Toxic Love

The Shocking True Story of the First Murder by Cancer

By: Tomas Guillen

Narrated by: Peter Lerman

Omaha, Nebraska, 1978.

Sandy Johnson was in shock. Her husband, Duane, and young daughter, Sherrie, were violently ill when word arrived that her infant nephew just died of mysterious causes. Days earlier, the entire family was happy, healthy, and living the American dream. Now they were at the center of a terrifying medical crisis.

Duane soon died in a condition unlike anything the doctors had ever seen. As they raced to discover what disease or toxin could have done so much damage so quickly, Lt. Foster Burchard of the Omaha police began to suspect foul play. Sandy herself became a primary suspect, as did her ex-boyfriend Steven Harper - a man prone to violence who never got over their breakup.

In Toxic Love, investigative reporter and true crime author Tomás Guillen offers a detailed and vivid account of this baffling case from the day of the poisoning to the harrowing trial and the murderer's eventual suicide on death row.

©1995 Tomás Guillén (P)2020 Tantor

Diabolical plan!

Never would have fathom this kind of plot!! crazy with long lasting implications...so sad !

An in-depth assessment of a truly remarkable crime!

Beautifully written and well preformed. I had seen the case explained on Forensic Files, and was curious about how it all came about.
It is absolutely heartbreaking that so many people had their lives ruined by the mental illness of one person.

True story

This is a sad but important story during 2020/2021.
Spoiler alert
While the details are thorough, it is never mentioned if the victims actually had cancer or just health problems due to being poisoned.
I think it's an important detail since, if someone has cancer, it would be important to know how they got it. i.e. smoking = lung cancer etc.
I listened while driving and I was never bored

True Crime Story I’ve never heard before

Interesting story and told concisely and clearly. It’s sad and tragic. It seems like I’ve heard of most sensational true crimes but this one was new for me.

has many twists and turns

This true crime book kept me listening till the end . thought I knew how it would go . plenty of surprises

Jaw dropping

This book is absolutely jaw dropping.

I’ve never heard of a case like this. It’s both an evil and strange case.

There is some dry spot here and there in the book, and at some point I thought about giving up. However I didn’t and I’m glad so because I don’t think it’s impossible to find any other true crime book about this type of murder.

Please avoid this narrator

This was such an interesting story, and I had never heard of the case before. I love medical true crime, so I thought I had won the jackpot with this book. Boy, was I wrong. The story itself is interesting, but the writer didn't do it enough justice by skimping on the psychological motivations. I don't think the author did any personal interviews for the book.

The worst and irredeemable part was the narrator. He read like a 5th grader trying to sound out words. There was no inflection, pauses, or anything that resembled competence in... reading on an adult level. Please don't suffer through the agony of listening to this book.

Why does this author hate women?

I’ll just give the notes I made while reading:

This cop regularly “pranks” people he’s upset with using explosives, has fits where he viciously attacks inanimate objects, and hates the victims wife for no discernible reason? Not painting a great picture of the “good guy” here.

Okay so she “pops” Jimmy on the knee (but apparently not hard enough to even momentarily impair his walking and he responds by punching her in the head so hard that she’s unconscious for an extended period of time and SHE is the bad guy in that situation? This is not the movies. Knocking someone unconscious is hugely dangerous.

He nearly chokes her to death, but she’s the bad guy for breaking up with him?

So Sandy literally threw herself between her husband and the gun Steve was pointing at him? How is that not enough to prove that she’s not in league with Steve to murder her husband?

Steve clearly has elements of religious psychosis, but apparently the author thinks he has actual demons in his head that are literally fighting with Jesus. I guess that level of stupidity helps to explain why this book is so bad…

Why is Steve’s pathology, which causes him to murder, something to be pitied, while Sandy’s pathology, which just makes her enter new relationships too quickly, apparently makes her evil?

I’m sorry, the prison is full of “sad-eyed misfits”? I’m not usually pro-prison, but being a “misfit” is not how you end up on death row. Why does this book have more sympathy for men who commit violent crimes than the women who they attack?

Okay so Steve’s also virulently homophobic. What a surprise. Why is this animal torturing, child murdering stalker made out to be a victim?