Smoked: A True Story About the Kids Next Door

by Leon Bing

The true story of David Adkins and Burton Vincent Hebrock reveals how, in a confusing night of rage, these two young men from suburbia murdered their girlfriends with a shotgun and then blamed each other for the crime

Genres: True Crime, Nonfiction

289 pages, Paperback

First published August 1, 1993

Reviews

[Bullet · Rating 1 out of 5]

I think the author was in as big of a hurry to finish this book as I was. The entire second half is the most boring courtroom scene I've ever heard of.
The first half seemed sloppy, and the author either had no idea how to relate to teenagers, or assumed that her readers were completely outdated. Despite the sentence structures being simple, it was difficult and laborious to read.
I don't know why Bing chose this particular case to write an entire book about. It would have been much more compelling if she had chosen several cases, or one that had a motive. I assumed this book was about multiple cases, so that was my fault. But this would have been a lot more interesting if it didn't have so many repetitive and useless details.

[Koren · Rating 3 out of 5]

I couldnt get into this book. This is about a group of teenage kids and 3 of the girls are murdered by 2 of the boys. There are drugs and sex and getting into trouble and I had a hard time liking any of them or caring what happened to them. I would have liked more exploration into their backgrounds, home life, and parenting and why they were the way they were. This book is ok if you just want the facts.

[Annemarie Prokop]

haven't read it yet but they didn't attend Pasadena High School-- the crime DID happen in Pasadena but the boys & 2 of the girls went to SOUTH PASADENA high school, another girl went to San Marino

[Scarlett O.H. · Rating 4 out of 5]

Deze in het Nederlands gelezen als "De Pasadena moorden".

[Kathryn · Rating 3 out of 5]

I stumbled upon this book in a bargain bin and couldn't pass it up when I realized it was about the horrifying events that happened during my senior year of high school. Both the victims and perpetrators attended my high school, though I did not know them personally. They were familiar passing faces in the hall. I remember hearing about the murders while listening to KROQ one morning, only to go to school and find out who the victims were. A senseless, devastating tragedy.

This is not a well written book, but it is an interesting true crime story that was way too close to home for me.

[Fishface · Rating 4 out of 5]

A really grim read. The author does a terrific job of telling us, step by step, how this crime came to happen, how the killers were caught and what happened next. There are no grisly photos in here, but the picture painted of the crime scene by the author is as clear as any photograph.

[Roxie Gallinger · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was so good!! True Crime!!

[Megan · Rating 3 out of 5]

The book has a good story line (it is a true story, so that hooked me in right away), but it gets a little confusing at first due to the high number of characters introduced. It also takes a while for the book to get to the actual climax, and then the court room parts begin to repeat and feel redundant. It was also tempting not to google the names just to get to the end.

[Kristyn · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a decent account of a case I hadn't heard of. It gets a bit bogged down with all the conversations with the friends of the victims and killers. A lot of the book is descriptions of them all partying together which seemed to be a big part of their lives. I just feel the book could have been a bit more streamlined.

[Marianne · Rating 3 out of 5]

This held my interest but it was a tad difficult to follow in places.

[Betty Stoneking · Rating 5 out of 5]

you might check the kids next door

[Eva-Marie Nevarez · Rating 1 out of 5]

There is a reason most true crime books are not thick and are mass market paperbacks. There is only so much that's interesting about any true crime story. You can take the most interesting case in the entire world and if you stick in too many details that don't matter the book will suck.
Bing did just that. My copy is a trade paperback that's the size of a normal novel. I found out everything and I do mean everything. From the color of nail polish this one wore to the kind of pants that one liked to buy/steal/borrow. That's just too much for me because it doesn't matter.
I wanted to read this to learn about the crime. Not what these kids ate for dinner on any given night. Maybe if Bing had kept the details to where they should have been I could have finished but since she didn't I only got a little more than halfway.
It also didn't help that I assumed this was more than one true crime story. This was an assumtion on my part and if I had looked more closely at the title I'd have known. But, by the size of the book, it was only logical to assume there was more than one story included here.
I would definitely only recommend this to people interested in this exact case and/or true crime readers who love details, details, and more details.

[Lori · Rating 1 out of 5]

Reading this, it felt like much of the writing was crafted around trying to persuade me as a reader to find David Adkins as a likable guy, and Vinnie the evil bad guy. That might work for anyone who is unfamiliar with this actual case, or didn't know any of the parties involved.

This book however, is based on a true story, a story I know all too well because I'm from Pasadena, and knew one of the victims, Heather Goodwin. At times Bing plays fast and loose with the truth. You know who was a likable person? Heather was! She was a really good, helpful, and fun person. A bit spunky and hot tempered sometimes, but she helped me out of a few jams, and I liked her a lot. I will always remember her as a super nice chick.

No amount of the authors obvious bias regarding David is ever going to make me find him likable, or anything other than a cold blooded killer who participated in killing 3 girls who didn't deserve to die. *edit (I had mistakenly wrote this review in the comment section the first time, so this is just a c/p to move it to where it belongs.)

[Rae · Rating 3 out of 5]

A true-crime account of a triple murder in California in 1991. Three teenagers are brutally killed by two of their friends, apparently with not much motive. The author looks at the lives of those involved and discovers that left to themselves and mostly unsupervised the group was only concerned about having good times, acquiring and consuming material items, and creating images. Their whole world revolved around sex, drugs, booze, fast cars and loud music. Most sobering.

[Dustin]

I am reading this now but there is only one reason why? The reason is because I recently found out about the book and that Burt Vinny Hebrock is my 3rd cousin( My grandmas, uncles son) I was shocked to learn I have a Murder/stoner/thief in the family. I am beginning to do research on the case by collecting news articles. I am intrigued by this. Also so far it''s been a good book

[Melfie]

Read in 2 days. This was a good local Pasadena true crime story that sends a message to all those parents, with teens, with out parental control.

[Lara · Rating 5 out of 5]

horrifying

[Cee Black]

I read this book over 15 years ago and have no clue why it’s so suck in my memory.

[Bobbie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Read as a child......was good