Fall: The Rape and Murder of Innocence in a Small Town

by Ron Franscell

On a chilly autumn night in 1973, Casper, Wyoming’s picturesque steel bridge was the scene of a horrific crime. Two young half-sisters, Amy Burridge and Becky Thomson, were abducted, raped, and thrown from the bridge into the swiftly flowing waters 110 feet below. Author and Casper native Ron Franscell was just a child when the crime shattered his close-knit community, brutally ending the life of one friend and neighbor and forever changing the life of another. Unable to shake the demons of that night, Franscell returns 30 years later to examine the widespread effect of evil and its poisonous effect on the people and town of Casper. A gripping, poignant, and intensely personal narrative, Fall also explores the broader issues of survivor guilt, community justice, and crime’s lingering impact on society as a whole.

Genres: True Crime, Nonfiction, Crime, Audiobook, Mystery, Adult, History

304 pages, Hardcover

First published November 15, 2006

About the author

Ron has written 19 books. His writing has been compared to Truman Capote, Charles Frazier and Robert Olen Butler—diverse, poetic, evocative and muscular. His new DEAF ROW—a mystery—proves it.


He burst onto the crime scene with THE DARKEST NIGHT (also titled FALL in a 2007 hardcover), which continues to be a bestselling true crime. This intensely personal nonfiction about a monstrous crime that touched his life as a child has been hailed by authors such as Ann Rule and Vincent Bugliosi, as well as critics, as a direct literary descendant of Truman Capote's "In Cold Blood."

His widely acclaimed 2016 true crime, MORGUE: A LIFE IN DEATH (co-authored with renowned medical examiner Dr. Vincent Di Maio) was nominated for an Edgar in 2017.

His most recent true crime, "ALICE & GERALD: A HOMICIDAL LOVE STORY" (Prometheus Books) explores a grisly, real-life case of murder and perverse devotion. "Alice & Gerald" features a femme fatale whose manipulative, cold-blooded character rivals Lady Macbeth, this page-turner revisits a shocking cold case that was finally solved just when the murderers thought they'd never be caught.

Over the years, Ron's books have earned high praise from bestselling authors such as Ann Rule, John Lescroart, Vincent Bugliosi, C.J. Box, Howard Frank Mosher, and Warren Adler. His writing has been compared to Truman Capote, Robert Olen Butler, Norman McLean, Cormac McCarthy and Charles Frazier. Now, meet the author, who now lives in northern New Mexico.

But Ron's books aren't confined to true-crime. THE SOURTOE COCKTAIL CLUB is the true story of an extraordinary -- if slightly macabre -- road trip with his teenage son to the Yukon in search of a mummified human toe .. and a father's reassurance that he hasn't become irrelevant to his son.

His CRIME BUFF'S GUIDE books are quirky travel guides that take true-crime and history-trippers to some 400 outlaw- and crime-related sites all over the USA. Editions include Los Angeles, Texas, Colorado, Arizona, New Mexico, Pennsylvania, Wyoming, Washington DC, and Maryland.

His debut novel, ANGEL FIRE, was published by Laughing Owl in 1998, and reprinted by Berkley (Penguin/Putnam) in 2000. His popular mystery, THE DEADLINE, was re-published in 2014 by WildBlue Press, followed by a sequel, THE OBITUARY. His book reviews and essays are regularly published in many of America's biggest and best newspapers, such as the Washington Post, Chicago Sun-Times, San Francisco Chronicle, Denver Post, San Jose Mercury-News, St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel and others.

DELIVERED FROM EVIL (2011) explores the entangled lives of mass-murderers and their victims, tracing the lives of 10 ordinary people who survived some of America's worst massacres. Auspiciously, it debuted on the day a deranged young gunman killed six and wounded 13 at a Tucson supermarket in one of the most shocking crimes of our day.

Reviews

[Elle G. Reads · Rating 4 out of 5]

:: 3.5 Horrific Stars ::

This book details the heartbreaking, true account of the abduction of two sisters- one who was murdered and the other was left for dead. Franscell (the author) does a good job describing what happened on that horrific night and pays tribute to both of the victims in a caring way. This is how all true crime books should be written! I feel like the author did his research really well with this book and most of the facts seem to be legit according to fellow reviewers and those who knew the victims. Also, the author gave us some good information about the killers so we could get a feel for who they were and what may have lead up to this unspeakable crime.

