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A Not So Well-Written Tale of Family Murder and the Aftermath
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I'd seen this story on a Dateline episode recently and I was intrigued.
As I recalled, before I began reading the book, the Dateline story told the tale of Gary Edwards and just the quick description perked my True-Crime loving ears.
The Edwards family had embarked upon a trip around the world on a boat built by Loren Edwards, father of the author, Larry Edwards, and his brother, Gary. Loren, a somewhat skilled boatsman, was allegedly smacked unconscious and eventually to death by a sailboat boom. His wife, Joanne Edwards, was so despondent that she allegedly took the boat's gun and shot herself in the head. She did not survive.
Right there I was stopped cold and this was just the Dateline story. The wife was so despondent that her husband lay dead due to a runaway sail boom and in her despair she shoots herself out on the high seas?
Also on this boat trip were a family friend and Kerry Edwards, daughter of Loren and Joanne Edwards. Joanne Edwards was stepmother to Gary and Larry. Also on board was Joanne's daughter by her first marriage, Bobbie.
Man, I thought MY family was dysfunctional. At least no one ever murdered anybody so ruthlessly. While Gary told the tale of the runaway sail boom and the dead mother, sister Kerry suffered a massive concussion but did survive.
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Gary, it would seem, murdered his father and his stepmother and somehow cold-cocked his half sister to the point of a concussion.
What a great guy.
Plenty of law authorities questioned Gary Edwards and rightfully so. His story is full of holes.
Stepsister Bobbie did not see a thing and half-sister Kerry had that concussion. Brother Larry, the author, bugged out of the trip at the last minute.
Gary and Larry might be brothers, but they don't get along very well it would seem.
The book is a story written by Larry, supposedly a writer but I thought his writing was...well not so much.
Of course the guy is writing a story about his family. He had a couple of major points as focus to his story and in order to get the book big enough to be called an actual book, he stretched out a few storylines to the point of exasperation.
One was the "secret" kept by half-sister Kerry of the major concussion. In an honored writerly attempt to keep the reader in suspense, Edwards carried over the notion of Kerry's secret, hinting that it will be eventually revealed.
Well it was odd as all get out. If Gary Edwards wanted to kill his entire family, why would he just give his half-sister a concussion when he'd already killed his father with some kind of fake boom and shot his stepmother in the head.
One would guess the motive to be inheritance of the Edwards family estate. So why would he leave his half-sister alive as she was already injured. Gary steered the boat to safety, supposedly, and struggled to keep his half-sister alive with the struggle.
It was a strange story on Dateline. The Dateline ending asserted that Gary Edwards removed himself from inheriting any of his father's money. This was supposed to take suspicion off of him, so was the logic. I remember scratching my head during the Dateline show and wondering, goodness, he only removed himself from the family finance pool to get the pressure off of him.
Gary Edwards explores this story in more detail but he never much delivers the goods. Kerry wouldn't reveal a supposed secret she knew about that trip and by the end of this book she revealed nothing.
It's kind of a fake tease for an author to promise something he doesn't deliver.
It is an intriguing True Crime. I don't believe for a second Gary Edwards' story of what happened on that boat. I might believe a swinging sail boom could mortally injure a man but the notion that his despondent wife would shoot herself in the head out on the ocean just doesn't ring true.
No one else believes Larry Edwards though he has yet to have been brought to trial.
I'm not convinced that Larry Edwards did this story much justice.
Stick to watching it on Dateline.
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