Little Shoes: The Sensational Depression-Era Murders That Became My Family's Secret

by Pamela Everett

In the summer of 1937, with the Depression deep and World War II looming, a California triple murder stunned an already grim nation. After a frantic week-long manhunt for the killer, a suspect emerged, and his sensational trial captivated audiences from coast to coast. Justice was swift, and the condemned man was buried away with the horrifying story.


But decades later, Pamela Everett, a lawyer and former journalist, starts digging, following up a cryptic comment her father once made about a tragedy in their past. Her journey is uniquely personal as she uncovers her family's secret history, but the investigation quickly takes unexpected turns into her professional wheelhouse.


Everett unearths a truly historic legal case that included one of the earliest criminal profiles in the United States, the genesis of modern sex offender laws, and the last man sentenced to hang in California. Digging deeper and drawing on her experience with wrongful convictions, Everett then raises detailed and haunting questions about whether the authorities got the right man. Having revived the case to its rightful place in history, she leaves us with enduring concerns about the death penalty then and now.


A journey chronicled through the mind of a lawyer and from the heart of a daughter, Little Shoes is both a captivating true crime story and a profoundly personal account of one family's struggle to cope with tragedy through the generations.

Genres: True Crime, Nonfiction, History, Crime, Mystery, Historical, Memoir

266 pages, Kindle Edition

First published May 29, 2018

Reviews

[Marialyce · Rating 4 out of 5]

I found this book hard to place a star value upon.

Reading about this horrific crime was heart wrenching. The wanton murder of three little innocent girls, Madeline and Melba Everett and Jeanette Stephens was a crime that heralded in the age of the sex crime unit and provided the country in 1937 the news of these young girls murders. They were only seven eight and nine and their young lives were tragically and mercilessly cut short by their killer.

Many years later, the author of this book, a niece to these girls, stumbled upon the fact that her dad was a brother to the Everett girls. She often wondered, although he never spoke of it, why he was so overprotective. Pamela Everett, being both a lawyer and a former journalist sought out information regarding her aunts she never knew of and the man who eventually was hanged for their murders, Albert Dyer.

Investigating the trial, Ms Everett discovers vast inconsistencies in the trial as well as the investigation into Albert Dyer. Dyer was a functional illiterate, a man with the IQ of about a ten year old who was a crossing guard and was accused and later convicted by a unanimous decision of the jury. He had confessed to the crime numerous times but then recanted and presented in each of his various confessions a different scenario. Was he capable of this crime, or was he so easily led that he would do anything people suggested to him?

Did Albert commit this crime or was he just the person whom it was most convenient to convict? This story is also in its own way a cautionary tale about the death penalty with the what if always being asked of whether a convicted person is truly the guilty person. It was for this reader a thought provoking book.

Thank you to Pamela Everett, Skyhorse Publishing, and Edelweiss for an advanced copy of this book.

You can also see my reviews on my blog https://yayareadslotsofbooks.wordpres...

Publishing May 29, 2018

[Joy D · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a gut-wrenching true story of the murder of three young girls, ages seven to nine, in California in 1937. The author decided to research what had happened to her father’s sisters after learning their family had kept their deaths a secret for many years. I normally do not read true crime, but in this case, I made an exception since the author lives in my local area. I am putting the rest of my review in spoiler tags since this is not a well-known case.

I cannot imagine researching a family tragedy only to find out it is extremely likely the wrong person was convicted of the crime. I can only say I am glad that the legal system has changed over the years, and many of the irregularities in this case would not be legally allowed today. This book points out the need to ensure we get the right person convicted rather than satisfy the urgent need to find and punish someone for a heinous crime, allowing the guilty party to go free. Be aware that this book contains gruesome descriptions of the rape and murder of three innocent children.

[Fishface · Rating 5 out of 5]

An Enlightening Read About A Horrifying Story

This is a short read, but satisfying -- as satisfying as a horrific story like this probably can be. If you thought not much could be worse than a triple child murder, wait until you see what the author does with what I thought all this time was a clear, simple set of facts. Don't miss this book if you have any interest in family secrets, the legal system, true crime or learning the truth behind a legend.

