ANN RULE

On working with Ted Bundy: 608k WAV audio file 1.9Mb QuickTime movie

BIBLIO-FILE

Beautiful America's Seattle Dead by Sunset: Perfect Husband, Perfect Killer? Everything She Ever Wanted: A True Story of Obsessive Love, Murder, and Betrayal A Fever in the Heart: And Other True Cases, Vol. 3 If You Really Loved Me: A True Story of Desire & Murder Julie Rubenstein (Editor) The I-Five Killer In the Name of Love: And Other True Cases Lust Killer Omnibus Possession A Rose for Her Grave & Other True Cases, Vol. Small Sacrifices: A True Story of Passion & Murder Stranger Beside Me The Want Ad Killer You Belong to Me, Vol. 2 Julie Rubenstein (Editor)

Rule's book Bitter Harvest

Human depravity keeps author busy

Rule's latest 'Bitter Harvest'

(CNN) -- Truth is sometimes stranger than fiction. In writer Ann Rule's case, it is also gruesome. Rule has made a solid career out of retelling the tales of some of the most horrific crimes in modern society. Her previous bestsellers have dealt with sensational headline-grabbing crimes, yet, she seems rooted in her endeavor to stay true to the events.

Rule discussed her latest book "Bitter Harvest" with Miles O'Brien on "CNN Sunday Morning."

O'BRIEN: In the news business, we're constantly bombarded by the dark side of the human nature and always a recurring question is, why? What makes someone commit some unspeakable horror?

Give us a little plot synopsis if you will of (your book.)

RULE: "Bitter Harvest" is the story of a couple who lived in Perry Village, Kansas, which is the upper, upper-upper of the suburbs. Mom and pop doctors. She was an oncologist, he's a cardiologist. They seemed to have everything: the mansion, the four-car garage, three wonderful kids. And yet in 1995 it all literally turned to ashes.

Dr. Mike Farrar was poisoned three times, a mysterious disease that was hard to diagnosis. Then their mansion burned and Dr. Debra Green escaped. One of her little girls managed to get out of a window, but two of her children perished in the fire, which turned out to be arson. And it took the police about a month to get the evidence that brought them to a most unlikely suspect -- Dr. Debra Green. She was charged with the arson murders and with the poisoning of her husband.

O'BRIEN: When you first look at a story like this, do you say, 'this one is going to be tough sledding,' 'I don't think (readers) would be interested' or 'it would be too difficult for people to read this story?'"

RULE: I did. At first I thought it would be too difficult to write as a mother of five myself. However, 10 years ago, I wrote a book called "Small Sacrifices" about Diane Downes, a woman who had shot her children. I find that (among) readers, particularly female readers, there is a fascination with why the psychopathology existed in a mother who would do this.

So when I go into a book, I'm always looking for causes, how this kind of personality developed. Debra Green was a character that just would not go away for me.

O'BRIEN: I guess it's key to have a compelling anti-heroine. Is that a way to describe it?

RULE: It is. I'm always looking for a protaganist who seems to have everything. All those things that we think, boy, if we were rich and smart and charming and successful and had love, we'd be happy. But the people I chose are never happy.

O'BRIEN: It's interesting to me that people involved in and around these cases either those accused or those who are victimized are willing to talk.

RULE: It is to me every time. Every book, I think I will never find out enough. And I always end up with more than I can get in one book. I start with the trial. I won't talk to anybody until the case has been adjudicated. And by being at the trial or, in this case, the pre-trial hearing, I see all the characters. They get to know me. We don't talk about the case, but we nod in the courtroom. And then afterward I can talk to the prosecutor, arson investigators, detectives.

In this case, many of the main players contacted me. Principally, Dr. Mike Farrar attended a book signing in Olathe, Kansas. And I didn't know why he was there.

He came up after and he said, 'I really need to tell somebody the whole story.' Of course, I was delighted as a writer that he would talk to me. So I spent hours and hours with him reliving this horrific marriage.

O'BRIEN: What are you currently reading?

RULE: Oh, I just finished "Wobegon Boy" by Garrison Keillor. I grab any Ann Tyler book I can and I read autobiographies, biographies and I love medical books on miracle cures. I don't read a lot of true crime, because you can't write it all day and read it every night.

Related stories:

• First Chapter: "Wobegon Boy" by Garrison Keillor
• Past offers clues in search for serial killers - July 22, 1997

---

 

---

Sound off on our message boards & chat

© 1998 Cable News Network, Inc.
All Rights Reserved.

Terms under which this service is provided to you.