: The eldest of five children, Yvonne was born May 17, 1951 in Atlanta, Georgia. Raised in East Point, Georgia, she resided there until 1970. Then moved to North Georgia, In 2006 she moved to Port St. Lucie, Florida where she currently makes her home. Licensed bounty hunter for the state of Georgia.
Education: After a 34 year absence, returned to college in 2004. Graduated with honors in Criminal Justice with an Associate’s degree from Lanier Technical College in 2006.
Awards: Nominated for the prestigious GOAL award in 2005 which encompasses all of the technical colleges. This award is based not only on excellence in academics but also leadership, positive attitude and the willingness to excel in one’s major.
Affiliations: Beta Sigma Phi Sorority
The Dream: Since learning to write at the age of five, Yvonne has wanted to be an author. She wrote her first novel Stan’s Story beginning in 1974 and completed it in 2006. Publication seemed impossible as rejections grew to 10 years. Determined, she continued adding to the story until her dream came true in 2006.
The Inspiration: Yvonne’s brother Stan has been her inspiration and hero in every facet of her life. He was stricken with Encephalitis at the tender age of nine months. He has defied every roadblock placed in his way and has been the driving force in every one of her accomplishments. He is the one who taught her never to give up.
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
August 7, 2014
The Last Rites by Yvonne Mason is a well-documented and thoroughly researched report on the investigation, arrests and convictions surrounding the murder of Pauline Metler, a resident of St. Lucie County in the state of Florida. This would have slipped through the cracks as an unsolved homicide as the corpse of the unidentified victim had decomposed beyond recognition and gone unreported by friends or relatives. Finally the parents of the deceased woman began inquiring as to whether their daughter’s description matched with the remains of a person found on Ulrich Road in Fort Pierce, Florida. The identification process started the Florida Department of Criminal Law Enforcement on a long and winding road that ended in a cell of a prisoner with a guilty conscience in Lake Butler, Florida.
Mason’s work is a unique reflection on the value of a human life. At first the corpse is dismissed as a Jane Doe casualty and the case summarily left unsolved. Yet her parents (who go unnamed) are unable to lay the matter to rest, and their daughter is linked to the Ulrich Road murder. As the can of worms is opened, we find the deceased to be a promiscuous, short-tempered drunk. Her husband Donald is her second, having picked her up off the rebound from Thomas Kincannon of Cocoa, Florida. She became a seedy character out of a Hemingway novel in Key West, and eventually drifted to Melbourne where she met her demise. It would have been convenient for the FDCLE to pin the murder on a number of her unsavory connections or dump the investigation altogether. Yet their integrity and determination kept the case open until Charles Waters came clean, resulting in the convictions of Eugene Jenkins and Richard Johnson for ending a seemingly purposeless and incidental life.
If anything, The Last Rites by Yvonne Mason is an example of how American justice ideally leaves no person behind. Pauline Metler’s life may have served little purpose, but her death proved beyond a doubt that the value of that life was highly regarded.
Mason’s work is a unique reflection on the value of a human life. At first the corpse is dismissed as a Jane Doe casualty and the case summarily left unsolved. Yet her parents (who go unnamed) are unable to lay the matter to rest, and their daughter is linked to the Ulrich Road murder. As the can of worms is opened, we find the deceased to be a promiscuous, short-tempered drunk. Her husband Donald is her second, having picked her up off the rebound from Thomas Kincannon of Cocoa, Florida. She became a seedy character out of a Hemingway novel in Key West, and eventually drifted to Melbourne where she met her demise. It would have been convenient for the FDCLE to pin the murder on a number of her unsavory connections or dump the investigation altogether. Yet their integrity and determination kept the case open until Charles Waters came clean, resulting in the convictions of Eugene Jenkins and Richard Johnson for ending a seemingly purposeless and incidental life.
If anything, The Last Rites by Yvonne Mason is an example of how American justice ideally leaves no person behind. Pauline Metler’s life may have served little purpose, but her death proved beyond a doubt that the value of that life was highly regarded.
May 31, 2012
Last Rites by Yvonne Mason is a true-crime novel based upon the tragic and untimely death of Pauline Metler in Florida during the 1970's. Pauline, a troubled young woman whose life was brutally taken from her by the viscous hands of three disturbed individuals, finally is given her chance to be remembered.
In life, and in death, no one cared enough about this poor soul. Like so many victims of violent crime, her only hope for justice came from the hard work and dedication of people that never knew her while alive: the detectives that worked her brutal murder case.
Once again, Yvonne Mason's countless hours of exhaustive research through court records, statements, trial transcripts and newspaper articles bring together the full spectrum of Pauline's life and death. Although the tale is raw, gritty and at times, heartbreaking, Pauline is given the chance to speak from beyond through Yvonne's meticulous words.
Yvonne Mason is unmatched, in my opinion, as an author that dares to stand up as a voice for those that no longer have one; the forgotten victims that had their lives snuffed out before their time. Her unyielding determination to keep the memory alive of those that have long since passed is a testament to her love for people that society ignored for far too long.
In life, and in death, no one cared enough about this poor soul. Like so many victims of violent crime, her only hope for justice came from the hard work and dedication of people that never knew her while alive: the detectives that worked her brutal murder case.
