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The Third Rainbow Girl: The Long Life of a Double Murder in Appalachia
A stunningly written investigation of the murder of two young women--showing how a violent crime casts a shadow over an entire community.
In the early evening of June 25, 1980 in Pocahontas County, West Virginia, two middle-class outsiders named Vicki Durian, 26, and Nancy Santomero, 19, were murdered in an isolated clearing. They were hitchhiking to a festival known as the Rainbow Gathering but never arrived. For thirteen years, no one was prosecuted for the "Rainbow Murders," though deep suspicion was cast on a succession of local residents in the community, depicted as poor, dangerous, and backward. In 1993, a local farmer was convicted, only to be released when a known serial killer and diagnosed schizophrenic named Joseph Paul Franklin claimed responsibility. With the passage of time, as the truth seemed to slip away, the investigation itself caused its own traumas-turning neighbor against neighbor and confirming a fear of the violence outsiders have done to this region for centuries.
Emma Copley Eisenberg spent years living in Pocahontas and re-investigating these brutal acts. Using the past and the present, she shows how this mysterious act of violence has loomed over all those affected for generations, shaping their fears, fates, and the stories they tell about themselves. In The Third Rainbow Girl , Eisenberg follows the threads of this crime through the complex history of Appalachia, forming a searing and wide-ranging portrait of America-its divisions of gender and class, and of its violence.
In the early evening of June 25, 1980 in Pocahontas County, West Virginia, two middle-class outsiders named Vicki Durian, 26, and Nancy Santomero, 19, were murdered in an isolated clearing. They were hitchhiking to a festival known as the Rainbow Gathering but never arrived. For thirteen years, no one was prosecuted for the "Rainbow Murders," though deep suspicion was cast on a succession of local residents in the community, depicted as poor, dangerous, and backward. In 1993, a local farmer was convicted, only to be released when a known serial killer and diagnosed schizophrenic named Joseph Paul Franklin claimed responsibility. With the passage of time, as the truth seemed to slip away, the investigation itself caused its own traumas-turning neighbor against neighbor and confirming a fear of the violence outsiders have done to this region for centuries.
Emma Copley Eisenberg spent years living in Pocahontas and re-investigating these brutal acts. Using the past and the present, she shows how this mysterious act of violence has loomed over all those affected for generations, shaping their fears, fates, and the stories they tell about themselves. In The Third Rainbow Girl , Eisenberg follows the threads of this crime through the complex history of Appalachia, forming a searing and wide-ranging portrait of America-its divisions of gender and class, and of its violence.
336 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 21, 2020
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About the author
Emma Copley Eisenberg
8 books532 followersEmma Copley Eisenberg is the nationally bestselling author of the novel Housemates, nominated for a Lambda Literary Award in Lesbian Fiction and the VCU Cabell First Novelist Prize, as well as the nonfiction book The Third Rainbow Girl, a New York Times Notable Book and Editor’s Choice and a finalist for an Edgar Award and an Anthony Award. She’s received fellowships and residencies from Yaddo, Bread Loaf, Tin House, The Millay Colony and others, and her fiction, essays, and criticism have appeared in such publications as Granta, The Paris Review, The Believer, Esquire, the Virginia Quarterly Review, The New Republic, Harpers Bazaar, and The Cut. She lives in Philadelphia, where she co-founded Blue Stoop, a community hub for the literary arts. Her next book of fiction, Fat Swim, will be published on April 28, 2026.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 1,178 reviews
January 5, 2020
First and foremost, this book does not belong in the true crime genre. Lately I've seen publishers publicizing and categorizing their books in the most puzzling ways and this one takes the prize. To compare "The Third Rainbow Girl" to "In Cold Blood" makes as much sense as comparing a forest to a dust bunny.
It opens with a numbered prologue called "True Things," which gives away all the facts of the crime and other Things. None of what follows is a spoiler because all of it is there at the beginning. "The Third Rainbow Girl" reads like four different boring magazine articles plus Eisenberg's journal pages and reminiscences, cut and pasted together in a way that doesn't flow or, ultimately, cohere.
1. There's the murder victims, who are the least of the book. In 1980 three girls were hitchhiking cross-country to a "Rainbow Festival" that was being held in Pocahontas County, West Virginia. Two were found shot to death, not sexually assaulted, their backpacks dumped elsewhere. The third girl learned they were dead and she was being searched for so she called police to say she changed her plans, didn't go and was alive.
2: There are the suspects, the witnesses, the police and lawyers the man who was convicted and his two trials, and the small mountain community, all of whom would be more interesting to read about --
3. -- had the real killer not confessed and not been believed before the convicted man was even tried. We're told who the real killer was in the very beginning, an odd choice.
4: There is the history and culture and people of Pocahontas County in West Virginia, in Appalachia, which could have been interesting but is unfocused and either too broad or too specific because the biggest problem here is --
5: This is mostly an autobiography and what the author recounts about herself in great detail is often not interesting and seems irrelevant.
Eisenberg writes mostly about Eisenberg, which seems to be the point. She goes into detail ad nauseam about her work with the Vista Program in Pocahontas County and her return there as an employee, her living arrangements, social life and friends. And through it all she quotes Adrienne Rich, other poets, sociologists, psychologists and historians (I wasn't always sure who is what since there are no citations) that have more to do with her than the murders and the fallout in the mountain community, because she cannot look away from herself.
And there's the way she writes about her sexuality. She's gay, which the victims were not and which had me Questioning what it's doing in this book and why she writes in depth about it when she knows all along she's gay and spends many pages on her relationship with a local man, even describing her naked body as she lay next to him after sex. This not a coming out story or a murder story or the story of a mountain community; it's a jumble of information that never coheres.
If these were five separate pieces I wouldn't enjoy any of them. Having them woven into a rambling, pseudo-intellectual narrative made it hard for me to finish but I did finish because it's a review copy. For all the writing she does about herself, I don't even feel I know the author at all except that she's gay, has spent time in Pocahontas County and seems to have guilt about her privileged background and education. That the titular "Third Rainbow Girl" is treated as either an afterthought or a metaphor or both -- I couldn't tell -- threw me again, since we're told at the beginning in "True Things" that she didn't die. It's not clear why Eisenberg ends the book with her, and this woman too is just another vague character sketch, a woman who changed her mind and went somewhere else. If you're looking at this for your next book, I suggest you do the same.
It opens with a numbered prologue called "True Things," which gives away all the facts of the crime and other Things. None of what follows is a spoiler because all of it is there at the beginning. "The Third Rainbow Girl" reads like four different boring magazine articles plus Eisenberg's journal pages and reminiscences, cut and pasted together in a way that doesn't flow or, ultimately, cohere.
1. There's the murder victims, who are the least of the book. In 1980 three girls were hitchhiking cross-country to a "Rainbow Festival" that was being held in Pocahontas County, West Virginia. Two were found shot to death, not sexually assaulted, their backpacks dumped elsewhere. The third girl learned they were dead and she was being searched for so she called police to say she changed her plans, didn't go and was alive.
2: There are the suspects, the witnesses, the police and lawyers the man who was convicted and his two trials, and the small mountain community, all of whom would be more interesting to read about --
3. -- had the real killer not confessed and not been believed before the convicted man was even tried. We're told who the real killer was in the very beginning, an odd choice.
4: There is the history and culture and people of Pocahontas County in West Virginia, in Appalachia, which could have been interesting but is unfocused and either too broad or too specific because the biggest problem here is --
5: This is mostly an autobiography and what the author recounts about herself in great detail is often not interesting and seems irrelevant.
Eisenberg writes mostly about Eisenberg, which seems to be the point. She goes into detail ad nauseam about her work with the Vista Program in Pocahontas County and her return there as an employee, her living arrangements, social life and friends. And through it all she quotes Adrienne Rich, other poets, sociologists, psychologists and historians (I wasn't always sure who is what since there are no citations) that have more to do with her than the murders and the fallout in the mountain community, because she cannot look away from herself.
