A Rip in Heaven by Jeanine Cummins

[gilda_elise]

The acclaimed author of AMERICAN DIRT reveals the devastating effects of a shocking tragedy in this landmark true crime book: the first ever to look intimately at the experiences of both the victims and their families.

A RIP IN HEAVEN is Jeanine Cummins' story of a night in April, 1991, when her two cousins Julie and Robin Kerry, and her brother, Tom, were assaulted on the Old Chain of Rocks Bridge, which spans the Mississippi River just outside of St. Louis.

When, after a harrowing ordeal, Tom managed to escape the attackers and flag down help, he thought the nightmare would soon be over. He couldn't have been more wrong. Tom, his sister Jeanine, and their entire family were just at the beginning of a horrific odyssey through the aftermath of a violent crime, a world of shocking betrayal, endless heartbreak, and utter disillusionment. It was a trial by fire from which no family member would emerge unscathed.

I can’t begin to imagine what the author and her family went through, having two members of their family murdered. But what probably made more of an impression on me is what happened afterwards. How did someone who had escaped this nightmare end up having to live through another? It says a lot, and none of it good, about our legal system.

The murder was done by four men with little or no conscience, four men who had little regard for life or the truth. But what was done to Tom afterwards was done by men who were supposed to be society’s protectors. Maybe Tom did say some things that I never would have in the same situation, but that doesn’t let the police off the hook. They lied, misled him when it came to his rights, and only stopped harassing him after the true perpetrators were practically handed to them.

Was the writer being so close to the crime a detriment when it came to telling the story? Did she bend the story too much to one side? Maybe, but I can’t say that I blame her. The men who were found guilty of her cousins’ murders did not deny most of their actions; they just blamed each other for the murders.






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