Letters from Prison: Voices of Women Murderers

I personally know Kristine Bunch and she should be out not in prison. Krissy is the most wonderful person I know. She has suffered a great deal because of the crime she was convicted of. She did not do it and she is paying an unfair price. People need to know that she has suffered and lost 6 years of her son's life. She needs to be home not in some prison.

I am up close and personal with the Yates case...I choose to remain anonymous. I was looking for sources that might explain why she did what she did; her husband seems to not understand, but want to and want to forgive. As a Christian, I get this, but my heart feels a grief and a loss which creates anger. I don't read "true crime." I had to find something about this subject. This IS THE BOOK. Jennifer has a conversation with a few other women who had done similar, familial killings, as she describes them in her book of letters. It is so weird, I've read books of letters, diaries, but never did I think I'd read one about killers, and more important, walk away with a sense I'd learned something about the women, and my own ability to hold compassion in this seemingly sinister world. I felt it was a God send: the stories, some weren't like the Yate's case, some were harder to understand, but I got the message: the point is, there exists something underlying that first was misunderstood or ignored, which is what really should be addressed. To a degree, the writer does this, but so do the criminals. Yet, these aren't like women who have no regrets. How is it that they committed such acts and than feel remorse, or a need to get in touch with their anger? It seems for many, it took isolation of prison to get to a place where their minds finally were still, a place where thier only responsibilities were to introspect...but now, where before I saw prison as a "last stop," I feel certain that execution can't be sure fire "solutiion" and nor can be endless, terminal lock up. These were very isolated, very sick women. Now I understand. I wish the best for these women, for the writer, and for the Yates family. I will make certain I yell it from the mountains. Anonymous

I was in an audience in Seattle when Jennifer Furio was interviewed. Behind the camera, a sister of one of the women in her books was there. This woman practices what she preaches. The gal got ballistic with her approach, which based on her writing is about empathy or at least, trying to understand. The woman even tried to get physical. I've never seen anyone so cool under pressure. She's about 5/10 and thin -- real thin...so it was interesting -- put her money where her mouth was or ... but she did. She deflected this woman's confusion and grief and actually seemed to break through some more rage, getting to something deeper -- and she controlled the situation, as if in the end they might as well have had tea. So I had to buy the book -- it's more than understanding murder, thought that's the basis, it's about rage, unresolved issues. As a counselor, I thought it would be interesting to hear her speak. I had no idea I'd get a show -- the commentator or interviewer freaked, but this woman, well, amazing. The book is a societal service...but there were a couple of typo's...so four instead of five

Listening to these women most of us are compelled to at least consider the thesis that much of the violence committed by women in our society is provoked by cruelty, a lot of it by men. We live in a time when we are starting to ask why people do the things they do and we are growing more comfortable with listening for the answer without prejudice. In a way it's frightening to think that bad people can be created by bad lives because we don't know quite what to do with that knowledge. It gives a sense of stability to think that bad people are choosing to be bad. We can punish them for their choices. But if we imagine that we ourselves could be wretched if we grew up with wretchedness that adds a new dimension. Furio gets these people to talk, and in this book, she talks herself, giving us her own thoughts about what we are hearing. It makes for a compelling if serious read. It's worth your time.

I have read Jennifer Furio's first book, The Serial Killer Letters. It was fascinating, but I had wondered WHO she was, that these people opened to her in a way I hadn't read in other books -- even profilers had different relationships, more analytical and dry; her style and almost vulnerability yet straightforwardness is what I'd guessed (after seeing her on tv interviews) had allowed these men to talk...but WOW!!! This second work is INCREDIBLE!!! I have learned something about the kind of humanity necessary to forge ahead, to learn something about the darkness that surrounds ALL of us, effecting SOME of us to such degrees, MANY of us find it unspeakable, and un-understandable, until now. This is a revelation and a real turning point for persons interested in knowing what kind of SOUL is necessary to educated ourselves, to tolerate so we don't continue to make the same mistakes...I'm in love. With the book, and maybe just slightly with its author. Great work.