The only downside of this book for me was that we got a lot of information about Becky (one of the sisters who was left for dead) and only a small amount on the younger sister, Amy. I really feel like we should have heard a bit more about her as to pay tribute to her.

All in all though, this is a good true crime book that will leave readers horrified. The two men who committed this crime are clearly monsters and I have no sympathy for either one of them. The book is told well- in three different parts. Part 1 focuses on where everything happened, part 2 describes the crime, and part 3 describes the aftermath of everything and how Becky’s life played out after it. It is not confusing by any means, and it is not long and drawn out with facts that don’t pertain to the actual happenings of that night. If you enjoy a good true crime book than this one may be for you!

[Jeanette · Rating 3 out of 5]

Terrible and horrific rape and murder in 1973 in Casper WY. Told with immense detail and decades of aftermath. Repetitive and sopping with melodramatic side bars. This dwelt on the states and mental health of the perpetrators as much as it did on the victims. The victim who lived through this nightmare committing suicide decades later.

Just not my style of writing preferred for this genre. Too verbose and endlessly effusive to dozens of others' reactions. Determinant facts are there but too difficult to focus primarily on them. Probably made it even harder on the one living victim.

[Stephanie · Rating 2 out of 5]

Despite the alleged title, this one is "The Darkest Night." Here's the scoop: two sisters in a small town in Wyoming (already scary to me) go to the store at 9 p.m. and come out to find a flat tire and two guys are there to offer help. They take them out in the boonies, throw the 8 year old off a bridge (down 120+ feet to the Platte River below) then rape the 18 year old and toss her over as well. Well, guess what? She lived to ID them, testified, etc. The two guys were just the scum of the earth, and just when you think maybe she can get on with her life, she goes to a psychiatrist and he molests or rapes her, but she thinks no one will believe her...it is just gruesome. So, about when you feel like you have had all you can take of her sadness, she spirals into depression and sadness, booze and pills, and commits suicide - BY JUMPING OFF THAT SAME BRIDGE. Holy crap. Pretty well written, and another one that reminds me how easily I might have met a similar fate -- too trusting. Just recently I stopped to talk to a man at the State Park and he offered to show me the insterior of his motor home, and I WENT IN - with no clue if he was a serial killer or what...so, the best advice is, just keep yelling to yourself "DON'T GO INTO THE BASEMENT!" I mean, really, there ARE people like the 2 guys that "helped" these two females in their idyllic little town...so just to be safe, don't trust ANYONE...

[The Girl with the Sagittarius Tattoo · Rating 3 out of 5]

The facts surrounding this True Crime tragedy seem unreal. It was a pretty huge case that made international news at the time, and I understand why. Even if this happened today it would be shocking.

In Casper, Wyoming back in 1973, half-sisters Amy, 11, and Becky, 18, were targeted by two men outside a convenience store. While the girls were inside shopping, their car was sabotaged. The flat tires gave the men a chance to swoop in and offer the girls a ride home.

The men drove the girls to a bridge twelve stories over the North Platte River. They pulled the 11yo from the car and threw her off the bridge; no hesitation. Then the men took turns beating and raping the older sister before they pushed her off the bridge, too. Becky survived but her little sister did not.

It's impossible to imagine what Becky endured and then suffered from survivor's guilt. The description of the court trial is straight out of any victim's nightmares. Predictably, Becky's life was never the same after that night. She struggled with drugs and alcohol for decades before seeking therapy. Incredibly, she believed she was attacked AGAIN, this time by her shrink while under sedation! It pushed her past the breaking point. Becky jumped from the same bridge that nearly killed her twenty years before, but this time, she did die.

Becky's story is nearly too incredible for belief. The only things that help explain it are the When and the Where. This was 1973 - practically the dark ages for law enforcement, criminal justice, and addiction and mental health services. My impression of Wyoming is of a hyper-rural state; millions of acres of cattle land and rocky, mountainous terrain. I imagine there's so few people living there that crimes like rape and murder hardly happen. I mean, what quality and quantity of resources would we expect there, especially at that time?

