What is the price of passion? What is the power of love? Meet Martha Beck, a young nurse dedicated to healing others, until her own hurting heart lured her down a darker path. Loneliness led her to Raymond Fernandez, but love led her all the way to the electric chair. This is the tragic story of the Lonely Heart Killers.
My fascination with true crime began with Helter Skelter, Vincent Bugliosi’s novel about the Charles Manson murders and his prosecution of Manson and his minions. Though the horrific crime gave me nightmares as a nine-year-old, I was in my early teens by the time Bugliosi published his book and curious about the minds that could commit such violence.
Fifty years later, I’m no less curious, and unfortunately, history has no shortage of brutal murders.
Tortured With Love recounts the crime spree of Ray Fernandez and Martha Beck in the late 1940s. The press called the couple The Lonely Hearts Killers because Ray chose his victims from the listings of lonely hearts clubs, popular during the times, and it was in fact, how he and Martha met when a friend, trying to help Martha get over her recent divorce, sent her name into one of the clubs.
While I knew how Fernandez and Beck’s stories ended, JT Hunter’s detailed, slow-build account is engrossing and humanizes the murderous couple without invoking sympathy.
They don’t deserve it.
The author also did a good job of including events from each of the killer’s past that could explain some of their behavior. The mother of plus-size Martha didn’t sound particularly nurturing, so when needy Martha met manipulative Ray, they were gasoline and a lit match. I have no doubt Martha was unstable and [mostly] controlled by Ray. Were she tried today, I wouldn’t be surprised if a high-powered defense attorney put on a parade of expert mental health professionals that led to Martha getting minimum sentencing or even acquitted. But there is enough character detail to show while Martha was obsessed with Ray Fernandez, she also had a mean streak.
The inclusion of current event snippets, actual trial testimony, and letters written by victims, family, friends, and Ray and Martha reinforce the story’s veracity because some of the murders are so heinous, they read like pure fiction.
However, the story is true and JT Hunter does another masterful job of introducing us to serial killers before they killed.
Enjoy!
TORTURED WITH LOVE: The True Crime Romance of the Lonely Hearst Killers by J.T. Hunter is a true crime story of a couple who ranked fourth on Time magazine’s list of Top 10 Crime Duos in U.S. history. Their crime spree occurred in the 1940’s and while it may seem somewhat tame compared to some of our current atrocities, it was the sensation of its time.
Martha Beck was a young nurse and mother in Pensacola, Florida. Divorced and lonely, her best friend encourages her to sign up with a lonely hearts correspondence club which was popular in the 1940’s and 50’s. Her letter is answered by a suave suitor named Ray from New York City.
Raymond “Ray” Fernandez came to America from Spain leaving his wife and four children behind. Having trouble keeping a job, he begins to scam wealthy women he corresponds with through the lonely hearts correspondence clubs. He meets Martha and while he walks away, Martha cannot let him go and will go to any lengths to keep his love.
Ray and Martha set out scamming and then ultimately moving on to murdering the women Ray makes fall in love with him to acquire all their assets. Dubbed by the press as the “Lonely Heart Killers” they are captured and continue to declare their love for each other all the way to the electric chair.
I had never heard of this couple in my true crime reading and was very interested in learning more. I am especially interested in these stories that have a couple committing murders to learn about the psychology of the couple. There are so many variables and I always wonder if they never met, if there would have been no crimes. The period of the 1940’s is brought to life and I found the author did a great job of displaying the differences in our mores and moral judgements then and now. This is the second book I have read by this author and I enjoy his clean and uncluttered style of writing while still providing a story that keeps you turning the pages.
I can highly recommend this true crime book and author!
Tortured with Love is the sad yet horrible story of how a children’s nurse gives up everything she has and becomes a killer, all for love.
Ray was married but his wife and children were in Spain. Martha was divorced with two children and felt old. Her life changed when her friend signed her up for a correspondence dating agency and Ray wrote to her. He was already scamming women at this point and Martha was next in line.
Now, don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying Martha Beck was an innocent. No, I think she knew perfectly well what she was doing. It’s just her love and infatuation with Ray was too much and she would do anything for him.
I thoroughly enjoyed every word of this book. Written in such a way as to be educational and informative, it was such a gripping story I read it in one sitting. The thing I love about J.T. Hunter’s books is he doesn’t just go for the ‘glory’ story. Instead, every book I have read by him has been thoroughly researched, giving the reader more information about whichever subject he is talking about. This one is no different.
A fantastic True Crime read that I have no hesitation in recommending.
* A copy of this book was provided to me with no requirements for a review. I voluntarily read this book, and the comments here are my honest opinion. *
Merissa
Archaeolibrarian – I Dig Good Books!
