Would you kill for love? True-crime master Ron Franscell tells the grisly story of Alice and Gerald Uden, a loving couple who murdered at least four people, and live happily ever after–while cops try for decades to piece together a petrifying tale of murder and secrets. The appalling details are made even more vivid by the author’s familiarity with the Wyoming times and places that formed the … the backdrop of his national bestseller The Darkest Night.
In 1974, Alice, a desperate young mother in a gritty Wyoming boomtown, kills her husband and dumps his body where it will never be found, then slips away and starts a new life. But when her new man’s ex-wife and two kids start demanding more of him, Alice delivers an ultimatum: Fix the problem or lose her forever. With Alice’s help, Gerald “fixes” the problem in an extraordinarily ghastly way . . . and they live happily ever after. That is, until 2013,
almost forty years later, when somebody finds a dead man’s skeleton in a place where Alice thought he’d never be found.
This page-turner by bestselling true-crime author Ron Franscell revisits a shocking cold case that was finally solved just when the murderers thought they’d never be caught.
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Compulsively readable. Imminently astonishing. Only Ron Franscell, one of America’s most talented and thoughtful crime writers, could render this story of a deadly and monstrous relationship with both lightning-paced prose and a keen awareness of the psychopathology of his subjects. Bound to be a bestseller.
Franscell is one of the finest true-crime writers I’ve ever read. At once horrific and stupefying, Alice & Gerald will catapult you into a world of narcissistic impulse and terrifying consequence.
This is a powerfully gripping, very sad, story of the disappearance of Virginia Uden and her sons Richard and Reagen on September 12, 1980. Virginia was Richard Uden’s third wife and she talked him into adopting her two sons after they married, which he did, and then she promptly divorced him. Richard was a weak, naive man and he met this fourth wife, Alice, in a mental hospital where she worked and he was a patient. After they married, problems began with Virginia wanting more child support. Alice did not like her or the two boys. Richard was going to meet Virginia to let her borrow a trailer so she could go back east and get her belongings. He claimed she never showed up but they did and he murdered all three of them and disposed of their bodies. Richard and Alice were suspects from the beginning but no bodies or evidence of a murder could be found. It took almost 40 years to solve this crime with the help of numerous detectives and other police agencies over that time period. There are lots of twists and turns in this very well researched and written book. I highly recommend this book to anyone who loves a good True Crime case.
Franscell never disappoints. A disturbing yet mesmerizing read, Alice & Gerald kept me turning pages, not wanting to close the book. Meticulously researched and skillfully written, this gripping true-crime account of two twisted killers weaves together the threads of four cold-blooded murders committed in the name of a depraved love.
This is going to be the best true-crime book you read in 2019, or in just about any year. Author Ron Franscell combines exhaustive research and plenty of literary talent to deliver the classic saga of four brutal murders and the decades-long efforts of dogged investigators to bring the married perpetrators to justice. In the process, he reminds the rest of us who write in this genre how it ought to be done.
Gerald got himself in to more predicaments than he could really handle. He went through wives, trusting too many.
It’s a scary thing to think that people actually live like this and think it’s okay to kill others. Book wasn’t entertaining or informative – don’t know why it was written. Surely did not share anything with me that I wanted to know.
The tenacity and perseverance of some police officers is amazing. We are all better off when they refuse to give up.
Although such a sad story, I highly recommend.
This book keeps getting tangled up with extraneous side narrative. Not at all worth chopping through until you get to the meat of the story.
An amazing coupling of two severely damaged people and their offsprings.
It scared me to death that those misfits live in our midst
Engrossing – read in one sitting!
A little too much detail
Good book but just too long.
Flat characters and exposition.
This book is the true story of a couple who killed. The wife killed a former husband and the husband killed his former wife and her children to avoid paying child support.
The dark, murderous secrets of Gerald and Alice Uden are almost Shakespearean. You will think their story has got to be made up, but it’s all true. Ron Franscell has done amazing research and writing in this book.
A riveting and disturbing tale of wickedness unfolds over multiple decades, as the marriage of two evil people strengthens the bonds of their murderous souls. Franscell’s brilliant storytelling and personal interviews are simply not to be missed!