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The Unforgiven: The Untold Story of One Woman's Search for Love and Justice
It's a case reminiscent of the explosive story of Susan Smith, convicted in the drownings of her two young sons in South Carolina. But in "The Unforgiven", three young children are in the back seat of a car driven by Amanda Hamm's boyfriend as it slips into an Illinois lake. Amanda and her boyfriend survive. Her three children do not.
The question of whether it was a horrible accident or a murderous plot divided family and friends and traumatized the entire community. The brief but intense police investigation included seven interviews Hamm voluntarily gave police without the benefit of counsel. The outcome remains controversial to this day and comes full circle with state child welfare workers' concern about children born to Hamm since the fateful day at Clinton Lake.
"The Unforgiven" co-author and journalist Edith Brady-Lunny covered the case from start-to-finish, beginning the night of the drownings. Her co-author Steve Vogel lives nearby. His "Reasonable Doubt", considered a true crime classic, was a New York Times best-seller. Together they have extensive first-hand knowledge of the case and access to nearly every record related to the court proceedings.
The question of whether it was a horrible accident or a murderous plot divided family and friends and traumatized the entire community. The brief but intense police investigation included seven interviews Hamm voluntarily gave police without the benefit of counsel. The outcome remains controversial to this day and comes full circle with state child welfare workers' concern about children born to Hamm since the fateful day at Clinton Lake.
"The Unforgiven" co-author and journalist Edith Brady-Lunny covered the case from start-to-finish, beginning the night of the drownings. Her co-author Steve Vogel lives nearby. His "Reasonable Doubt", considered a true crime classic, was a New York Times best-seller. Together they have extensive first-hand knowledge of the case and access to nearly every record related to the court proceedings.
270 pages, Kindle Edition
Published May 3, 2019
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91 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 18 of 18 reviews
January 8, 2022
4 Stars
June 3, 2019
No Justice for Three innocent Children
The book is well.written but the author is too bias toward the mother like she is the victim. No, three children were. It kept me awake at night seeing little hands pounding on a back window screaming for their mother to help as the car sunk. She didn't. Forgive?. That is hard . God is the judge. Amanda knows what really happened and God was watching. She will have to answer and the truth will be revealed.
The book is well.written but the author is too bias toward the mother like she is the victim. No, three children were. It kept me awake at night seeing little hands pounding on a back window screaming for their mother to help as the car sunk. She didn't. Forgive?. That is hard . God is the judge. Amanda knows what really happened and God was watching. She will have to answer and the truth will be revealed.
January 13, 2020
I enjoyed this book. I did not know about this case but I sure remember Susan Smith - and when I saw her begging for the person to be found that sent her children into the lake - and saying “something isn’t right with this”.
That being said, and if you remember that case as I did, I didn’t think this very sad case was the same. I was even more saddened by what happened after Amanda was trying to move on with her life. Our legal system just has so many different doors and depts and a lot of times I wonder if “we” or those in positions to make the final call get it right. I just hope the children thrive and have wonderful lives.
That being said, and if you remember that case as I did, I didn’t think this very sad case was the same. I was even more saddened by what happened after Amanda was trying to move on with her life. Our legal system just has so many different doors and depts and a lot of times I wonder if “we” or those in positions to make the final call get it right. I just hope the children thrive and have wonderful lives.
May 21, 2024
Thought provoking--especially if you like true crime and social issues.
July 3, 2020
What a circular tragedy
Unlike the mass saturation of the Susan Smith case I had never heard about this terrible tragedy of similar proportions. At its heart is a young single mother with no clear motive for wanting to do her three babies harm. I guess that's what kept me up for hours, trying to decide if she was guilty and if so of what charge? Certainly, the authors have done their homework leading you up to the last sad denouement of this case. No spoilers but was equal justice served for both Maurice and Amanda? Someone in the book noted she was a loving but unskilled mother. Is that what this case books down to in the end? No one knows for certain how they will react to tragedy until they live it. Is it safe for others to judge what looks "fake" and what seems genuine? A-Man-Duh. Did her desperate need to have a man at her side trump everything else or did she just have a knack for picking losers (look how soon Kyleigh's dad split). Lots of verbatim trial but the book still held my interest and was thought provoking to say the least.
Unlike the mass saturation of the Susan Smith case I had never heard about this terrible tragedy of similar proportions. At its heart is a young single mother with no clear motive for wanting to do her three babies harm. I guess that's what kept me up for hours, trying to decide if she was guilty and if so of what charge? Certainly, the authors have done their homework leading you up to the last sad denouement of this case. No spoilers but was equal justice served for both Maurice and Amanda? Someone in the book noted she was a loving but unskilled mother. Is that what this case books down to in the end? No one knows for certain how they will react to tragedy until they live it. Is it safe for others to judge what looks "fake" and what seems genuine? A-Man-Duh. Did her desperate need to have a man at her side trump everything else or did she just have a knack for picking losers (look how soon Kyleigh's dad split). Lots of verbatim trial but the book still held my interest and was thought provoking to say the least.
December 16, 2019
I remember when this happened. It was a local story and people were PISSED. Im a little disappointed in the book because I feel like it sympathizes with Amanda.
May 12, 2020
This author is definitely no Ann Rule
This book was written well. It kept my interest. The mother in this book got what she deserved. Her second set of children should be supervised by her whole family because she'd already proven that she was not trustworthy or a good mom.
This book was written well. It kept my interest. The mother in this book got what she deserved. Her second set of children should be supervised by her whole family because she'd already proven that she was not trustworthy or a good mom.
January 8, 2021
A story about the suspicious drowning of three small children. The suspicion that the mother and boyfriend planned and carried out this horrific event. The boyfriend was convicted of the three murders while the mother was able to be exonerated.
Read
February 9, 2023I personally think the "Non-fiction" book should be labeled fiction because I know some facts even about the author personally and she should of asked if it was ok to lie about myself in the book..But that's just me personally..my regards to Edith and what she stands for.
June 27, 2019
Tragic turn of events
My heart goes out to the families of these children. Too often they are the innocents that are abused neglected or in this case murdered because they are perceived as barriers in turbulent relationships. I can't think about their final moments. As a mother and a grandmother i might drown as well but I would have died trying to save my children. Their excuses made no sense. Amanda got off with a slap on the hand for her roll. How her mother took her side over her grandbabies I'll never understand. She doesn't want to accept what her daughter has done so denial is her best defense. Forgiveness is all together a different act. These children are with God and can never feel fear or danger again. This author is well versed and the pages flowed. An in depth account of the story and all its players.
My heart goes out to the families of these children. Too often they are the innocents that are abused neglected or in this case murdered because they are perceived as barriers in turbulent relationships. I can't think about their final moments. As a mother and a grandmother i might drown as well but I would have died trying to save my children. Their excuses made no sense. Amanda got off with a slap on the hand for her roll. How her mother took her side over her grandbabies I'll never understand. She doesn't want to accept what her daughter has done so denial is her best defense. Forgiveness is all together a different act. These children are with God and can never feel fear or danger again. This author is well versed and the pages flowed. An in depth account of the story and all its players.
May 3, 2019
The Unforgiven tells the sad and infuriating story of two people whose “unforgivable” act ensnares them in the machinery of law enforcement as it plays out in a small community in the mid-west. The authors tell the tale masterfully in an understated news style – clear, crisp, direct – and propel a gripping narrative.
The book begins as Amanda Hamm pleads for arriving emergency personnel to save her children, submerged inside a car in the murky waters of a lake where she and her boyfriend, Maurice LaGrone, Jr, have taken her two young boys and baby girl to play.
Maurice has parked their car on the boat ramp only a few feet from the water, and when he tries to back up the ramp, the car slides forward beneath the surface. Amanda and Maurice manage to get out but do not free the kids. Amanda runs to a nearby pay phone to call 911 and hysterically beg for help. The children drown before emergency responders can save them.
This is a short version of the event that drives the story. Amanda and Maurice tell the emergency personnel the accident happened so quickly, they can’t say how and why. Police, family and community have increasingly probing questions and quickly form opinions, draw conclusions and make accusations. Why did Maurice park so close to the water? Why didn’t the car back up the ramp as it should have? More important, how is it possible a mother would let her young children drown without exhausting every effort to reach and save them? Was this really an accident?
The authors excel at capturing background and context: the difficult and painful early lives of the two lovers; the prejudices and pressures on them from the community; and the inability of police and prosecutors to deviate from their theory (ossified into belief) of what the “crime” is. Their ability to detail and pull all these threads together is impressive.
Neither the solid prose nor the meticulous detail should be surprising. Edith Brady-Lunny is a reporter who covered the trials, and Steve Vogel is a former journalist who wrote a best-selling book about another murder trial in the same part of Illinois several decades ago. They appear to have had access to all transcripts of the investigation and trial and have done many interviews themselves, amassing a vast trove of information they’ve reduced to this taut, engrossing 250-page account.
What most infuriates me in this story, in terms of the current discussion of “prosecutorial overreach,” is the power of law enforcement to do whatever is necessary – cajole, lie, cheat and threaten – to make sure they reach the ends they have determined. Winning, coach Lombardi once said, is not the most important thing: it’s the only thing. The authors capture this perspective subtly and brilliantly. They make me reflect on where truth lies in a winner-take-all judicial system heavily tilted in favor of law enforcement.
The book makes you think, but it does not preach. It lets the reader draw conclusions based on complex and interwoven facts and all the players in the narrative have ample opportunity to explain their actions. In the courtroom scenes we get insightful commentary of expert witnesses that bring deeper understanding of Amanda.
This book provides the most compelling picture I’ve seen why one should never, ever talk to the police without a lawyer. The duplicitous games played by the police on Amanda in numerous, lengthy interviews – all freely given by her without legal counsel – were used against her disastrously at trial.
Given the story of Amanda and Maurice compiled by the authors, I’m convinced the events following the tragic deaths of the three children, might well not have happened except for two facts: both are poor, and Maurice was a black man living in an all-white town.
I am going to leave to readers of this excellent book the facts of the last few chapters, which are perhaps even more crazy than the whole story that has gone before. It’s worth reading just to get to this unsettling end, showing that there are things in the big city that rival the asymmetrical power of law enforcement in a small town.
The book begins as Amanda Hamm pleads for arriving emergency personnel to save her children, submerged inside a car in the murky waters of a lake where she and her boyfriend, Maurice LaGrone, Jr, have taken her two young boys and baby girl to play.
Maurice has parked their car on the boat ramp only a few feet from the water, and when he tries to back up the ramp, the car slides forward beneath the surface. Amanda and Maurice manage to get out but do not free the kids. Amanda runs to a nearby pay phone to call 911 and hysterically beg for help. The children drown before emergency responders can save them.
This is a short version of the event that drives the story. Amanda and Maurice tell the emergency personnel the accident happened so quickly, they can’t say how and why. Police, family and community have increasingly probing questions and quickly form opinions, draw conclusions and make accusations. Why did Maurice park so close to the water? Why didn’t the car back up the ramp as it should have? More important, how is it possible a mother would let her young children drown without exhausting every effort to reach and save them? Was this really an accident?
The authors excel at capturing background and context: the difficult and painful early lives of the two lovers; the prejudices and pressures on them from the community; and the inability of police and prosecutors to deviate from their theory (ossified into belief) of what the “crime” is. Their ability to detail and pull all these threads together is impressive.
Neither the solid prose nor the meticulous detail should be surprising. Edith Brady-Lunny is a reporter who covered the trials, and Steve Vogel is a former journalist who wrote a best-selling book about another murder trial in the same part of Illinois several decades ago. They appear to have had access to all transcripts of the investigation and trial and have done many interviews themselves, amassing a vast trove of information they’ve reduced to this taut, engrossing 250-page account.
What most infuriates me in this story, in terms of the current discussion of “prosecutorial overreach,” is the power of law enforcement to do whatever is necessary – cajole, lie, cheat and threaten – to make sure they reach the ends they have determined. Winning, coach Lombardi once said, is not the most important thing: it’s the only thing. The authors capture this perspective subtly and brilliantly. They make me reflect on where truth lies in a winner-take-all judicial system heavily tilted in favor of law enforcement.
