Book Reviews - Murders/Suicide at WHF

[Patti]

There is something worth consideration , for what its worth i dont think jeremy was the best to know , but its not that simple and no book is going to act as a end all, no book about the murders show anything good about him, i would be suprised if they did, but one thing needs remembering were are talking about him circa 1080s not now,read in colins book the replies jeremy sent to colin shortly after jeremy was in his sentence, just what was colin expecting to hear ?

Mertol Historian will tell you the same...we rely on documents and hearsay.....History can't be prove in my eyes...lol

Hope you are better? Not been around for few days, my son had an accident playing football and we were at the hospital till early hours Monday morning...and last night I took him to another hospital to re-accessed and there is a slight line on the bone, but it has not gone through the cortex, so he will be on crutches for the next couple of weeks and wont be able to coach for about 6 weeks....so been very tired out....

[ajross]

I will finish reading Colin's book but I have lost interest now that he is blathering on about psychics and mediums, they are the desperate acts of a man who has suffered a great loss, i refuse to accept that they have anything to do with this case

[mertol22]

I will finish reading Colin's book but I have lost interest now that he is blathering on about psychics and mediums, they are the desperate acts of a man who has suffered a great loss, i refuse to accept that they have anything to do with this case

Try not to be harsh on colin, no one is perfect , he was trying to find a path to understanding, if colin had not put pen to paper he could have gone into darker areas of his life , his two sons did not die they were murdered we must rember that ,i for one admire him to go on.

[ajross]

Hi ajross and Mertol22

I have posted this previously but one or both of you may have missed it so here it is again:

http://uk.linkedin.com/pub/colin-caffell/13/35b/a10

I found it interesting that Colin chose to get involved with Safe Harbours and Elisabeth Kubler-Ross. 

ajross plse note the interpreting of spontaneous drawings.

Sorry Egap, that link takes me to a closed LinkedIn account

[ajross]

I have finished Colin's book and would say that if anybody is looking for answers or insight into the case then this is definitely not the book to read. It is written as an attempt to grieve and heal, it is mainly concerned with the therapies and people he met and his need to criticise the press. It offers no new evidence but has succeeded in convincing me that JB is 100% guilty, obviously not because of the evidence presented but because of the pain he feels as a father and his utter conviction that JB is guilty, through his depiction of JB he gives a convincing portrayal of somebody who indeed is evil beyond belief.

(but before anybody thinks that I am ignorantly being led by a book, I am writing this as being comepletely detatched, I am attempting to give an idea of how a reader might feel by this summary, one who was on the fence, as it were, and waiting to be swayed either way, on a personal note, the book has done nothing to give me conviction either way)

[Patti]

I have finished Colin's book and would say that if anybody is looking for answers or insight into the case then this is definitely not the book to read. It is written as an attempt to grieve and heal, it is mainly concerned with the therapies and people he met and his need to criticise the press. It offers no new evidence but has succeeded in convincing me that JB is 100% guilty, obviously not because of the evidence presented but because of the pain he feels as a father and his utter conviction that JB is guilty, through his depiction of JB he gives a convincing portrayal of somebody who indeed is evil beyond belief.

(but before anybody thinks that I am ignorantly being led by a book, I am writing this as being comepletely detatched, I am attempting to give an idea of how a reader might feel by this summary, one who was on the fence, as it were, and waiting to be swayed either way, on a personal note, the book has done nothing to give me conviction either way)

Hi AJ

Love reading your comments even if they are the opposite to mine. 

Can I ask you what you mean about being 100% convinced that JB is guilty, then going on to say the book hasn't swayed you either way? I'm a tad confused...

[Bridget]

I enjoy them too. Have you seen the sculptures on Colin's website AJ? There's one of a father hugging two young sons and it's heartbreaking if you know the story. I'll dig you out a link if you need it, but it'll have to be tomorrow when I'm not on this damn phone.

[andrea]

Ive seen them Bridget, i think that scilpture is in his book, along with a sculpture of sheila while she was pregnant with the twins.

