My Sweet Angel

The True Story of Lacey Spears, the Seemingly Perfect Mother Who Murdered Her Son in Cold Blood

By: John Glatt

Narrated by: Shaun Grindell

Length: 11 hrs and 50 mins

Publisher's Summary

Lacey Spears made international headlines in January 2015, when she was charged with the "depraved mind" murder of her five-year-old son, Garnett. Prosecutors alleged that the 27-year-old mother had poisoned him with high concentrations of salt through his stomach tube.

To the outside world, Lacey had seemed like the perfect mother, regularly posting dramatic updates on her son's harrowing medical problems. But in reality, Lacey was a textbook case of Munchausen Syndrome by Proxy. From the time he was an infant, she deliberately made Garnett sick to elicit sympathy from medical professionals, as well as her hundreds of followers on Facebook and other social media. When a Westchester County jury found her guilty of killing Garnett in April 2015, she was sentenced to 20 years to life in prison.

Using Lacey's own never-before-seen Facebook, Twitter, and blog posts, an exclusive prison interview with Lacey herself, as well as interviews with her family and the three police investigators who broke the case, My Sweet Angel gives the definitive account of this extraordinary case that shocked the world.

©2016 John Glatt (P)2016 Tantor

The true story of a monster "mother"

This is the tragic true story of one little boy who was tortured by his mother for his entire 5 years of life...until one day she either intentionally or accidentally took her awful game too far and killed him.I had seen this story on 20/20 and on that show they had the video tape of this poor little boy's last interactions with his mother. The fact that she sits there and stares at him patiently waiting for the poison to take effect is chilling. Lacey Spears is a callous, sadistic psychopath with no feelings for her own flesh and blood. After she killed her son, she set up a Go Fund Me account within hours to try to extract money and sympathy from the public. Everything about this woman is horrendous... this book will make you sad and angry. It seemed that even doctors were fooled by her , at least initially. She also had all her friends fooled , even though many of them had concerns about her behavior. I hope that this book makes the reader more aware of Munchausen by Proxy; because there are most certainly other woman out there right now that are doing similar things to their own children . The telling of this story could cause someone to recognize someone in their own life that is exhibiting the same types of behavior...and maybe save a child's life.
This is a well written account of the awful story of Lacey and Garnett Spears. The narrator has a very pleasing (British) voice. I recommend it to people who are interested in this genre of book.

That poor child

To think of what that poor child went through. Lacey Spears says she is innocent, which means she’ll probably never get the mental help she truly needs. A family in denial. Sad story but a good read!

could not stop listening...........

What did you love best about My Sweet Angel?

great story of horrible, heartless ''mother''

What did you like best about this story?

liar low life killer got what she deservered!

Which character – as performed by Shaun Grindell – was your favorite?

all

If you were to make a film of this book, what would the tag line be?

HEARTLESS MOM

Any additional comments?

hard to understand why anyone would do this to their own child. this so called mother should have paid with her life. ....HEARTLESS

Narration UGH

A good story, well-written. Why on earth pick a British narrator for a book written about the American South? Rapid fire delivery with many words run together. Some interesting pronunciations not related to his country of origin. Try the written version instead.

Overwhelming Narrator-Story Dissonance Ruins Book

Would you try another book from John Glatt and/or Shaun Grindell?

NO! The use of a British-accented narrator to tell this story made absolutely no sense at all, and I was immediately put off by it. Sad to learn this isn't the only poor matching of Glatt-Grindell on Audible. I would enjoy Glatt read by a narrator who has a flat American accent or a regional one, as I am(was) an avid reader of Glatt's works. I would listen to Grindell read books from other genres or true crime from the British Isles. for example. I see that Grindell narrates such material on Audible.

Has My Sweet Angel turned you off from other books in this genre?

Only from any Glatt book narrated by Grindell. Unnecessary and bizarre choice of narrator.

How did the narrator detract from the book?

British dialect of the narrator was completely at odds with this story of a young woman from the deep South who brings her small son to a liberal suburban NYC community to hide her Munchausen Syndrome-by-proxy poisonings of the child, which were raising suspicions among the Southern locals. If you are a reader whose understanding and appreciation of the characters/story of poor blacks in the rural South of the 1920s in The Color Purple would have been enhanced by hearing that story instead read in Japanese- or Norwegian-accented English, then this is the book for you. Nothing like hearing that a girl had threatened to kick Lacey Spears' "Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhss" to give you a true flavor of Spears' north Georgia/Alabama years! Sometimes the absurdity of the choice of this narrator made me laugh out loud, but it always grated on me. Always.

