Darcy O'Brien did a exhausive amount of research on the subject, which provides the foundation for a well written book. It doesn't hurt that the main players in the robbery-murder crime are perfect for a TV movie.

O'Brien does not paint the gang members as good or [bad], rather he simply tells the individual stories woven into the collective plot about the crime and provides the reader insight into the personal motives of the main players.

You actually can't develop negative feelings toward the criminals because O'Brien is able to outline their human misconceptions and mistakes that brought about their downfall.

The book is worth reading to anyone but I would imagine anyone from the Kentucky area where the crime took place would really enjoy the book.

The writing here is so filled with generosity, compassion, and dark humor -- it's a most charming view of life. A coming-of-age novel about a boy who grows up in post-WW II Hollywood, shuffling between unforgettable, screwed-up parents. There's not a dead sentence here. It's short, but O'Brien captures it all. Completely re-readable. Keep it by your bedside to inspire and forgive your own life when you feel like it's trying to beat you down.

This is a MUST. Indeed it is Caulden Houlfield in Hollywood. If you like Catcher in the Rye, most likely you will love this book. It really is a great story with some great humor.

Darcy O'Brien combines the surreal humor of Flann O'Brien and the limpid prose of the young James Joyce and somehow writes a coming of age book which transcends both mentors in some ways. Lean, cool, dry, witty, but in the end, mysteriously poignant. Anthony Powell always argued that seen at close range all human beings, driven as they are at different speeds by the same furies, are equally extraordinary. O'Brien proves Powell's point, in prose reminscent of that master's early comic novels.

Power to Hurt is a very good book that might have been made even better with a little editing. At times it reads like an earnest slice-of-life novel, the type that asks the reader to spend a little more time than necessary inside the heroine's head. But she is, indeed, a heroine, and the book is quite moving at the end -- something that can't be said about many true crime stories.

The book only takes us up to the midpoint of the judge's career. It ends with the full Sixth Circuit hearing the case "en banc." Soon afterward, in a bizarre ruling, a majority of the court's members held that a judge's sexual assaults (some committed while he was literally wearing his black robe) did not constitute a civil rights violation because the US Supreme Court had never explicitly ruled that they did. That type of reasoning, needless to say, never stopped them or any other federal court from finding a civil rights violation when a cop or prison guard assaulted someone, but judges, you see, are different because, well, because the Sixth Circuit is composed of them.

The US Supreme Court reversed -- unanimously -- and sent the case back to the Sixth Circuit with instructions for it to get real. But then Judge Lanier, who'd been out on bond all this time, skipped off to San Diego where he lived under an assumed name. He eventually slipped over the border into Mexico. The Sixth Circuit ordered him to turn himself in and when he failed to do so, it dismissed his appeal, finding that by showing disrespect for the court he had forfeited his right to ask it for assistance. Just a day or two after the dismissal, the judge was arrested in Mexico and brought back to the States. (Was the timing coincidental?) To the end he had his supporters on the Sixth Circuit -- incidentally a spectacularly dysfunctional institution, with judges who aren't reluctant to go public with their mutual loathing -- but he's safely locked away now.

I wasn't fond of the title, but as I read the back of the book and skimmed the first few pages I was hooked. I couldn't believe what these poor women went through. Lanier was so thoroughly evil and couldn't even realize it. To think that women would want what he did to them is rather typical of a lot of men I think. He acted on his sick fantasies and them held the women's children's welfare over them. What a beast. I hope he stays in prison forever and inmates give him a dose of his own medicine.

I'm an avid true crime reader and sometimes get jaded but this book really grabbed me and took me on a rollercoaster of emotions. It's hard to believe that one person would be allowed to hold the power that Lanier did and hard to believe that a high court would release him the way they did. I have complete admiration for the women who stood up to this disgusting piece of "humanity", their courage is a model for all women!

I have been a friend of Benny's since the early '70's. This book does not portray HIM as the killer, it tells how he couldn't have been the killer. There's more to this story than what has been printed, but being the man that he is, he will not incriminate others by telling the whole story.
Before the Ky killing, when Sherry was involved, she seemed like an ignorant female trying to keep up with 'her man'. Benny may have been a crook, but never a killer. He may have led a life of crime, but he also has a heart. I have bought this book twice & loaned it out, so I am ordering it again. It is based on some facts & news clippings & case files, but no interviews from Benny himself. Crooked sheriff's, judges, DA's, jurors... I have family in Ky, I know how crooked it is. Since this book has been written there has been more evidence unfolded against Lecter Co judicial system. Blame the real murderer.

Benny Hodge is my cousin and he got a stay of exacution i have read this book and would like to have a copy of my own i do not believe in credit cards so i cant order onlie please if anyone could help me out and sell me this book it would be greatly appreciated my e-mail is....

This is a true story of stealing, killing, loving, and living without remorse. A true story of corruption in small towns; lawyers, sheriffs, deputies and many more. The author, Darcy O'Brian did an excelent and unique job of potraying these people as the events unfolded. This book held my interest all the way to the end. There was not a dull moment. It's filled with unbelieveable acts of stealing and murder.

