Outside Reading #1- pgs. 3-55

For my 3rd quarter outside reading book, I am reading "While They Slept" by Kathryn Harrison. The book starts out with a preface by the author, explaining that this is in fact a true story and that the facts were pulled from actual interviews and documents by investigators and police officers and therapists. She compares herself with the main character, Jody Gilley, by telling her own personal family tragedy. The Gilley's story is one that literally made me have to stop, close the book, and just think for a second or so about what I just read. And the tragedy that is spoken about, is a unbelievable loss to Jody and Billy. On April 27, 1984, Billy Gilley killed his mother, father, and youngest sister Becky by beating them to death with a baseball bat. The only one spared, was the middle sibling, Jody. The book is set up into two main parts; the before, and the after. Throughout both parts, the author switches point of view between the murderer, Billy Gilley, and his sister, the sole survivor of the Gilley family, Jody. Someone may wonder what on earth provokes an eighteen year old boy to murder his entire family, but Jody describes the relationship between father and son by saying, "working for our father, Billy endured relentless verbal assaults. He was incompetent, dad said, worthless" (53). Someone might say well yeah, but a lot of people go through verbal abuse but don't go and kill their families. Well, that might be true...if thats all that was going on. All three of the Gilley children were severely beaten throughout their childhood. No matter how small the argument, it always ended badly. Some of the punishments involved throwing things at the children, pinning them down and blowing cigarette smoke in their face, and lacked any words of affection or encouragement (30). According to Jody's neighborhood friend Kathy Ackerson, Linda Gilley was "very controlling. Jody had to sneak around to do things she wanted to do. Things most parents considered harmless. Not only did Jody have more than her share of household chores...the laundry, the dishes, and the cooking, but while she worked, Linda just sat around and smoked cigarettes" (31-32). The Gilley kids basically raised themselves over the years with very severe punishments for doing anything wrong. I guess in some terms, Billy could be seen as a ticking time bomb. Poked and prodded for to long. Aggravated by his parents physical and mental abuse just one time to many. Until finally....he just exploded.

Since I'm just starting the book and it is a non-fiction selection, there aren't really any author created themes to discuss, but a possible theme is that when one is forced to turn the other cheek to abuse of any type, eventually, there really can't be a total happy ending. People hear of abuse issues on the news and the homicides and suicides, but very rarely is a case of patricide or matricide heard of. Therefore, they are generally unknown topics. 'Patricide' is the murder of one's parents, and 'matricide' is the killing of one's mother. Both these forms of killing are mentioned repeatedly in this dark true story. So far, this book is an extremely fast read, full of questions and possibilities that can only be found out by reading and comprehending.