The whole story is heartbreaking, but the book is well written. Ron Franscell is one of the stronger True Crime authors, imho. Worth reading for those with strong stomachs or TC aficionados.

[Sheila · Rating 3 out of 5]

3 stars--I liked the book. Content warning for rape/abuse.

I don't read a lot of true crime, but this one is notable for its focus on people's lives, not the gory details of the crime. A terrible tale of a heinous act and lives destroyed, told with compassion.

[LibraryCin · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.75 stars

In a town in Wyoming in 1973, 18-year old Becky and her 11-year old sister Amy went to pick up some groceries. By the next morning, Amy was dead in a canyon, thrown of a high bridge, and Becky somehow managed to survive the night with a broken pelvis after having been raped and also thrown off the bridge. The author was the girls’ neighbour. The book not only looks at the crime, but it also looks at Becky and Amy’s lives, the lives of the two convicted murderers/rapists, and the author thinks back on his own life in the small town where it happened.

The first half of the book was the most interesting, where it focused on the crime and aftermath, including the trial. The next part of the book follows Becky’s life, as well as Ronnie’s and Jerry’s, in jail for their crimes. The books slips a little (at least I found it less interesting) as it looks closely at an autobiography written by Ronnie; as the author scrutinizes the autobiography, it becomes more clear why he includes as much of it as he does in the book. But, it is due to this section that I brought my rating down to just under 4 stars.

[Tooter · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 Stars

[Lisa · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was eight years old when the crime in this book occurred in Casper where I lived. My parents must have done a good job of sheltering me from what happened because I don’t remember hearing about until my late teens at the earliest. It was surreal reading this. The sheriff at the time, Ray Clark, lived across the alley from us. The police chief, Zipay, had a daughter who was in my class in elementary school and lived about two blocks away. One of Becky Thomson’s coworkers at KVOC was a good friend’s dad. I don’t read a lot of true crime,so I don’t have many examples to which I can compare this, but I thought it was well written - beyond just the facts that I would have expected from a journalist.

[Bill reilly · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thomas Wolfe famously wrote that you can’t go home again. Ron Franscell did precisely that when he decided to go back to his childhood home of Casper, Wyoming to investigate a crime from thirty years previous. A police report of September 1973 was his starting point. Eighteen year-old Becky Thomson and her eleven year-old sister Amy were shopping at a local store and discovered a flat tire on the family car. Two men offered help but then abducted them at knife point. Becky was raped and Amy was killed. Becky was thrown off of a canyon bridge, but survived, despite a 120 foot plunge and broken legs. She pulled herself up the canyon and was rescued by a couple driving by. Her sister Amy was later found in the river by an EMT diver. It was his last dive, due to continuing nightmares. Two suspects were quickly arrested based on Becky’s descriptions at the first interview. Jerry Jenkins placed all of the blame on his partner, Ron Kennedy. A change of venue was necessary due to death threats. Wyoming has a long history of vigilantism. At the trial, Becky Thomson was the first witness. She identified the men and described the rape and the bridge toss to a rapt jury. I just had my own experience as a juror and the six days gave me a deeper understanding of the process. My case was a home invasion and robbery, but the logistics were similar. They were not dealing with the still unsolved Jack the Ripper case, but instead with two morons with Becky’s blood in their car; a virtual slam dunk of a trial. The more vicious of the two criminals, Ron Kennedy, was raised in a Dickensian household with no running water and an outhouse. His mother worked as a dishwasher and his father was mostly unemployed and drunk. A shrink testified that Ronald was antisocial, but not legally insane. He understood right from wrong. Jerry Jenkins childhood was equally bad with a drunken father and whore mother (like Charles Manson) whose promiscuous lifestyle traumatized the future killer. The jury had to decide whether these mitigating circumstances were enough to deny capital punishment. Kennedy’s mother Hilda prayed to Mary and the saints for the souls of her son and for those of Amy and Becky. My feelings are mixed regarding the death penalty due to mistakes (read John Grisham’s The Innocent Man) and someone being executed by the state in error. In this particular case, I would have tied the two men together and thrown them off of the same bridge where the crime occurred; a proper burial at sea. The law works in mysterious ways, and it did in this case. As expected, Becky’s life was turbulent after the trial; drugs, alcohol and a failed marriage. Franscell posts excerpts from Kennedy’s prison autobiography. The unpublished memoir is a self serving, delusional mess. Ronald is not Oscar Wilde or O. Henry. The tales contained within are worthy of Stephen King’s imagination. Franscell writes with great passion, as he was a neighbor of Becky and Amy on that fateful night in 1973. The tragedy haunted him and the result is this excellent book

