Bitter Blood

A True Story of Southern Family Pride, Madness, and Multiple Murder

De: Jerry Bledsoe

Narrado por: Kevin Stillwell

In this unrelenting real-life drama of three wealthy families connected by marriage and murder, Bledsoe recounts the shocking events, obsessive love, and bitter custody battles that led toward the bloody climax that took nine lives.

©1988 Jerry Bledsoe (P)2015 ListenUp Production, LLC

Surprisingly Great!

I didn't know what to expect from this book, I chose it because of its length mostly. I was extremely pleasantly surprised how suspenseful this story is and shocked that I'd never heard of it before. Great book, great story, great reading!

Pseudo Southern Pronunciations Distracting

Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?

Yes, the story was riveting with a lot of twists and turns.

What didn’t you like about Kevin Stillwell’s performance?

Poo lece (Police) and other similar problematic pronunciations were very distracting.

What’s the most interesting tidbit you’ve picked up from this book?

Emotional and Intellectual intelligence do not necessarily occur in the same person.

So many twists!

Loved this book!
Great listen for any true crime lover.
Total page turner (for lack of better words)
A MUST BUY!

A little hard to comprehend, but worth the effort.

It starts a little confusing. The author doesn't stick to a linear timeline at first and it takes awhile to put it together but he does seem to present non biased information that allows the reader to decide and believe what they choose - like all the characters in this intricate and bizarre family murder mystery, all seen to have conflicting opinions. All together, this has obviously been thoroughly researched, organized and detailed by the author with seemingly no voice of his own mixing in with the story.

Mind blowing story

Halfway through I realized I knew this story!! I’d seen a Lifetime movie about it as a teen! Wow a lot more detail on the family history from the book tho!

frustrating.

this book had great potential, I just can't understand why the author strays from the story to go in depth on 3 generations of every charecters family history. Also the history of every house every charecter lived in, very frustrating

Good story, but...

This was a great story, one I had never heard of before, so I got to experience the excitement of discovering who the killer(s) were near the end of the book. It was like watching a movie for the first time without having read the spoilers online beforehand! Having said that, there was one issue that made the book hard to finish... non-stop, incessant religion!
I understand the need to explain someone's background, mental status, etc., when writing a book about the real life events of these people, but this book was obviously and annoyingly padded with endless explanations of people's religious preferences, church attendance, praying, opinions/examples of their "evil" deeds, etc., etc., etc., etc.!! We get it... people back then were extremely gullible & easily duped into believing such nonsense, but why the constant description of which fairytales they subscribed to?? It got real old real quick.

Excellent, Detailed, and Long AF!

I’m going to start by saying that I love true crime and biographies, especially really thorough and detailed biographies. If you don’t want to know the life history of everyone involved, you’re going to hate this book. It was even a little tedious for me at times to have so much detail. I even zoned out a few times because of the minutiae, but mad props from one writist and researchist to another for this epic deep dive into chaos.

This is crazy... This is crazy... This is crazy...

Fritz Klenner was batsh*t crazy. His 1st cousin Susie Newsom was right behind him. Together they were a paranoid force that single-handedly snuffed out 3 generations of their OWN family.

The Newsom, Lynch and Sharp families are dissected down to their cores in this book and I feel I know their familial flowcharts better than they do, thanks to this book. Esteem, prominence and prosperity couldn't save any of them from this depravity. I don't want to spoil the contents of this MAGNIFICENTLY put together, complete, book, so... I won't.

If you ever had a slight interest in True Crime - this book is on your bucket list. Jerry Bedsoe clearly poured every ounce of his heart into investigating and retelling this roller coaster of a story. I used to live in the area where this "situation" occurred and was extremely appreciative of the author's details, down to street names - I could see where they were, when they were, and that added a extra level of hit-over-the-head reality for me.

Be prepared for a lenghty, detail-filled journey. If you're into knowing it all, you're going to love this.

Extremely well done. Don't hesitate.

PS - Kevin Stillwell the PERFECT voice for this book.

PSS - Tom Lynch - you have my deepest sympathies.

Unbelievable but true story

Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?

No. I really enjoyed the story but where did you get this narrator? He was so hard to listen to because he almost always had the emphasis on the wrong words which was very annoying. I would recommend that the reader read the book rather than trying to listen to this difficult narration.

What was one of the most memorable moments of Bitter Blood?

One of the most memorable moments for me was when young Ian discovers that he has been duped and involved in the horrific murders.

How could the performance have been better?

It could have been far better with any other narrator. His continual emphasis on the wrong words in nearly every sentence made it difficult to follow the story.

Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

My extreme reaction was anger at the spoiled daughter, Susie, who destroyed the lives of two innocent little boys.