Crossed Over: A Murder, A Memoir

by Beverly Lowry

The novelist Beverly Lowry was mourning her son’s death in a hit-and-run accident when she came across a newspaper story about Karla Faye Tucker, the infamous Houston murderer who was then on death row. The article captured Tucker’s innocent beauty, the stunning brutality of her crimes — committed with a pickaxe — and the stories of her spiritual awakening on death row. Struck by these apparent contradictions, Lowry found herself inexplicably drawn to Tucker, who some ten years later would become the first woman to be executed in Texas since 1863.

Lowry eventually began to visit Tucker in prison, and over the course of several years she listened to the tragic story of her life before the murders and, in turn, told Karla Faye about her own life and the life and death of her son Peter. Crossed Over is a memoir of this time, a moving account of an unlikely but profound and genuine friendship created in the confines of a visiting room on death row. Now with a new foreword that recounts Tucker’s last days and Lowry’s experiences at her execution, Crossed Over is also an intimate portrait of a life gone tragically awry and then redeemed behind bars.

Genres: True Crime, Nonfiction, Memoir

272 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1992

Reviews

[mark monday · Rating 3 out of 5]

a grieving mother, her son slain in a hit-and-run; a wounded woman and killer, on death row. two minds breaking, two stories of the end of life, two stories finding each other and merging. one mother learning to live again, three people dead forever, one woman destined to die - yet finding life before death. grief creates strange blood-spattered and tear-laced connections through jail bars and across the chasms of class and experience. the fluidity of victim and victimizer... lives cross over... a memoir of murder and renewal... a catalogue of epiphanies. to know the unknowable and to live with it, reborn.

[Amy Quinn · Rating 5 out of 5]

Beautifully written. I felt like I was back in the 1980's.

[Jenny · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is a peek into Karla Faye Tucker’s life & crime at the same time the author is storytelling her own son’s untimely death. The book packs a double punch on tragedy. I perceived it as well written & thoughtful.

[Kris (My Novelesque Life) · Rating 4 out of 5]

RATING: 3.5 STARS

In 2002, I watched a "based on true events" TV movie, starring Diane Keaton and Jennifer Jason Leigh. The title of the movie, Crossed Over was also the title of the book this movie was based on. Of course, then I had to read the book. Crossed Over is what I would call a memoir of violence. Beverly Lowry loses her son in a hit-and-run accident, and tries to process the grief and move forward with her life. During this process she comes across an article about Karla Faye Tucker, a murderer that committed her crimes with a pick-axe. Now on death row, Tucker was going through a spirituality process and seeing the errors of her way. If executed, Tucker was to be the first woman to be executed in Texas since the 1800s. Lowry drawn to this case met with the killer and continued to visit for several years.

As Lowry begins to explore violence and what drives people to do what they do, we begin to see Lowry change. She starts off angry and confused and soon moves to compassion and purpose. We see Tucker through Lowry's eyes and with what Karla herself says and facts from the case. If you are looking for definitive answers, you may wish to pass on this one. It is not your traditional true crime book as the facts are not the main focus, but I like that about this book. I also liked that it made me think a lot about compassion and forgiveness. It reminded me a bit of Dead Man Walking (by Sister Helen Prejean) in that way. If you can take the subject matter I would recommend this book.

MY NOVELESQUE LIFE

[Dennis Hogan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Finished Crossed Over: A Murder, A Memoir by Beverly Lowry published in 1992 and updated in 2002. Beverly Lowry is a well known novelist, who while mourning the loss of a son in a hit and run accident came across the story of Karla Faye Tucker then on death row for the horrific murder of two people in Houston. Lowry visited Tucker and began what would become a genuine friendship until Karla Faye was executed by the state of Texas in 1998, the first of a woman to die in the Texas justice system since 1863. Karla Faye lead a troubled life, the child of divorce in poor circumstances, a prostitute with a fiery temper who committed a horrible murder with a pick ax. This book describes their intersecting experiences, grief and regret. By all accounts, including prison officials and prosecutors Karla Fay accepted responsibility for her crimes and became a devout Christian. All attempts by her many friends and lawyers came to naught and she was executed.
A moving book.

[Sara · Rating 4 out of 5]

More like 4.5 stars

[Jeannette Hartman · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is poignant and provoking.

Beverly Lowry's 18-year-old son had been dead about two years when she decided to reach out to convicted killer Karla Faye Tucker on the basis of a newspaper article she had read and saved.

Karla had been convicted of murdering two people with a pick axe after three days of taking drugs and sentenced to death. In prison, under the influence of a prison chaplain, Karla had a religious conversion that transformed her. Prosecutors and attorneys who knew her during her trial and considered her to be evil incarnate, changed their attitudes as the years passed and Karla's transformation held.

