Body Hunter

by Patricia Springer

Book Overview

The Sex Killer Next Door To the people of Olney, Texas, 39-year-old Faryion Wardrip was an upright citizen--a happily married man, a valued employee, and a respected Sunday school teacher. But... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Mass Market Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0786012641
• ISBN13: 9780786012640
• Release Date: August 2001
• Publisher: Pinnacle Books
• Length: 320 Pages
• Weight: 0.30 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 4.2" x 6.9"

Customer Reviews

This will be something!

A guy told me at my workplace suggested me of a book to based in true event, especially where he a investigator in his time. Can’t wait to see how the book goes and hear the perspective of the story!

A Mostly Well Covered Account of the Crimes!

Patricia Springer writes a very well-detailed and maybe too detailed with unforgettable pictures of the victims. There were five murdered women, Toni Gibbs, Terry Sims, Ellen Blau, Debra Taylor, and Tina Kimbrew who were all murdered between 1984-1986. The killer, Faryion Edward Wardrip only confessed to the Kimbrew murder. Unfortunately, Texas doesn't have a life without the possibility of parole which might make more juries choose the death penalty. Wardrip served 11 years in prison and 2 on parole with an ankle belt detector knowing where he was 24 hours per day. Faryion was obviously deeply troubled by his depression and his drug induced rages which consumed him. In 1996, DNA technology would be advanced enough to either exonerate or indict him on four more murders. Sadly, there were other victims besides their families. In Taylor's case, the suspicion fell on her husband, Kenneth for years. In the Gibbs case, there was a hung jury after a trial trying to convict Danny Laughlin (he died in 1993 in a car accident). Even until Danny's death, he was seen as involved in her brutal murder. The author shows the brutality of such crimes that none of the victims deserved. They were not only brutally murdered but raped and left for dead in fields where their remains were ravaged by maggots, insects, and other animals finding food. For Taylor's remains, they had to identify her through dental records and the jewelry left on her. His second victim tried to crawl out of an abandoned trolley car where she met her death from the bleeding and exposure. It was January 1985 in Wichita Falls, Texas. The first victim's murder occurred at a friend's house on December 21, 1984. Both victims were nurses. Ellen Blau had moved from Connecticut to Texas for her boyfriend. The relationship didn't last but she was unlike other victims. Blau attended private boarding schools but she managed to maintain a working class lifestyle trying to be independent with the help of her friend, Janie Bell. She also had a job working at a subshop. Wardrip's family also suffered from his crimes as well. He awaits execution in his jail cell. The book is very detailed regarding his crimes which is not for the faint at heart.

A must read for all true crime fans!

Between December 12, 1984 and May 6, 1986, there was a string of murders in Wichita Falls and Houston, Texas. Because these murders fell in various jurisdictions, there were not linked to a serial killer but were investigated as individual cases. The story of these murders illustrates one of the worst mistakes of law enforcement in our country. If not for two detectives that refused to give up, these cases would still remain unsolved except for one. This is the story of these crimes and the man who committed them.On May 6, 1986, Faryion Edward Wardrip murdered Tina Kimbrew. A week later, he telephoned 911 and stated that he was going to kill himself. When officers responded, he told them that he had killed Kimbrew but it had been an accident. She had been his friend. He was traumatized over the loss. On the way to the jail, the officers asked if he had known Ellen Blau, who was killed on September 20, 1985. He admitted knowing her. Fearing that further questioning before he had a lawyer would jeopardize the case, the cops did not discuss Blau any further. Instead, they noted in their report that he knew Blau and sent a message to the investigators. They failed to act on it.Four days after his arrest was made public, one of his friends, Thomas Eugene Granger, telephoned the police to explain that Wardrip had a connection to four of the dead women. He had worked at the hospital with Toni Gibbs, murdered on January 19, 1985, and Terry Sims, murdered on December 21, 1984. He lived across the street from where Ellen Blau worked. Then, he moved near where Debra Taylor, murdered on March 24, 1985, was abducted. Her car was abandoned just around the corner from his house. When police did not take action, Granger called them a second time. Still, they maintained that the murders were the work of multiple killers. They ignored the tip. This book is an excellent read. It seems more like a work of fiction that truth. The writing is lively and moving. You will have trouble putting this one down. Get it and read how a serial killer managed to walk away with parole and begin a new life, even though police had plenty of tips to connect him to a series of murders.

Excellent True Crime Story

The author did a tremendous job of bringing the facts on several Texas murders together into an easy to read format. A need to be read story.

A gripping true crime from a talented author

The identity of the murderer of four young women remained a nagging Wichita Falls mystery for over a decade. After years of off-and-on detective work, an innocent sip of coffee from a paper cup provided the final damning details to identify the killer.It was definitely Faryion Wardrip.In her latest book,The Body Hunter, premiere Texas true-crime author Patricia Springer has taken the bits and pieces of a story that took years to develop and compiled them into a fascinating, cohesive tale of one man's lethal obsessions. According to the book, Faryion Wardrip's road to Death Row can be summed up fairly simply: after his first wife left him and took the children, he spent the rest of his life as a free man striking back -- murdering her over and over again -- with innocent, unwilling stand-ins in the lead role.Though the events surrounding Wardrip's unspeakable crimes and subsequent conviction were daily news fare, it is the unpublicized details of the case that Springer uses to flesh out the tale that makes The Body Hunter a thoroughly riveting read. Spending months gathering background research into each of the victims' lives, interviewing the families, and attending each day of Wardrip's trial provided Springer a unique outlook into both sides of the story. Not only does she acquaint you with each of the dead girls' individual life circumstances, she delves into the makeup of the mind of a murderer -- not to explain his actions, but to inform the reader of the events that lead up to his eventual descent into homicide as a self-justified form of emotional expression.Springer also informs the reader as the legal process involved in cases such as Faryion Wardrip's: the long, drawn-out investigation, the intense search once the pieces of the puzzle began to fall in place, and the cooperation between legal agencies that worked together to try and convict a man who proved to be a ruthless serial killer. The Body Hunter includes several pages of rather gruesome photographs of crime scenes that some might find offensive. Some are downright terrifying. But overall, this book is remarkable for its in-depth research and presentation of the facts of a case that was too close to home for too many.