[Nat · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars~

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What I enjoyed about this book most was the way Pamela Everrett managed to weave personal anecdotes and ties to memories she had of these people into the awful story she was learning. I think that made these events all the more real and powerful, I really loved her line at the end of this book, “even in the darkest histories, there can be a joy to discover,” because investigating this case allowed her to know family members who had already passed on. However, I wish there were more of those. I also really liked the layout of the story, how it developed and how Everrett laid out the points of the case, but also mentioned the questions that arose, trying to decide for herself whether she found the suspect guilty or not. I really enjoyed her discussion on false confessions.

[Sandy · Rating 2 out of 5]

I'm really torn trying to rate this. When I came across this book I was very excited, it should have been my jam, seriously. As an avid genealogist, history lover, and true crime enthusiast, the premise behind the book - family history, uncovered secrets, murder - sounded like basically all of my interests wrapped into one, and I started reading with anticipation thinking it had potential to make the list of my favourite books ever, but I was left instead woefully underwhelmed by it.

First, the writing itself wasn't awful, but the way it was presented and organized was kind of all over the place and inconsistent. Let's start with this: a 230 page book should not have 50 chapters. That's no exaggeration, I actually counted. It made the storytelling really choppy. I also didn't understand why within the chapters she broke apart sections by capitalizing the first few words of the 'new' section, not because I don't understand the concept behind that, but because I couldn't figure out why she was doing it, especially when she did it for every single paragraph on some pages and when it wasn't necessary as it wasn't a departure from the previous paragraph/thought.

I can't stand when people in non-fiction make weird suppositions about what other people must have been thinking, or worse, actually write it as though it were a fact that they were thinking that when they couldn't possibly know. She does this quite a bit throughout the book. She also brings up weird outlandish possibilities, like maybe two of the suspects worked together, even though there is no indication they even knew each other. She also goes on for multiple paragraphs about why the defense attorneys might have chosen to take it to trial instead of pleading guilty, when it's the defendant's choice how to plead to the crime, not theirs. She dismisses that in one sentence saying they could have convinced him to plead guilty because he was so scared of the death penalty, when there is no indication that pleading guilty would have gotten him a different sentence, there was no mention of a deal offered and it's unlikely they would have given him one considering the severity and gruesomeness of the crime he was charged with. They already had to protect him from a lynch mob. It's also clear by his mental capabilities that he likely would not have even truly understood the concept of the death penalty, any better than a child would, since even after sentencing he still seemed to think he could get probation instead. Yet she writes "the only conclusion is that Vercoe and his team saw enough holes in the evidence, enough real questions about Dyer's innocence, to justify the impossibly tough road of forcing the state the prove it's case to a jury". No, that's not the "only conclusion", that's your supposition based on your weird assertion that the defense attorneys controlled what his plea was. She also then acts like the prosecution and jury must have been shocked when the defense actually asked for the jury to find him not guilty of the murders, after he plead not guilty for the trial, because somehow she reasoned that even though he was saying he was innocent and didn't murder them, they would somehow instead just ask the jury to give him a life sentence rather than the death penalty, instead of asking them to acquit him for the murders he was saying he didn't commit. I don't get the thought process there, especially from someone who is actually an attorney. Near the end of the trial section, she makes a ridiculous statement that basically implies that short men of small stature, like the accused, prey on children because they are too small and weak to take on an adult, not, yunno, because they are pedophiles.

Considering the extreme amount of photos available in this case, many of which she describes, she included very few in the actual book, which I found odd, if it was an issue with space she certainly could have made many of them smaller and put multiple photos on each page. Even more odd was that the photos she included were in no specific order. They jumped all over the place chronologically: other suspects mugshots, photo of the trial, then of the family when the girls initially went missing, then back to the trial, oh and here's the boys who found the bodies, then the funeral, and then a suspect being questioned, then the main suspect a few weeks later, then the trial again, oh but then back to the initial questioning/confession of the suspect... the order makes absolutely no sense! It doesn't even follow when the events unfolded in the book. Also weird that although there are clear photos of her aunts (that I easily found on the internet), she chose instead to use bad, blurry, blown up photos of them. She failed to include any photos of the other victim, though available, but did include one of her family. It was an odd choice not to include a photo of Jeannette, and although I get the focus was on her aunts, it would have been nice if she spent some time talking about Jeannette and her family as well considering she was murdered too.