[Andrea · Rating 2 out of 5]

Very sad true story, of two young sisters who are kidnapped by two drunken men outside a convenience store, on the whim of one man because he finds the older sister attractive. The story covers the rape of the older sister, then how both girls were thrown off a bridge into a gorge 40m down, in the middle of the night, in order to kill them to prevent them identifying the men. The older sister miraculously survives and testifies at their trial etc...

However the story is definitely not put across in the best way. The writing is appalling! For someone who claims to be a journalist, I am amazed at how badly written this book is. The editor should also be out of work! There are so many contradictions throughout the book, I found myself re-reading sentences just to find out what was being said. For example: "His mother, Dorothy, who didn't drink or smoke but certainly wasn't religious, occasionally worked as a maid, but mostly did nothing beyond drink and bang other men".... Hang On a minute, didn't that sentence start with 'didn't drink', and yet before the sentence is even over she's drinking....and this is throughout the book.

I read to the end just because I wanted to know what happened to the older sister....but it was truly a struggle not to throw the boom out the window for how badly written it is.

[Kerri · Rating 4 out of 5]

While looking for a book to read set in Wyoming, I came across this true crime story about the horrific events of September 25, 1973 in Casper, WY. While on a quick trip to pick up some items at the local convenience store, two sisters come out of the store to find their car has a flat tire. They are grateful when two men offer to help them, but quickly the night takes a turn. Abducted at knifepoint, the terrified girls are beaten and taken to a nearby bridge, where 11-year-old Amy is thrown over the side to the canyon deep below. 18-year-old Becky is brutally raped, then thrown over the bridge as well. Miraculously, Becky survives the 1973 fall - but ultimately takes her own life at the same bridge 20 years later, never able to overcome the survivors’ guilt she lived with for the rest of her life. Written by a neighbor of the family who grew up with the girls, this story was horribly sad and infuriating in the portrayal of the two men who committed the crime - one of whom continues to serve his life sentence and maintain that he was the real victim.

I don’t know that I’ll ever visit Casper, WY, but I’m glad this book exists to remind people of the bridge’s sad history.

Tagged with a spoiler warning because even though this is a true story, I did not know of Becky’s eventual death until I read the book and others might deem that a spoiler. EDIT: I just saw this actually is mentioned in the synopsis so I guess it’s not a spoiler and I just missed this haha. Will keep the spoiler warning though for those like me who apparently might not have the best reading comprehension

[Fishface · Rating 4 out of 5]

Finally, a little relief from the "plucky survivor brings inspiration to all" theme that plagues the true-crime genre. This was an act of rare ugliness and I like that the author, a neighbor kid a little older than the younger victim and a little younger than the older one at the time it happened, really drew a picture of what it was like for the girls next door and for their family. Aren't they the ones who really count here? He also shows the perps for what they are, just by letting them speak for themselves. This book could have really used a final copyediting to clear up the redundancies and mangled metaphors, but the story comes through loud and clear.

[Cynthia Sillitoe · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a heartbreaking case, but I felt the narrative didn't weave together as seamlessly as I would have liked. One highlight is the prison autobiography of one of the suspects. It's a primer in the megalomania of a sociopath.

[Jill Crosby · Rating 3 out of 5]

Author gets a little too overblown with the prose; he really forces his metaphors and waxes almost too philosophical about crime, justice & death. He devotes too much time and effort printing and dissecting portions of convicted Ronald Kennedy's "autobiography."

[Louis · Rating 4 out of 5]

Why do some books come to look so cheap, feel so distasteful, and seem so unqualified?

This book deserves a new edition, at least an upgrade to the cover…

Anyways, this is a powerful story written by a boy who lived next door from the victims. It goes well beyond the conventional crime stuff and offers insights into various tangentially related obscurities that are well worth the time for anyone interested in all that which matters in life. It is a sad story, one that does not end with the crime…


“When she burst through the placid surface of the deep river, the night air swept into and over her. It was near freezing but still warmer than the water and felt like her mother’s hand on her face… It’s all right, baby, breathe, breathe… but her mother wasn’t there.”

