Run, Bambi, Run: The Beautiful Ex-Cop and Convicted Murderer Who Escaped to Freedom and Won America's Heart

This book is a comprehensive factual account of the Laurie Bembenek case, starting with her admission to the Milwaukee police academy in 1979 and ending with her prison escape and subsequent capture in Ontario Canada in 1990. It's a complex story revolving around the question of whether she was possibly framed and later wrongly convicted of first degree murder in the shooting death of her husband's ex-wife. Kris Radish does a good job of organizing and presenting the wealth of conflicting evidence, testimony and conjecture surrounding the case. It's clear she sides with Bembenek (who wrote the foreword and provided the author with information) but her presentation of the facts is revelatory, not manipulative. Right from the outset, troubling doubts surfaced on the handling of and validity of the evidence collected. Even the judge at the preliminary hearing admitted he'd never seen a more circumstantial case. Other suspects, who had equally compelling motives and means to commit the murder, soon began cropping up (including Bembenek's husband). Yet the Milwaukee police remained single-mindedly focused on Bembenek and the reasons behind that give strong credence to a possible cover-up. Following her release from prison in 1992, Bembenek continued fighting to clear her name and one hopes the author will someday publish a follow-up to this continually evolving and intriguing story.