The Doomsday Mother by John Glatt

 

Some people should never meet.  Two of those include Lori Vallow and Chad Daybell.  Lori was an attractive woman who was on her fourth marriage.  She had three children, a son and daughter by her third husband and an adopted son with her fourth husband, a millionaire named Charles Vallow.  Charles also had two biological sons from a prior marriage who spent summers and holidays with the couple.  Chad Daybell had made a name for himself as an author and publisher specializing in Mormon literature.  He held conferences where he was the keynote speaker and had a following for his teachings and prophecies about the end times that he saw coming.  He had married his childhood sweetheart, Tammy, and they had five children.

Both Chad and Lori were members of the Church of Latter Day Saints.  Both were interested in radical prophecies.  And once they met each other, each was interested in the other and saw themselves as slated to be together.  Before they managed to make that vision come true with their marriage, death surrounded them.  Both Lori's husband and Chad's wife were murdered as was her two children, Tylee from her fourth marriage and JJ, the son that she and Charles had adopted.  Lori's brother was also dead from natural causes and he was suspected of doing most of the murders to protect his sister.  He had gone to jail for tasering her third husband who Lori had accused of being a pedophile.  He shot Charles Vallow and claimed self-defense and is suspected of killing both of Lori's children.

The trials of this couple are still ongoing.  Lori has already been convicted of conspiracy in the deaths of her children and sentenced to life in prison without parole.  Chad's trial is upcoming for six charges of murder conspiracy.  Many are convinced that Lori fell under Chad's spell and would never had done the crimes she did without being convinced that the end of the world was coming and that her children were possessed and could only be cleansed by killing them.  Regardless of whether that is true, what is true is that if this couple had never met, at least four people would probably be alive.  

John Glatt was born in London and moved to the United States after working on newspapers there.  He is known for his books about true crime and his five biographies.  In addition to this book, he has written about the murders of Alex Murdaugh in South Carolina and Chris Watts, a family annihilator.  This work clearly lays out the early lives of both of the couple and establishes a timeline of the crimes that are so hard to believe.  I listened to this book and the narrator read in a direct, no nonsense, lay out the facts tone.  This book is recommended for true crime readers.