“Casper's chinook is a "witch's wind." In fact, back in the Seventies, some university researcher postulated that Casper's unrelenting wind contributed to the town's high per-capita suicide rate.Tiny electric particles in the air - negative and positive ions - were capable of arousing a community-wide feeling of well-being on calm days... or, if the positively charged wind were blowing, totally inexplicable fits of anxiety, depression, physical illness and bottomless despair.
Wind has almost never been shaped by man, but it has helped shape men and their places.
The steel veins of railroads carried essential nutrients to build the American West: wood, food, supplies and more settlers. Towns tended to be planted beside the rails, and then spread outward. Eventually, those rails divided the more prosperous half of town from the poorer half, “the wrong side of the tracks.”
What made one side of the tracks “wrong”?
Wind.”

“So to grow up in Casper was to grow up windblown. It was to know the sound of loose windows clattering against their frames, to lift the hem of your coat over your head to make a sail that would glide you home from school, to always carry a pocket comb, to dig a tunnel from your front door through two-story drifts, to laugh at dogs who howled when they heard the wind whistle in chimney flues, to grow up with more grit than most in the dead end of your gut, to hear your outlander grandfather say, while visiting on vacation, "goddamn fucking wind."

“You will hear how Amy was thrown from the bridge over Fremont Canyon simply to eliminate her as a witness to the rape of her older sister on the night of rape for fun. You will hear how Becky was forcibly raped but one then the other, and then thrown off the same bridge. You will hear how after that night of rape for fun was ever, the defendants returned to their wives and families.”

“Many years after Becky was sexually assaulted, thrown off a bridge, and again molested by a psychiatrist, Becky’s boss kept her on a tight leash, calling her throughout the day, pushing her to make more sales calls, pump up her numbers, break the sales quotas etc. It was meaningless, boring, and disrespectful.”

“She died of sadness. She died because she always thought she should be dead and her sister should be alive. She was suffocated by the prospect of her tormentors’ freedom. She died because she had already been murdered many years before. She fell from such a height that it took nineteen years to hit the bottom. Becky’s ashes were buried atop Amy’s coffin, and a new stone bore both of their names - together in death, at last - was later placed on the grave. She was only thirty-seven when she died the second time. She had lived the last nineteen years of her life in the shadow of that bridge, that crime.”

“What makes a survivor?
The first ingredient is calamity. After a dark night of the spirit, survival is genuine dawn, where we can begin to trust in an orderly and predictable universe again.
Some never survive until dawn, and others survive but never see it.
True survivors of extreme adversity - war, a life-threatening disease, rape, murder, childhood abuse and terrorism, to name a few - are able to repair themselves. The rest die physically, emotionally or both.”

[Kelly Parker · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a recounting of what is generally considered to be the worst crime in Wyoming history by the people who live there, which is saying something since they’ve got Matthew Shepard and the doc who raped half the town to consider as well.
Two low-lives abducted a pair of sisters at a convenience store, raped the older one, and threw them both off a bridge. Too bad for them that one of the girls lived to tell about it.
This was a horrific story, the kind that makes you not want to ever leave your house.

[Edwina Book Anaconda · Rating 3 out of 5]

"Pain is the price we pay for memory."

This is the true story of a little girl murdered to keep her silent and of the sister who survived rape and attempted murder to tell the tale.

Written by the "boy next door" over 30 years later.

More info here:
http://casperjournal.com/news/article...

[Ryan · Rating 5 out of 5]

I heard about this one first on a radio program detailing the crime, so I already knew how it would end. Still, the author has a way of telling this story that really appealed to me. Obviously, don't read this one if you are not prepared to hear details of a horrific crime, but also understand that there is a lot of healing and reflection in these pages as well.

[Diane · Rating 3 out of 5]

Heart wrenching, awful true crime story which the author fully covered. I just didn’t love his style of writing or the fact that no pictures of any of the major players or the environment were included, unlike most true crime novels.

[Anita Heveron · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very good true crime. Although the author meanders sometimes, he paints a mostly unbiased version of a horrific crime