She included a lot of unnecessary information, for example, that she thought her aunts were buried in an unmarked grave in one cemetery but then found out they were buried in a different cemetery with small markers - there was absolutely no reason to include that information. The most frustrating aspect for me was that she included useless information like that, but didn't include enough information or do enough research about things that were important, like background information on Albert Dyer, Fred Godsey, or the other suspects. Even background information on her own family was fairly lacking. She seems to have relied almost solely on newspaper articles and court records, but it's hard to actually know where she got most of her information because, other than mentioning at times that something came out of a specific newspaper, she used no real sourcing in her book, not even when spouting off statistics or other information about wrongful convictions, not even a bibliography at the end, which for a work of historical research (even if it's part memoir) is surprising and disappointing. I was so frustrated with the lack of other research that I just started doing my own, and quickly discovered that she was wrong about Fred Godsey's death, which although she couldn't find any record of, she reported happened between 1947-1949. I found record of him alive in 1951, so I don't know where she got that information from (since she didn't provide any sources).

Specific, admittedly petty annoyance: when discussing a New York Times headline on the case, she says "a continent away". New York is on the other side of the country from California, not continent. North America includes both Canada to the north and Mexico to the south, so it's odd that you'd describe a city in the same country as being "a continent away".

Disappointingly, the entire story is really given away quite early, and after you realize where it's going and that there is not going to be much more revealed it gets to be a drag to get through it, especially at the end when you already know how the trial is going to turn out and all, and she's mostly regurgitating information she already went over in the book. I blame the publishing company and their editors in part because I think if someone would have fixed some of the issues, like the 50 chapters and photo issues, and kind of put the author on the right track, it would have turned out a lot better. It had a lot of potential that it just did not live up to.

[Petra · Rating 3 out of 5]

Such an awful story (the event; not the book). Three little girls go to the park on a summer day to play and end up dead, lured away from the park to a gully.
The author of this book is the niece of two of these little girls. This piece of family history was kept hidden and she learned of it almost by accident and decided to investigate.
The story is well told and organized. It's sad on so many sides. The girls, the families, their descendants, the town people, the accused, his wife.
Well told. A sad piece of history.

[Lorie · Rating 4 out of 5]

First, let me just say that having Reno author Pamela Everett, an attorney with the Innocence Project and a UNR professor of criminal justice, meet with our book club was a wonderful privilege. She told us about the very personal journey that ended with the publication of Little Shoes.

In 1937–long before most of us were born–in Inglewood, California three little girls were raped and murdered. Albert Dyer, a mentally challenged crossing guard, was arrested and confessed. He was quickly tried and executed. End of story.

Years later, teenaged Everett learns of her family’s connection to the story. Two of the three victims were her father’s younger sisters. Her aunts.

“Maybe that’s why he was so terribly strict. Maybe he saw his parents assume the best about people and he would spend his life assuming the worst, never for a minute risking his children to dangers, hidden or otherwise.”

“Thinking of their forgotten lives, something changed for me, something in my relationship to these girls who were my aunts, my dad’s little sisters. It was just so tragic, to have died as they did and then to be buried away—literally—as if they never lived at all. They’d been alone so long.”

Those little girls stayed with Everett and she began asking questions of surviving relatives and former neighbors of her grandparents. As if nudged by something unseen, she dug into court records, newspaper accounts, state archives. With each little piece of information, something kept pricking her conscience. Could they have gotten the wrong man?

We learn that reporters in 1937 were just as invasive and aggressive as today’s tabloid and cable reporters. The horror of the killer crossing guard soon became front-page news across the country. And although eyewitnesses were plentiful, they were and are quite unreliable.

“Eyewitness misidentifications have led to 75 percent of the wrongful convictions overturned by DNA evidence in our country, and many of those mistakes happen early in the process when police are desperately seeking a suspect…”

These were the days before Miranda rights and police interrogated Dyer for ten hours—without an attorney present. Dyer alternately confessed and denied his guilt. His confessions—while inconsistent– weighed more heavily and the police stopped pursuing any other suspects, even as witnesses came forward to say that Dyer was not who they saw with the girls.

During Albert Dyer’s incarceration it was determined he had an IQ of 60. He was essentially a nine-year-old boy, which goes a long way to explain why his confession might not really have been a confession.