This book gives an eye opening view of the current Pope. It shows how his upbringing in Poland led him to have his feelings of friendship with the Jewish people. He is presented as a true "tzadik". The book also briefly relates on how the works of Pope John XXIII and Cardinals Willebrands, O'Connor and Spellman have brought about a better understanding of Judaism in the Church. If their messages could only filter down to the populace...

This is a fabulous book. I am neither Catholic nor Jewish, but I was fascinated by the depth of the man we all call Pope. I had no idea of his personal journey, and the breadth of his goodness. Too many times, we don't look beyond the title and the robes. This is truly a saintly man.

I found this book very informative on the Pope, who has always been a hero of mine. It was very indepth and historical. Although it was not negative about the Pope it did seem to contain some incorrect statments on the views of catholics and the teachings of the Church. I felt it was assumed that catholics are, in general, negative towards Jews. I have always been a believing catholic and have never thought of Jews as "Christ Killers" or anything like that. I have never found anything in Catholic teaching that would support those views, most of these from writings from before John Paul II. Usually I read that we are all personally guilty of the crucifiction by our own sins. Over all it was a good and worthwhile reading.

Growing up in the area this book is based on, I knew the basis of this story before I read 'Murder in Little Egypt': a doctor with dark secrets, who killed his son(s). Since my Mom is addicted to true-crime stories, she served as my source of true-crime books, like this one. I had to read this one myself to clarify what I'd heard about this story.

'Murder in Little Egypt' was an excellent read. It seems well-researched. It uncovers a side of people that is rarely exposed. It makes it even better if you are familiar with the area, southern Illinois, and the people involved in the book.

"Murder In Little Egypt."
This book is unnerving to the soul yet unforgetable. My mother bought this book a couple of years ago do the fact that Dr. Cavaness was her doctor and also the doctor of some other members of my family.
Although i was only eight years old at the time Dr. Cavaness murdered his son Sean, I still remember my parents and family members discussing it. In private of course, but being a sly little girl i would hide behind the couch or stand in the hallway unnoticed and listen quietly to the conversation at hand.

Egypt, as the title refurs to is better known as Southern Illinois. Little Egypt, lies between Eldorado and Harrisburg Illinois. My home town area.

The news spread across the area within days and disrupted and discouraged the lives of friends and citizens of Dr. John Dale Cavaness, a respected, well known and well liked doctor, who lived in Harrisburg and practiced at Pearce Hospital in Eldorado. I found the details of Seans murder to be sickening and heartbreaking. I was in tears as i continued to read about their lives and how twisted it was. When my mother gave me this book she asked me if i remembered the story of what happened. Briefly i did but i had no idea of the turmoil behind it. The details and lives of the Cavaness's are well understood and i just couldn't put the book down until it was finished. It made me think twice about what doctor i choose.

I am from the "Little Egypt" area and enjoyed being able to recognize places that were discussed in the book. I also was amazed at the devotion of the townspeople for the doctor. This was a gripping tale of a man with two lives.... I would recommend this to anyone!

I don't know who is stranger? This author or Angelo Buono. The biggest hero in this book is a alcoholic philandering cop who, when he gets liquored up he shoots off his gun. I am inclined to believe Angelo Buono was innocent after reading this geeks view of the world.

I reread this book every couple of years. This is an must read for any true crime junkie. It was so well written and showed all sides of the story. It made me realize random acts of violence against women was the "high" for these two idoits. They killed women they knew as well as someone they just spotted on the street. They were cold blooded murderers ...and ended up where they needed to be... a premanet resident of the state prison. As a female it made me more aware of my surroundings and I never get out of my car without looking around first for weirdo's lurking. :)

I loved this book. I inherited among others from a deceased family member (among other books).

The "Hillside Strangler" became an everyday headline that frightened Los Angeles for a year or so in the late 1970's. During that year, bodies of young women started showing up on the hillsides around the city. But the horror waned beside the revelations that came to light in what became the longest criminal trial in American history--BEFORE O. J. Simpson's 1994 trial--and one of the most controversial

The Hillside Strangler was thought to be one person with a real fast pace in killing. With TWO OF A KIND, Darcy O'Brien gives the inside story and is the first book to make the shocking disclosure that "the Hillside Strangler" was not one man, but two, and not only that -- they were were cousins!

In Mr. O'Brien's riveting story examines the relationship between the murderers and the drive behind their hideously evil crimes. It tells the entire story of the Hillside Stranglers as it has never been told before. He begins with the stranglers themselves who just decided one night out of bordom that they hated women and wanted to kill them (even as one strangler was living with a pregnant girlfriend and hiding the truth of his killing spree from her).

It reveals the torture, the prostitution ring, the killings. But it also shows the other side of the drama--the law. The police were so baffled by the disappearing women and then the subsequent finding them on a hillside dead, that they took drastic measures to ensure justice would prevail in this case.

TWO OF A KIND is a true story of crime and punishment here and now. But even more disturbing, it is a tale of primal evil rising from the darkest human depths and our age-old struggle to defend ourselves from it.