And there's the way she writes about her sexuality. She's gay, which the victims were not and which had me Questioning what it's doing in this book and why she writes in depth about it when she knows all along she's gay and spends many pages on her relationship with a local man, even describing her naked body as she lay next to him after sex. This not a coming out story or a murder story or the story of a mountain community; it's a jumble of information that never coheres.
If these were five separate pieces I wouldn't enjoy any of them. Having them woven into a rambling, pseudo-intellectual narrative made it hard for me to finish but I did finish because it's a review copy. For all the writing she does about herself, I don't even feel I know the author at all except that she's gay, has spent time in Pocahontas County and seems to have guilt about her privileged background and education. That the titular "Third Rainbow Girl" is treated as either an afterthought or a metaphor or both -- I couldn't tell -- threw me again, since we're told at the beginning in "True Things" that she didn't die. It's not clear why Eisenberg ends the book with her, and this woman too is just another vague character sketch, a woman who changed her mind and went somewhere else. If you're looking at this for your next book, I suggest you do the same.
May 17, 2020
The summer of 1980 gave the people of Pocahontas, and its neighboring Greenbrier county, something brand new to gossip and gripe about. A bunch of (probably) dirty, drunk and drugged-out dudes and chicks were about to descend. The Rainbow Family Gathering was moving east for the first time and the meeting place this year was in the Monongahela Forest in West Virginia.
Individually, the people are quite warm and welcoming. However, many did not want this Rainbow Festival happening on their pristine land. Some did long for a spectacle, eager to see a ‘freak show’ of nude, free-loving, tree-huggers dancing and skinny-dipping, flitting through their forests like true faeries.
I was only nine years old. I remember grumblings almost masking anticipation.
Before the gathering properly began, two female travelers were killed merely miles from their destination. Based on the location alone, there was no doubting that the shooter was a local. Determining who it was and why, though, would prove to be more challenging than anyone imagined.
Conducting an investigation when essentially everyone knows each other isn’t easy. There really aren’t secrets in small towns. Yet, the inexplicable killing of two “Rainbow Girls” was not a mystery to be solved quickly, or with collective satisfaction.
I remember watching an America’s Most Wanted episode about “The Rainbow Murders.” Jake Beard was a suspect, whereabouts unknown. Only, my younger sister piped up quickly, “He’s in Florida! I just got a letter from (his daughter).” Before leaving the mountains, Beard would pull his snazzy red convertible into our driveway and happily haul my sister and his daughter around town.
We did not immediately assume his innocence, though. Public opinion was absolutely split down the middle between the people who couldn’t believe Beard would flick off a flea, to the ones that swear he always had a wild, hateful streak.
Finally, there was a trial and a conviction. But that conviction was overturned.
Would the killer ever be identified? Or, do we already know who got away with murder?
I was excited to learn of The Third Rainbow Girl by Emma Copley Eisenberg; although I admit to some apprehension due to a protective feeling towards my home state. I was pleasantly surprised and tremendously pleased with how well this author was able to understand the mountaineers and convey their way of life in an honest, objective manner.
I found her research and study of this criminal case to be tenacious and thorough without being too tough. The way that she shares what she learned was informative, but not suggestive. When I finished this book, my opinion of who killed those young ladies so many years ago has changed. And, I’m feeling a tiny bit homesick.
Individually, the people are quite warm and welcoming. However, many did not want this Rainbow Festival happening on their pristine land. Some did long for a spectacle, eager to see a ‘freak show’ of nude, free-loving, tree-huggers dancing and skinny-dipping, flitting through their forests like true faeries.
I was only nine years old. I remember grumblings almost masking anticipation.
Before the gathering properly began, two female travelers were killed merely miles from their destination. Based on the location alone, there was no doubting that the shooter was a local. Determining who it was and why, though, would prove to be more challenging than anyone imagined.
Conducting an investigation when essentially everyone knows each other isn’t easy. There really aren’t secrets in small towns. Yet, the inexplicable killing of two “Rainbow Girls” was not a mystery to be solved quickly, or with collective satisfaction.
I remember watching an America’s Most Wanted episode about “The Rainbow Murders.” Jake Beard was a suspect, whereabouts unknown. Only, my younger sister piped up quickly, “He’s in Florida! I just got a letter from (his daughter).” Before leaving the mountains, Beard would pull his snazzy red convertible into our driveway and happily haul my sister and his daughter around town.
We did not immediately assume his innocence, though. Public opinion was absolutely split down the middle between the people who couldn’t believe Beard would flick off a flea, to the ones that swear he always had a wild, hateful streak.
Finally, there was a trial and a conviction. But that conviction was overturned.
Would the killer ever be identified? Or, do we already know who got away with murder?
I was excited to learn of The Third Rainbow Girl by Emma Copley Eisenberg; although I admit to some apprehension due to a protective feeling towards my home state. I was pleasantly surprised and tremendously pleased with how well this author was able to understand the mountaineers and convey their way of life in an honest, objective manner.
I found her research and study of this criminal case to be tenacious and thorough without being too tough. The way that she shares what she learned was informative, but not suggestive. When I finished this book, my opinion of who killed those young ladies so many years ago has changed. And, I’m feeling a tiny bit homesick.
May 7, 2020
I really wanted to like this book. It started out so great, it seemed, giving a history of West Virginia and the people there. I learned a lot I didn't know, and as I was reading it, it seemed that this was a foundation for the story of the murders of two young girls that took place there years ago, and the third "Rainbow Girl" who made it out alive.
What a disappointment. First of all, the book is definitely inaptly named. There was next to nothing in the book about the third girl traveling to the annual Rainbow peace and love gathering, the girl who didn't get killed. And rightly so. She had nothing to do with the murders, she barely knew the girls who were killed, and she left them before any tragedy occurred. Why name the book for her?
The book bounced from a convoluted story about the murder investigation/trials that went on for years, to more about West Virginia (a lot about the snow), and primarily to a huge portion of the book about the author herself and her time spent in West Virginia.
All in all, the book seemed like it was crying out to just be a memoir, using the "true crime" tag to draw readers in. There were pages and pages and pages ad nauseam about every bit of minutiae in the author's life, from who she slept with to what she drank, how often she drank, where she drank, and how often she watched fingers strumming bluegrass tunes. None of it had any bearing on the Rainbow murders. The topper, to me, was when, out of the blue, she describes how she was so frustrated one day that she threw her cat against the wall and then locked him up for hours with no food. What??!!
I don't know why I finished this book. I actually didn't, really, because for approximately the last 15-20% of the story I skimmed the pages, looking for words to jump out at me that might have some bearing on what I thought was the point of the story. All I found were interviews with the same people that had investigated or been investigated or knew someone who had been investigated about the murders.
Thank you to NetGalley and Hatchette Books for an ARC in exchange for my honest review. I'm sorry it was a brutal one.
2 stars
What a disappointment. First of all, the book is definitely inaptly named. There was next to nothing in the book about the third girl traveling to the annual Rainbow peace and love gathering, the girl who didn't get killed. And rightly so. She had nothing to do with the murders, she barely knew the girls who were killed, and she left them before any tragedy occurred. Why name the book for her?
The book bounced from a convoluted story about the murder investigation/trials that went on for years, to more about West Virginia (a lot about the snow), and primarily to a huge portion of the book about the author herself and her time spent in West Virginia.
All in all, the book seemed like it was crying out to just be a memoir, using the "true crime" tag to draw readers in. There were pages and pages and pages ad nauseam about every bit of minutiae in the author's life, from who she slept with to what she drank, how often she drank, where she drank, and how often she watched fingers strumming bluegrass tunes. None of it had any bearing on the Rainbow murders. The topper, to me, was when, out of the blue, she describes how she was so frustrated one day that she threw her cat against the wall and then locked him up for hours with no food. What??!!
I don't know why I finished this book. I actually didn't, really, because for approximately the last 15-20% of the story I skimmed the pages, looking for words to jump out at me that might have some bearing on what I thought was the point of the story. All I found were interviews with the same people that had investigated or been investigated or knew someone who had been investigated about the murders.
Thank you to NetGalley and Hatchette Books for an ARC in exchange for my honest review. I'm sorry it was a brutal one.
