Brothers in Blood

I have family in the area in which these murders took place, therefore have been intrigued for sometime. I have seen the movie (Murder One) and read much on the subject. This book is the best depiction of the actual events (that i am aware of). I am happy that the entire book doesn't focus completely on the rearing of the perps, but shares the detail of the lives of the victims as well.

I agree with the previous reviewer in that this is one of the best true crime books I have ever read. I also read exclusively true crime only, and this one stands above the rest. The story itself is very disturbing and will stay with you for quite some time. The author also has a hard edge in his style and pulls no punches in terms of vulagarity, racism, and sexual content. At times it is uncomfortable to read but this only makes the story come alive. I found this book because I searched his name after reading his other book, Love's Blood, which is just as good. It is too bad these are the only 2 books I can find by him, but they are both definitely 5 star.

All I read is true crime books and I read a lot this is one of the best true crime books I have ever read!!

Four young men, three white and one black, escape from a Maryland correctional facility. They pick up fifteen year old Billy Isaacs along the way. On the escape, they break into a trailor. Unfortunately for six members of the Alday famiy on May 14, 1973, they come home to the trailer parked in wooded Georgia's Seminole County. Carl, the ringleader of the gang, with his fellow escapees, Wayne Coleman and his black lover George Dungee, are more involved in killing 5 members of the family. 15 year old Billy is the only one who feels any sense of remorse and conscience despite being an unwilling participant in these crimes. The five members of the family were men and they were shot off in the trailer. Carl refuses to go to prison and face being gang-raped by the other prisoners. Carl is the unofficial leader who calls the shots and performs a massacre unlike ever seen before in Georgia. They rape and kill the only female member, Mary, left naked an dead in the woods a few miles from the trailer of blood. The four guys escape the scene and fled to West Virginia. They wanted to drop off Billy in Maryland but they all get caught. Carl was executed in 2003 for his part in the murders. Billy was released in 1994. The other two are on death row for their role in the murders. Clark Howard's writing helps explain the brutality, history, childhoods, and poor upbringing. Their lives were pitiful to begin with. Their fertile mother abandoned them. The State of Maryland's Children Services did nothing but place them in foster care and homes until they didn't know what to do with them. Howard's writing offers us flashbacks to Carl walking to his grandmother's house in Pennsylvania one night. How Wayne and George made an unlikely friendship and partnership in the correctional facility? Poor Billy who was almost murdered by the others because of his obvious guilt and remorse. Still a child, Billy, was crying all the way from Georgia. Billy was only involved because Carl got him involved by taking him away from Baltimore. Oh, if things had only been different. I never heard of the Alday murders until I got this book. 2 months before my own birth, crimes like this happened and occurred. 6 innocent people dead for no reason. The Aldays pleaded with their killers to let them live and take whatever they wanted but the problem was Carl's death wish. He didn't want to go to prison and stay in the general population if he got caught because of the gang-rapes. Even 30 years later, you can't help but wonder what might have happened to prevent such a tragedy. If we can't learn from it, then they all died in vain.