A Special Kind of Evil
A Special Kind of Evil by father-daughter true crime authors Blaine Pardoe and Victoria Hester is the chilling account of the Colonial Parkway Murders. These murders took place during a 3 year span in the late 80s, and then stopped just as suddenly as they had started. Four couples were senselessly murdered in the dark of the night, their vehicles left abandoned in various locations from the Colonial Parkway to a rest area on the interstate with little clues as to what happened. All but one of the couples bodies were eventually found, yet the elusive killer still left little to no evidence for law enforcement to work with, and to this day has yet to be identified.
I'm a local who grew up hearing about the Colonial Parkway murders, so I was really excited to order this book and find out more about what happened. I've heard pretty much all of the theories about who the killer might be and have watched countless documentaries on the murders, but there was still much I didn't know about the cases. I liked that this book is basically divided into sections detailing not only the facts of each case, but most importantly who the victims were. The victims are often referred to by last name only, or even just by murder number, but it's important to remember that these were living, breathing people with individual personalities. They had families who love and still fight for them so many years later, and this work definitely offers a great glimpse into who the victims were before the senseless murders that would forever alter everything. It was pretty emotional reading about the victims; they were all so young - from 14 to 27 - and so full of potential. The book talks about what schools they attended, where they lived, and where they worked, and it was a bit surreal because I know about most of those places. I was born shortly after these murders began taking place, but I felt this weird connection to the victims through these familiar places. One of the victims even lived in the same neighborhood as a friend of mine.
Again, having heard almost all of the theories about who the murderer could be, I was impressed that this work not only explored those theories, but debunked a few of them. I remember watching a documentary where some psychics went around to the crime scenes and speculated who the killer(s) could be, and they both said someone in uniform - be it law enforcement, an impostor, or a military guy from one of the nearby bases. I always wondered if it was a military guy because the murders stopped after a four year period, about the time of an enlistment, but this work points out that whoever did it had to have known the area pretty well. It's pretty scary to think that this murderer could be a neighbor, or that maybe somewhere my path has crossed with his. This book also brought up the interesting point that there may have been two murderers; again, pretty scary stuff.
Overall, I thought this book did a wonderful job of respecting the victims while detailing the crimes. I loved that not only were the victims remembered for the people they were and not just for the senseless way they died, but that at the end of the work their friends and family were able to say a little something about each person. I can't even imagine the pain and and heartache that was so cruelly bestowed upon the families and friends of the victims. Not only did they lose a loved one, but the killer(s) have never been brought to justice, and in the case of two of the victims, their bodies have never been recovered. These murders certainly cast a dark shadow on the area, and to this day the Colonial Parkway has a sinister edge to those who know what happened there. I'll definitely never drive it alone, especially at night. This was an engrossing and informative read, and I'd highly recommend it.
I'm a local who grew up hearing about the Colonial Parkway murders, so I was really excited to order this book and find out more about what happened. I've heard pretty much all of the theories about who the killer might be and have watched countless documentaries on the murders, but there was still much I didn't know about the cases. I liked that this book is basically divided into sections detailing not only the facts of each case, but most importantly who the victims were. The victims are often referred to by last name only, or even just by murder number, but it's important to remember that these were living, breathing people with individual personalities. They had families who love and still fight for them so many years later, and this work definitely offers a great glimpse into who the victims were before the senseless murders that would forever alter everything. It was pretty emotional reading about the victims; they were all so young - from 14 to 27 - and so full of potential. The book talks about what schools they attended, where they lived, and where they worked, and it was a bit surreal because I know about most of those places. I was born shortly after these murders began taking place, but I felt this weird connection to the victims through these familiar places. One of the victims even lived in the same neighborhood as a friend of mine.
Again, having heard almost all of the theories about who the murderer could be, I was impressed that this work not only explored those theories, but debunked a few of them. I remember watching a documentary where some psychics went around to the crime scenes and speculated who the killer(s) could be, and they both said someone in uniform - be it law enforcement, an impostor, or a military guy from one of the nearby bases. I always wondered if it was a military guy because the murders stopped after a four year period, about the time of an enlistment, but this work points out that whoever did it had to have known the area pretty well. It's pretty scary to think that this murderer could be a neighbor, or that maybe somewhere my path has crossed with his. This book also brought up the interesting point that there may have been two murderers; again, pretty scary stuff.
Overall, I thought this book did a wonderful job of respecting the victims while detailing the crimes. I loved that not only were the victims remembered for the people they were and not just for the senseless way they died, but that at the end of the work their friends and family were able to say a little something about each person. I can't even imagine the pain and and heartache that was so cruelly bestowed upon the families and friends of the victims. Not only did they lose a loved one, but the killer(s) have never been brought to justice, and in the case of two of the victims, their bodies have never been recovered. These murders certainly cast a dark shadow on the area, and to this day the Colonial Parkway has a sinister edge to those who know what happened there. I'll definitely never drive it alone, especially at night. This was an engrossing and informative read, and I'd highly recommend it.
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