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The Lost Night: A Daughter's Search for the Truth of Her Father's Murder

A daughter's search for the truth about her father

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In a field outside the prison, a protest area had been designated using caution tape. Cars were searched upon entering; some people were frisked. A police helicopter sat nearby, facing the area, for reasons that were not completely clear. That information was secret too. A mobile command unit towered over a fleet of cop cars. Across the field, a separate area was designated for supporters of the executions. There, members of the Phillips family were gathered, with a small child in tow. Accompanied by Randy Gardner, whose brother was executed by firing squad in Utah in , Bonowitz has raised funds and helped organize the effort to push back against the execution spree in Arkansas.

With his assistance — and with the help of her mother, who donated airline miles — Grimm had arrived in Little Rock in time to visit her father the day before, staying in a cheap hotel in the nearby town of Pine Bluff. It would be the first and last time she saw her father in person. The two held hands and tried to keep things lighthearted, she said. We talked about the day I was born. Grimm is 32, with dyed red hair and a silver nose ring.

A single mom, she has chosen to be honest with her kids about their biological grandfather. Grimm responded that her father was one of the men set to die that night and respectfully asked for five more minutes to cool off.

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Unlike other states, Arkansas does not allow relatives to witness executions. Grimm, too, said she would have been a witness in a heartbeat. There was another reason to want to see the execution, although it was harder to talk about. Jones had diabetes and was on medication; one of his legs had been amputated years before. As the execution hour approached, protesters huddled together. It tolls for thee. The state set the time of death at 7: Through tears, Grimm expressed relief. She hugged the activists who brought her there and prayed with a group of Episcopal priests.

They prayed for Jones, for the Phillips and Barrett families, for the prison guards, for the governor, and for the state of Arkansas. Three were from the media. Four were relatives of the Phillips family. Raff, who retired two years ago, was the longest serving district attorney in Arkansas history. The murder of Mary Phillips was one of just a handful of cases in which he chose to seek the death penalty over the course of his career.

And I always valued that input too. The Phillips family wanted the death penalty. The brutality had just been unmistakable.

Raff, who visited the crime scene, recalled the harrowing moment police realized that Lacy Phillips was still alive. When the crime scene photographer began to take her photo, her eyes opened. Raff still has the picture, he said. Yet the portrait of Jones was more complex than his grisly crimes. There were aspects of his life that pointed to severe mental health problems dating back to when he was young, which jurors never heard about before they sentenced him to die. A report by the Harvard-based Fair Punishment Project sheds light on some of them. Jones had been diagnosed with bipolar disorder and had a history of depression.

Only then did he receive psychiatric attention. While Jones seemed to be able to function well enough to relate to his relatives, his physical condition had significantly deteriorated. But he felt an obligation to the Phillips family. Afterward, Raff said everything had appeared to go smoothly. He did not know when, exactly, Jones had been given the midazolam. Raff pointed out that the Department of Corrections captures the execution on videotape. As she and other protesters waited to hear if the execution of Marcel Williams would move forward, emails and tweets began to circulate suggesting that all had not gone smoothly with Jones after all.

In an emergency motion filed shortly after 8 p. Grimm was not looking at her phone. She was still holding the sense of relief that her father had not suffered.

Daughter's Search for Love Yields an Amazing Discovery

It would be short-lived. A reporter had called Lynn Scott, asking her to respond to the news that her brother had shown signs of suffering. Besides, the state does not count the placing of IV lines as part of the official execution timeline. His redempt What I appreciated most about Rachel Howard's book was her honesty in bringing to life a childhood grounded in dysfunction. His redemption later in the book was touching and oddly endearing. The highlight for me was the chapter titled "Sherrie's Story. It's really quite masterful and demonstrates her impressive abilities as a storyteller.

The entire book is marvelous, but what Rachel does with Sherrie is really special. She is completely untrustworthy, and yet I'm led to believe she wasn't involved in her husband's murder. How Rachel got me to see Sherrie for who she was a dangerous, manipulative woman , and yet keep me from pointing the finger at her and placing the murder at her feet is an example of Rachel's stunning writing abilities.

I read this book because a racquetball buddy of mine mentioned Rachel goes to our club and wrote a memoir. He suggested I read it. I did, and I'm extremely impressed. In fact, The Lost Night has inspired me to write a few nonfiction pieces of my own. Jun 14, Lauren G rated it it was amazing Recommends it for: Jan 17, Nick rated it really liked it Shelves: A very interesting book about a woman who starts to look at the events surrounding her father's murder at the age of ten in order to understand how it has affected some of the bad decisions she made as a youth.

While the murder remains unsolved, it is a very interesting look at self-discovery as well as an attempt to understand and reconcile with the past. Sep 06, Koren rated it liked it Shelves: I thought this would be more of a true crime book but it was more a memoir of how her father's murder effected the author's life. The book cover says it is her search for the truth of her father's murder but it is more her searching for what happened in an attempt at closure and not really searching to solve it.

The Lost Night: A Daughter's Search for the Truth of Her Father's Murder

Jul 31, Juan Valdivia rated it liked it. But the rest of the memoir was a bit too hit and miss for me. There are lots of great things to say about this book. Like any strong memoirist, Howard has the nerve and audacity to create the narrative distance needed to tell the truth—however brutal—about the people she portrays, including herself. Her book is a vivid illustration of the evolving and opaque nature of memory in a way that I have not seen in other memoirs.