2 stars
February 14, 2020
This is enraging. I’m a West Virginian. My family is from PoCo. An upper middle class New Yorker struggling with sexuality is going to tell us about the history of our state and analyze our class and culture structure while comparing herself to murdered women. Please stop. And how the fuck did this get published. Shameful, exploitative and obnoxious.
September 4, 2019
Thank you @Netgalley for the opportunity to read this book in exchange for an honest review.
**
It pains me to say this but this is the first book I DNF in a very, very long time. Shortly after starting this book yesterday I didn't think it will be for me; however I figured I would give it the good old try and see if I would like it a little later on.
I was at 25% before I completely gave up on trying to force the read. I was looking for this book to be about the murder of 2 girls in Pocahontas County, and while it did briefly touch on this subject during the first 1/4 of this book it wasn't enough to get me hooked. A large portion of what I read seemed to be more the authors personal stay and her history is West Virginia, than about the actual murders themselves.
**
It pains me to say this but this is the first book I DNF in a very, very long time. Shortly after starting this book yesterday I didn't think it will be for me; however I figured I would give it the good old try and see if I would like it a little later on.
I was at 25% before I completely gave up on trying to force the read. I was looking for this book to be about the murder of 2 girls in Pocahontas County, and while it did briefly touch on this subject during the first 1/4 of this book it wasn't enough to get me hooked. A large portion of what I read seemed to be more the authors personal stay and her history is West Virginia, than about the actual murders themselves.
January 22, 2020
Self indulgent and unfocused at best, predatory at worst. DNF
October 27, 2019
This unusual blend of true crime and memoir is rather quirky and I’m not quite sure how I feel about it. There are places it felt a bit sideswiped to me, then I’d go back to enjoying it once again. The true crime parts were good, as was the history of the state and the research. The two women, Vicki Durian, 26, and Nancy Santomero, 19, were headed to a Rainbow Gathering festival in Pocahontas County, West Virginia, near the Virginia border. They never made it, having been murdered in a clearing that was mostly known just to locals, as it was not that easy to find. So suspicion fell on it being a local person. There was also a third girl traveling with them named Liz who survived but seemed to have disappeared.
Despite investigation and much speculation, the case went cold for a long time. It stayed fresh in many people’s minds though. Tips and breaks do happen at times later though, so some keep hope. Someone must know something. A good true crime book/memoir for those who like them, with some mystery and history. Advance electronic review copy was provided by NetGalley, author Emma Copley Eisenberg, and the publisher.
First published on my WordPress blog viewable here:
https://wordpress.com/post/bookblog20...
Despite investigation and much speculation, the case went cold for a long time. It stayed fresh in many people’s minds though. Tips and breaks do happen at times later though, so some keep hope. Someone must know something. A good true crime book/memoir for those who like them, with some mystery and history. Advance electronic review copy was provided by NetGalley, author Emma Copley Eisenberg, and the publisher.
First published on my WordPress blog viewable here:
https://wordpress.com/post/bookblog20...
March 8, 2020
Sadly there was a good case and a good story here. The author chose to stick too much to his personal life and experiences in the area. She muddled up the true crime by making it a memoir about herself.
August 19, 2020
Wow. This book was literally excruciating to finish and is the literal definition of both privilege and hot mess.
In this book, a wealthy white girl slums it in Appalachia where despite her complete lack of direction, alcoholism, and utterly offensive cluelessnes, gets hired to "empower" poor rural girls. She is admittedly shit at this and instead of looking into why she is actually driving girls away from the program with her snotty attitude, she just drinks a lot and goes to find some boys attention to supplant her own low self esteem. When given the opportunity of a college education that explicitly addresses her privilege, instead of listening to marginalized voices and following their leadership, she becomes paralyzed with some sort of weird white/rich guilt that leads her to investigate some 40 year old murders. Along the way she makes pithy transphobic comments, gets raped twice in her sleep by boys whose lives she continues to value over her own clear trauma, struggles with mental illness, throws a cat, capitalizes on others trauma for her own selfish needs, brings to life the worst critiques of the true crime genre by minimizing the victims, and finally appropriates their experience of being murdered by subtlety positing herself as the eponymous Third Rainbow Girl in a horrifying display of hubris. In the end she shows little personal growth and continues to act as though she is entitled to the region and its murdered dead.
This is journalism being done by someone with no idea how to do journalism and reads like someone published their therapy journal. I feel bad for her depression, low self esteem, and inability to make life decisions, but murdered women are not a canvas for you to fingerpaint all over because you're sad. She writes about how awful it is when outsiders come into Appalachia with no knowledge or understanding or appreciation of the culture then speak for it while doing the exact same thing. She is not only an unlikable narrator of a crime story, but she is a writer in almost painful need of an editor to stop her from publishing something this bad in the first place. The only thing that saved it from being a total 1 star review was that I did learn a lot about the murders which I did not know.
In this book, a wealthy white girl slums it in Appalachia where despite her complete lack of direction, alcoholism, and utterly offensive cluelessnes, gets hired to "empower" poor rural girls. She is admittedly shit at this and instead of looking into why she is actually driving girls away from the program with her snotty attitude, she just drinks a lot and goes to find some boys attention to supplant her own low self esteem. When given the opportunity of a college education that explicitly addresses her privilege, instead of listening to marginalized voices and following their leadership, she becomes paralyzed with some sort of weird white/rich guilt that leads her to investigate some 40 year old murders. Along the way she makes pithy transphobic comments, gets raped twice in her sleep by boys whose lives she continues to value over her own clear trauma, struggles with mental illness, throws a cat, capitalizes on others trauma for her own selfish needs, brings to life the worst critiques of the true crime genre by minimizing the victims, and finally appropriates their experience of being murdered by subtlety positing herself as the eponymous Third Rainbow Girl in a horrifying display of hubris. In the end she shows little personal growth and continues to act as though she is entitled to the region and its murdered dead.
This is journalism being done by someone with no idea how to do journalism and reads like someone published their therapy journal. I feel bad for her depression, low self esteem, and inability to make life decisions, but murdered women are not a canvas for you to fingerpaint all over because you're sad. She writes about how awful it is when outsiders come into Appalachia with no knowledge or understanding or appreciation of the culture then speak for it while doing the exact same thing. She is not only an unlikable narrator of a crime story, but she is a writer in almost painful need of an editor to stop her from publishing something this bad in the first place. The only thing that saved it from being a total 1 star review was that I did learn a lot about the murders which I did not know.
August 11, 2019
2 stars
Truly the strangest true crime book I have ever read. The author takes the reader on a long,rambling and at times bizarre trail of words. This book could have easily been cut in half. I wanted to know the story of the girls, their lives and the murder and not all the extra stuff jammed into the book for no real reason.
I cannot recommend this book.
I received a complimentary copy of this book from NetGalley and the publisher in exchange for a honest review.
Truly the strangest true crime book I have ever read. The author takes the reader on a long,rambling and at times bizarre trail of words. This book could have easily been cut in half. I wanted to know the story of the girls, their lives and the murder and not all the extra stuff jammed into the book for no real reason.
I cannot recommend this book.
I received a complimentary copy of this book from NetGalley and the publisher in exchange for a honest review.
October 7, 2019
Thank you to NetGalley and Hachatte Books for providing me with an ARC of the true crime story - The Third Rainbow Girl. In exchange I offer my unbiased review.
Emma Copley Eisenberg was quite ambitious with this debut work. Attempting to cover much ground, this book is threefold; parts memoir, part true crime and part geographical history of Appalachia. Unfortunately for me as a reader, the overall effect seemed disjointed, messy, unfocused and unpolished. I was expecting a true crime narrative about a 1980 double murder involving two young women who were attending a peace festival in West Virginia, but that’s not exactly what the author wrote. At the very start, Emma Copley Eisenberg shares the “facts”; who the killer was believed to be, his court sentence and the injustice of the ruling. Talk about spoilers!!! I’m not sure why the author chose to revel all this information up front as it takes away any suspense leading up to the arrest and conviction. A great deal of this book was more about the author’s ties to the community, her troubled years while she lived in West Virginia and the distressing history of Appalachia as a flailing region.
