Category: Drama Publisher: Lulu
ISBN-10: 1430301279
Type: Non-Fiction
Pages: 388
Copyright: Jan 14, 2007
ISBN-13: 9781430301271
This is the true story of one of the most heinous crimes committed in Indiana...the Patrick Gilligan Family... The crime, the criminal Donald Ray Wallace Jr., the victims and the unrest this death penalty wait held for 25 years.
It is a parallel story of both the criminal, the victims and their lives. This is the story from the initial crime to its conclusion, with twists & turns that most average people seldom understand or endure.
This book tells of the Death Penalty wait for both the criminal and the victims and how their lives are forever intertwined.
REVIEW BY: Russ Immarigeon, Contributing Editor.
Crime Victims Report For Criminal Justice Professionals and Providers of Support Services for Victims Crime Victims Report, is an important resource for those protecting, assisting, counseling, and treating the victims of crime... and for enforcement officals, prosecutors, judges, and corrections professionals.
Surviving the Death Penalty By Diana and Ted Harrington Victims of Violent CrimeBy Diana and Ted Harrington... In 1980, Donald Ray Wallace Jr. executed Diana Harrington’s 30-year-old sister Theresa, her husband Patrick, and their children, Lisa and Gregory; he shot them point-blank. Twenty-five years later, the State of Indiana executed Donald Wallace.
Surviving the Death Penalty is a long, hard chronicle of what happened to Diana Harrington in between these events – learning about the deaths, the murderer’s arrest, newspaper stories, trial sessions, jury deliberations, sentencing, more newspaper stories, life in prison, delays, appeals, and more delays.
Meanwhile everyone gets older and the agony of the 1980 murders lingers. The Harrington’s received scant attention from the criminal justice system, which naturally angered them.
This book is a bare bones account of painful events, and the pain never seems to drift away. Furthermore, no one, from the state’s criminal justice apparatus to the Harrington’s themselves seems to effectively help alleviate or heal the whole sad situation. The Harrington’s at least try, and at one point they were even in contact with their kin’s murderer in an effort to learn some answers to their questions.
The criminal justice system was less helpful.
In the end, Donald Ray Wallace is executed, and the Harrington’s try to move on.
One product of their effort is Victims of Violent Crime, a short, concise self-help treatise that describes being a victim of violent crime, dealing with those difficult questions concerning why such an event occurred, going through a cycle of hate, anger and guilt, figuring out how to live with the loss of a relative, confronting legislative efforts that may come your way, confronting the criminal, interacting with the media, looking for a therapist, and finding good friends.
Copies: are readily available through the websites for Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Walden and Borders Books.
Excerpt
PREVIEW OF THE BOOK…..
PRELUDE....CHAPTER 1, Wednesday, March 9, 2005
It was 11:30AM as we slowly drove down the narrow winding road at St. Joseph’s Cemetery in Evansville, Indiana. I thought to myself how much the cemetery had grown and how many monuments were new to this section. The stones recorded history going back several hundred years and yet there were monuments with dates as recent as 2005. A sadness prevailed, as I’m sure it had for countless others, when looking to the nearly full hillside.
We stopped the car at the familiar site and I opened the door. I took a deep breath as I had each time I visited. It was as overwhelming at that moment as it had been 25 years ago. The pain was as fresh as it had been on January 14th, 1980. My heart once again was beating fast and my body was beginning to tremble.
We walked under the large oak tree that had grown tall, full and stately in the many years since I first came here. I approached the third row, third marker from the left with the same sense of loss as I had every previous time.
There was a large double monument inscribed,
DOROTHY JAMES SAHM....OCTOBER 26, 1920 - AUGUST 1, 1999
&
LAWRENCE A SAHM....MAY 1, 1920 - JANUARY 14, 1989
My Dad and Mom. I missed them and anguished over how much they had suffered after that fateful day in January, 1980.
