Sleep, My Child, Forever

The Riveting True Story of a Mother Who Murdered Her Own Children

By: John Coston

Narrated by: A. T. Chandler

Length: 7 hrs and 8 mins

Publisher's summary

The dark double life of Ellen Boehm, the mother who murdered her two sons - and nearly killed her daughter

Ellen Boehm, a single mom from St. Louis, Missouri, appeared devoted to her children. But in reality, she was unequipped for motherhood, financially strapped, and desperate. Within a year of each other, her sons, ages two and four, died mysteriously, and Boehm's eight-year-old daughter then suffered a near-fatal mishap when a hair dryer fell into the girl's bath. While neighbors wondered how Boehm remained so calm through it all, Det. Sgt. Joseph Burgoon of St. Louis Homicide had darker suspicions.

Burgoon soon unraveled a labyrinth of deception, greed, and obsession that revealed a cold-blooded killer whose get-rich-quick scheme came at the cost of her children's lives. Boehm had taken out insurance policies on her children with six different companies totaling nearly $100,000. Using police reports, case documents, and photos, journalist John Coston recreates the events that led to one mother's unspeakable acts of filicide - and a cop's relentless pursuit of the truth.

©1995 John Coston (P)2019 Brilliance Publishing, Inc., all rights reserved.

Interesting story which needed more editing

I didn't buy this. It was in a free section. So I have zero cause for complaint. I did finish it but I'm glad I didn't pay for it. The story of Ellen and what she did was interesting but it went on and on and repeated things throughout. It probably mentions her weight about 40 times throughout, and even exacting weight of her friend. It was almost weird. Like yes, we get it, she was unattractive and wanted to live in a fantasy about being desired. It wasn't just this, but that's an example of the repetitive nature of this book.
The other thing which dragged it down was narration. The narrator read with no tone or inflection in many parts of the book. He was robotic, sounding like GPS directions.

Heartless Mother

This was a really good story, enjoyed reading it, I did find it to be extremely redundant at times with the prosecution towards the end. As an educator really makes me understand why hospital records and DEFACS are so important in todays times. This woman is proof that not all are cut out for motherhood and the stress can get the best of you if you are not careful! She needed mental help and likely never seeked it.

Glad I didn’t pay for this one

If I had paid for this, I would definitely have returned it for refund.

The story is interesting, but the book is filled with unnecessary details, wild fatphobia, and a boring narrator. This could have been a lot shorter or written differently. I began to lose interest and sped the playback up - something I should have done sooner.

Don’t waste your time on this one.

Heartbreaking

its hard to believe someone could be so selfish & evil , animals treat their children better

Fascinating true crime book about a mother who shouldn’t have been a mother.

Fascinating story about a mother whose life was not easy. Great family dynamic book for study. Well researched. Good writing. Narrator read very well.

Alright. A lot of repeating the story

I liked the story just not a big fan of the reader voice and there is a lot of repeating the same story in different ways.

ultimate selfishness

I am still baffled at what someone would do for money. Sad to think about her daughter and the life she could of had...had me broken-hearted.

Crazy story!

This true crime story is interesting & pretty wild. Coston does mostly a good job, sticking to the facts without interjecting his own bias except in one glaring area: weight. He describes Ellen (the murdering mother) as obese and unattractive and unattractive *because* she is obese. He also describes her as obese because of trauma she experienced during childhood, really making an armchair diagnosis. Ugh. It was really bad, old, biased myths about obesity, fat people not being able to control themselves, that being fat is the same as being unattractive and that men didn't find her attractive because she is fat. The publisher should edit that crap out & re-release the book. I googled her pictures from back in the day & she's an average looking woman and sort of fat. I just cannot get over how obsessed the author was with fat people. I recently read his other book; he describes a woman as fat & unattractive in that book, too.

Other than the glaring bias & not relevant to the story of the murderer being fat, it was very thorough and interesting. The woman was obsessed with Big Time Wrestling (what we call WWE these days!) and that in and of itself is a trip. Oh, and being fat makes you fantasize about another existence...that was another weird fat person "problem" he interjected.

I do recommend the book. It's not a well-known story & it's a doozy. Just be prepared about the fat shaming & some old, dumb stereotypes about fat people.

The narration was fine but a bit robotic. When he was speaking in first person, saying direct quotes of speakers, he went full robot. That was a bit...eh, not great.

a Snake had more feelings than this woman !

to murder your children for money , absolutely unfeeling waste of Humanity
.should have been on death row... intense and so sad.
lives destroyed , futures stained with horrendous memories

Enjoyable and of a Case I Haven’t Heard Of

There really isn’t much to say except I overall enjoyed the book. It was regarding a case I haven’t actually heard anyone else speak on despite my deep dives into the internet regarding such cases. It was a sad one and
really rigged at my emotions. At times things did feel a bit repetitive, but it kind of drilled the information and important bits into your head . The reader was great as well. Honestly one of the best male voices I have heard so far.