Small Sacrifices - Ann Rule

Written by Ann Rule
Read by Ann Rule
Format: MP3
Bitrate: 128 Kbps
Abridged

“Somebody just shot my kids!”

In May of 1983, Diane Downs drove to a Springfield, Oregon, hospital emergency room with her three children, all gravely wounded; one did not survive the first hour, and the other two were disabled for life. Thus begins the shocking tale of a truly unthinkable crime that shattered the tranquility of a tight-knit community.

As police searched for the “shaggy-haired stranger” Diane accused of shooting eight-year-old Christie, seven-year-old Cheryl, and three-year-old Danny in cold blood, a suspicion grew that was even more horrifying than the crime itself: did Diane shoot her own children?

A dedicated district attorney, haunted by this question, searched for the destructive forces that seemed to possess this young mother and uncovered a chronology of incest, psychological wounding, desperate affairs, and surrogate motherhood. Under police questioning she recalled her childhood with a cold, domineering father who abused her sexually, her weak mother, a rape by one of her bosses, her failed marriage and many men with whom she had sex. One of these men, whom she claimed to love, did not want children, and that may have prompted the crime.

This book was the basis for a made-for-TV movie starring Farrah Fawcett.

Date of release: 1987 (book), 1992 (audio)
Length: 3 hours