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While They Slept: An Inquiry into the Murder of a Family | 
 enlarge | Author: Kathryn Harrison
Publisher: Random House
Category: Book
List Price: $25.00
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Avg. Customer Rating:  14 reviews
Sales Rank: 11943
Media: Hardcover
Edition: 1
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 304
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.1
Dimensions (in): 9.3 x 6.4 x 1.3
ISBN: 1400065429
Dewey Decimal Number: 364.15230979527
EAN: 9781400065424
ASIN: 1400065429
Publication Date: June 10, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Condition: Brand New! Ships USPS w/tracking number.
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Product Description
Early on an April morning, eighteen-year-old Billy Frank Gilley, Jr., killed his sleeping parents. Surprised in the act by his younger sister, Becky, he turned on her as well. Billy then climbed the stairs to the bedroom of his other sister, Jody, and said, “We’re free.”
But is one ever free after an unredeemable act of violence? The Gilley family murders ended a lifetime of physical and mental abuse suffered by Billy and Jody at the hands of their parents. And it required each of the two survivors–one a convicted murderer, the other suddenly an orphan–to create a new identity, a new life.
In this mesmerizing book, bestselling writer Kathryn Harrison brilliantly uncovers the true story behind a shocking and unforgettable crime as she explores the impact of escalating violence and emotional abuse visited on the children of a deeply troubled family. With an artistry that recalls Truman Capote’s In Cold Blood, Norman Mailer’s The Executioner’s Song, and her own The Kiss, Harrison reveals the antecedents of the murders–of a crime of such violence that it had the power to sever past from present–and the consequences for Billy and for Jody. Weaving in meditations on her own experience of parental abuse, Harrison searches out answers to the question of how survivors of violent trauma shape a future when their lives have been divided into Before and After.
Based on interviews with Billy and Jody as well as with friends, police, and social workers involved in the case, While They Slept is Kathryn Harrison’s unflinching inquiry into the dark heart of violence in an American family, and a personal quest to understand how young people go on after tragedy–to examine the extent as well as the limits of psychic resilience. The New York Times called Kathryn Harrison’s The Kiss “a powerful piece of writing, a testament to evil and hope.” The same could be said about While They Slept.
PRAISE FOR WHILE THEY SLEPT
“Harrison does a magnificent job of sorting through the heartbreak of a family tragedy. By adding insights into her own life, she brings us a little closer to understanding the resilience of the human spirit and the irrevocable damage and unforeseen consequences of child and sexual abuse.”
–USA Today
“The result of Harrison's masterful embellishment is a fascinating and comprehensive examination of the before and after of a brutal triple murder, of the cyclical nature of violence and of the tragic ineffectiveness of our social support systems…While They Slept does not provide the easy answers we hope to discover in ‘just the facts,’ but it offers instead the richer and more enduring illumination of ‘the story.’”
–L.A. Times
“Her telling brings moral clarity to the dark fate of a family: the daylight gaze of narrative itself as a form of empathy.”
–New York Times Book Review, cover review
“A powerful account…This excellent book will be devoured by educators who try to come to grips with the lasting effects of the traumas of childhood.”
–Deseret Morning News
“Harrison offers careful research and obvious concern… While They Slept’s real horror is in how many potential helpers were aware of the abuse and were unable to help. This is a heartbreaking read.”
–Rocky Mountain News
“Kathryn Harrison pulls the reader through the story of the 1984 triple murder in Medford–our own backyard–with such speed and excitement it feels like you’re watching an episode of Law & Order: Criminal Intent…Harrison perfectly paces the revelations of new characters, who add critical information and perspective to the Gilley murder.”
–Willamette Weekly
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| Customer Reviews: Read 9 more reviews...
 Fantastic August 17, 2008
A wonderfully written book. I want to meet and hug Jody Arlington. And also, I feel a deep sadness and affection for Billy. I do wish there was a place more fitting for him than life in prison. His lawyer did not defend him well, I can't believe his appeals have been denied. He deserves more from this world.
 Harrison's biases blind her August 15, 2008
Eighteen year old Billy Gilley's murder of his parents and young sister with a baseball bat was big news in my home of Medford, Oregon in 1984. This book attempts to look at the event and its aftermath. The participants deserve a better book. And author Kathryn Harrison needs to put down her mirror when she attempts to write about the lives of others.
Kathryn Harrison's biases from her own history of incest with her father come up repeatedly in this book. They are worse than an interruption; they blind her to the real story. She attempts to force this narrative into one of father abuse and victim child. This makes her sympathetic to the abused son, the killer of his parents and younger sister, it makes her frustrated that the surviving sister, Jody, is estranged from her incarcerated brother and is unwilling to assist him fully in making the case that his murders were the act of a "battered victim". But worse, it causes her to miss the big story of the aftermath of the murders, which is one of rescue and escape of Jody, due in part to her own extraordinary strengths, plus the help from a "father figure". Father's are not agents of good, in the world of Harrison, so this part of the story is distorted and lost in this book.
Following the murder Jody finds her way to the local Medford Legal Services office, where she receives what she has desperately needed her whole life: competent and caring adults who are working to protect and nurture her and who serve her interests, legal and personal. Jody and her two siblings (the murderer-brother and a younger sister who was murdered along with the parents) had been failed by everyone up until then: the child protective departments, the schools, the absent grandparents, and most especially by the abusive parents. She was on the verge of becoming a victim once again, this time of the legal system and the murderer's defense team which might have attempted to make Jody somehow a partner, or at least cheerleader, in crime, to attempt to show the murders to be justified.
