What do you think?
Rate this book
Small Sacrifices
Ann Rule's shocking and powerful account of the destructive forces that drove Diane Downs, a beautiful young mother, to shoot her three young children in cold blood.
496 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published January 1, 1987
About the author
Ann Rule
102 books4,210 followersAnn Rule was a popular American true crime writer. Raised in a law enforcement and criminal justice system environment, she grew up wanting to work in law enforcement herself. She was a former Seattle Policewoman and was well educated in psychology and criminology.
She came to prominence with her first book, The Stranger Beside Me, about the Ted Bundy murders. At the time she started researching the book, the murders were still unsolved. In the course of time, it became clear that the killer was Bundy, her friend and her colleague as a trained volunteer on the suicide hotline at the Seattle, Washington Crisis Clinic, giving her a unique distinction among true crime writers.
Rule won two Anthony Awards from Bouchercon, the mystery fans' organization. She was nominated three times for the Edgar Awards from the Mystery Writers of America. She is highly regarded for creating the true crime genre as it exists today.
Ann Rule also wrote under the name Andy Stack . Her daughter is Goodreads author Leslie Rule.
She came to prominence with her first book, The Stranger Beside Me, about the Ted Bundy murders. At the time she started researching the book, the murders were still unsolved. In the course of time, it became clear that the killer was Bundy, her friend and her colleague as a trained volunteer on the suicide hotline at the Seattle, Washington Crisis Clinic, giving her a unique distinction among true crime writers.
Rule won two Anthony Awards from Bouchercon, the mystery fans' organization. She was nominated three times for the Edgar Awards from the Mystery Writers of America. She is highly regarded for creating the true crime genre as it exists today.
Ann Rule also wrote under the name Andy Stack . Her daughter is Goodreads author Leslie Rule.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 30 of 1,118 reviews
March 17, 2020
This is a book you wish was fiction instead of true crime of a sociopathic mother. This woman always wanted to be loved by men she couldn't have yet was relentless in her pursuit of one married man. I don't want to say too much
and spoil the story. This is a fascinating story of a Narcissus and a calculated killer who committed the ultimate vicious heartbreaking crimes, hence the name Small Sacrifices! This book is very comprehensive in all the events in
Diane Downs life and covers the trial and everything before and after the trial. Be forewarned this is a very true story and is so heartbreaking but the author writes in a style where you want to stop reading yet you're compelled to continue on because you need to know more about this monster and Anne Rule will give you all the answers and more. In the end you still have one question. How could she really do these things? Why? Why? Why?
and spoil the story. This is a fascinating story of a Narcissus and a calculated killer who committed the ultimate vicious heartbreaking crimes, hence the name Small Sacrifices! This book is very comprehensive in all the events in
Diane Downs life and covers the trial and everything before and after the trial. Be forewarned this is a very true story and is so heartbreaking but the author writes in a style where you want to stop reading yet you're compelled to continue on because you need to know more about this monster and Anne Rule will give you all the answers and more. In the end you still have one question. How could she really do these things? Why? Why? Why?
July 15, 2010
This is one of the best books from Ann Rule's best stretch of writing, from the late 1970s to the early 1990s. "Small Sacrifices" is leaner, fairer and more balanced than Rule's bloated, often slanted later works in which saccharine philosophizing pushes its way into the narratives.
The irony is that a lot of people — mostly Diane Downs supporters, who, nearly three decades later are still legion — will be happy to tell you that "Small Sacrifices" is one of her most biased works. That's because Rule presents the facts through the lens of the law-and-justice professionals, and Downs' bizarre deeds and behavior simply don't represent in the harsh light of revelation. Downs, the drifter on an obsessive perpetual quest for "perfect" love, depends on smoke and mirrors to sidle her way from one drama to the next, using sociopathic cunning and a sadistic willingness to sacrifice anything and anyone to get what she wants. Including, as we see in one horrifying but skillfully rendered passage, her children.
"Small Sacrifices" is a book from when Rule was still hungry, still on the ascendancy of her career, still with something to prove to the world. And she proves it, with strong storytelling supported by an equally strong factual foundation. As always with Rule, one wishes she was able to fill in the occasional narrative gaps with more interviews with the story's principals. But her attempts — and ultimate failures — to get Diane Downs' story from Downs' own mouth are well-documented, so this is one case in which Rule's failure to get the perspective of the person at the center of the story can't be faulted. In later books, plenty of fault can be found.
