The Soldier of Fortune Murders

by Ben Green

Book Overview

A gripping chronicle of Vietnam vet John Wayne Hearn and his murder case and trial that hit the national headlines. Hearn placed an ad in Soldier of Fortune magazine for paying customers who wanted someone murdered--and Debbie Banister answered. In the best true crime tradition . . . dark, twisted and violent.--Chicago Tribune. Photographs.

• Format: Mass Market Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0440214017
• ISBN13: 9780440214014
• Release Date: October 1992
• Publisher: Dell Publishing Company
• Length: 544 Pages
• Weight: 0.60 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.3" x 4.2" x 6.8"

Customer Reviews

Parental Kidnapping by "Contract": 1985

This gripping "true crime" examination centers on a type of homicide which has in the decades subsequent to the books publication become increasingly common: "Parental Kidnapping by 'Contract,'" whereby a child custody dispute is solved by one of the parents hiring a hit man to murder the other. In the 1985 Batie and Bannister cases detailed in "The Soldier of Fortune Murders," we see an attempt to set up an actual "Parental Kidnapping by 'Contract'" business enterprise. From a 1992 review: "The killings began after a meeting between Mr. Hearn and Mrs. Banister, a plump bank loan officer in her 20s, turned into a consuming love affair. The pair met at a truckstop to discuss her plan to have her sister's children kidnapped and end a custody battle that had boiled into a bitter feud between families. Within hours, Mrs. Banister and Mr. Hearn were lovers. Within weeks, the two were planning to marry and the kidnapping evolved into a plot to kill Mrs. Banister's brother-in-law and collect his life insurance money. Mr. Hearn consummated the first half of the plan, killing Cecil Batie as he slept on his living room couch. But the mission was not a complete success. As it happened, the custody battle had been resolved days earlier and Mr. Batie had long before changed the beneficiary on his insurance policy from his ex-wife (Mrs. Banister's sister) to a member of his own family. The twist was one of many ironies as the bungling Mr. Hearn and remorseless Mrs. Banister paired up for more crime. During their second assassination, of Mrs. Banister's husband Joe, Mr. Hearn was unable to run Joe Banister off the road to simulate an accidental death as planned. So he drove alongside the unsuspecting driver and, using one hand to steer and the other to shoot, fired movie-style into the car." [Barbara Kessler, "Murder cases sometimes stranger than fiction," Dallas Morning News, Jan. 20, 1992, p. 7-J]

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