I’m not sure if this book needs more editing or perhaps a different marketing approach but I would have a hard time recommending this book in its present form.
Thank you for the opportunity to preview this book.
Emma Copley Eisenberg was quite ambitious with this debut work. Attempting to cover much ground, this book is threefold; parts memoir, part true crime and part geographical history of Appalachia. Unfortunately for me as a reader, the overall effect seemed disjointed, messy, unfocused and unpolished. I was expecting a true crime narrative about a 1980 double murder involving two young women who were attending a peace festival in West Virginia, but that’s not exactly what the author wrote. At the very start, Emma Copley Eisenberg shares the “facts”; who the killer was believed to be, his court sentence and the injustice of the ruling. Talk about spoilers!!! I’m not sure why the author chose to revel all this information up front as it takes away any suspense leading up to the arrest and conviction. A great deal of this book was more about the author’s ties to the community, her troubled years while she lived in West Virginia and the distressing history of Appalachia as a flailing region.
I’m not sure if this book needs more editing or perhaps a different marketing approach but I would have a hard time recommending this book in its present form.
Thank you for the opportunity to preview this book.
February 2, 2021
The Third Rainbow Girl is well written and definitely kept me reading, but ultimately I'm just not comfortable with the type of true-crime book where the author takes a brutal murder (two, in this case) and makes it about herself. Eisenberg also sets herself the task of representing Appalachia more accurately than the media tends to, but she only lived there for about a year herself, and I just don't think that's long enough to truly know or be able to explain an entire region. It may be that this book just tried to do too much and didn't really do justice to any of it. I did find The Third Rainbow Girl pretty absorbing, but now that I'm done I feel uncomfortable about the whole thing.
I won this ARC via a Shelf Awareness giveaway. Thank you to the publisher.
I won this ARC via a Shelf Awareness giveaway. Thank you to the publisher.
October 9, 2019
This book I didn’t like. I wanted to like it, but it was everywhere. First, the murders would be talked about, then the author would talk about herself, then it would go back in the past, then the future. I just couldn’t make any sense from it. I am thoroughly disappointed.
March 24, 2020
As always, ignore the stars. Read the review. Full disclosure: The Elizabeth George Foundation awarded a grant to Emma several years ago.
When I saw that Emma Copley Eisenberg had her book published, I bought it instantly and I wasn't disappointed. I'm a great reader of crime fiction and real crime non-fiction, but this book goes beyond what is normally considered real crime non-fiction. In that, it reminds me a little of The Spider and the Fly. Not so much in style but in the fact that it reveals a great deal about the author's experiences at the same time as it explores the crime. More than that, however, it's a sympathetic look into what life in Appalachia is like for the people who live there and who love living there. The author brings Pocahontas County richly to life. I recommend this book highly.
When I saw that Emma Copley Eisenberg had her book published, I bought it instantly and I wasn't disappointed. I'm a great reader of crime fiction and real crime non-fiction, but this book goes beyond what is normally considered real crime non-fiction. In that, it reminds me a little of The Spider and the Fly. Not so much in style but in the fact that it reveals a great deal about the author's experiences at the same time as it explores the crime. More than that, however, it's a sympathetic look into what life in Appalachia is like for the people who live there and who love living there. The author brings Pocahontas County richly to life. I recommend this book highly.
May 29, 2019
I think what I enjoyed most about this book is that it seems to subvert, or in some way, complicate the true crime genre. Referring to The Third Rainbow Girl as true crime feels like too narrow of a description. Instead, what Eisenberg has given readers is something that feels messy, but in a carefully crafted and curated way, messy in the way that ideas of violence and truth and intimacy often are. This book is about a particular crime, but it is also about much more. It is about the landscape of memory and the inheritance of pain and the complexities of love. Every page feels like it was crafted with great care. That is perhaps what I admire so much about this book: the care the author took in approaching every one of her subjects. You can feel that kind of care on the sentence level. It's painstaking, and the end result is beautiful.
December 27, 2019
I don't read a lot of true crime but I picked this up because I spent many summers in Pocahontas County when I was a teenager and my father moved to Hillsboro upon retiring in 2005. It's a place that holds a weird soft spot in my heart and I always appreciate whenever an empathetic light is shined on Appalachia.
Imagine my surprise to read the first chapter, in which Eisenberg describes the discovery of two bodies in the summer of 1980....and it's in a field just off the same damn road where my father lives. WHAT?
Imagine my surprise to read the first chapter, in which Eisenberg describes the discovery of two bodies in the summer of 1980....and it's in a field just off the same damn road where my father lives. WHAT?
November 11, 2019
2.5 stars
In the summer of 1980, an outdoor peace festival called the Rainbow Gathering was held in Pocahontas County, West Virginia. Vicki Durian and Nancy Santomero hitched a ride across the country for the event but never made it to the gathering. At some point on June 25, 1980 the two women were murdered and left in an isolated clearing where they were discovered by a local man late in the evening.
The killings became known as "The Rainbow Murders" and police believed the killer had to be local due to the location of the bodies. Suspicion was focused on a group of men thought to be in the area of the park on June 25 where the Rainbow Gathering was being held.
After thirteen years, the state of West Virginia convicted local farmer Jacob Beard and sentenced him to life.
Eventually, it emerged that the convicted serial killer Joseph Paul Franklin had already confessed to murdering Durian and Santomero but the prosecution didn't believe the confession fit what they knew to be true about the case. The doubt that Franklin's confession created gave Beard a second trial and raised questions when the men who had been suspected of involvement once again testified.
Author Emma Copley Eisenberg grew up far from West Virginia but found herself working in the state to help young girls find a brighter future than the statistics they were given. During her time in Pocahontas County, Eisenberg felt a bond to the land and its residents. She learned about the Rainbow Murders and spent five years looking into the crime and her efforts are published here in The Third Rainbow Girl --- part memoir, part true crime.
This book leaves me scratching my head. It lacks focus, alternating between Eisenberg's wax-poetic memoir of the bond she feels to the town and its people then switching to the history of the land before jumping around with introductions to key players in the trial.
I still don't understand Eisenberg's reasoning for combining her memoir with the story of the Rainbow Murders, even after she tries to explain it as buying back a debt to the county and because she cares about the two women who died and the nine local men who suffered for it.
There is no new information on the case in here and few people involved were willing to participate in interviews with the author. The focus on the case is mostly dialogue from court transcripts/police interviews and facts collected from news articles. Eisenberg highlights the inconsistencies in the stories told by the nine men and eventually meets with Jacob Beard and also a victim of Joseph Paul Franklin, but only to rehash details.
While the case is certainly fascinating, I don't feel enough time was actually spent discussing it. The case simply became filler; overshadowed by the memoir which romanticizes West Viriginia so much it becomes the main character.
I don't know whether to call this a true crime novel or memoir but both stories left me disappointed with the overall lack of focus.
Thanks to Hachette Books and NetGalley for providing me with an ARC in exchange for my honest review. The Third Rainbow Girl: The Long History of a Double Murder in Appalachia is scheduled for release on January 21, 2020.
For more reviews, visit www.rootsandreads.wordpress.com
In the summer of 1980, an outdoor peace festival called the Rainbow Gathering was held in Pocahontas County, West Virginia. Vicki Durian and Nancy Santomero hitched a ride across the country for the event but never made it to the gathering. At some point on June 25, 1980 the two women were murdered and left in an isolated clearing where they were discovered by a local man late in the evening.
The killings became known as "The Rainbow Murders" and police believed the killer had to be local due to the location of the bodies. Suspicion was focused on a group of men thought to be in the area of the park on June 25 where the Rainbow Gathering was being held.
After thirteen years, the state of West Virginia convicted local farmer Jacob Beard and sentenced him to life.
Eventually, it emerged that the convicted serial killer Joseph Paul Franklin had already confessed to murdering Durian and Santomero but the prosecution didn't believe the confession fit what they knew to be true about the case. The doubt that Franklin's confession created gave Beard a second trial and raised questions when the men who had been suspected of involvement once again testified.