Once again, Yvonne Mason's countless hours of exhaustive research through court records, statements, trial transcripts and newspaper articles bring together the full spectrum of Pauline's life and death. Although the tale is raw, gritty and at times, heartbreaking, Pauline is given the chance to speak from beyond through Yvonne's meticulous words.
Yvonne Mason is unmatched, in my opinion, as an author that dares to stand up as a voice for those that no longer have one; the forgotten victims that had their lives snuffed out before their time. Her unyielding determination to keep the memory alive of those that have long since passed is a testament to her love for people that society ignored for far too long.
May 5, 2014
This book was quite the disappointment. Where to start...
The forward to the book is hyperbolic at best and inaccurate at worst. Ms. Mason writes that “an assault is an affront to our society". Really? I agree that assault is bad and should be appropriately dealt with by our legal system, but the author overstates the seriousness of the crime. Ms. Mason also states that most assaults result in murder. This patently untrue. According the FBI crime statistics from 2012, “Aggravated assaults accounted for 62.6 percent of violent crimes reported to law enforcement in 2012. Robbery offenses accounted for 29.2 percent of violent crime offenses; rape accounted for 6.9 percent; and murder accounted for 1.2 percent.” So, no. Clearly most assaults do not end in rape or murder. Ms. Mason’’s statement is more hyperbole that makes me question the veracity of anything else I read in the book.
(As an example of later statements that are also inaccurate: "If Waters had continued to talk after invoking his right to an attorney, his testimony would not have been able to be used in court against him." This is simply not true.)
Following this forward, the bulk of the book is a dry recitation of the investigation of the case. The book appears to be well-researched, but the writing is very "he went here and did this and then they went there and asked that". It is flat and lacking in emotional depth. I made no connection with any person described in the book. Ms. Mason even writes in the Forward, “Try to put yourself in the victim’s shoes”, then offers us no help in doing that. Ms. Mason gave us no sense of the place of this crime, of what Florida was like, what the time period was like, etc. Nothing to make the reader really connect with the story or the victim, Ms. Metler.
The writing is also clumsy and inelegant and probably at about a 6th grade level (not in a good way). Many sentences were in the passive voice. Here are a few examples of bad writing:
---"They also tried to reconstruct the events which led up to the demise of the body"
---“This was determined by the fact that there was an indentation and bullet fragments…"
---"The question was asked if they took her down or made her high" (they=pills)
---"Any time a case is left unsolved it leaves a feeling of failure in the minds of those who have worked so long and hard to solve it."
Note that is was hard to select so few examples. The book is full of them.
Occasionally random, possibly rhetorical, questions are tossed in at the end of paragraphs. These questions do nothing to advance the narrative or provide any meaningful insight to the case. They only served to distract this reader.
Finally, this book was self-published and it shows. One word: commas! Ms. Mason really needs to learn to use commas properly (hint: you need them after opening dependent clauses, after the year when writing a date, between two independent clauses unless the clauses are very short, etc.) The cover is also, as any reader can see, quite bad.
I can’t recommend that anyone spend his or her money on this book.
The forward to the book is hyperbolic at best and inaccurate at worst. Ms. Mason writes that “an assault is an affront to our society". Really? I agree that assault is bad and should be appropriately dealt with by our legal system, but the author overstates the seriousness of the crime. Ms. Mason also states that most assaults result in murder. This patently untrue. According the FBI crime statistics from 2012, “Aggravated assaults accounted for 62.6 percent of violent crimes reported to law enforcement in 2012. Robbery offenses accounted for 29.2 percent of violent crime offenses; rape accounted for 6.9 percent; and murder accounted for 1.2 percent.” So, no. Clearly most assaults do not end in rape or murder. Ms. Mason’’s statement is more hyperbole that makes me question the veracity of anything else I read in the book.
(As an example of later statements that are also inaccurate: "If Waters had continued to talk after invoking his right to an attorney, his testimony would not have been able to be used in court against him." This is simply not true.)
Following this forward, the bulk of the book is a dry recitation of the investigation of the case. The book appears to be well-researched, but the writing is very "he went here and did this and then they went there and asked that". It is flat and lacking in emotional depth. I made no connection with any person described in the book. Ms. Mason even writes in the Forward, “Try to put yourself in the victim’s shoes”, then offers us no help in doing that. Ms. Mason gave us no sense of the place of this crime, of what Florida was like, what the time period was like, etc. Nothing to make the reader really connect with the story or the victim, Ms. Metler.
The writing is also clumsy and inelegant and probably at about a 6th grade level (not in a good way). Many sentences were in the passive voice. Here are a few examples of bad writing:
---"They also tried to reconstruct the events which led up to the demise of the body"
---“This was determined by the fact that there was an indentation and bullet fragments…"
---"The question was asked if they took her down or made her high" (they=pills)
---"Any time a case is left unsolved it leaves a feeling of failure in the minds of those who have worked so long and hard to solve it."
Note that is was hard to select so few examples. The book is full of them.
Occasionally random, possibly rhetorical, questions are tossed in at the end of paragraphs. These questions do nothing to advance the narrative or provide any meaningful insight to the case. They only served to distract this reader.
Finally, this book was self-published and it shows. One word: commas! Ms. Mason really needs to learn to use commas properly (hint: you need them after opening dependent clauses, after the year when writing a date, between two independent clauses unless the clauses are very short, etc.) The cover is also, as any reader can see, quite bad.
I can’t recommend that anyone spend his or her money on this book.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews