Blood Will Tell: A True Story of Deadly Obsession

by Joseph Bosco

In the early morning of February 24, 1984, Janet Cannon Myers, a beautiful young mother, poet, and dancer, was found dead, lying amid an explosion on her living-room floor. There were only two men in the whole world who could possibly have committed the deed: her husband, Kerry, and one of his closest friends, Bill Fontanille. The media blitz immediately after the murder featured stories of a badly injured, grieving husband, an all-night fight-and-hostage situation as he vainly tried to protect his family, his desperate call to the police, and charges against Bill Fontanille (the scorned lover?) for attacking Kerry Myers, almost killing his two-and-a-half-year-old son, and bludgeoning to death Kerry's wife. But upon close examination of Kerry's and Bill's statements to the police, the prosecutor's office found a troubling coincidence: Their accounts of what happened were virtual mirror images, the stories all but identical, except that each accused the other of attacking him with either a knife or a bat immediately upon entry into the Myers house that late Thursday afternoon. Each man vowed his innocence; in fact, each man said he hadn't even seen Janet during that long evening, much less her corpse. After four grand juries and three trials over seven years, both men were sent to prison, yet no one - including the judge and jury who convicted them and the district attorney's office that prosecuted them - has been able to determine who did what to whom and why. Perhaps until now, that is. Through hundreds of interviews, exhaustive research in thousands of pages of documents, and exclusive access to both Kerry Myers and Bill Fontanille, Joe Bosco has done what the media, the courts, and all the family members and friends of the victim and the suspects have never been able to do - break open the sordid vault that holds so many of even the best family's secrets and lay bare all that is necessary for you to understand and then render your verdict upon what actually

Genres: True Crime, Nonfiction

575 pages, Hardcover

First published October 1, 1993

Reviews

[Rita · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was a mind-blower. The author grabbed my attention from the start and I powered through it. I highly recommend it.

[Chuck Moles · Rating 1 out of 5]

INTERESTING STORY-POOR PRESENTATION

The book recounts the horrific murder of a young woman in New Orleans back in 1974. Though the heartbreaking story of the tragedy is sufficient to maintain one’s interest, there’s quite a lot to not like about this book.

To begin with, little of the book was actually written by Bosco. The overwhelming bulk of the book comes from word for word transcriptions of the 911 call on the night of the murder, testimony from the trials, contents of documents and a number of after-the-fact interviews. The first ten pages are a transcription of the 911 call, then the book ends with the very long transcript of the second trial. In spite of its significance, this made for a boring climax, and within the chapter labeled “Spatter” I found myself skipping paragraphs and pages just to get to something of substance.

When Bosco does write, he overuses the term “the baseball bat murder.” Claiming lamely that it was known as such in Southern Louisiana, whenever Bosco strays from the transcription of some other source, he inserts this phrase. He does it over, and over and over again. It’s sleazy, it’s tabloid-style, it’s irritating, it’s amateurish, it’s unprofessional and it’s disrespectful to both the victim and, in wholly another sense, to the reader. He could have used “the crime”, “the murder”, “the tragedy” or some other descriptive term. Sense anyone reading the book would know what it was about, there was no reason for the repetitive reference to “the baseball bat murder.” At one point where Bosco wrote a couple of paragraphs back-to-back, he uses the term in each. I’m surprised that the editor at William Morrow and Company, Inc. let this pass. Perhaps they wanted sleaze, as the title on the cover of my copy is Blood will Tell – A True Story of Deadly Obsession whereas the title of the book as it appears inside is Blood will Tell – A True Story of Deadly Lust in New Orleans. Having read the book, I don’t think either of the lurid subtitles are justified.

Another flaw relates to the diagram included of the house in which Janet Myers was killed. The caption indicates that it was provided by the police. Noticeably absent is the location of the phone. This would seem to be a mistake by both the police and Bosco, as its location was important to understanding what happened that night. Its location would have clarified what could be seen from the caller.

There were two more things which I found annoying. The first was the failure to include dates as the story progressed. Given the way in which months and years passed during the course of the story, it would have helped significantly to have been given a more clearer perspective of the progression. Finally, at least twice in the book Bosco refers to one of the defense attorneys as “yodeling” when he spoke in court. Besides revealing a bias it again illustrates a lack of professionalism in presentation. While I usually read 40-50 books a year, I don’t read a lot of from the “true crime” genre. Perhaps Bosco’s style is the accepted norm. I think this book could have been better, and if the story of Janet Myers’ murder was to be told it should have been done better.

[Sandy KPMP · Rating 5 out of 5]

One to the most bizarre books I’ve ever read. It took me a while to get used to the writing style but it really kept my interest.

[Lady ♥ Belleza · Rating 1 out of 5]

I don't know how this book got 4 stars, it is a horrible book. I couldn't get past 100 pages.