“Confessions are the most powerful evidence in any courtroom, and jurors—indeed, most of us—cannot comprehend how someone can confess to something they didn’t do… In some cases, confessions will overcome overwhelming evidence of innocence such as eyewitness identification and forensic evidence, even DNA… Yet more than a quarter of the documented wrongful convictions overturned by DNA evidence in the United States have involved false confessions…”

In this case, the transcripts of the session reveal the interrogator telling the story of what happened and Dyer merely agreeing, “Yes, sir.” And with a riotous mob outside the jail and the pressure on police to bring a killer to justice, it wouldn’t be hard for police to convince their mentally challenged suspect that he was going to die—sooner or later.

Everett found holes in the prosecution’s case. She “couldn’t find testimony about the physical evidence that should have been admitted in this case… There was nothing? …no testimony whatsoever about the fingerprints or blood from Dyer’s clothing, nothing connecting Dyer to the knife or the ropes the prosecution introduced.” Furthermore, what forensic evidence was available was contaminated almost from the beginning. “…one of the more unbelievable case photos shows several investigators handling barehanded the tiny nooses and the girls’ clothes, with one of them even smoking a cigar over the pile of evidence.”

Everett manages to balance the horrific nature of the crime, the investigation by police, and the trial of Albert Dyer with the long-lasting impact it had on her family. So yes, there is some really bad stuff here, but just enough. And for someone like me, who never reads True Crime, I appreciated not spending any more time on the brutality than necessary. I was also grateful that the photos of the girls were ones while they were alive.

Certainly, suspects have more rights today and police procedures have improved. While Everett continues to question wrongful convictions, she recognizes the dangers.

“… we open old wounds, forcing victims and families to relive everything, and in many cases to fear the release of someone they believe is guilty… No matter how painful, we should share these histories so victims are not lost and so future generations can know all that came before them and what molded their parents, grandparents and others.”

Little Shoes offers much to contemplate the next time a crime is sensationalized in the headlines and we all jump to judgment. Recommend.

[Emilio III · Rating 5 out of 5]

A statement often repeated from death-penalty proponents is that while the criminal justice system has its faults there has never been an execution of an innocent man. Considering that over 150 people on death row have subsequently been exonerated, it's a little hard to give any credence to the idea that no one has ever slipped through the cracks. This book tells a compelling story of just such a case.

At the center of this story is the search for the killer of three young girls: Melba Marie Everett age nine and her sister Madeline age seven and Jeanette Stephens age eight. The two Everett girls were the sisters of author Pamela Everett's father. They were the aunts the author never got to meet. Pamela Everett is also an attorney who works with the California Innocence Project. The author delved into the killings to learn more about their murders and the man convicted of the crime. What she uncovered was a faulty investigation where a likely innocent man was convicted and executed.

The murders happened in the summer of 1937. The author uses interviews, newspaper accounts, and trial transcripts to reconstruct the initial investigation and subsequent trial, while also providing background on the time period and her own family. The police zero in on several suspects. When they bring in suspect Albert Dyer, a mentally-challenged man working as a school crossing guard, they get a full confession. Case closed.

There is no evidence linking Albert to the crime except for several witnesses who claim to have seen Albert in the park the day the girls disappeared. Other witnesses identify a different person seen with the girls. That person had some distinctive characteristics that don't match Albert. The other man was also seen with the three little girls in the back of his car. Albert didn't own a car.

Read the full review at https://everythingnonfiction.com/revi...

[Paul · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is an interesting book because it demonstrates how badly police and the public want to find and kill or imprison a killer of innocent children. It's especially valuable to see how far we as a society have come with DNA retrieval instead of just blood types and unreliable eyewitness accounts. Once police have a likely subject, however, it seems as if all evidence is retrofitted to their argument and nothing new or anything challenging the controlling narrative is ever even considered. If it were not for The Innocence Project, most people would likely have no idea of how unreliable and often just wrong eyewitness accounts are. It's also interesting to see the bloodthirstiness of crowds and how they feel they must extinguish perps with extreme vengeance. Why are people so dead set on killing the perps? C.S. Lewis wrote on this subject that it was fascinating how people rise up in righteous indignation over what they consider foul murders or atrocities. Then, if it turns out they weren't that foul or atrocious, are they willing to scale back their hunger for vengeance? Often not, which says more about people than it does about killers.

The fact that the author is related to two of the murdered girls makes the story more immediate and compelling. I thought she would come up with an alternate suspect, but she hazards no guesses other than to point out other suspects that were dismissed. Clearly, the main suspect was not the murderer, so who was?

[Angie · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a true crime novel. It's a difficult subject matter to read about, the murder of 3 little girls. Well written, thought provoking, legal.