Author Emma Copley Eisenberg grew up far from West Virginia but found herself working in the state to help young girls find a brighter future than the statistics they were given. During her time in Pocahontas County, Eisenberg felt a bond to the land and its residents. She learned about the Rainbow Murders and spent five years looking into the crime and her efforts are published here in The Third Rainbow Girl --- part memoir, part true crime.
This book leaves me scratching my head. It lacks focus, alternating between Eisenberg's wax-poetic memoir of the bond she feels to the town and its people then switching to the history of the land before jumping around with introductions to key players in the trial.
I still don't understand Eisenberg's reasoning for combining her memoir with the story of the Rainbow Murders, even after she tries to explain it as buying back a debt to the county and because she cares about the two women who died and the nine local men who suffered for it.
There is no new information on the case in here and few people involved were willing to participate in interviews with the author. The focus on the case is mostly dialogue from court transcripts/police interviews and facts collected from news articles. Eisenberg highlights the inconsistencies in the stories told by the nine men and eventually meets with Jacob Beard and also a victim of Joseph Paul Franklin, but only to rehash details.
While the case is certainly fascinating, I don't feel enough time was actually spent discussing it. The case simply became filler; overshadowed by the memoir which romanticizes West Viriginia so much it becomes the main character.
I don't know whether to call this a true crime novel or memoir but both stories left me disappointed with the overall lack of focus.
Thanks to Hachette Books and NetGalley for providing me with an ARC in exchange for my honest review. The Third Rainbow Girl: The Long History of a Double Murder in Appalachia is scheduled for release on January 21, 2020.
For more reviews, visit www.rootsandreads.wordpress.com
February 1, 2020
This book is a fascinating blend of true crime, memoir, and history. I thought the writing was complex and often beautiful, and I am still considering the questions the author raises about class, sex, gender, prejudice, and being an outsider to and an “insider” in a particular community.
January 9, 2022
Definitely more a memoir than true crime.
February 8, 2020
2 stars.
Thank you NetGalley, Hachette Books, and Libro.fm for the Galley and ALC in exchange for an honest review.
Note: The author identifies as queer and I am not sure of their correct pronouns, so I will be using they/their.
Synopsis wise, I will be sharing what the true crime portion of the book is about:
June 25, 1980, Pocahontas County, West Virginia: Vicki Durian, 26, and Nancy Santomero, 19, were found shot in an isolated clearing. The two women had been hitchhiking together from Arizona to West Virginia to get to the Rainbow Gathering (a counterculture gathering) in the area and had last been seen alive in Richmond. Immediately suspicion was thrown onto local men because no one from out of town would know the isolated field.
Multiple men were arrested during the investigation of the slayings, and eventually one man was convicted. However, when a convicted serial killer confesses to the murder, the conviction of Jacob Beard is called into question.
The author tells you from the beginning who is currently in jail for the murders. I'll let you read to find out who.
First and foremost: this is not a true crime book and should not be characterized as such.
It's more of a hybrid of a memoir and true crime book where the author uses their personal life in Pocahontas County, West Virginia to say why they had the right to write a book on the Rainbow murders.
It was about 1/3 facts on the Rainbow murders and 2/3 a memoir on their life of moving from New York to West Virginia to work for VISTA after graduating college.
What I liked about The Third Rainbow Girl: The author went into the misuse of power by the cops and the prosecution misconduct that went into the wrongful conviction in the murder of Vicki Durian, 26, and Nancy Santomero, 19, when they were on their way to the Rainbow Gathering in the area.
What my rating boils down to: I was expecting a true crime book on two murders that I haven't read or heard much about, but instead I got a memoir of reasoning as to why she looked into the murders after living in West Virginia.
Trigger Warnings: Gang rape, murder, drug use, sexual assault, animal abuse, unexpected pregnancy
Thank you NetGalley, Hachette Books, and Libro.fm for the Galley and ALC in exchange for an honest review.
Note: The author identifies as queer and I am not sure of their correct pronouns, so I will be using they/their.
Synopsis wise, I will be sharing what the true crime portion of the book is about:
June 25, 1980, Pocahontas County, West Virginia: Vicki Durian, 26, and Nancy Santomero, 19, were found shot in an isolated clearing. The two women had been hitchhiking together from Arizona to West Virginia to get to the Rainbow Gathering (a counterculture gathering) in the area and had last been seen alive in Richmond. Immediately suspicion was thrown onto local men because no one from out of town would know the isolated field.
Multiple men were arrested during the investigation of the slayings, and eventually one man was convicted. However, when a convicted serial killer confesses to the murder, the conviction of Jacob Beard is called into question.
The author tells you from the beginning who is currently in jail for the murders. I'll let you read to find out who.
First and foremost: this is not a true crime book and should not be characterized as such.
It's more of a hybrid of a memoir and true crime book where the author uses their personal life in Pocahontas County, West Virginia to say why they had the right to write a book on the Rainbow murders.
It was about 1/3 facts on the Rainbow murders and 2/3 a memoir on their life of moving from New York to West Virginia to work for VISTA after graduating college.
What I liked about The Third Rainbow Girl: The author went into the misuse of power by the cops and the prosecution misconduct that went into the wrongful conviction in the murder of Vicki Durian, 26, and Nancy Santomero, 19, when they were on their way to the Rainbow Gathering in the area.
What my rating boils down to: I was expecting a true crime book on two murders that I haven't read or heard much about, but instead I got a memoir of reasoning as to why she looked into the murders after living in West Virginia.
Trigger Warnings: Gang rape, murder, drug use, sexual assault, animal abuse, unexpected pregnancy
October 9, 2019
I received an advance digital copy of this book from the author, Hachette Books and Netgalley.com. Thanks to all for the opportunity to read and review. The opinions expressed in this review are my own.
The Third Rainbow Girl is a mess of a true crime novel. The author claims to have made substantial research but most of the book has nothing to do with the subject matter. Most of it seems to be the opinion of the author with the "wokeness" of current day and little of it to do with the murder of two women. The author throws out random factoids that fit into the timeline but have actually nothing to do with the events in West Virginia. None of the writing is presented through an objective lens.
1 out of 5 stars. Do not recommend.
The Third Rainbow Girl is a mess of a true crime novel. The author claims to have made substantial research but most of the book has nothing to do with the subject matter. Most of it seems to be the opinion of the author with the "wokeness" of current day and little of it to do with the murder of two women. The author throws out random factoids that fit into the timeline but have actually nothing to do with the events in West Virginia. None of the writing is presented through an objective lens.
1 out of 5 stars. Do not recommend.
Read
May 19, 2020The thing many reviewers didn't like about this is precisely what I did: this isn't a straight true crime book but rather, a memoir about a woman who is fixated on the events of a cold case in rural West Virginia. I don't care for true crime, and Copley Eisenberg's book kind of gets into why it is I don't. This is a book about privilege, about the ways we almost romanticize the deaths of young white girls, and about how everything we think we know about a place like Pocahontas County, West Virginia isn't right. But we can't know that unless we live there and are part of that community, rather than an outside observer.
Engrossing and fascinating, Copley Eisenberg stays out of the story enough to make clear this isn't necessarily about her but about a common experience many of us have in waking up to those truths. She performs the audio and is excellent.
Engrossing and fascinating, Copley Eisenberg stays out of the story enough to make clear this isn't necessarily about her but about a common experience many of us have in waking up to those truths. She performs the audio and is excellent.
January 20, 2020
I am a fan of true crime stories. I find them fascinating. What makes them so is not so much the crime but the motive as to why. Reading a true crime novel gives you glimpses into the mid of the killer or killers.
I found this factor to be a "weak" point with this book. It is broken into sections. The first section does showcase the murder of Vicki Durian and Nancy Santomero. After that it kind of deviates to the author and her connection to West Virginia. Which I did not mind at first but after a while, I lost interest. It felt like these facts did not make sense in enhancing the crimes. Which was supposed to be the focal point of this book. After this, I did lose my interest in this book.
