Runaway Devil: How Forbidden Love Drove a 12-Year-Old to Murder Her Family [Hardcover]

 

 

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"Why?" That's apparently the last word uttered by the father of Canada's youngest mass murderer and certainly the first question asked by most people who have heard her story. JR was just twelve years old when, with her 23-year-old boyfriend, she participated in killing her father, her mother, and her younger brother in the grisly April 1996 murders that took place in Medicine Hat, Alberta. We are used to adolescents having rebellions, but many people continue to struggle to make sense of this particular tragedy.

The vast majority of criminal offences happen in a context, though, and finding an easy answer to the question of "Why?" risks missing some of those important nuances and circumstances. Robert Remington and Sherri Zickefoose are reporters from the Calgary Herald who covered every aspect of this case, from the initial discovery of the bodies by a boy looking for his playmate, through the separate trials of JR and of Jeremy Steinke, and even up to the annual review hearing for JR's court-mandated Intensive Rehabilitative Custody and Supervision (IRCS) order. They are skilled writers with knowledge of the intricacies of the murders and of the murderers, though the story they tell in Runaway Devil never wallows in unnecessary detail. Tenaciously, Mr. Remington and Ms. Zickefoose tracked down members of the perpetrators' families, as well as friends of JR and Jeremy, verifying versions of events, weaving in courtroom testimony, and adding evidence never admitted in the trials, all to tell the story of how a seemingly bright, friendly, athletic young girl so quickly turned against her family. Was she the puppet master, manipulating the immature Jeremy into acting out her death fantasy or was he the Goth werewolf-wannabe who saw an opportunity to become the hero in his own version of Natural Born Killers?

Answering that question is where the book struggles, though not through any fault of the authors. We know the story. We know how it ends. At the time, however, as pieces of the narrative came together, we were shocked. She was a missing child, the subject of an Amber-Alert like media release. Suddenly, she became the suspect. They had communicated via the Internet and spent time in websites [...]. They had sex. They made out in the midst of a friend's party just hours after the murders. A marriage proposal was carried by police from one cell to the other after their arrests. She said he forced her to kill her brother. He said he wasn't even in the room when it happened. Each case had excellent and well-prepared Crown and defence lawyers, and the trials were overseen by respected justices who rarely stepped into the proceedings. The details have been told and retold and most people have likely formed their opinions about who really did what, about where the blame rests (society? music lyrics? drugs? parenting styles?), and about the justice system's response to a 12-year-old who, a full month before the murders, wrote of her "plan" that "begins with me killing them and ends with me living with you."

Mr. Remington and Ms. Zickefoose, then, took on a particular challenge: attempting to write more than a simple true crime book about a sensational event, while preserving the integrity of a seemingly well-known story. The result is a polished work that flows from beginning to end, that integrates the community's history into the personal stories, that provides new glimpses into the lives of the perpetrators and their families, that explains the lethal mixture of JR's need for control and Jeremy's need for acceptance, and that challenges the reader to look beyond the notion of simple answers.

I found this book to be very well written - it kept my interest from beginning to end - although this story was very sAd; terrifying, perplexing and shocking; it certainly gave me a jolt in realizing how your seemingly normal life can suddenly take a horrible turn. Although this was a difficult subject to write about; this story needed to be told. The most perplexing part to me was how does a parent deal with this problem when it starts - I don't mean Jeremy; I can understand to a certain part why he ended up the way he did - but the 12 year old girl really scared me - this book should open up many parents eyes - good job to the authors.

This case is fascinating and strange, and it's hard to believe a young girl from a loving family background could do something so horrific. It was almost a Bernardo-Homolka situation, where JR and Jeremy met and fed off each other and did horrible things that they might never have done on their own. The book is a page turner and includes a lot of details that I don't remember ever reading in the news. It really gets inside the minds of these kids. I'm a big true crime fan and there aren't many stories like this: goths, a 12-year-old girl dating a 23-year-old guy, small-town boredom, teenage rage, death metal music, the influence of the Internet. I couldn't put it down.

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5.0 out of 5 stars Book - Runaway Devil
Item arrived exactly as described and arrived sooner than I expected (it is also an amazing read). I would purchase from this seller again. Read more

Published 3 months ago by Allyson S. Leonard

5.0 out of 5 stars INSANE!
The shipping was very quick, and it arrived on time! The price was very reasonable compared to what the stores are charging. This book was an unbelievable read... Read more

Published 3 months ago by Denysse

4.0 out of 5 stars appears well researched
For those of us living close to the events of this book we well remember not just the horror of the details but the disbelief when it became apparant that the 12 year old daughter... Read more

Published 12 months ago by dane reader

3.0 out of 5 stars Bad subject written well
This book was disturbing to read. The event happened in my home town and I know many of the people mentioned in the book. Read more

Published 13 months ago by Holly04

5.0 out of 5 stars Disturbing but insightful
Very disturbing but provides good insight to the murders. Left me feeling very sorry for all involved. All parents should read this book.

Published on Sep 5 2009 by Sherry

5.0 out of 5 stars Interesting, yet scary
It's pretty scary knowing all of these events are true. Reading it makes me think I'm just reading a typical fiction crime book but it freaks me out that it's real. Read more

Published on Aug 18 2009 by Maria Yeung

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