The book makes you think, but it does not preach. It lets the reader draw conclusions based on complex and interwoven facts and all the players in the narrative have ample opportunity to explain their actions. In the courtroom scenes we get insightful commentary of expert witnesses that bring deeper understanding of Amanda.
This book provides the most compelling picture I’ve seen why one should never, ever talk to the police without a lawyer. The duplicitous games played by the police on Amanda in numerous, lengthy interviews – all freely given by her without legal counsel – were used against her disastrously at trial.
Given the story of Amanda and Maurice compiled by the authors, I’m convinced the events following the tragic deaths of the three children, might well not have happened except for two facts: both are poor, and Maurice was a black man living in an all-white town.
I am going to leave to readers of this excellent book the facts of the last few chapters, which are perhaps even more crazy than the whole story that has gone before. It’s worth reading just to get to this unsettling end, showing that there are things in the big city that rival the asymmetrical power of law enforcement in a small town.
May 24, 2019
I love true crime and this book contains all the ingredients that make for a compelling story: Innocent victims, shock that divided a small town, intrigue, the search for justice (and its possible miscarriage), racial tensions, and more.
The Unforgiven tells the story of Amanda Hamm and her three young children. One night Hamm's boyfriend, Maurice LaGrone Jr., drove the group to a lake near home. As the five got ready to depart, instead of putting the car in reverse, LaGrone drove the car into the lake, where the children drowned. Was it a horrible accident or premeditated murder???
Authors Edith Brady-Lunny and Steve Vogel are former journalists who sifted through countless interviews and trial transcripts to put together a vivid, but factual telling of Hamm's story. The narrative is captivating and the heartbreak is real.
Highly recommend!
The Unforgiven tells the story of Amanda Hamm and her three young children. One night Hamm's boyfriend, Maurice LaGrone Jr., drove the group to a lake near home. As the five got ready to depart, instead of putting the car in reverse, LaGrone drove the car into the lake, where the children drowned. Was it a horrible accident or premeditated murder???
Authors Edith Brady-Lunny and Steve Vogel are former journalists who sifted through countless interviews and trial transcripts to put together a vivid, but factual telling of Hamm's story. The narrative is captivating and the heartbreak is real.
Highly recommend!
May 8, 2019
For a local book that appears to be self published it was very well done. Definitely have a better understanding of what happened. What I found most interesting was the use of the death penalty option which may have been in play only because it forced the state to help pay the cost of the prosecution and defense. Also they spent $80,000 of tax payer money on a reenactment video? Yikes. Amazing the amount of resources that were wasted on these worthless people. They struck me as not malevolent, but just stupid, careless, and broken. I would have liked to hear more from Amanda today. Since the author said they were in touch. Does she have any insight into her behavior and what she allowed to happen?
May 5, 2019
A factual, objective account of a tragic event that changed the lives of an entire community. The timeline follows the death of three children and the two resulting criminal cases against the mother and her boyfriend. The book leaves it up to the reader to decide whether a tragic accident occurred or premeditated murder. And most importantly, we see the criminal justice system from the perspective of two people whose circumstances put them most at risk of disservice.
July 24, 2019
This is a very well written and researched true story. At Clinton Lake, outside Clinton, Il., not far from my home a mother of three and her boyfriend are accused of driving her car into the lake drowning her three children. Both stand trial, accused of murder. I remember the incident and the nightly news reports. A sad subject, but a very good novel.
May 11, 2019
Amazing true-crime story about the drowning deaths of three children and how their mother's grief was compounded by decisions of the state's legal system. Well-researched and poignantly written by two award-winning Illinois journalists.
October 16, 2019
Unbiased Author Horrific Adults Behavior “Drowned Children” Reminds Reader Of Susan Smith Crime! The Mother’s LIGHT Sentence Is An INJUSTICE! What Do You Expect From Evil People Behavior? Author Writing Is Above Par For True Crime!
April 24, 2019
Hooked after the first sentence, lots of behind the scene stuff never published before.
Displaying 1 - 18 of 18 reviews