I found this factor to be a "weak" point with this book. It is broken into sections. The first section does showcase the murder of Vicki Durian and Nancy Santomero. After that it kind of deviates to the author and her connection to West Virginia. Which I did not mind at first but after a while, I lost interest. It felt like these facts did not make sense in enhancing the crimes. Which was supposed to be the focal point of this book. After this, I did lose my interest in this book.
October 1, 2019
What a shoddy piece of investigation and prosecution. Alkire, Dale, Weiford all come across as amateur, childish idiots. It's unbelievable how Jacob Beard got convicted the first time considering the level, quality and nature of 'evidence' against him, even if he was actually guilty. And it isn't a stretch that much less has been used to convict black men for similar crimes.
The author is sensitive and articulate and comes to the project with a very definite view point, though she is no researcher and has limited interviewing skills. Depiction of her life story, sex life and suicidal thoughts were, in my view, unnecessary. But whatever.
There is something missing in the book: the basic detail is all here, the twists and turns and who said what when to whom and under what conditions and how unreliable they are as 'relevant necessary people.' But it looks like most of the data was collected from archive, documentaries, news reports and not much actual interviewing was done with the actual key people (or their lawyers, friends, families, area.) It all comes across as retrieved, second-hand data. The reaction of the families of the murdered women is also perfunctory and probably sourced from newspapers which reported at the time of the first trial (their attendance or reaction to the second trial is not given.) West Virginia is a character in this true crime story, its history is here, but not so much in terms of 70s, 80s, 90s era as to what life was like for Pocahontas residents beyond weather conditions. No mention of how economy was running in these areas, though historic extractive practices with timber and coal are mentioned, but nothing current. There are zero images of all key players / significant participants / accused (except archive images of three: Beard, Alkire and Weiford). Crime scene photogs are missing as well as the map of the place (though it is mentioned in credits) and pictures of all the key spots the murdered women were supposed to have traveled to / died in, should have been added / retrieved (as well as the Rainbow Gathering that left in a week's time) and the houses / work place locations of all the accused (since they are a huge part of the story and their alibis and their lives.) and where / how they lived would've helped in getting a sense of who they were as people. There are 2 solitary pictures of the murdered women, none of their family, none of them with family or at their work stations (or at least in the case of Vicki, at her crowded makeshift house.) There is no picture of even the serial killer (though his drawn map is.)
But thanks to the publisher for the ARC. I read it, shaking my head at every second incredible line of things that were done in the name of investigation and 'evidence' and how drunk or doped or both everyone was to remember anything for long or for sure.
Memorable Quotes / Passages:
If I am missing in any sense, it is a missingness I created for myself in order to be free. - Dawn Lundy Martin
reporter - that troubled and troubling term -
Misogny is in the groundwater of every American city and every American town, but for me, it was done here.
In America, protecting or avenging white women from a violation of their safety or sexual autonomy has been used to justify the unlawful incaceration of men - particularly poor men and men of color.
White men accounted for nearly 80% of suicide deaths in 2017, and men in West Virginia are committing suicides at a rate almost 3 times the national average (U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention)
But for those who had left England seeking opportunity in the New World - the poor, the criminal and the dienfranchised - many found that these opportunities were not forthcoming in Virginia. A powerful class-stratification system had quickly been established, a scramble for power that left some one top but most out in the cold. Those who had come with slightly more resources and ties to the upper classes back in London rushed to expand their claims over those who had fewer. By 1770, less than 10% of white colonists owned over half the land of Virginia.
I don’t know what I am, but whatever it is, you can’t have me. - Irene McKinney
At my liberal arts college outside of Philadelphia, I destroyed every God - religion, literature, politics, feminism, art - with my self-important words, dismissing each as problematic and essentially worthless. I dismantled every system to make a new world, but then I had to live in it.
There may be no stronger bond than the one between two people who fundamentally do not agree about what happened in their story.
(Both said Jacob Beard shot the two girls.) (Johnnie) Lewis’ statement also said that he was with Gerald Brown, Arnold Cutlip, Bill McCoy and Ritchie Fowler, but it does not say (Winter) Walton was there - nor did Walton’s statement say that Lewis was there. Could there have been other people present when the two girls were killed that Lewis didn’t see? “Could have been.”
“A renewed investigation of the case led this week to the arrest of seven men in four states.” - NYT, April 19, 1992
The hick monster story has deep roots in the history of West Virginia and is wound around the story of American industrialization and capitalism. Before you can dispossess a people from their own land, you must first make them not people.
The articles wove a narrative of drunken backwood hicks and sexy hippie women, of two profoundly separate value systems that had touched because of the Rainbow Gathering, then wished they hadn’t.
“Local sentiment was that hillbillies killed a pair of hippies as an expression of anger over Rainbow Gathering”
These outlets also told the story that Pocahontas County was home to both “rugged physical beauty and a few rugged people” that were capable of “backwoods intrigue.” The place was rural and it was scary, they made clear.
“The bodies turned up near the driveway to Arnold Cutlip’s home, an address so remote the television was powered by batteries.” - newspaper coverage
Furthermore, a great deal was made in 1992 media coverage of the fact that Vicki and Nancy were not especially pretty.
Missing or murdered girl must be middle class or higher, and white, and must be attractive, also non-negotiable, to get the ‘full damsel treatment’ of an obsessive nation (a man and a woman of color never get it) — Eugene Robinson, Washington Post
“The heart of trump country”
“They were definitely not the type of women I’d want to have sex with. They weren’t the slimmest, trimmest little things.” - Jacob Beard, St. Petersburg Times, 1992
Yet the story that gender and thus sexuality had played an essential role in their deaths - a flavor in the groundwater we assume we taste whenever a woman is killed - had already solidified.
This is a witchhunt, Robert Allen told Beard. Pure and Simple.
Would Walton be willing to be hypnotized to help him remember things? He would. He remembered. Summoned one final time for questioning without his lawyer present, Lewis again said he had seen Jacob Beard shoot Vicki and Nancy….. (Beard, Fowler, Brown, McCoy, and Cutlip got charged again.) Walton and Lewis were both granted immunity for their testimony.
“It’s called a cafe’ coronary,” the medical examiner in Charleston said when they got his (McCoy’s) body. “People trying to eat, get choked on something, have a heart attack and die. Happens all the time.”
James Clayton Vaughn / Joseph Paul Franklin, 1984 (who claimed to have killed the two women because they were ‘communist, race mixers, they should be wasted, so wasted them.’)
“He (Alkire) kept saying ‘It doesn’t fit with what we know to be true’. He kept saying, ‘The killer has to be local.’” - Deborah DiFalco
‘Illusion of memory“
Re-trial, 2000: McCoy finally gave Weiford the statement prosecution had long been seeking - that he was there in the blue van when he, Fowler, and Walton had picked up Vicki and Nancy and driven them to the mountain, and that he’d seen Fowler cleaning the inside of the van later that night and noted bullet holes in its side. “Did you see Jacob Beard?” Farmer asked. “Don’t know. Don’t think so,” McCoy said. “Did you see these girls?” “Definitely not.” (!) McCoy had gotten addicted to heroin in prison and was hallucinating and vomiting from the withdrawal symptoms. He agreed to testify on condition Alkire would get him in a methadone program. He took the information in his testimony from the information Weiford and Alkire provided him. (!)
Then I told him (Pee wee Walton) that I knew the truth was more complicated than what had been reported and that I suspected he had been caught in the middle of two versions of events, neither of which were exactly true. I told him that so much time had passed and no one could be prosecuted anymore, and was there anything he could tell me, anything he wanted to say? “No” - and the line went dead.
He said, “I know what happened to that third girl.”
I said, “Jake (Jacob) there is no third girl.”
“I thought there were less holes in the Franklin’s stuff than in the Jacob Beard stuff.” - Corporal Michael Jordan, West Virginia State Police (testified for defense) worked under Alkire in major crimes division but handled drug cases mostly.
