A Death in White Bear Lake: The True Chronicle of an All-American Town

by Barry Siegel Narrated by Charles Constant

Overview

In 1962, Jerry Sherwood gave up her newborn son, Dennis, for adoption. Twenty years later, she set out to find him-only to discover he had died before his fourth birthday. The immediate cause was peritonitis, but the coroner had never decided the mode of death, writing "deferred" rather than indicate accident, natural causes, or homicide. This he did even though the autopsy photos showed Dennis covered from head to toe in ugly bruises, his clenched fists and twisted facial expression suggesting he had died writhing in pain.



Harold and Lois Jurgens, a middle-class, churchgoing couple in picturesque White Bear Lake, Minnesota, had adopted Dennis and five other foster children. To all appearances, they were a normal midwestern family, but Jerry suspected that something sinister had happened in the Jurgens household. She demanded to know the truth about her son's death.



Why did authorities dismiss evidence that marked Dennis as an endangered child? Could Lois Jurgens's brother, a local police lieutenant, have interfered in the investigation? And most disturbing of all, why had so many people who'd witnessed Lois's brutal treatment of her children stay silent for so long? Determined to find answers, local detectives and prosecutors rebuilt the case brick by brick, finally exposing the shocking truth behind a nightmare in suburbia.

Editorial Reviews

Washington Post

A distinguished entry in the annals of crime documentary.

Library Journal

Using nonfiction novel style, Los Angeles Times reporter Siegel tells the story of Harold and Lois Jurgens, a Minnesota couple who adopted two children and beat the younger one, Dennis, to death in 1963. The Jurgens later adopted four more children, all of whom were also abused. Lois Jurgens was successfully prosecuted for third-degree murder after Dennis's natural mother came looking for her son and expressed suspicions about his death, 22 years after it happened. Drawing from many sources, Siegel has produced a well-written account of a particularly troubling child abuse case. He also provides some informative commentary on the failure of society--in particular its social service, legal, and medical systems--to protect its children from abuse. Recommended for public libraries.-- Donna L. Miller, Lebanon Valley Coll. Lib., Annville, Pa.

From the Publisher

"Fascinating . . . A work of compelling narrative force and enduring value, A Death in White BearLake guides us along an increasingly clear path—from horror to enlightenment.” —The New York Times Book Review
 
“Telling detail . . . and crack research . . . [fill] Barry Siegel’s book. But those are not the only authorial virtues displayed. There’s the book’s very structure, which keeps the revelations coming, one right after the next. Then too there’s the restraint. Siegel lets the players damn themselves as they reminisce about the case . . . And Siegel manages, despite the widespread national publicity the case received, to keep suspense high.” —The Washington Post
 
“Fascinating reading.” —Detroit Free Press
 
“One of the most startling nonfiction books of the year.” —Playboy
 
“Chilling in its exactness and precise in its details.” —Star News (Pasadena)
 
“Siegel doesn’t spare the reader . . . emphatically indicting a society that looks the other way.” —Kirkus Reviews
 
“If ever anyone needs to be convinced that child abuse cuts across sociological lines, this is the book to read.” —The San Diego Union
 
“To read it is to stare steadily through the windowpane at the vicious underside of middle-class respectability.” —Omaha Metro Update
 
“[Siegel] tells a great deal about ordinary people dealing with extraordinary circumstances.” —The Boston Herald
 
“A haunting story . . . Siegel is one of the finest reporters we have. He does not stop where others do; he keeps probing deeper and deeper until he strikes gold—that place where we come face-to-face with ourselves.” —Sara Davidson, New York Times–bestselling author
 
“Remarkable . . . Engrossing . . . Immensely shocking . . . The court drama is gripping and its conclusion just right.” —Minneapolis Star-Tribune
 

Product Details

BN ID:	2940173774569
Publisher:	Tantor Audio
Publication date:	12/08/2019
Edition description:	Unabridged

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