It is also a rich, thorough recreation of the trauma she suffered in losing her father in such a violent, confounding manner. And she has a gift for raising more like spiking narrative suspense in a chapter such as "Sherrie Calling: Maybe the chapter in which her former stepmother called out of the blue worked too effectively because after I read it, I wanted to motor through the pages to see the author confront Sherri. Though it provided a fuller portrait of herself as an adult haunted by the trauma of her father's unsolved murder, I wasn't so interested in Howard's trying romantic life—especially after ALL the repetitive mentions of her issues with abandonment.

It was tedious to read over the final pages since the same points were made again and again and again. After the first pages, a decent portion of the chapters felt extraneous to me; they felt like commercials you would grudgingly watch after a TV show cuts to a break after a cliffhanger MasterChef comes to mind. It dragged the narrative out, unfortunately; kept me from getting at the meat so to say; i. Those chapters felt obligatory—as though the author felt like she had to include them to reciprocate the kindness she felt from the relatives and loved ones who met with her; I can relate with the difficulty in excising such parts, but still.

I felt like the narrative could have been more taut and focused if chapters like those would have been cut. Feb 05, Bookmarks Magazine added it. The Washington Post notes a "flavor of journal-writing" to The Lost Night , but it's a mere quibble overshadowed by the heady chorus of Howard, an arts writer for the San Francisco Chronicle , delivers a stunning debut. Aug 01, Keri rated it liked it.

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Would have been a lot better had she gotten some real answers, or at least formed a strong opinion. I understand that real life isn't a CSI movie and many of these things are forever unresolved; I also understand that one risks real slander charges when putting particular things in print. Still, she never even approached the one person the police felt was responsible.

It was a decently written book and obviously served to slay her own demons a bit, but I was left thinking that if it were my dad, Would have been a lot better had she gotten some real answers, or at least formed a strong opinion. It was a decently written book and obviously served to slay her own demons a bit, but I was left thinking that if it were my dad, I would have gone a little further in my own investigations. I certainly would have confronted the one real suspect they had. Jul 12, Jesaka Long rated it it was amazing. That Rachel Howard could approach writing her story with enough distance to draw full, believable portrayals of people like her stepmother is very impressive.

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It would have been so easy for the author to create the woman as a one-dimensional monster. Her story is heartbreaking and she re-created it so vividly, I felt I was standing with her when her father was killed. I desperately rooted for her in her efforts to solve the murder.

A daughter's search for the truth about her father

The Shadow Man: A Daughter's Search for Her Father Paperback – April 29, Hands of My Father: A Hearing Boy, His Deaf Parents, and the. Author Mary Gordon's father died when she was seven years old. Letters from Vietnam: A Daughter's Search For Her Father is the story of a woman who gets to know her father many years after his death through letters he sent.

Her writing is vivid and strong, drawing the reader along--and n That Rachel Howard could approach writing her story with enough distance to draw full, believable portrayals of people like her stepmother is very impressive. Her writing is vivid and strong, drawing the reader along--and not letting go. One of my all-time favorite memoirs. It's also a good one to read for anyone writing a memoir. Jun 24, Rachael rated it really liked it Shelves: There were some parts that brought me back to my own childhood, which may account for how strongly I reacted to this book.

What the author talks about is not just trying to find out why her father died, but the trauma of his death changed her psychological make-up, how this affected the choices she made in life, and also how she re-unites and reconciles with his family. Not an easy book for me to read, emotionally speaking, but well worth the effort. Oct 21, Jamie Brooks rated it really liked it Shelves: Not what I was expecting. I don't know why, but part of me was expecting her to solve his case. That wasn't how it worked out, but I still really enjoyed it. Rachel's childhood was rough and she was pulled in many directions like so many children these days.

She told the story with a truthful voice and never intended to make anyone look like the bad guy or the good guy.

I hope someday the murder is found. Jan 12, Sue Rowland rated it it was amazing. I usually only list 5 star books. My review is on Amazon. Met the author at a reading in Ukiah, California years ago. Read it for yourself and learn how good writers can give the reader that classic "you are there" intimate quality. Howard grew up in the California Central Valley with it's lush open country, and "strip malls and fertilizer. I won't be a spoiler. This book read like Carson McCullers Dec 29, John rated it really liked it Recommends it for: Well-wriiten story of the author's re-visiting her father's life at the time of his murder; many of the details wouldn't have made sense to her until much later, even had she known them at the time.

Apr 22, K Krause rated it liked it. This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. I kept waiting for the author to find out who murdered her father, but she never finds out. In the end, she discovers that perhaps that's not what's most important.

The memoir is about her process of healing from the nightmare of having witnessed this brutal event when she was 10, while she also recounts other instances of early abuse and what it took for her to become a stronger person at the broken places. Oct 18, Kelly rated it it was amazing.

I thought this was a quick read, but it took me many El rides longer than expected to finish it. Very well-written and self-reflective. The book doesn't provide answers at the end, but it definitely leaves you with the impression that Sherry had something to do with the murder, despite the disclaimer! Jan 18, Fishface rated it liked it Shelves: A really good read. The author sets out to try to make sense of what she remembers about the night of her father's murder. She gets a lot of new information, a lot of it onfusing and totally failing to add up -- hey, this is a true story, no tidy endings here -- but she clearly feels more settled by the end and I think that is what counts.

Oct 31, Catherine rated it it was amazing. Rachel Howard's father was brutally murdered when she was ten years old. Howard faces her pain head-on as she attempts to uncover what happened and who could have committed the murder. She writes of her fears and feelings throughout the years after the murder and during her investigation with complete honesty. Howard's story is a testament to healing and the ability to move on.