Our July pick for The Morbidly Curious Book Club was "A Light in the Dark: Surviving More Than Ted Bundy" by Kathly Kleiner Rubin and Emilie Le Beau Lucchesi.

Join us if you're curious: themorbidlycuriousbookclub.com

About the book: "In January 1978, I slept in my bed at the Chi Omega sorority house at Florida State University as Ted Bundy stalked nearby. He grabbed an oak log from a stack of firewood, slipped through a back door with a broken padlock, and headed upstairs. He began twisting doorknobs. Room 9 was open, and he quietly and quickly killed one of my sleeping sorority sisters. Across the hall, he found another unlocked door and murdered again. Then, he turned the knob to my bedroom and found it was open. I remember the attack vividly. Bundy bashed me once in the head with the log and then attacked my roommate. He heard me moaning and came to finish me off. He never let his victims live. But he stopped suddenly when a bright light filled the room. He fled the sorority house and the light disappeared.

Bundy wasn't my first brush with death, and he wasn't my last. I've long been a survivor. I was born into a Cuban American family in 1957 in Florida. I had a happy childhood until I received my first death sentence at the age of thirteen. Physicians weren't sure why I was always so exhausted and running a low-grade fever. The prognosis was grim after my left kidney started to fail. Then, a physician from Cuba saved my life with a surprise diagnosis—lupus—and a treatment plan: chemotherapy. I endured chemotherapy again in my early thirties when I was diagnosed with stage 2 breast cancer.

This is my story of surviving three death sentences and finding love and happiness along the way. I was saved by a bright light, and I hope my story is one for people who are experiencing their own dark times. I am a victim, but I am also a survivor, and I want to speak up for all the women and girls whom Bundy murdered.

He has become a legend, and our voices have been muted or ignored. It's time we were heard."

Excitingly, we have chapters sprouting up around the world. Find them here: https://bookclubs.com/join-a-book-club/the-morbidly-curious-book-club -- if you don't see your city, send me an email!

themorbidlycuriousbookclub@gmail.com

The Sun article mentioned: https://www.the-sun.com/news/423345/grinning-ted-bundy-told-me-id-be-a-good-serial-killer-and-called-me-his-homeboy-i-even-organised-his-wedding/

Welcome to the Archives bonus episodes!

In 2024, I launched this podcast to delve deeper into our book club's nonfiction selections by engaging directly with the authors—the experts behind these compelling works. Over the years, our club has explored some exceptional books, and today, I am thrilled to spotlight one of our most acclaimed reads: The Black Angels: The Untold Story of the Nurses Who Helped Cure Tuberculosis by Maria Smilios. This remarkable book has earned and incredible 9.4 out of 10 rating on our BookClubs website and remains unrivaled at the top of our charts. I’m very excited to chat with Maria today.

“It was a glorious moment, long-awaited and widely celebrated. Newspapers worldwide rang with banner headlines announcing the ‘wonder drug.’ Images from that day show the ‘incurables,’ the patients slotted to die, in the hallways laughing and dancing. Standing behind them are the Black nurses, their faces still, their eyes fixed and hesitant. They knew a more solemn story. Now only a small handful remain, including Virginia, who lives among the ruined buildings, keeping her promise to remember them, the Black nurses, the ones ‘time and people tried to erase,’ 'the women who ‘did their jobs,’ and who came to be known as the Black Angels.”

About the book:

“New York City, 1929. A sanatorium, a deadly disease, and a dire nurse shortage. So begins the remarkable true story of the Black nurses who helped cure one of the world’s deadliest plagues: tuberculosis. During those dark pre-antibiotic days, when tuberculosis killed 1 in 7 people, white nurses at Sea View, New York’s largest municipal hospital, began quitting. Desperate to avert a public health crisis, city officials summoned Black southern nurses, luring them with promises of good pay, a career, and an escape from the strictures of Jim Crow. But after arriving, they found themselves on an isolated hilltop in the remote borough of Staten Island, yet again confronting racism and consigned to a woefully understaffed facility, dubbed “the pest house” where “no one left alive.” Spanning the Great Depression and moving through World War II and beyond, this story follows the intrepid young women, the “Black Angels,” who, for twenty years, risked their lives working under dreadful conditions while caring for the city’s poorest—1,800 souls languishing in wards, waiting to die or become “guinea pigs” for experimental (often deadly) drugs. Yet despite their major role in desegregating the NYC hospital system—and regardless of their vital work in helping to find the cure for tuberculosis at Sea View—these nurses were completely erased from history. The Black Angels recovers the voices of these extraordinary women and puts them at the center of this riveting story celebrating their legacy and spirit of survival.”