[Hinda Rochel · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fascinating true crime investigation that leads you wondering, was an innocent man hung for a crime he did not commit?

[Cee Cee · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a great book. I was intrigued from the beginning and could not put the book down whenever I found time to read. This is a great book to read if you like a good mystery. Some details are very disgusting, but it adds to the plot. I am still not convinced that they caught the real perp. This goes to show the police tools that was available back then and how much of an improvement has been made today.

[Bettina Partridge · Rating 3 out of 5]

Your basic true crime book that was interesting enough authored by a descendant with a journalist background who was unaware of the hidden tragedy involving her nearest family members.

[Katy · Rating 4 out of 5]

I quite liked this book. It did an excellent job of weaving family history and true crime together. Having a strong interest in both myself, I felt both aspects of the narrative were compelling.

I truly appreciate the efforts of the author to delve into the facts of the case. Of course, victims' families endure too much in the aftermath of the deaths of their loved ones, but I also feel that their emotional weight should not press as much on the scales of justice. The author's efforts to be objective serve as a wonderful model to others.

Stories like Albert Dyer's remind us that the problems with our legal system are extensive, ongoing, and largely uncorrected. While no system is perfect, I'm sure, the gross inequities and strange motivations that drive our current "justice" system should be the focus of our attention.

[Ann · Rating 3 out of 5]

To read this book about a family secret explored shortly after reading "Mindhunter" proved to be intriguing. The author, the niece of two of the little girls killed, uncovers the back story of this tragedy, including the likely news that the one convicted was not the killer. Rather the real killer could have been the guy who got away and committed more crimes across the country.

Pamela Everett describes the way that the police invited a psychiatrist to put together a profile of the killer. What that doctor described in 1937 fits with the profiles described in "Mindhunter."

The likely miscarriage of justice and the profound sadness at the loss of the three young lives makes for a painful story to read.

[DD · Rating 2 out of 5]

Odd read. The book retells a murder in 1937, the author believes the convicted to be innocent and keeps comparing that investigation, trial and conviction against modern day standards and forensics. Believe her point is to show that even today with better investigative tools we do convict innocent people and so therefore we should not condemn anyone to death. I didn't know I would be reading a book on that topic but rather just the retelling of the original crime. Personally I agree with that thinking but book should be described as such and not just as a crime story. Was a long read for 200 pages.

[Jane Thompson · Rating 4 out of 5]

True Crime Story

This is an interesting book. The author tells the long forgotten story of the murders of her aunts when they were children. The murders are horrifying, and so is the treatment of the defendant. Sure does a good job of telling the story of their lives and deaths, and explaining why she thinks the wrong man as convicted and executed.

[Marianne Hetzer Hawn · Rating 3 out of 5]

Disturbing times two. 1) Every parent's nightmare comes true; three young girls lured from a crowded playground in broad daylight and savagely murdered. 2) Was the wrong man targeted, badgered into confessing, tried, convicted and executed? Three families irreparably damaged. Have we made progress, since 1937, in keeping our children safe and guaranteeing due process for accused criminals?

[Brenda · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting true crime.

[Marty · Rating 4 out of 5]

Such a sad case and a difficult one to read. Maybe even today we might not know the truth.

[Cindy Tebo · Rating 5 out of 5]

Pamela Everett's book crosses genres: in one sense it is a memoir and in another sense it is historical non-fiction. She details the horrific murders of three young girls two of whom were her aunts. Everett didn't know these aunts existed until her father blurts out one day, "I lost two sisters, and I can't lose my daughter...They found them--they found their pairs of little shoes lined up in a row." At this point, her father breaks down and can no longer talk about it.

For Everett, this was an epiphany of sorts explaining why her dad was so strict with her and had so many rules. It also opened up a mystery for her to solve. Losing her aunts was horribly tragic but so was the conviction of Albert Dyer, a school crossing guard with the mental capacity of a 10-year old. Three innocent children were murdered and a fourth innocent victim charged with a murder he did not commit while the real murderer was free to commit more atrocities.

Everett leaves open the possibility that Dyer could have committed the murders but based on the evidence she presents this reader is 99.9 percent sure he was not capable of committing such horrendous acts.

Everett's work is a fascinating page-turner. It makes one uneasy about how many innocent people have been executed while the real murderers were never caught. It also exposes the flaws in our justice system and the interrogation practices of some investigators.

