Mom Said Kill

Mother. Caretaker. Murderous monster—by the Edgar Award–winning “Elmore Leonard of true crime” (Tod Goldberg, New York Times–bestselling author).   Jerry Heimann, of Everett, Washington, had been diagnosed with terminal cancer when he hired Barbara Marie Opel as a live-in housekeeper and health-care provider for his mother, an Alzheimer’s patient. Also entrusted with his finances, Opel’s real interests were in Heimann’s bank account. So she hatched a plan to get it by paying two local teens and her own three children to take care of Heimann.   On April 13, 2001, they ambushed the unsuspecting man with bare fists, kitchen knives, and baseball bats. Seven-year-old Tiffany was enlisted to clean up the blood. Eight days later, Barbara’s eleven-year-old son gave up mommy’s secret, and led police to Heimann’s shallow grave.   This is the horrifying story of how a mother turned her children and their friends into stone-cold killers—and then rewarded them for their crime.   “Burl Barer writes true crime at its best.” —Jack Olsen