Would today be the end that had started with one insane moment? That brief instant in time that had changed their lives, my life and the lives of so many. It was too late for them but would it be the end to my suffering?
My parents were not vengeful people but had waited so long for justice and an end to so many years of living each day with the pain of this tragedy. Not that there would have ever been closure for them but they died without an apology or seeing any remorse from the criminal that had changed their world.
I had watched how my Dad went from a vivacious active man, full of life, love and humor to a lonely sad man that died exactly nine years, to the day, of the crime that claimed his eldest daughter. He had been ill for some months leading up to the 14th of January in 1989. I believe he simply allowed himself to die on that ninth anniversary when so much of his life and those he loved were destroyed. He had never been able to reconcile himself to the loss and began the slow descent leading to this day when his heart could no longer accept the emptiness of loss. Some thought it ironic, bizarre or miraculous, depending on whom you spoke with, that Dad passed away on that exact anniversary date. I think it was what he wanted most. I think he finally found the peace he deserved.
I also watched my Mom, a wonderful lady with such drive, ambition; energy and kindness become one of the strongest women I had ever met. She looked to God and never lost faith. Holding her head high for years, while inside, I knew she had pain so unbearable that she uttered the word "Why ?" on her deathbed and " Not yet ! " I knew what she was asking but I did not have the answers that might bring her peace nor was I able to give strength to a heart that had suffered too much.
They were victims of a crime. If you look at their death certificates you will find that they died of natural causes. That they died of broken hearts speaks to the real truth of their deaths.
I said a quiet prayer and told them I loved them dearly.
I moved just a step away, to the right from their gravesite to a larger monument. The silk flowers were looking quite ragged from the long winter and there were several cards neatly laid along the side of the monument.
The name GILLIGAN was inscribed along the top portion with lovely engraved cascading flowers and vines on each of the sloping sides. The name had been chiseled across the entire length of the monument. It was large and bold, suggesting a special memorial to someone equally special.
Under the name GILLIGAN was an engraved circle in the shape of a plate with deep-set rims. There were two delicate doves in the middle, detailed and drawn together as one. The artistry was compelling and drew you to the image. On the bottom rim of the circle were two intertwined wedding rings and at the top of the circle was
Chiseled in lovely script lettering, "WE ARE ONE LOVE FOREVER". When I read the inscription it had such deep meaning and spoke the greatest truth of those resting beneath the shadow of the stone. I remembered the first time I saw this plate and knew later it was the perfect eulogy for the monument.
Under the circle, to the left read:
Gregory P.
Sept. 25, 1975
Jan. 14, 1980
To the right was:
G. Patrick Apr. 10, 1949
Jan. 14, 1980
Next was:
Theresa Sahm
Oct. 5, 1949
Jan. 14, 1980
And at the end was:
Lisa Lynne
May 6, 1974
Jan 14, 1980
My family…. My sister, brother-in-law, niece and nephew.
Words still could not explain the feelings, the depth of loss, the pain of remembering, even after all these years.
I thought what a long time it had been. However, even today, I can close my eyes and feel as if the clock had been turned back 25 years. The sadness, the emptiness in my heart and the agony had always been there, the same over all these years. Would today be different?
This evening, or actually at 12:01am, March 10, 2005, a drug infused execution was to take place in Michigan City, Indiana. It would end the life of Donald Ray Wallace Jr., the person who had brutally murdered four innocent people. Wallace had tied all four with a cord, tortured them, beat my brother-in-law with barbells and fired six fatal shots to their heads execution style at close range They were my thirty year old sister and brother-in-law, Theresa and Pat, my niece Lisa , five years old and my four year old nephew, Greg.
I shook my head in disbelief. After years of denial, he now claimed "It happened in an instant. A brief moment of insanity," I wondered...how anyone could have committed such a senseless and callous murder...not once...but four times?”