The mistakes made in this case brought to mind the more recent 1991 murders of the Kerry sisters who were raped and thrown off the Chain of Rocks bridge. The cousin, Thomas Cummins, who was also thrown off the bridge, survives. In authorities' eagerness to solve the crimes, Cummins becomes a suspect in his cousins' murder. Cummins confesses but later recants. He was sleep deprived and coerced into a false confession. Dyer, like Cummins, is also coerced into confessing. Unlike Cummins, however, Dyer is described as having a limited mental capacity.

The injustice of obtaining a false confession under duress is just as relevant now as it was in 1937 and in 1991. Authorities are pressured by the public for answers and to produce a suspect when the emphasis should be on finding the right person no matter how long it takes--not just anyone so they can close the books as quickly as possible.

Everett's book goes way beyond the territory of memoir. It's a chilling story with implications for all of us. If you like mysteries, memoirs, and true crime, I highly recommend reading, "Little Shoes."

[Kitty Kay · Rating 4 out of 5]

I do not usually read true crime and its hard to say what made me choose this book , but once I started reading I couldn't put it down although I found it incredibly painful to read. Some of the details were so disturbing I as actually crying as I read. At least 4 times I attempted to stop reading the book because of the trauma I was experiencing and yet I read on. I was painfully reminded of my own story and how it could have ended in the same horrific way it did for the 3 little girls Melba, Madeline and Jeanette did (but for some reason my abductor suddenly let me go). I was absolutely grief stricken and horrified by the details of the little girls deaths which were and remain truly shocking . Any reader should be warned that the details are potentially damaging . Part of me wishes I didn't know.....and yet the story is so compelling and Pamela Everett manages to skillfully and compassionately portray their suffering as something we should know, in part so that their agonies reveal a side to human nature that we must remain vigilant against , by being aware of it. The message Everett leaves behind is that monsters walk among ordinary men in the shape of ordinary men but their actions often betray them and if we have the courage to face those facts and act on them , then childrens lives may be saved.

I think this particular true crime story is elevated due to the fact that the author is related to to of the murdered girls. Her personal tone enriches an otherwise dreadful tale. Her inclusion of happy details and fond memories held by relatives and other people are respectful but bring light to an otherwise dark telling and become more precious because they were so hard for Everett to obtain. Her writing is so good that I literally felt I was on the journey with her. I truly felt that if I didn't finish the book I would have in some way let her down. Her skills as a journalist combined with her training as an attorney make this an easy to read book of great power.

The most astounding part of the book is in her treatment of Dyer ; the man convicted of the killing. The questions she raises in her book about his execution of a notorious serial child killer and the possibility of his innocence with remain with me. She explores how a powerful need for justice can propel both the Police and the Community in the wrong direction in contradiction the face of evidence and facts. I found this part of the book just as worthy and interesting as the crime.

This true crime story is so much more than the crime.

[Violet · Rating 5 out of 5]

A Must Read For Any True Crime Fan

I have to admit I considered whether to buy this book or not, as I figured a crime that was committed so long ago, along with the ensuing details, capture, court etc, would be a bit old fashioned for my liking, but how very wrong I was.

I’ve read well over a hundred (probably closer to 200) true crime books, and I thought I’d read most of the ways a story can be told in this genre, but this book takes the reader where others just can’t. Starting with the fact that it occurred so long ago, and also that it is written by a close family member, who herself knew nothing about this part of her family’s history. With writing this book the author took herself on a journey to learn about her family’s sad past, and she takes her readers along with her.

She is very careful to not say what her ultimate feelings are about the person who was charged and condemned for the brutal murder of the 3 young girls, but I think there are a few hints along the way that let the reader make a good judgment call not just for themselves but also for her feelings on the matter.

The crimes themselves are very sensitively covered, perhaps part in keeping for the fact that 2 of the victims are members of her own family. More than enough information is given though to get an understanding that even in these days this crime would stand out and could possibly have a similar outcome.

And that is the one question this book leaves readers questioning, was the person who confessed and was charged with these crimes the real killer ? I’m not going to say in here other than my own personal feelings, that no he wasn’t the real killer, and again that’s not a spoiler, it’s my opinion.

So it seems a book I initially questioned gaining any enjoyment from, has given me more than its money’s worth, it’s made me think about more than just the crime itself, and to understand that no matter how much we feel we have evolved in our new technological age, we haven’t really stepped that far ahead at all.

