The good folks over at the U.S. Department of Justice will tell you that female murder victims are most likely to meet their demise at the hands of a husband or boyfriend than by a stranger. Because of this, police usually focus their attention first to the male intimates of female victims.
Perhaps no one knows this better than the 20 men profiled in F. Lee Bailey’s WHEN THE HUSBAND IS THE SUSPECT. The case studies are presented chronologically, from Dr. Sam Sheppard, who was charged with murdering his wife in 1954, to John Mason, who was put through the media wringer when his “runaway bride” briefly disappeared in April 2005.
While my disdain for attorneys who make a life’s work of defending murderers – and sometimes knowingly helping them escape punishment for their crimes – is no secret, one can’t argue the fact that Bailey is a well-respected trial lawyer and an icon in his field. Assisted by Jean Rabe, Lee lays out each of the cases in a consistent format: the allegation, background and bio of the major players; the evidence and trial; and commentary.
Bailey was intimately involved in many of the cases in this book. Despite this, don’t expect a tell-all book. The profiles are so short and concise that it leaves one with barely a sense of the particulars. There is a chance for some meat and potatoes in the commentary section of each chapter, but none is offered. In fact, Bailey is referred to in the third person, which seems odd and somewhat distracting since he purportedly co-wrote the book.
Fans of the true-crime genre have an expectation of new nuggets of evidence that didn’t come out in trial – some behind-the-scenes dirt or new interviews with witnesses and surviving victims. Don’t expect that from this book. Instead, what’s presented is a simple primer on the cases of O.J. Simpson, Robert Blake, Michael Schiavo, Scott Peterson, et al, which have already been reported on ad nauseum in the press. —Ken Davis