In their first long conversation together, Karla told Beverly about the murders, taking full responsibility for them, and Beverly told Karla about the hit-and-run killing of her son Peter and her devastation at losing him. Over the course of more than 10 years, the two women became close, their friendship ending with Karla's 1998 execution. She was the first woman in Texas to be executed in 135 years.

Lowry writes vividly and without excuses about the murders and Karla's life before prison. The book provokes many questions about whether we as a society believe that rehabilitation is possible and whether punishment should be tempered by circumstances such as drug use, poverty, lack of education and a poor upbringing.

Lowry provides no answers. This is a book that will haunt you for a long time.

[Fishface · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book combines the story of the hard road traveled by the author after losing her son to a hit-and-run driver, who was never caught or punished, and the maybe even harder road of Karla Faye Tucker, sent to Death Row for killing someone with an axe. The two stories are so opposite, they almost fit together like puzzle pieces: the author has no closure because of someone who never took responsibility for killing her son, and the Death Row inmate has no memory of having killed anyone because she was too stoned, but took full responsibility anyway.

[Marsmannix · Rating 2 out of 5]

Is this a thing now? A person gets fixated on a brutal murder, or a brutal murderer, gets a book contract and writes this kind of book? it's a little squick inducing.
Author seems to use Karla Faye Tucker to meet her own unresolved issues surrounding the death of her son. I found it disturbing and creepy. Ew.

[J · Rating 3 out of 5]

Disturbing in some aspects and enlightening in others.

[Sheila · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was so hard for me to rate and let me share why, first off this is a true story.
It is a unique memoir of friendship/bond for society it’s not a forgiveness you see everyday most often we do not forgive people for crimes they commit let alone listen to their story or even begin to care about them. Let me also say usually the forgiveness doesn’t often happen because some say they will do it again and or it may be hard to believe they won’t commit the act again.
In this book/memoir we have Beverly Lowry her son has been killed by a hit and run this brings Beverly to the worst depression and anger a mother could experience. Then we have Karla Faye Tucker and her boyfriend at the time who killed two people during a burglary with a pic ax and she was then put in prison and then death row.
Beverly sees and reads a newspaper article of Karla and for some reason this mother in absolute despair wants to meet Karla.
What happens from there is just unbelievable.
I had a difficult time rating it because I wanted to give it a four just for the unusual forgiveness and friendship that happened with these two ladies and then three stars because Karla had committed this horrible ugly crime so I went with 3 because goodreads doesn’t do 3.5.
I cried with this book and then I felt bad for crying because Karla killed people but yet she was a person but yet she made choices and some parts of her life were forced. It was a roller coaster of emotion for both ladies and I still have a hard time wrapping my brain around this forgiveness but yet somewhere I get it too. It’s just a amazing story between these two ladies.

[Queenmangin · Rating 2 out of 5]

I just couldn't get past the fan girling vibe of Karla Faye Tucker. It's entirely possible she is redeemed in prison, but there is so much missing information that I highly doubt that this girl could exist without the structure of prison. There was little information about how this seemingly normal family became so twisted. Very limited interviews with anyone besides those who gushed about Karla. I could see how the authors tragedy of losing her son so violently could lead her down this path, but there's no resolution other than she adopted Karla as a surrogate member to care for. It just didn't jibe for me. I was just left with more questions than answers, including what was the purpose of the book. I feel like maybe there should have been two separate books. Very little insight into the victim in this case or the remorse. She endorses doing a horrible act, but there's no sense of the life she took. For me, Karla just comes off as very manipulative throughout the whole book and the author seems very naive at times.

[Rebecca Cecil · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a memoir by Beverly Lowry. A grieving mother. The mother and father lose their son when his car broke down close to home so he decides to walk home only to be struck and killed by a car, it was a hit and run.
Beverly is having a hard time dealing with the loss of her son. It has been over a year and she is still posting posters to help find the hit and run driver who killed her son.
One day she decides to visit Karla Faye Tucker who is called The Axe Murderer, she is a death row inmate. Karla is the first woman to be executed in Texas.
The story is not r a lly about life and how the haunted girl. It is really about how Karla Faye Tucker helped Beverly her life back. How Carla and Becerly became odd friends. Karla is said to have repented and gave her life to God.
A very good story if grief, live, forgiveness, letting go and starting over. I really enjoyed the storyline of this book.

