To friends and neighbours, Theresa Knorr was a devoted, loving mother struggling to bring up five children on her own. Little did they know that, behind closed doors, the same woman was driven by religious extremism, terrible paranoia and an all-consuming jealousy of her daughters’ beauty that led to one of the worst cases of serial abuse in history. For years Theresa subjected her offspring to a barbaric variety of physical and mental torture, culminating in her ordering her two sons to drug, torture and then burn alive one of their sisters before starving another to death. Terrified that she would be next, a third sister had to take action. When the police found her story too far-fetched, she was left with no choice but to escape the house of horrors and fight for justice. It was years before the full, shocking truth came out. This is the true story of a family unit twisted out of all recognition by a mother who perpetrated the most evil of crimes.
Over de auteur
WENSLEY CLARKSON has investigated numerous crimes across the world for the past thirty years. His research has included prison visits, surveillance operations, police raids and even post mortems. Clarkson’s books – published in more than thirty countries – have sold more than two million copies. He has made numerous documentaries in the UK, US, Australia and Spain and written TV and movie screenplays. His most recent major TV project is Florida-based drama series Boca Grande which he created, developed and wrote with BAFTA award-winning Peaky Blinders director David Caffrey. Clarkson’s recent book Sexy Beasts – about the Hatton Garden raid – was nominated for a Crime Writer’s Association Dagger award.