My Review of
TORTURED WITH LOVE
By JT Hunter
******
An unbelievable but true crime story of two people who meet and go on to commit such horrendous acts; that they almost seem to be unreal. Great writing by Author JT Hunter and the incredible ways he is able to write and describe it as if you are witnessing the accounts of the story first hand. Informative, raw and real! This is a true crime book that cannot be missed.
It all starts with a twisted man, Raymond Fernandez, who likes to write to newspaper columns looking for women that are lonely and seeking love. He has a way to sweep them off their feet and sweep out their back accounts before leaving them high and dry.
Until he meets Martha Beck through the Lonely Hearts Club and has met a woman that falls for him but will do anything for Raymond, except let go. Raymond can’t shake her so she goes along with him accompanying him wherever the richest lonely lady leads them next.
Though due to Martha’s jealousy and Raymond’s inability to care for these women beyond their pocketbook; the duo soon become deadly. Whoever is inconvenient or in their way soon becomes a deadly casualty and a notch on the belt these two killers add to with each dead body.
That is until they are caught and end up on the road to the Electric chair.
“Tortured With Love” is the eighth true crime work by J.T. Hunter, a creative writing professor with an interest in criminal psychology and near-15 years experience as an attorney, “including criminal law and appeals, and […] significant training in criminal investigation techniques”. J.T.’s biography states that he “strives to craft compelling narratives that educate and inform, while treating victims and their families with empathy and respect”; I think that he fully achieved this in Tortured With Love and that all of his expertise and methodology shine through in his narrative.
Tortured With Love tells the story of Martha Beck and Raymond Martinez Fernandez, a.k.a. ‘The Lonely Hearts Killers’, who committed a string of very unsavory crimes between 1946 and 1949, and who were executed on 8 March 1951 in the iconic Sing Sing prison for first degree murder.
The flowing third person narration focuses on Martha and Raymond (rather than the victims, which we only see through their eyes), and it takes us through events chronologically, thus creating several distinct sections covering how they met, how their crimes unfolded, how they were caught, their trial, their appeal, their execution and the aftermath. Thus we get to hear several versions of the same occurrences as presented by Martha and Raymond at different stages of their testimonies.
The author presents the facts, extrapolated from the remaining statements given by the pair in Michigan, during the trial and whilst in prison, fully but succinctly, as well as providing relevant background information about them which might offer an insight into their psyche and what might have contributed to their actions. Interesting current events, which put the mentality of people in this very different era into perspective, are also peppered throughout the book (including a surprising link to novelist Truman Capote, author of the true crime novel ‘In Cold Blood’), as well as pertinent music, lyrics and poems. Finally, J.T. also adds observations about the various legal proceedings, thus raising several questions in our minds about the entire process and the death penalty; we know Martha and Raymond committed murder but the key question at trial was if this was premeditated, and therefore murder in the first degree.
A word of warning: this story deals with the graphic and gruesome death of a very young child which some readers may find upsetting.
I am an avid true crime aficionado and am utterly fascinated by human and criminal psychology, in particular when it comes to serial killers, and I found Tortured With Love captivating, easy to read and impossible to put down; above all else, beside introducing me to The Lonely Hearts Killers the author made me think about all sorts of aspects of our society, back in the forties and now, and he made the people within it come to life. I really enjoyed J.T. Hunter’s clear, logical, uncluttered and yet mentally challenging presentation, and look forward to catching up on his back-catalogue.
[ARC received via Partners In Crime Virtual Book Tours]
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Tortured With Love by J T Hunter is my fourth true crime novel by him. That being said, the Lonely Hearts Killers is rated the fourth top ten crime duos in US history, according to Time Magazine. Whether it still holds that distinction in 2020, I do not know.
What turns a nurse supervisor at the Crippled Children”s Home into a killer? Tortured With Love strikes very close to home, seeing Martha Beck is from Pensacola, Florida.
Ray had a hard life. Family and friends felt like an accident he had changed his personality. It’ hard to care, seeing he embraced his new self and reveled in his hunt for women.
Evil can be found anywhere, including dating clubs. I don’t know about you, but it sure doesn’t surprise me. It seems like perverts have found a gold mine.
Tortured With Love is a perfect example of how someone can change so much, throwing their life away in the name of love. I have no sympathy or compassion for either one.
The Lonely Hearts Killers took place in the 1940s, so comparing them, and all that has come to pass since then, may make them seem tame.
Many records were lost or unavailable to J T Hunter, but he put together a story that is easy to read and I think leaves a lot to our imagination. They told so many stories, who knows where the truth lies.
I voluntarily reviewed a free copy of Tortured With Love by J T Hunter.
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