OPEN SECRETS. A True Story of Love, Jealousy and Murder

Hardback. On an early autumn afternoon in 1983, Rozanne Gailiunas was brutally murdered in the bedroom of her house on a tree-lined street in the Dallas suburb of Richardson, Texas, while her 4yr. old son slept in the next room. Recently separated from her successful physician husband, Peter Gailiunas, Rozanne had been having an affair with Larry Aylor, the contractor who had been building an expensive new house for the Gailiunases. When Detectiove Sergeant Morris McGowan began his investigation, he wondered at first if the murder was the result of a classic love triangle. But neither Gailiunas nor Aylor made the grade as suspects - particularly after Aylor returned to his wife, Joy, within days of Rozanne's funeral. And McGowan couldn't believe that Dr. Gailiunas would have risked allowing his much-loved son to witness such a horrific act of violence. Then 2yrs. after Rozanne Gailiunas's murder, an attempt was made on Larry Aylor's life. Investigators reached a dead end with this case too, until a call from a woman named Carol Garland turned both cases upside down. Carol Garland was Joy Aylor's sister, and accused her of planning the murder of the doctor's wife. This is the story of a moral wasteland where taking a human life cost only $5,000 and hiring killers was discussed with chilling nonchalance. It is the story of a fascinating, troubled woman, who appeared to seesaw between careful planning and outrageous risk-taking, between eerie calm and paranoid bysteria. And it is the story of how Morris McGowan finally ran Joy Aylor to ground after 8yrs. and an international chase that covered 4 countries and 2 continents. Arrested in Nice, France, Joy Aylor attempted suicide. She remained in jail in France, where she successfully fought extradition to the USA for 2 yrs. Finally, late in 1993, she returned to Dallas to face the heinous charges against her. Illus. 357pp. 8vo. h/back. From the library of true crime writer, Wilfred Gregg, with his personal b/plate. F. in f. dw.