Download Seduced by Madness: The True Story of the Susan Polk Murder by Carol Pogash PDF

By Carol Pogash

ISBN-10: 0061467707

ISBN-13: 9780061467707

In October 2002, the quiet northern California city of Orinda used to be rocked via homicide while Susan Polk, the mummy of 3 teenage boys, was once arrested for stabbing her husband and previous therapist, Dr. Felix Polk, to demise. The arrest and next trial speedy grew to become essentially the most noted homicide situations within the kingdom, as spectators and journalists discovered the unusual background at the back of this stunning killing.

Now in Seduced via insanity, Carol Pogash--the major journalist operating the case--has written the definitive account of the Polk relatives saga, delivering a wealthy and textured new version of this anxious and tragic American story. reading the decadent tradition of California within the Seventies, Pogash appears at how, during this interval of substances and sexual exploration, a fifteen-year-old Susan discovered herself stuck within the take hold of of Felix, her therapist--who, like others within the psychological wellbeing and fitness occupation, fell for each passing development in psychological well-being treatment. Culled from years of cautious learn, Pogash reconstructs the imprecise beginnings of the couple's sexual courting within the therapist's place of work, exploring how Felix's comfortable perspective towards remedy blinded him to the complicated nature of Susan's psychological nation, and the way their mutual obsession with one another sealed their fate.

With lyrical prose, Pogash skillfully strains the Polks' story--from their early yearnings for each other via their mistaken marriage, which produced 3 extremely smart yet emotionally divided sons. Weaving a fancy narrative of a family members who lived in multimillion greenback houses yet lingered within the shadow of disorder, Pogash reassembles their existence within the years and months ahead of Felix's loss of life, in detail describing what led this soft-spoken spouse to murder.

Three years after Felix's loss of life, Susan Polk used to be attempted for first measure homicide, and the following Pogash presents a first-hand account of the wild, media-circus trial within which Susan defended herself and cross-examined of her sons. Illustrating how the prosecution and the court docket spoke back to Susan's risky habit, Pogash takes you contained in the deliberation room and uncovers how jurors reached their fantastic verdict.

Filled with the main whole case evidence and interviews to be had, Seduced by means of insanity bargains an unheard of examine the most attractive homicide circumstances lately.

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Additional resources for Seduced by Madness: The True Story of the Susan Polk Murder Case

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Out! ’ The perplexed man looked at her, then at the other women, who were scowling menacingly, and left. For me it was a sobering moment. The girls were genuinely outraged. Had that man insisted on remaining, they would have not waited for the bouncer to arrive. The homo would have been clawed, kicked and bitten to pieces. I had seen prostitutes fight men. A sane man who has been around does not lightly pick a fight with a seasoned Sydney prostitute. I was now, though, regularly accused in the Children’s Court of stealing.

Would they ever turn that damn light off? ‘Darcy. ’ It was Billy Mears again, calling from his cell three doors along the row. God, is this happening to me? That long, grey beam was waiting in the next building. They hanged men from that beam. I had seen it a hundred times in the past few years. Now I was waiting for its rope to wrench my head from my shoulders when the trap door snapped open. Waiting. All of us who were condemned; those callous screws outside the cell; the priest; the police; Dick, my pop; my mother and brother, Tom.

I would tenaciously stick at some adversary who lived nearby or went to the Christian Brothers school I attended, until I beat him. I was not a bully but I certainly had plenty of scraps, usually with older, bigger kids who were bullies to other kids of about my age. Sometimes my Irish maternal grandfather, Patrick O’Connor, who lived with us, would quietly call me aside. ’ Then the dear old gent would tell me about some kid who had been cheeky to him in the street. ‘Go teach him a lesson, lad,’ Grandad urged, pressing a shilling into my hand.

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