Legal Services director Thad Guyer protected Jody from this. He also became an informal guardian for Jody. This blinds Harrison from seeing this story as one of a young girl's rescue (Thad's providing her with a safe home, his legal help to her, his leading her to his alma mater Georgetown and her launch into a very successful adulthood). Instead, Harrison expresses dark fears about Guyer. After all, Guyer was a father figure and therefore (in the Harrison world view) a danger. She resents his competent protection and defense of Jody's legal interests. Harrison seems happy that Jody survived and thrived, but she hates the fact that Jody needed a temporary father to do it.
Kathryn Harrison is exactly the right person to write this book. August 4, 2008
Here's an understatement: The Gilleys were a troubled family. Linda Gilley was a depressed, overly religious woman who loved declaring punishment for her three children. Her husband, Bill Gilley, Sr., was only too happy to administer it on his wife's behalf. That way, it was no one's fault. Linda never watched Bill punish the children so she had no way of knowing how bad it could get, and it was never Bill's idea to abuse the children; he was only following his wife's instructions.
Their oldest child, Billy, was a sponge for trouble and pain. A chronic liar and manipulator, he was always in trouble at school, suffering from an undiagnosed learning disability. The Gilleys didn't really need a reason to beat Billy, which they did, severely, several times a week. They found a house with a barn where Bill could lash Billy to a tractor tire so he couldn't squirm so much. After 18 years as the family punching bag, Billy fought back. One night he beat his parents to death with a baseball bat, also killing his youngest sister, 11-year-old Becky, when she got in his way.
However, it's the middle child, Jody, who draws Kathryn Harrison's attention. Against all odds, Jody is a survivor. A college-educated professional today, Jody survived her terrible parents' idea of discipline and her brother's idealization, which was nearly as dangerous. Billy loved Jody and wanted to marry her, although Billy now denies the implicit incest. After Jody and Billy were orphaned, he went to jail and she endured all the speculation that she had to have known what he was going to do, maybe even helped him. How did Jody survive? How did she shake off dysfunction and tragedy to become a woman no one would suspect of carrying around such a tragic history?
The author draws her narrative from interviews with both Jody and Billy, as well as discussions with friends, police and social workers. It's fascinating to compare Jody's memories with Billy's. Unsurprisingly, they do not have a relationship today, and working through their experiences on their own has solidified their differences. In addition to denying he ever had sexual intentions toward Jody, Billy also claims that Jody suggested killing their parents and knew he was going to do it. Along with a reputation for dishonesty well documented by numerous teachers and social workers, Billy has a motive to lie. His crimes seem a little less horrible if he can picture himself as a white knight, rescuing his complicit sister from a lifetime of abuse with only the purest of intentions.
The Gilleys receive nuanced, thoughtful descriptions. Bill is violent and unfaithful, a lazy, alcoholic sadist with virtually no redeeming characteristics, but the plight of his own childhood gives him another dimension. Little Becky is an innocent victim but was so like their mother, you can see why Billy couldn't stop himself from killing her as well. Jody is brave and intelligent, but there's something about her lack of affect that people can't quite credit to shock alone.
Kathryn Harrison is exactly the right person to write this book. She understands that in some people's lives, there is a moment after which things will never be the same. Readers of WHILE THEY SLEPT should also pick up Harrison's memoir, THE KISS, to fully understand why Jody trusts Harrison to tell her story.
--- Reviewed by Colleen Quinn
In Cold Blood Again July 28, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Kathryn Harrison's new book describes the murders of the Gilley Family in Oregon, by Billy Gilley, the oldest child of Linda and Bill Gilley. The book is written in a very readable style, and while not as sophisticated as "In Cold Blood" by Truman Capote, its style and format is reminiscent of that book. The facts of the case are very much a matter of public record, in that Billy Gilley murdered both his parents and his younger sister, Becky, with an aluminum baseball bat.
Billy was very much an abused child, both physically and even more so, emotionally & psychologically. Linda, his mother, used her husband to be the physical abuser of Billy for any whimsical reason. Some of Billy's transgressions deserved punishment, but not the type of punishment he received at the hands of his parents.
Harrison does a complete and intriguing job of describing the murders and the circumstances that seem to have led up to this manner of release by Billy in order to gain his freedom from his abusive parents. The only other survivor of the family was his sister Jody, who was seriously traumatized by the events, but who eventually overcame the serious horror of the incident. She went to Georgetown University and became involved deeply in associations and agencies that help children who are captives of abusive and inept parents.
The book is highly recommended to readers who have an interest in why people commit such acts of parricide and what may be the causes and motivations that drive them to commit these acts. Readers will find the book reads quickly and interestingly and gives great insight through the eyes of Harrison as to how such an event could come about. It is seriously recommended as fine reading material and highly instructive with respect to abuse and its most ultimate outcome.
Defined by a horrible event July 21, 2008
Kathryn Harrison has done a thorough and insightful job of understanding and relating Jody's story without bringing too much baggage with her. She gets dangerously close to the brother who caused the devastation that split Jody's life into a "before" and an "after." This is a compelling survivor story with more depth than your typical true-crime chronicle.
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