The Darkest Night: Two Sisters, a Brutal Murder, and the Loss of Innocence in a Small Town

Written by Ron Franscell

Narrated by Rob Shapiro

Casper, Wyoming: 1973. Eleven-year-old Amy Burridge rides with her eighteen-year-old sister, Becky, to the grocery store. When they finish their shopping, Becky's car gets a flat tire. Two men politely offer them a ride home. But they were anything but good Samaritans. The girls would suffer unspeakable crimes at the hands of these men before being thrown from a bridge into the North Platte River. One miraculously survived; the other did not.



Years later, author and journalist Ron Franscell—a childhood friend and next-door neighbor to the girls—can't forget his hometown's shocking story of abduction, rape, and murder. Exploring the nature of a small town's memory and the poison of survivor guilt, The Darkest Night races toward a shocking ending. The result is one of the most provocative true-crime stories of the decade, told by one of the nation's finest narrative journalists.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Tantor Media, Inc
• Release date: May 26, 2015
• ISBN: 9781494582258

Ron Franscell

Ron Franscell is a journalist whose work regularly appears in publications such as the Washington Post, Chicago Sun-Times, San Francisco Chronicle, Denver Post, San Jose Mercury-News, St. Louis Post-Dispatch, and Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel. He is also a novelist, whose books include Angel Fire and The Deadline. He grew up in Wyoming and currently lives in Texas.

Reviews for The Darkest Night

[Tom Denney · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Very very good. Very tragic story. Told incredibly well.

[Steve Marshall · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This book is very well written and will keep you on the edge of your seat. It’s a sad story that is uniquely told by the author with a personal connection to the case.

[Helena Souza · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Chapter nine and tem were completely unecessary and dragged on. Other than that, it's a good reading, very well written

[Doran A wade II · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I live in casper and had never heard the story of these two unfortunate girls. I can tell you the details, history, and landmarks about casper are all very real. I almost got frustrated and stopped listening when the author began summarizing the killers manifesto, because I don’t feel he deserves that kind of notoriety, but after the summery the author analyzes his story and puts the manifesto into perspective. This book is very well written and gripping, I would recommend it to any true crime fan that does not become triggered by details of murder, rape, and violence.