You didn’t love this book... but did it have any redeeming qualities?

No way of knowing. I know this sad tale, because Spears committed some of her crimes local to me. I repeatedly had to rewind and relisten to sections of this story in order to understand them and follow the chain of events. It was probably a good read, but a miserable listen. I refuse to buy the book after Glatt made me work so hard to get through the recording. It's okay - someone else will write a book on the needless murder of Garnett Spears and record it on Audible.

Any additional comments?

This is the first book I will be returning to Audible. It was easy for Glatt to keep me as a avid fan but it only took this recording to turn me off. WHAT WAS HE THINKING????

My Sweet Angel

Really well detailed book. Was kind of hard to listen to the horrible things this mother did. I 100% recommend it.

Excellent and engrossing

I was sickened as saddened by the acts of the defendant. The book was really well written. I was interested from start to finish. The narrator does have a British accent, which didn’t seem to fit, but he’s actually an excellent reader. Great true crime! Sad and won’t forget this one. I believe the mother did this to keep him from telling others about her actions towards him. I’m always rather fascinating and horrified by Munchausen by proxy cases. I had an experience with this with my sister in law for the first 5-6 yrs of the child’s life. We didn’t realize at first what was happening. But thankfully somehow it stopped as he grew up completely healthy. Now I realize the signs were pretty obvious. The problem is that we realized it in hindsight. It’s terribly difficult to prove Munchausen by proxy. Most successful prosecutions involve video tape evidence, as this case does. With my experience, the mother did it for attention bc her husband traveled often for work. She got the attention of medical staff and her husband, and everyone she knew. We worried for the child for so long. However, this case is horrific, as the child is killed on purpose. I’ll never understand why they didn’t charge her with 1st degree murder.

good book. not the best narrator.

I liked the book itself. However, the narrator took some time for me to get used to his speaking cadence. It was very distracting until I learned to ignore it.

Could have been laid out better. Weak on info.

Narrator was awful. The story was true but the telling fell short, more like an "out in two weeks after the crime" novel. It didn't have the depth I wanted, nor did it finish up on many interesting bits of information that it started at the beginning. I wouldn't recommend spending a credit on it, not even for an introduction to Munchhausen's By Proxy.

Narrator is off but it didn't ruin it for me

Overall, I thought this was a well written book about a crazy story. I do agree that choosing a narrator with a British accent was a really weird choice but I thought the book was good enough that I could get over it. It was weird though - his narration was so lazy. There were so many poorly pronounced things that were literally inaccurate. Also, the author clearly did not have anyone with a medical background help him proofread. As a doc, I understood what he was trying to get at but he didn't do a great job of getting the medical reporting on point. However, I still recommend it.

Interesting and thorough

I listened to this in 3 days, I had never heard of the case before and I couldn't stop until I heard what happened to this poor little boy, I work with children in safeguarding and this was a fascinating insight into this mothers life and really interesting to hear people's accounts, and her blog and social media posts. Such a shame that we will never really know what that poor child went through, but a complex case the professionals can learn from

A very sad story but very well read.

This is such a sad story. I was interested in the social media aspects of it though. It seems to me as if the mum's addiction to social media drove her to do what she did. She needed the constant attention and adoration of her social media 'fan club'. The outcome was tragic. Five star performance of a difficult topic.

very hard book for any one to complete.

so sad that a mother could take the life of her own flesh and blood

excellent listen

Couldn't stop listening. Very sad 😥. How could a mother do this, that poor child.

Shocking

It is amazing that a mother would want to harm her child, such a horrific case of child abuse.

shocking story

how she got away with so many awful things she did to her son before finally getting caught is beyond me. Narrator was okay.

scary what sick people get away with

well told but I felt disturbed by what she done to that little boy a story that I will never forget

Very sad

The reason why I give the story only 1 star ⭐️ is simply because this terrible incident shouldn't have happened. I really hope this evil woman never has a moments peace. But even in the epilogue she can't give remorse. This book, must teach others to realise how important, doctors, hospitals, social services all communicate with each other to make sure this never happens again. Not one day, or one child should suffer at the hands that should protect them. Thankfully the police did a full in depth, hard at times investigation. Especially now that social media has taken over this world. The solicitors summed it up perfectly, this unfortunately was never about this sweet boy. It was always about his disgusting attention seeking ill mother. A very hard moving account, presented in the best tasteful way you can tell such a truth. It's not a story, because it's not made up, and it has no happy ending for a beautiful boy.