themorbidlycuriousbookclub.com

Our June pick for The Morbidly Curious Book Club Was "The Day I Die: The Untold Story of Assisted Dying in America" by Anita Hannig.

"The Day I Die is a major work of nonfiction that tackles the one issue we'll all eventually come to face-our final days, hours, and minutes. With clarity and empathy, award-winning anthropologist Anita Hannig uncovers the stigma against the practice of assisted dying, untangles the legalities and logistics of pursuing an assisted death in America today, and profiles the dedicated advocates and medical personnel involved. In intimate, lyrical detail, Hannig explains why someone might choose an assisted death and how that decision impacts their loved ones. In a time when nearly 80 percent of Americans die in hospitals and nursing homes, medical assistance in dying could transform the way we die for the better, allowing more people to define the terms of their own death.”

Join us if you're curious: themorbidlycuriousbookclub.com

Excitingly, we have chapters sprouting up around the world. Find them here: https://bookclubs.com/join-a-book-club/the-morbidly-curious-book-club -- if you don't see your city, send me an email!

themorbidlycuriousbookclub@gmail.com

References and mentioned links:

• https://anitahannig.com/about-me/
• https://deathwithdignity.org/news/2024/03/annual-oregon-dwd-report-data/
• https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9451602/
• https://www.theguardian.com/society/article/2024/may/16/dutch-woman-euthanasia-approval-grounds-of-mental-suffering
• https://www.theguardian.com/society/article/2024/may/16/europe-slowly-shifting-attitudes-towards-assisted-dying
• https://www.theguardian.com/society/article/2024/may/16/dutch-woman-euthanasia-approval-grounds-of-mental-suffering
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Assisted_suicide_in_the_United_States#cite_note-6
• https://katu.com/news/politics/oregon-ends-residency-rule-for-medically-assisted-suicide
• https://news.gallup.com/poll/235145/americans-strong-support-euthanasia-persists.aspx
• https://www.patientsrightscouncil.org/site/assisted-suicide-state-laws/
• https://www.bmj.com/content/384/bmj.q271
• https://www.canada.ca/en/health-canada/services/health-services-benefits/medical-assistance-dying.html

I had the opportunity to chat with Kristel and Helen Leonard, both featured in our May book "Without a Prayer" by Susan Ashline. Kristel is the sister of Lucas Leonard, who was murdered at the Word of Life [Cult]. This is an incredibly special episode, I'm so glad I get to share it with you!

Relevant links:

https://www.facebook.com/AuthorSusanAshline

https://lukesthunder.blogspot.com/

https://www.icsahome.com/

Our May pick for The Morbidly Curious Book Club -- "Without a Prayer" by Susan Ashline

Join the Morbidly Curious Book Club Today: themorbidlycuriousbookclub.com

Teenager Lucas Leonard made shocking admissions in front of the altar—he’d practiced witchcraft and conspired to murder his parents, among other horrific crimes. The confessions earned him a brutal beating by a gang of angry church members, including his parents and sister. Lucas arrived at the hospital dead, awakening the sleepy community of Chadwicks, New York, to the horror that had been lurking next door. Nine members of Lucas’ church (and a good amount of them family) would eventually find themselves facing murder-related charges. But how did they get to that point? And what made Lucas confess? The full story has never been told—until now. Emmy-nominated journalist Susan Ashline delves deep into the Leonard family history, the darkness within the Word of Life Christian Church, and what led Lucas, his family, and his community to that fateful night.

