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    Sleep, My Child, Forever: The Riveting True Story of a Mother Who Murdered Her Own Children
    Sleep, My Child, Forever: The Riveting True Story of a Mother Who Murdered Her Own Children
    Sleep, My Child, Forever: The Riveting True Story of a Mother Who Murdered Her Own Children
    Audiobook7 hours

    Sleep, My Child, Forever: The Riveting True Story of a Mother Who Murdered Her Own Children

    Written by John Coston

    Narrated by A.T. Chandler

    4/5

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    About this audiobook

    The dark double life of Ellen Boehm, the mother who murdered her two sons—and nearly killed her daughter

    Ellen Boehm, a single mom from St. Louis, Missouri, appeared devoted to her children. But in reality, she was unequipped for motherhood, financially strapped, and desperate. Within a year of each other, her sons, ages two and four, died mysteriously, and Boehm's eight-year-old daughter then suffered a near-fatal mishap when a hair dryer fell into the girl's bath. While neighbors wondered how Boehm remained so calm through it all, Det. Sgt. Joseph Burgoon of St. Louis Homicide had darker suspicions.

    Burgoon soon unraveled a labyrinth of deception, greed, and obsession that revealed a cold-blooded killer whose get-rich-quick scheme came at the cost of her children's lives. Boehm had taken out insurance policies on her children with six different companies totaling nearly $100,000. Using police reports, case documents, and photos, journalist John Coston recreates the events that led to one mother's unspeakable acts of filicide—and a cop's relentless pursuit of the truth.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherBrilliance Audio
    Release dateJul 23, 2019
    ISBN9781978658646
    Author

    John Coston

    John Coston is a veteran journalist and a former news editor on the national desk at the Wall Street Journal. He has written for the Watertown Daily Times, the Hartford Courant, and the Miami Herald. Coston is the author of two true crime books, To Kill and Kill Again and Sleep, My Child, Forever.

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    Reviews for Sleep, My Child, Forever

    4/5

    133 ratings11 reviews

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    • 1/5
      This was a tragic story that should have been the focus of the book. Unfortunately, the author seemed more interested in Ellen's weight than in what she did to her children. He was obsessed with her obesity, which he repeatedly suggested made her too unattractive to be with men, and came dangerously close to suggesting that her weight was a cause of her decision to kill her children. It was disgusting and offensive.

      This could have been a three or four-star read without his fat phobia. As it is, I would not recommend this book under any circumstances. Just don't waste your time.

      (Copied from my Goodreads review)

      2 people found this helpful

    • 5/5
      The story is great, finished it in a single day. Only downside is during the interview portion it is a bit difficult to follow.

      1 person found this helpful

    • 4/5
      Very well written and interesting. Horrific story, hard to believe.

      1 person found this helpful

    • 4/5
      All of it was good! Liked the narrator. Intresting story

      1 person found this helpful

    • 2/5
      Could not get more than a few chapters in before I threw in the towel. This could be a genuinely fascinating character study and analysis of the way the American dream fails mothers and all sorts of other interlacing facets that drove this individual's desperation, but instead the author has to pause every few pages to remind us she's fat. Made a friend? They bond over being fat, probably. Unhappy? It's because she's fat, he assumes. Struggling financially? Well, has he reminded you she's fat? Give me a break, John. I can already tell that he's going to propose obesity as a motivation for infanticide. His assumptions and prejudices cloud what should be an in-depth and complex narrative. A real shame, because there could have been something here.
    • 5/5
      With a book like this, there are no “favorite” parts. This book was well written and laid out the facts, sad as they may be. The whole story was so so sad but worth the read.
    • 3/5
      The story is interesting, but incredibly repetitive, your get tiered of hearing the same thing in the same words for over 10 times throughout the book.
    • 2/5
      The story was interesting and then it just kept droning on about how much of a liar this woman was and god a whole 2 extra hours of repeated information. Pass
    • 5/5
      This was an interesting read that kept me wanting to know what was going to happen next. It's a must read.
    • 4/5
      Not super PC in that the author constantly criticizes women in the book for being fat and unattractive, and there's some blame-game going around, but otherwise, it's a decent read. Interesting story that I hadn't heard before, which was nice.

      3 people found this helpful

    • 4/5
      Very good book and I am glad I read this. I have a collection of books of women that kill there own children but most suffer from Proxy by Munchausen syndrome. not this selfish obese woman. She suffers from greed and just killed her 2 kids. Very well written.