Deadly Innocence

Deadly Innocence is, by far, the best book I've ever read! It's the best one out of all four written about them. It has in depth interviews with Paul and Karla's close, personal friends, including Paul's best friend Van. It throughly explores both of their childhoods and right up to their trials. Van talks about his and Pauls many trips to Florida, Pauls many girlfriends, the night Paul and Karla met, Van's witnessing of Paul's facial assult on a girlfriend years before he met Karla. This book talks about how Karla, after she was arrested, tried to make everyone think she was forced into EVERYTHING simply because she was abused, physically and verbally, by Paul. This book also tells of how Karla, 21, befriended a 15 year old girl simply for the purpose of drugging her. Also of how they tried to seduce Tammy's friend, after Tammy died. If you are interested in reading a book on these two fools, Deadly Innocence is THE one to get! It's the ONLY one with must read interviews with their own friends. Be sure to read the others on this case: "Invisible Darkness" by Stephen Williams "Karla: A Pact With The Devil" by Stephen Williams "Lethal Marriage" by Nick Pron "Karla's Web" by Frank Davey "A Marriage Made For Murder" by Brian O'Neill, ISBN # 0969977913 (Impossible to find)

Of all of the three books I've read on the Bernardo/Homolka case this is the one I keep going back to. There are scenes here that I can't get out of my head. Perhaps I am biased, this was the first book on the case that I read and the one that I got all the information from, I'd never heard of either Bernardo or Homolka until I picked up a copy . Having read both 'Lethal Marriage' by Nick Pron and 'Invisible Darkness' by Stephen Williams I think that this book paints the broadest picture of the whole case and is the most emotionally involving. I almost felt sorry for Karla after reading 'Deadly Innocence' until I read 'Invisible Darkness'. It's less trashy tabloid in style than 'Lethal Marriage' and less rigidlly centred on Karla's guilt than the Stephen Williams book (and I do think that she is dead guilty). It also helped to project an image of the victims as the likeable people they were, especially in the case of the third one, Kristen French. Quite simply heartbreaking.

I have read all three books on the Bernardo/Homolka case and by far "Deadly Innocence" is the best. Scott Cairns and Alan Burnside have presented the facts of this bizarre case with little of the psychological speculation of "why they did it" that tarnishes Nick Pron's "Lethal Marraige." And they have written this account in less of a tabloid sensaltionistic manner than Stephen William's "Invisible Darkness." Paul and Karla emerge here as twisted, self-absorbed losers whose miserable existence revolves around sex. Even after Karla left Paul, she could'nt wait to have more sex. Paul was naive enough to believe he would never get caught - a classic schizophrenic. And the Niagara and Toronto police emerge as even detached from reality as Paul. It is amazing that they caught him !

I am a true crime fan, and I found this book to be a riveting and disturbing account of two canadian lovers(later married) Paul Bernardo and Karla Homolka. This is a must read for any true crime fan.