Crimes like this still happen, innocent people still go to jail, they still confess to crimes they did not do due to a myriad of reasons, police pressure, mental defect etc and yes, are still put to death. It’s really made me understand just how important is is for the defense to have a trial, to have lawyers and people to help, because some of the accused and even the confessed, are not guilty, and how do we really know which ones are which if they’re not given a fair chance to show it ?

[Heidi · Rating 5 out of 5]

An Uplifting Yet Tragic Story About A Woman Seeking Her Past

Pamela Everett grew up knowing there was a terrible secret in her family's past, but nobody would talk to her about it. She couldn't understand why her father, who was so loving, was so strict about knowing where she was and who she was with at all times. She tried to talk with him and other family members, but they all just became extremely emotional and literally couldn't speak.

So, as an adult she became determined to discover the truth to the story of her family, and why the felt it had to be kept a secret. What she found was the tragic story of t he murder of three little girls on a beautiful day in 1937 by a well known and not unlikable man from their hometown. Two of the little girls were her aunts, which she never knew existed and the third was a friend of theirs.

These three little girls were lured away from a park across the street from their homes and taken allegedly to go hunt rabbits. In reality, they were taken to a barren forge approximately 3 1/2 miles from the park where they were strangled to death and brutally abused. Their bodies were found by a group I p oh boy scouts after an extended search by members of the entire town.

Witnesses said they had seen the girls talking to a man known as Eddie the Sailor the day before and again on the day of their disappearance, blue who was Eddie the Sailor. All anyone really knew was that her could do tricks with rope and bend his hand backwards. Nobody knew who he was. The last time the girls were seen was running from the park singing they were going rabbit hunting, and then a final sighting of three little girls matching their descriptions in a beat up truck driving away towards Ballow Hills and the location where they were later found.

The search started to find the culprit who committed these atrocities, but there was no forensic evidence to tie it to a single person or the evidence had been compromised by the poor control of the crime scene and the handling of the evidence. It wasn't until a local man came forward and confessed to committing the crimes that the police had anything to work with. The only problem was the man had the mental capacity of an eight-year old.

[Barb · Rating 4 out of 5]

“Eyewitness misidentification have lead to 75 percent of the wrongful convictions overturned by DNA evidence in our country.” Pamela Everett
That statement right there should be enough to scare the pants off of all of us as a country. This story is about three murdered little girls, two from the same family. More importantly this story is about a miscarriage of justice, an investigation that was flawed from the very beginning, law enforcement that focused on just one man, Albert Dyer even though there were other men that were better prime suspects.
Pamela Everett never knew her Aunts, they were the unspoken secret of her family. Once she found out about them she began investigating on her own. She longed to know about her Aunts, who they were, what they were like and most importantly what happened to them. This is a very sad but also angering novel. Ms Everett did a wonderful job recounting the search, trial and eventual death of Albert Dyer. She was also able to lovingly recount her family and what they went through during the loss of two young girls. When all is said and done, she felt as if she knew who her Aunts were, loved them, and vowed that others would know the circumstances behind their deaths in 1937.
I think we should all be grateful that it isn’t still 1937 and that we aren’t accused of murder. I also think that the next time there is a murder being sensationalized in the news, I’ll think twice about making any rash assumptions. I would definitely recommend this as a true crime novel.

[Leigh Podgorski · Rating 5 out of 5]

Remarkable Journey

Author Pamela Everett takes you on a remarkable, unforgettable journey with her poignant telling of her own journey in discovering two aunts she never knew she had in Little Shoes:The Sensational Depression-Era Murders That Became My Family's Secret.
Ms. Everett's writing flows with her discoveries, sweeping the reader along. Though decades separate her from the tragic and brutal murders of three precious little girls, her emotions at times are raw as one would expect. How do family members move on from such unimaginable horror? Some do not. But others survive against all odds.
Perhaps as painful, if not more so, is the heart-wrenching story of Albert Dyer, falsely accused of the utterly savage murders and, though thousands protested and begged for mercy for him, put to death.
I have never understood prosecutorial zeal that is rendered deaf, dumb, and blind. Albert Dyer was mentally incapacitated. He had the mind of a nine year old. Yet the prosecution wanted a conviction and even in the face of contrary evidence stuck to that conviction. He confessed nine separate times, but he also recanted. Much of his confessions had incorrect information. Meanwhile, the real slayer of innocence roamed free to kill again.
This is a powerful book beautifully written. Much that happened to Albert Dyer cannot happen today because of positive changes in the law.
I highly recommend joining Ms. Everett on this journey she has so generously shared with us.