[Tori · Rating 4 out of 5]

It is hard to get past the first chapter or two of this book. It is clear that the author has fallen in love with Karla Faye, a murderer, and so it makes the whole book seem a bit unreliable. That being said I found this story very interesting. It seems to be one of few accounts of this horrendous murder that does not focus on Karla's religious rehabilitation. This, along with the fact that the author includes a lot of personal stories Karla has told her make me feel like Beverly Lowry might actually be quite credible. Although Karla's story and Beverly's (or should I say Peter's) stories don't seem at all connected the ending tied the two together very well. I'm glad I kept reading after the first chapter!

[Diana · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very solid four stars. There is beautiful writing here if you push past the first part which is in minuscule detail. As the pace picks up, it is an honest, vulnerable accounting of the troubles with her son and the close friendship she develops with a confessed young murderess on Death Row—Karla Faye Tucker. I did not realize that this book was published initially in 1992–it had come up as a book suggestion for me. I kind of wish that the author had provided an update to the story.

[Ocean · Rating 4 out of 5]

i enjoyed this book more than most of the books i've read lately. it's pretty old (published over 30 years ago) and about a woman who was executed in 1998. the author is grieving her son and randomly strikes up a friendship with a death row inmate. it's a fascinating story about prison, drugs, grief, murder, and recovery. i could barely put it down.

[Anna Persky · Rating 4 out of 5]

I found this memoir by Beverly Lowry to be quite thoughtful and interesting. Lowry was mourning the death of her son when she befriended Karla Faye Tucker, then on death row for murder. The book describes their unlikely friendship and recounts Tucker's life.

[Tom Kavanagh · Rating 1 out of 5]

author sympathetic to drug addict ,whore ?

[Jesse · Rating 3 out of 5]

Honestly, this is odd. I am not seeing the parallels or the fascination.

[Hawk Mendenhall · Rating 4 out of 5]

The New York Times Book Review said “immensely disturbing”. It truly is. This is not a book you read and just move on. It will stay with me for a long time.

[Donna · Rating 4 out of 5]

Intriguing book.

[Theresa · Rating 4 out of 5]

The library edition I read did not have the new forward, so I did not get to the very end--either of Bev's account or of Karla's life. The edition I read ended at the time of Karla's legal appeal.

Lowery is a novelist, but this is a true story and it felt somewhat journalistic to me even though a good bit of description was given. I felt it would never end. And then I reached the final pages. There Lowery raised and offered her answer to the questions that go beyond the telling of this story to its purpose. She did this so deftly and wisely that I am very glad to have hung in there with her. If that had not happened for me, I would not recommend the book. I do.
You need to go through both stories--Karla's and Beverly's (and even Danny's)--- to arrive at what it may mean to you, which is revealing. And therefore worth your time.

[Jared Gillins · Rating 4 out of 5]

Bev wrote a gripping and very personal account of the life of Karla Faye Tucker and her own friendship with her. I would recommend this to anyone, with the caveat that the reader be aware that the murders Tucker was convicted for were grisly and horrible. Lowry does not spare any details, and parts were very hard to read. But an excellent book overall.




[I put Language in Thought and Action on hold so I could read this first. I'm hoping that Bev's personal struggle to make sense of Tucker will help feed my essay about my Uncle Ronald and the bizarre life he led. Help me to figure out how to make sense of him.

Anyway, I've heard good things about this book, and I took my writing class at GMU from its author, so I know Bev's great. So. Watch this space for a future review.]

[Margi · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is an interesting memoir written by a woman whose son has been killed by a hit-and-run driver. She is in deep mourning. She finds an article in the newspaper about Karla Faye Tucker and the pick-axe murder. She get permission to interview Karla on death row. The author really finds herself in tune with Karla, her story leading up to the murder, and her personal redemption on death row. These two women forge a strong friendship. I enjoyed reading about Karla's life even though it is very disturbing and sad. I also was intrigued by the author's struggles with her son and his untimely, sudden death.

[Sue · Rating 1 out of 5]

Looks like the author fell in love with this ax murderer. Obssessed, disgustingly so.

The words Karla or Karla Faye Tucker appear on every single page of the book. Come on! Every page? Between one to ten times. That is just awful.

[Christine Granados · Rating 4 out of 5]

I didn't sympathize with Carla Faye as much as the author tried to get me to. I may be hardened to sad sack childhood stories. While interesting, Faye's was no different than others. Instead, I wanted to read more about the author's tragic story of the death of her son.

[Christa · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very good read - was not sappy or preachy and the author's own story is an interesting saga as well.

[Sean · Rating 4 out of 5]

4 stars because it was written so tenderly that I had no choice but to go along for the whole story, regardless of how I felt about Karla Faye. A truly honest book

[Art Taylor]

Rereading this one for class, and continue to find it fascinating!

[Cindy B. · Rating 3 out of 5]

Horrible and followed by the death sentence carried out, post-publishing.