SUDDEN FURY. A True Story of Adoption and Murder

Hardback. Featuring the Swartz murders. In the early morning of January 17, 1984, police responded to a emergency 911 call at a small tract house on the outskirts of Annapolis, Maryland. The caller was a teenager named Larry Swartz. He was waiting for the police when they arrived, his terrified younger sister in his arms. He appeared to be in shock and told police he had awakened to find his adoptive parents murdered. He pointed to the basement. There the officers discovered a scene of carnage they could never hope to forget - in his office off the family recreation room Bob Swartz lay dead, stabbed 17 times. Outside in the cold lay the corpse of his wife Kay. Larry tried to cast suspicion on his adoptive brother Michael, a troublemaker who had been kicked out of the house, but the police soon focused their attention of Larry himself. The motive remained profoundly puzzling. Why would anyone want to kill Bob and Kay a seemingly wartm, deeply religious couple - least of all one of the 3 children they had struggled for years to adopt? The Swartzes had unusually severe notions about child discipline - notions that may have crossed the boundary into abuse. What began as one more family fight erupted in a moment of sudden fury. It is larry Swartz's defence lawyer, Ron Baradel, who emerges as a hero. Horrified by the crime, yet deeply moved by Larry's tragic past, he undertook a crusade to protect society while salvaging some hope from the ruin of his young client's life. Illus. 384pp. 8vo. h/back. From the library of true crime writer, Wilfred Gregg, with his personal b/plate. F. in nr. f. dw.