In June 2016, southern and central west Virginia were hit by a rainstorm that quickly became a catastrophic flood that killed twenty-three people and destroyed homes, schools, infrastructure and businesses, and left 500,000 U.S. citizens without power. The event barely registered in the national media, and it took bureaucratic channels two years to release the funds that would drastically imporve the lives of survivors and repair the damage.
“Hitchhiking was a little like sloppy Budhism. We were putting our faith in humanity.” - Liz Johndrow, the third Rainbow Girl (currently director of a non-profit.)
The author is sensitive and articulate and comes to the project with a very definite view point, though she is no researcher and has limited interviewing skills. Depiction of her life story, sex life and suicidal thoughts were, in my view, unnecessary. But whatever.
There is something missing in the book: the basic detail is all here, the twists and turns and who said what when to whom and under what conditions and how unreliable they are as 'relevant necessary people.' But it looks like most of the data was collected from archive, documentaries, news reports and not much actual interviewing was done with the actual key people (or their lawyers, friends, families, area.) It all comes across as retrieved, second-hand data. The reaction of the families of the murdered women is also perfunctory and probably sourced from newspapers which reported at the time of the first trial (their attendance or reaction to the second trial is not given.) West Virginia is a character in this true crime story, its history is here, but not so much in terms of 70s, 80s, 90s era as to what life was like for Pocahontas residents beyond weather conditions. No mention of how economy was running in these areas, though historic extractive practices with timber and coal are mentioned, but nothing current. There are zero images of all key players / significant participants / accused (except archive images of three: Beard, Alkire and Weiford). Crime scene photogs are missing as well as the map of the place (though it is mentioned in credits) and pictures of all the key spots the murdered women were supposed to have traveled to / died in, should have been added / retrieved (as well as the Rainbow Gathering that left in a week's time) and the houses / work place locations of all the accused (since they are a huge part of the story and their alibis and their lives.) and where / how they lived would've helped in getting a sense of who they were as people. There are 2 solitary pictures of the murdered women, none of their family, none of them with family or at their work stations (or at least in the case of Vicki, at her crowded makeshift house.) There is no picture of even the serial killer (though his drawn map is.)
But thanks to the publisher for the ARC. I read it, shaking my head at every second incredible line of things that were done in the name of investigation and 'evidence' and how drunk or doped or both everyone was to remember anything for long or for sure.
Memorable Quotes / Passages:
If I am missing in any sense, it is a missingness I created for myself in order to be free. - Dawn Lundy Martin
reporter - that troubled and troubling term -
Misogny is in the groundwater of every American city and every American town, but for me, it was done here.
In America, protecting or avenging white women from a violation of their safety or sexual autonomy has been used to justify the unlawful incaceration of men - particularly poor men and men of color.
White men accounted for nearly 80% of suicide deaths in 2017, and men in West Virginia are committing suicides at a rate almost 3 times the national average (U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention)
But for those who had left England seeking opportunity in the New World - the poor, the criminal and the dienfranchised - many found that these opportunities were not forthcoming in Virginia. A powerful class-stratification system had quickly been established, a scramble for power that left some one top but most out in the cold. Those who had come with slightly more resources and ties to the upper classes back in London rushed to expand their claims over those who had fewer. By 1770, less than 10% of white colonists owned over half the land of Virginia.
I don’t know what I am, but whatever it is, you can’t have me. - Irene McKinney
At my liberal arts college outside of Philadelphia, I destroyed every God - religion, literature, politics, feminism, art - with my self-important words, dismissing each as problematic and essentially worthless. I dismantled every system to make a new world, but then I had to live in it.
There may be no stronger bond than the one between two people who fundamentally do not agree about what happened in their story.
(Both said Jacob Beard shot the two girls.) (Johnnie) Lewis’ statement also said that he was with Gerald Brown, Arnold Cutlip, Bill McCoy and Ritchie Fowler, but it does not say (Winter) Walton was there - nor did Walton’s statement say that Lewis was there. Could there have been other people present when the two girls were killed that Lewis didn’t see? “Could have been.”
“A renewed investigation of the case led this week to the arrest of seven men in four states.” - NYT, April 19, 1992
The hick monster story has deep roots in the history of West Virginia and is wound around the story of American industrialization and capitalism. Before you can dispossess a people from their own land, you must first make them not people.
The articles wove a narrative of drunken backwood hicks and sexy hippie women, of two profoundly separate value systems that had touched because of the Rainbow Gathering, then wished they hadn’t.
“Local sentiment was that hillbillies killed a pair of hippies as an expression of anger over Rainbow Gathering”
These outlets also told the story that Pocahontas County was home to both “rugged physical beauty and a few rugged people” that were capable of “backwoods intrigue.” The place was rural and it was scary, they made clear.
“The bodies turned up near the driveway to Arnold Cutlip’s home, an address so remote the television was powered by batteries.” - newspaper coverage
Furthermore, a great deal was made in 1992 media coverage of the fact that Vicki and Nancy were not especially pretty.
Missing or murdered girl must be middle class or higher, and white, and must be attractive, also non-negotiable, to get the ‘full damsel treatment’ of an obsessive nation (a man and a woman of color never get it) — Eugene Robinson, Washington Post
“The heart of trump country”
“They were definitely not the type of women I’d want to have sex with. They weren’t the slimmest, trimmest little things.” - Jacob Beard, St. Petersburg Times, 1992
Yet the story that gender and thus sexuality had played an essential role in their deaths - a flavor in the groundwater we assume we taste whenever a woman is killed - had already solidified.
This is a witchhunt, Robert Allen told Beard. Pure and Simple.
Would Walton be willing to be hypnotized to help him remember things? He would. He remembered. Summoned one final time for questioning without his lawyer present, Lewis again said he had seen Jacob Beard shoot Vicki and Nancy….. (Beard, Fowler, Brown, McCoy, and Cutlip got charged again.) Walton and Lewis were both granted immunity for their testimony.
“It’s called a cafe’ coronary,” the medical examiner in Charleston said when they got his (McCoy’s) body. “People trying to eat, get choked on something, have a heart attack and die. Happens all the time.”
James Clayton Vaughn / Joseph Paul Franklin, 1984 (who claimed to have killed the two women because they were ‘communist, race mixers, they should be wasted, so wasted them.’)
“He (Alkire) kept saying ‘It doesn’t fit with what we know to be true’. He kept saying, ‘The killer has to be local.’” - Deborah DiFalco
‘Illusion of memory“
Re-trial, 2000: McCoy finally gave Weiford the statement prosecution had long been seeking - that he was there in the blue van when he, Fowler, and Walton had picked up Vicki and Nancy and driven them to the mountain, and that he’d seen Fowler cleaning the inside of the van later that night and noted bullet holes in its side. “Did you see Jacob Beard?” Farmer asked. “Don’t know. Don’t think so,” McCoy said. “Did you see these girls?” “Definitely not.” (!) McCoy had gotten addicted to heroin in prison and was hallucinating and vomiting from the withdrawal symptoms. He agreed to testify on condition Alkire would get him in a methadone program. He took the information in his testimony from the information Weiford and Alkire provided him. (!)
Then I told him (Pee wee Walton) that I knew the truth was more complicated than what had been reported and that I suspected he had been caught in the middle of two versions of events, neither of which were exactly true. I told him that so much time had passed and no one could be prosecuted anymore, and was there anything he could tell me, anything he wanted to say? “No” - and the line went dead.
He said, “I know what happened to that third girl.”
I said, “Jake (Jacob) there is no third girl.”
“I thought there were less holes in the Franklin’s stuff than in the Jacob Beard stuff.” - Corporal Michael Jordan, West Virginia State Police (testified for defense) worked under Alkire in major crimes division but handled drug cases mostly.
In June 2016, southern and central west Virginia were hit by a rainstorm that quickly became a catastrophic flood that killed twenty-three people and destroyed homes, schools, infrastructure and businesses, and left 500,000 U.S. citizens without power. The event barely registered in the national media, and it took bureaucratic channels two years to release the funds that would drastically imporve the lives of survivors and repair the damage.
“Hitchhiking was a little like sloppy Budhism. We were putting our faith in humanity.” - Liz Johndrow, the third Rainbow Girl (currently director of a non-profit.)
