Murder in Little Egypt - Softcover

O'Brien, Darcy

3.98

1,984 ratings by Goodreads

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0786710950 ISBN 13: 9780786710959

Publisher: Running Press, 2002

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The unimaginable crime of filicide takes on the cast of tragic inevitability in this haunting true tale of violence, greed, revenge, and death. Fusing the narrative power of an award-winning novelist and the detailed research of an experienced investigator, Darcy O'Brien unfolds the story of Dr. John Dale Cavaness, the southern Illinois physician and surgeon who in December 1984 was charged with the murder of his son Sean. Outraged by the arrest of the skilled medical practitioner who selflessly attended to their needs, the people of Little Egypt rose to his defense. In the trial, however, a radically different, disquieting portrait of Dr. Cavaness would emerge. For throughout the three decades that he enjoyed the admiration and respect of his community, Cavaness was privately terrorizing his family, abusing his employees, and making disastrous financial investments as well as brawling and womanizing. What was not revealed in the trial, however, was that seven years earlier, in a homicide that had never been solved, the body of Cavaness's firstborn son, Mark, had been found shot dead in the woods of Little Egypt. In addition to a compelling chronicle that uncovers the truth behind two ghastly crimes and lays bare the Jekyll–Hyde psyche of their perpetrator, Murder in Little Egypt brings into stark midwestern light the hidden, gothic underside of an America bred on violence and bathed in blood. "Stunning material,"—Nobel Prize-winner Seamus Heaney "A meticulous account ... an implicit indictment of a culture that condones and encourages violent behavior in men."—The New York Times Book Review

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From Library Journal:

Dale Cavaness, a family practitioner, was worshipped in the small town region of southern Illinois known as Little Egypt. But the doctor was also a Mr. Hyde who terrorized his family, was convicted of drunk driving and reckless homicide, and was indicted for deceptive medical practice. Still, the shooting death of his son, Mark, in 1977, was seen as a tragic accident--until Cavaness was convicted of the 1984 murder of another son, Sean. The motive for these heinous crimes was insurance money. With the cooperation of surviving family members, O'Brien, who last wrote about the Los Angeles "Hillside Stranglers" in Two of a Kind ( LJ 9/1/85), has fashioned a chilling account of the psychopath as physician. Recommended.
- Gregor A. Preston, Univ. of California, Davis
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Publishers Weekly:

In what PW called a "riveting true-crime account," we read about John Dale Cavaness, a native son who practiced medicine in "Little Egypt," the southern triangle of Illinois. For a time one of the most beloved men in the area, Cavaness led a secret life--he abused his family, squandered his considerable income on drink and drugs, and eventually killed two of his sons, presumably to collect the insurance. Photos.
Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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