Susan Ashline is the author of the nationally acclaimed true crime book Without a Prayer: The Death of Lucas Leonard and How One Church Became a Cult. She is an Emmy-nominated journalist whose career spans more than twenty-five years. Her work has received major awards, including a first place Associated Press award for general excellence in individual reporting, and a Gannett Gold Medal award. Susan graduated from the University of Massachusetts, and she studied at the University of New Mexico and the State University of New York.

Resources and links:

https://www.icsahome.com/

https://www.facebook.com/AuthorSusanAshline

https://www.google.com/books/edition/A_Jacket_Off_the_Gorge/NePoEAAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=0

https://www.reddit.com/r/askfuneraldirectors/comments/18np4eb/transporting_deceased_loved_one_over_state_lines/

https://www.us-funerals.com/when-death-occurs-away-from-home/

https://www.syracuse.com/crime/2019/08/word-of-life-christian-church-book-reveals-wild-saga-of-church-founders-death.html

https://www.romesentinel.com/news/update-former-word-of-life-church-set-on-fire-in-chadwicks-man-charged-with-arson/article_29d8a10a-9a6f-5600-bfc0-5d0b6d1db262.html

https://lukesthunder.blogspot.com/

Our April pick for The Morbidly Curious Book Club -- "Data Baby" by Susannah Breslin

Join the Morbidly Curious Book Club Today: themorbidlycuriousbookclub.com

What if your parents turn you into a human lab rat when you’re a child? Will that change the story of your life? Will that change who you are? When Susannah Breslin is a toddler, her parents enroll her in an exclusive laboratory preschool at the University of California, Berkeley, where she becomes one of over a hundred children who are research subjects in an unprecedented thirty-year study of personality development that predicts who she and her cohort will grow up to be. Decades later, trapped in what she feels is an abusive marriage and battling breast cancer, she starts to wonder how growing up under a microscope shaped her identity and life choices. Already a successful journalist, she makes her own curious history the subject of her next investigation. From experiment rooms with one-way mirrors, to children’s puzzles with no solutions, to condemned basement laboratories, her life-changing journey uncovers the long-buried secrets hidden behind the renowned study. The question at the gnarled heart of her quest: Did the study know her better than she knew herself? At once bravely honest and sharply witty, Data Baby is a compelling and provocative account of a woman’s quest to find her true self, and an unblinking exploration of why we turn out as we do. Few people in all of history have been studied from such a young age and for as long as this author, but the message of her book is universal. In an era when so many of us are looking to technology to tell us who to be, it’s up to us to discover who we actually are.

Join the Patreon page here to donate: https://patreon.com/TheMorbidlyCuriousBookClub?utm_medium=clipboard_copy&utm_source=copyLink&utm_campaign=creatorshare_creator&utm_content=join_link

Inquiries: themorbidlycuriousbookclub@gmail.com

with comment from the author of Dark Archives, Megan Rosenbloom.

Thank you, thank you, for all the messages you guys sent me, and the posts you’ve tagged me in. A happy morbidly curious friend over here!

I spoke with author Megan Rosenbloom who wrote the book “Dark Archives: A Librarian's Investigation into the Science and History of Books Bound in Human Skin” (my book club’s pick for January) about this decision and I love her response:

“It’d be a different situation if there was a repatriation request at play here or a family member of an identified individual or representative of that individual’s known community. There can be respectful stewardship of problematic artifacts that preserve the evidence of past actions, provide context, and allow students and researchers to continue to learn from them, but that is not possible when a few voices can push an institution into destroying objects entrusted to their care. It could also set a precedent for institutions feeling that they must also destroy their anthropodermic books because Harvard did, driving the existence of the rest of these books on the private market further underground, where they might be treated less respectfully and will also be unavailable to researchers. There could be far-reaching implications from this decision.”

This is going to be a domino effect, and I’m not looking forward to the future decisions institutions may make. These books are much safer where they currently are, in my humble opinion.

https://library.harvard.edu/statement-des-destinees-de-lame

https://library.harvard.edu/about/news/2024-03-27/qa-houghton-library-about-book-des-destinees-de-lame