FALL: The Rape and Murder of Innocence in a Small Town

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	• Fall: The Rape and Murder of Innocence in a Small Town Ron Franscell New Horizon Press, 2007 - 304 pages average customer review:based on 22 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

Fall

This is excellent. I live in Casper when it happened and was really
outraged at the two men who could do just a thing. The book was well
written.

I lived in their house.

Hey,

My name is Aaron Nolan, I'm currently serving in the united states air force in south korea. And last night while at work we began to talk about ghost stories and other paranormal events when some memories of my childhood about living in a haunted house as a child surfaced.

When I was 6 years old, my sister was 4 and my brother was 12, we moved to a quiet city called Casper, Wyoming for my dad's family practice school. I remember the day well when we moved into the house, it was from appearance a nice house, it had three stories, a basement, a mid floor and an upstairs, and a nice cosy little dining room. However the house had a very eerie feeling to it, almost as if we were constantly being watched.

I also remember seeing bars on the windows as we arrived, my mother and father talked about it a lot and it struck them as strange that in such a nice and safe neighborhood that houses would have bars on the windows.

The first paranormal activity that I encountered, whether this was just a part of my stage of growing up perhaps more of just a curiosity was, I kept on waking up in different places then where I went to sleep. Perhaps I was sleepwalking, but often I woke up in a corner by the stairs or at the bottom of the stairs and I always felt wondered how I got there. But when I woke up I was always terrified and ran into my parents' room which was located to the right of the staircase. Did someone carry me or was I just sleepwalking? I guess I'll never know.

My older brother often reported seeing a ghostly figure walking through the basement, sitting in the chair and leaving. He also was terrified of sleeping down there, however his room was located in the basement so he had no choice but to bare through it. I remember once I was in the basement playing the Legend of Zelda when I felt someone walk past me, right behind me, I didn't think anything of it but when I realized I was home alone I freaked out and ran upstairs.

My grandmother also once came to visit us there. She stayed in the bedroom downstairs all alone, as my brother was sleeping upstairs to make room for her, and said that when she went to bed she heard a whimpering in the dark. She was absolutely terrified so she tried to just ignore it but then it became more intense and was more like a painful moaning.

My sister had the most intense experience as far as I could tell. One night my sister who was 4 years old at the time, awoke in the night and walked to the foot of the stairs and looked down and saw a girl. She thought it was a girl she knew, our babysitter named "Christina" however she said that she had cut her hair. She said to the girl "Christina go home". She said this repeatedly but apparently the girl began to laugh. So my sister went to my mother's bedside and woke her saying "mom Christina is here and she wont go home". My mother was very tired and told her to just go back to sleep. So my sister went back out there and she said the same thing again, and she once again just laughed and made no reply. So finally my sister went to sleep and my mother asked in the morning "Jessica why did you wake me up telling me Christina wouldn't go home?" and she replied "because she was there, but she cut her hair, and she wouldn't go home, she just laughed and laughed".

On another night I had probably my most frightening experience of my life. My sister and I shared a room upstairs directly across from our parents' room, and we had a bunk bed in an "L" configuration. I awoke during the middle of the night and looked to check that my sister was still sleeping there as I was weary of sleeping alone in that room anyway. I then saw a woman enter my room and open up my drawer, I thought it was my mom bringing the laundry in or something .The girl was throwing clothing out of my drawer. So I said "mom?" out loud, then the woman looked at me and I realized it wasn't my mother, she then faded away. At that point I pulled the covers over my head and peaked out when I noticed the coast appeared clear, I ran at full speed into my parents' bedroom and laid down next to their bed.

There were many other strange occurrences, like once we were on vacation in orlando, and upon return we noticed that every single light in the house was on and the doors were still locked, the way we had left them. Also I noticed many items in the house would be misplaced or moved to a completely different location in the house. Occasionally the telivision in our room turned on by itself, we also regularly heard strange and unexplainable noises.

I was so glad to move out of that house, however I somehow felt sorry for whoever would live there next. I wonder if they experienced the same types of things after we moved away.We were informed about a year after we moved into that house about the former residents, it turns out that the family who became victim to a well known brutal rape and murder, lived in the house that we occupied years earlier in 1973. I just recently discovered that there was a book written about it called "Fall: The Rape and Murder of Innocense in a Small Town".

The two girls 11 year old Amy Burridge and her sister 18 year old Becky Burridge were both raped and thrown from a bridge, falling 110 feet to the bottom into a the North Platte River where Amy met her end and Becky somehow survived despite her near fatal injuries. The criminals were brought to justice, however from my understanding years later were released on parole, or perhaps it was that they were up for parole, I cant quite remember as it was a long time ago. Becky fell from the same spot 20 years later and died in 1992. That is actually the time when an article appeared in the paper about her, when we were also informed we were living in the Burridge's old house.

I honestly haven't read this book yet, however I will be purchasing it today as it really "hits home" for me.

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Compelling

This is an excellent book. Few true crime novels manage this level of polished writing, careful and skillful storytelling and sympathy for the victims. Truly a tragic story, but so vivid and powerful I couldn't put it down.

Chilling, yet true

The opening few pages of this book are as gripping as they come. Becky has been hurled down a huge cliff by her rapists. Unbelievably, she survives the fall, but seems on the brink of death. "Dragging her deadened legs out of the black water into the black night, she wormed across the sharp stones, naked below the waist, beaten and bruised, in shock" (p 4). Far above her, she can hear her would-be murderers chat. Will they realize she has survived? Will they come down to finish the job?

The story of what happens to Becky and to the rapists is a true page turner. I won't reveal what eventually happens to Becky, but is utterly shocked me.

Franscell is an excellent writer. Beyong the story of the true crime, he always delves into the consequences of evil. An evil that sends waves through the lives of hundreds of people, for years and years beyong the actual crime.

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FALL: The Rape and Murder of Innocence in a Small Town

"Fall: The Rape and Murder of Innocence in a Small Town" by Ron Franscell is by far right up there with the best true crime book ever written. Set in a small town in Wyoming, two small time criminals commit what would be remembered as one of the most unspeakable crimes of Wyoming's history.

On an autumn night in 1973, Casper, Wyoming is shattered by the brutal murder of 11 year old Amy Burridge and the rape and attempted murder of her 18 year old half sister - both being thrown off of a 110 foot bridge. And the story doesn't end there. Ron Franscell's writing is part memoir as he was a young teenager living in Casper at the time of this tragic event, a neighbor and friend of the two victims. With this writing, Ron wanted to come to terms with what happened and why, delving into the criminal investigation and, most importantly, into the mind of a sociopath. Fall takes the reader to the scene of the crime with eloquently written details and specifics of the case, leaving the reader feeling emotions that run the gamut. - Melanie Craven - truecrimeinsider.com

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reviews: page 1, 2, 3, 4, 5

On a chilly autumn night in 1973, Casper, Wyoming?s picturesque steel bridge was the scene of a horrific crime. Two young half-sisters, Amy Burridge and Becky Thomson, were abducted, raped, and thrown from the bridge into the swiftly flowing waters 110 feet below. Author and Casper native Ron Franscell was just a child when the crime shattered his close-knit community, brutally ending the life of one friend and neighbor and forever changing the life of another. Unable to shake the demons of that night, Franscell returns 30 years later to examine the widespread effect of evil and its poisonous effect on the people and town of Casper. A gripping, poignant, and intensely personal narrative, Fall also explores the broader issues of survivor guilt, community justice, and crime?s lingering impact on society as a whole.

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