The sculpture of the man with with 2 boys, he explains it as if the man is listening for a heartbeat in one of the boys that isnt there.

[ajross]

Hi AJ

Love reading your comments even if they are the opposite to mine. 

Can I ask you what you mean about being 100% convinced that JB is guilty, then going on to say the book hasn't swayed you either way? I'm a tad confused...

I am neither guilty or innocent in all honesty, I am probably no clearer to making up my mind now than I ever have been.

However...as a reader of Colin's book and reviewing/assessing it with that and nothing else in mind, I am sure that JB is guilty, does that make sense?

I read Wilkes' book, that made me believe JB was guilty, it threw up some ideas that made me think he was innocent, then it reverted me back to not knowing.

Next I will read Lomax and see what that has to offer, I guess what I am trying to suggest/do is read each book on it's own merit and see how each book would influence 'the reader' in the hope of getting an honest assessment.

Colin's book was like an uncomfortable and tragic voyeurism into the broken heart and an attempt to repair it as opposed to an analysis of the murders and consequent trial.

[andrea]

Colins is the best book from the lot, in my opinion.

[ajross]

I enjoy them too. Have you seen the sculptures on Colin's website AJ? There's one of a father hugging two young sons and it's heartbreaking if you know the story. I'll dig you out a link if you need it, but it'll have to be tomorrow when I'm not on this damn phone.

Is it a father or a mother? I'm not questioning you to correct you i'm just curious, I have only seen the photos in the book, one is of a figure holding two children, one is 'flopped' as if dead, the other is slightly different. This is supposed to be Sheila and the boys and was one of the first he started. There is another called 'Boy with apple' which frankly makes me very uncomfortable as it is so realistic and reminds me of my own son. However, the sculpting is one of the reasons I found it difficult to like Colin. To put it very crudely, the book suggests that Colin needed to sculpt, the boys were murdered as they were old souls and had nothing else to learn in their bodies and they were 'sacrificed' to force Colin to do what he was on this planet for. He was being helped in the task by another soul, a dead sculptor who was named by two mediums, who could not move on until Colin had completed a certain piece of work, as a result of learning this, Colin put off doing said work hence 'trapping' that sould with him for want of a better word.

As i say, that is in very crude terms but the essence is the same and if you make sense of what I have written it ultimately makes Colin a very selfish individual.

[jon]

Colins is the best book from the lot, in my opinion.

Will you ever change your opinion  ?

[mertol22]

Colins is the best book from the lot, in my opinion.

In search of the Rainbows End has some touching chapters, its also the only book from one of the Family and most likely ever will be, in one chapter he returned to WHF but there was no one there, on a cold frosty morning, he sat on the front porch for a while and left some flowers, he also returned again and the twins coats were still on the end of the stairs , i dont have children and never want any but i was moved by his writing.

[ajross]

I find he is far too obsessed with Jung, Kubler-Ross and spirituality. I udnerstand that the man lost his family and that he had to find a way to dal with it but this book is more like a dogmatic manual on survival for others through his experiences. The most interesting part of the whole book was towards the end when he printed a couple of letters from JB. I think it is also pertinent to point out that on a number of occassions he says he has more information but that he won't make that information available. It is a shame that he wouldn't as i can see that it would do little harm, JB is in prison, where Colin believes he should be, unless the information would undermine that I see no reason not to share it.

[ajross]

In search of the Rainbows End has some touching chapters, its also the only book from one of the Family and most likely ever will be, in one chapter he returned to WHF but there was no one there, on a cold frosty morning, he sat on the front porch for a while and left some flowers, he also returned again and the twins coats were still on the end of the stairs , i dont have children and never want any but i was moved by his writing.

Some of it is very touching but doesn't 'help' the forum. It was also around the time he visited WHF that he starts talking in the book about the 'spiritual' powers of Robins! There is an interesting anecdote around this point about JB returning to WHF with JM and being seemingly terrified, crawling and blubbering and Colin attributes this to JB either seeing ghosts or pretending to see them to scare JM as she was a believer