March 24, 2020
I only gave it One star because the victims in this true crime deserved to recognized and their families to have justice and closure. Other than that, I had to force myself to finish this book. It was all over the place and really dragged at times. Left you guessing in the end about who actually committed the murders of 2 hitch hiking women on their way to a Festival in a remote Appalachian community in 1980.
May 22, 2019
I received this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
I love the true crime genre and was excited to read this book. I did not know much about the story and was excited to learn more. Instead of reading like a true crime novel this was more like a history book/memoir. I do enjoy history and I like interesting memoirs but this book did not work for me. There are a lot of details about the history of the area which this crime took place. Unfortunately it was just too much history and dry information and not enough of the actual story this book is supposed to be about. There was also a lot of information about the author and how she came to know about Appalachia. I did not find that interesting either. I think this would have worked better if it started out with more about the crime and then backtracked into the history/memoir aspects if that would add to the story. I stopped reading when the novel was not keeping me engaged. Disappointing book.
I love the true crime genre and was excited to read this book. I did not know much about the story and was excited to learn more. Instead of reading like a true crime novel this was more like a history book/memoir. I do enjoy history and I like interesting memoirs but this book did not work for me. There are a lot of details about the history of the area which this crime took place. Unfortunately it was just too much history and dry information and not enough of the actual story this book is supposed to be about. There was also a lot of information about the author and how she came to know about Appalachia. I did not find that interesting either. I think this would have worked better if it started out with more about the crime and then backtracked into the history/memoir aspects if that would add to the story. I stopped reading when the novel was not keeping me engaged. Disappointing book.
December 8, 2019
The Third Rainbow Girl: The long life of a double murder in the Appalachia by Emma Copley Eisenberg
January 21, 2020
Hachette Books
True crime, nonfiction
Rating: 3/5
I received a digital ARC copy of this book from NetGalley and Hachette Books in exchange for an unbiased review.
This book is more of a memoir than a true crime story. On June 25, 1980, Vicki Durian (26) from Iowa working as a HHA and Nancy Santomero (19) dropped out of a NY college to work in a Tucson thrift shop were murdered in southeastern West Virginia. They died in Pocahontas County where they hitchhiked to attend the Rainbow Gathering peace festival.
It was during the author’s experience living and working for almost 1-1/2 years in Pocahontas County that she developed an interest in this cold case. Likewise, she had spent many summers there as a Volunteer in Service to America (VISTA) to help alleviate poverty by empowering teenage girls to pursue their education. She states that her 5 years of research spanned over 7 states.
With that in mind, this is not a true crime novel in traditional sense, far from it. By the end of the book it is noted that was the author’s intention. She wanted to record her memories in West Virginia as well as the unsolved murders which occurred there. She felt deeply moved and sought to interview many of the people who lived through the terrible ordeal. There were many trials and accusations many about 7 local men who were considered disorderly drinkers. There was plenty of speculation regarding the police and politics of the handling of the situation.
Honestly, I was expecting a rather traditional true crime novel and felt confused and deflated at times. Although the two stories, that of the author and the cold case, are interesting it wasn’t my cup of tea. The story reads as unconventional as the author describes herself.
In the end I had to wonder about the title, The Third Rainbow Girl. It is only at the end that focus is given to Elizabeth Johndrow who was considered the “third rainbow girl” who survived because she left to return home before the group reached their destination.
The author relates so well with the characters and setting that she could be considered the third rainbow girl. Although she lived and worked in Pocahontas County many years after the crimes were committed, her experiences entwined with the history feels almost akin to her bearing witness to the events.
January 21, 2020
Hachette Books
True crime, nonfiction
Rating: 3/5
I received a digital ARC copy of this book from NetGalley and Hachette Books in exchange for an unbiased review.
This book is more of a memoir than a true crime story. On June 25, 1980, Vicki Durian (26) from Iowa working as a HHA and Nancy Santomero (19) dropped out of a NY college to work in a Tucson thrift shop were murdered in southeastern West Virginia. They died in Pocahontas County where they hitchhiked to attend the Rainbow Gathering peace festival.
It was during the author’s experience living and working for almost 1-1/2 years in Pocahontas County that she developed an interest in this cold case. Likewise, she had spent many summers there as a Volunteer in Service to America (VISTA) to help alleviate poverty by empowering teenage girls to pursue their education. She states that her 5 years of research spanned over 7 states.
With that in mind, this is not a true crime novel in traditional sense, far from it. By the end of the book it is noted that was the author’s intention. She wanted to record her memories in West Virginia as well as the unsolved murders which occurred there. She felt deeply moved and sought to interview many of the people who lived through the terrible ordeal. There were many trials and accusations many about 7 local men who were considered disorderly drinkers. There was plenty of speculation regarding the police and politics of the handling of the situation.
Honestly, I was expecting a rather traditional true crime novel and felt confused and deflated at times. Although the two stories, that of the author and the cold case, are interesting it wasn’t my cup of tea. The story reads as unconventional as the author describes herself.
In the end I had to wonder about the title, The Third Rainbow Girl. It is only at the end that focus is given to Elizabeth Johndrow who was considered the “third rainbow girl” who survived because she left to return home before the group reached their destination.
The author relates so well with the characters and setting that she could be considered the third rainbow girl. Although she lived and worked in Pocahontas County many years after the crimes were committed, her experiences entwined with the history feels almost akin to her bearing witness to the events.
February 1, 2020
While I love a memoir and investigation into a person or area, I think my expectations for this to be more of a true-crime deep dive made this book disappointing for me as the reader. This may just have been one of those situations where I thought this would be a different kind of book based on the book summary.
I struggled to engage with the content because I was really wishing I could get more information about the actual events related to these cases. I have recently enjoyed some of the books that portray life in Appalachia that were quite compelling but this one just felt hard to engage with. The Third Rainbow Girl ended up being such a slow read for me and it just didn't hold my interest. While there was some relevant information a lot of it just seemed unnecessary and way too drawn out.
Thank you to NetGalley, LibroFM and Hachette books for advanced copies. All opinions are my own.
I struggled to engage with the content because I was really wishing I could get more information about the actual events related to these cases. I have recently enjoyed some of the books that portray life in Appalachia that were quite compelling but this one just felt hard to engage with. The Third Rainbow Girl ended up being such a slow read for me and it just didn't hold my interest. While there was some relevant information a lot of it just seemed unnecessary and way too drawn out.
Thank you to NetGalley, LibroFM and Hachette books for advanced copies. All opinions are my own.
December 4, 2019
This was a Goodreads gift that was well researched by the author. It included many details of the location, the history of the area in West Virginia and the Rainbow people, their people and habits. The focus of the story was the two young women that were murdered. We learned an extreme amount of minutae about all the accused men, the two trials, the defense, the prosecution, the later interviews and more than we really wanted to know and cared about the author, her boyfriends and teaching in Pocahontas County. This novel was far too verbose and lacked suspense. There was some mention of the third Rainbow girl, but not much, considering the title. It did not even really have a true climax at the end.
April 4, 2022
This is a true crime book in the way that a coloring book is a novel.
More seriously: this book is actually a relatively substance-less memoir that alternates between being saccharine, maudlin, pseudo-intellectual, and navel gazing. It's another Urbanite White Lady Transplant view of Appalachia, which...I think I speak for us all when I say the world doesn't need another one of these books.
If you're interested in learning more about Appalachia, you should pick up Tara Westover's EDUCATED. If you want a true crime book that's, you know, actually a true crime book, read LOST GIRLS.
But this book isn't good, and I wouldn't recommend it.
More seriously: this book is actually a relatively substance-less memoir that alternates between being saccharine, maudlin, pseudo-intellectual, and navel gazing. It's another Urbanite White Lady Transplant view of Appalachia, which...I think I speak for us all when I say the world doesn't need another one of these books.
If you're interested in learning more about Appalachia, you should pick up Tara Westover's EDUCATED. If you want a true crime book that's, you know, actually a true crime book, read LOST GIRLS.
But this book isn't good, and I wouldn't recommend it.
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