[MJ Scott · Rating 4 out of 5]

When Pamela Everett discovers that her father once had 2 sisters whose existence she never knew about she is compelled to learn what happened to them. Propelled by her skills as a former journalist now lawyer and her emotional connection to the victims, the author becomes consumed by the case of the “little shoes” that dominated national headlines in the 1930s when 2 young sisters and a playmate were lured away from a neighborhood park, sexually assaulted and murdered. Through newspaper articles, court records and interviews, she learns of the heart-wrenching upheaval her grandparents, her father and his surviving siblings endured. Soon the police have a suspect, a confession and an angry public demanding justice and Everett finds herself in a difficult situation. Increasingly, she becomes convinced police have the wrong man. With her law background she’s able to distill her reasoning and link it to the larger problem of false confessions and unjust imprisonments. The book is stirring and passionate about the suffering of victims and the shortcomings of the justice system countered by the rush to judgment in sensational cases like the “little shoes” and the need to protect the rights of the accused. It is an uneasy balance but Everett sensitively and persuasively makes the argument in this very personal true crime story.

[Marilyn Shea · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a true crime book told by a person related to two of the child murder victims. As she had only sketchy newspaper articles and court documents to work from, I wondered how she was able to write the courtroom scenes complete with "he looked down at his shoes," and similar touches. So it has elements that were probably invented to help the flow of the story. And it was one of those awful, doomed stories of an accused man so cognitively impaired that he would smile when he thought he was "helping," happy to be the center of attention and little understanding that he was incriminating himself. It seems obvious, from the conflicting evidence and omissions, that he was not the person who committed the murders, and the man who probably did commit them was absent from all but the very first inquiries. These murders and the trial took place in the 1930s but I don't think we as a society have progressed much from that time in terms of assuming a suspect innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt. It still is too common for someone who is a convenient target, often poor, uneducated and unsophisticated, to be railroaded into a guilty verdict. It is a terrifying prospect, to prove one's innocence, when the public and the media have found one guilty.

[Reading Cat · Rating 4 out of 5]

Instead of most true crime, which delves into the gruesome details of the crime for the source of horror, Everett focuses on the real horror having less to do with one particular monster (the killer) than the victims--the young girls who died, the way the crime continued to haunt the family who survived, the whole community, willing to railroad a probably innocent man to the gallows, and the helplessness of an innocent man in the justice system. In that, it's scarier than the usual killer true crime story.

This is a family story, and a legal story (she's both the descendant of the victims and a lawyer and she brings both to bear in her eye on the story.) She pieces together the story from the evidence, analyzing the details and the approaches of the lawyers, and, most touchingly, the photographs, only some of which are shared with the reader. At first, I found myself wanting to see those pictures too (not the gruesome crime scene photos, but the photos of her family) but I realized that there was a real private divide here--some of what she shares with us is incredibly vulnerable. I can't fault her for wanting to keep some of the photos (of the little dresses hanging outside to be chosen for the funeral, for example) for herself. The thousand words she gave was enough.

[Karin · Rating 4 out of 5]

In the summer of 1937, in Inglewood, California, three little girls ( 2 sisters and a friend, ages 6,7 and 8) go missing from a popular park near their homes. Their bodies are found the next day, assaulted and strangled, with their little shoes all lined up near the bodies. An all-out search for the killer begins and, due to pressure from the public, a man is quickly arrested. Albert Dyer is a school crossing guard nearby and has the mental capacity of a 9 or 10 year old. He is easily manipulated to confess to the crime, tried, convicted and sentenced to death. However, many people are sure he is not the killer. Witnesses place others in the area of the crime, including two men with previous convictions for assault and pedophelia. Between the time of the conviction and the scheduled hanging of Albert Dyer, many attempts to clear his name are made, citing bullying by the police prior to the confession, evidence hidden or incorrectly presented and false eye witness accounts. I won’t spoil the end by telling you what happens, but I will say that this is written by the aunt of two of the girls murdered as she tries to find out the truth. Excellent story, maybe bogged down a little by police reports and repetition of events. 4/5