He had brought his own gun with him to ensure the success of his crime. He purposely, and with careful thought, willfully decided in that moment to execute these people in an effort to escape the consequences of a burglary. The community and I came to see him as a compulsive liar, a diagnosed sociopath and a mass murderer.
He had claimed his innocence to this crime. He had blamed accomplices and never took responsibility for his actions. However, I knew for over twelve years that he had been the only killer. He had confessed in letters to me the real chain of events leading to the last moments of what happened that night. Yes, he had confessed the entire crime to me while denying to the world his involvement.
As I stood at my family's graves, I felt a renewed anger that the week before his scheduled execution, he made a pubic confession. Why had he waited 25 years? Would tonight's execution quench this new anger?
Was it worth killing still another person? I had already been told I would not and could not make this stop. Why would I expect my words to make any difference today? Over the entire 25 years, my voice was deaf to everyone's ears.
My mission was to make everyone remember the crime, the victims and the brutality of the crime but Wallace was always in the forefront. The protests, hostage taking, hunger strikes, trial, appeals, feigning insanity..... It never stopped.
No matter how much I tried to convince people that it wasn't the criminal that should be heard but the victims, no one took action. Wallace still got his way. He manipulated and orchestrated the system from Death Row and used it to his advantage at every opportunity. I wanted him to just go away.
Maybe I would have thought differently today had it not been such a rebellious 25 years or if I did not have to deal with him. Did I really hate him so much to want him dead? I had always said it was what he did and the situation I hated and not Donald Ray Wallace Jr. Was that true?
It had been such a long time and the journey had been an unbelievable nightmare of highs and lows. The highs too shallow and the lows a frightening depth to climb above. In this cold brisk March wind, I distinctly remembered all the strange and incredible paths my life had taken. Would that stop tonight or would there be a continuance to this past?
All I knew was I was in the right place right now….with those I had loved and those that had loved me.
I was in Evansville, Indiana, not Michigan City, as Donald Wallace approached his end. I too, was ending a chapter in my life. I was with all the people that had stood by my family and me for 25 years. Tonight we would be gathered at Saint Theresa's Church for a prayer vigil, for the entire city, to remember the lives of my sister and her family. Tonight was for everyone who had suffered from this crime. We would pray for strength, guidance and support. We would start the healing process and maybe, for some, find an end to a long ordeal.
This was not a night of prayers for Donald Wallace Jr... Tonight was a night to remember the victims and their lives. I had no answers nor was I sure that tomorrow would hold any answers. But right here, right now, I was in the right place.
Professional Reviews
Surviving the Death Penalty...
Compelling true multiple murder, riveting confession letters from the killer detailing crimes. Well written crime and punishment.
I don't know of another book quite like it that tells the crime, capture and execution.
Surviving the Death Penalty
Unbelievable true crime story written from the victims point of view. Complete from the crime,trial,execution and the years in between.
Surviving the Death Penalty
A jarring look at a family as it tries to deal with - and survive - the murder of four family members. Along the way, Harrington - through correspondence with the killer - gives insight into the mind of a brutal murderer. A well written, richly detailed work.
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Reviews for "Surviving the Death Penalty...TRUE STORY"
Reviewed by Gina Bennett
8/26/2007
A jarring look at a family as it tries to deal with - and survive - the murder of four family members. Along the way, Harrington - through corresoonence with the killer - gives insight into the mind of a brutal murderer. A well wriitten, richly detailed work.
Rovella is a beautiful woman with a cold heart whom blames herself for an unfortunate old family secret that is literally ruining her life. This secret impedes a gorgeous woman from having happiness in her childhood, and throughout her life. Dark sec
Rovella is a beautiful woman with a cold heart whom blames herself for an unfortunate old family secret that is literally ruining her life. This secret impedes a gorgeous woman from having happiness in her childhood, and throughout her life. Dark sec
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This CD will touch the deepest inner part of your humanness and spirit, you will never be the same after listening to the depths of struggle, the reality of life, the touching voice of truth. It will shock you, move you to tears. It w