This is a first-rate true crime book — a near-perfect combination of a worthy subject, a talented and hard-working writer on the rise, an intriguing setting and a crackerjack game of cat-and-mouse between the bad girl and the good guys. And most of all, there are heroes to root for — and Rule makes us aware of their quiet heroism without shoving their saintliness down our throats.
I don't read many true-crime books over and over, but "Small Sacrifices" is in that rotation. It's worth that kind of time, if only to remember what a monster Diane Downs truly is — and how she's hardly the only one of her kind. And how the survivors are still living in the long shadow she's cast over their world for 27 years now.
The irony is that a lot of people — mostly Diane Downs supporters, who, nearly three decades later are still legion — will be happy to tell you that "Small Sacrifices" is one of her most biased works. That's because Rule presents the facts through the lens of the law-and-justice professionals, and Downs' bizarre deeds and behavior simply don't represent in the harsh light of revelation. Downs, the drifter on an obsessive perpetual quest for "perfect" love, depends on smoke and mirrors to sidle her way from one drama to the next, using sociopathic cunning and a sadistic willingness to sacrifice anything and anyone to get what she wants. Including, as we see in one horrifying but skillfully rendered passage, her children.
"Small Sacrifices" is a book from when Rule was still hungry, still on the ascendancy of her career, still with something to prove to the world. And she proves it, with strong storytelling supported by an equally strong factual foundation. As always with Rule, one wishes she was able to fill in the occasional narrative gaps with more interviews with the story's principals. But her attempts — and ultimate failures — to get Diane Downs' story from Downs' own mouth are well-documented, so this is one case in which Rule's failure to get the perspective of the person at the center of the story can't be faulted. In later books, plenty of fault can be found.
This is a first-rate true crime book — a near-perfect combination of a worthy subject, a talented and hard-working writer on the rise, an intriguing setting and a crackerjack game of cat-and-mouse between the bad girl and the good guys. And most of all, there are heroes to root for — and Rule makes us aware of their quiet heroism without shoving their saintliness down our throats.
I don't read many true-crime books over and over, but "Small Sacrifices" is in that rotation. It's worth that kind of time, if only to remember what a monster Diane Downs truly is — and how she's hardly the only one of her kind. And how the survivors are still living in the long shadow she's cast over their world for 27 years now.
January 19, 2022
Diane Downs, divorced mother of three, started an affair with a fellow employee. She dreamed of a life together. Small catch though, he doesn't want children, which sets the stage for a horrific scene. One night while driving home a "bushy haired" stranger shoots into her car killing one child, crippling another, and leaving the last barely alive. As the police race to find the culprit, they discover things are not as they seem. Did a mother commit the ultimate betrayal? Ann Rule, as usual, did a wonderful job.
September 5, 2010
I saw a special on Diane Downs and her daughter Becky Babcock on an episode of 20/20 a couple weeks ago. The story was horrific but intriging to me. In the episode they talked about how this woman, Diane, had shot her 3 children, killing 1 of them and injuring the other 2. She blamed everything on a "bushy haired stranger" who shot the kids, but she was still found GUILTY in her long trial. Before she got arrested she became pregnant with Becky (who was originally named Amy) and the 20/20 episode focused on her and how she is coping with knowing that she biologically has a "monster for a mother."
In the episode they talked a lot about and showed clips of a book and a movie called Small Sacrifices. I immediately wanted to read the book and see the movie. I found the movie on youtube.com and watched the whole thing. I also went out and purchased this book. It is a very scary thing to think that you aren't just reading a book...that this was a true story but the book was excellent. I encourage anyone who is interested in this case or just would like a good murder mystery (even though it is a true story) to read this book.
In the episode they talked a lot about and showed clips of a book and a movie called Small Sacrifices. I immediately wanted to read the book and see the movie. I found the movie on youtube.com and watched the whole thing. I also went out and purchased this book. It is a very scary thing to think that you aren't just reading a book...that this was a true story but the book was excellent. I encourage anyone who is interested in this case or just would like a good murder mystery (even though it is a true story) to read this book.
April 15, 2022
4.5 stars. A fantastic true crime read!
January 27, 2019
4.5 Stars
Diane Downs is one of the most horrifying murderers I've ever read about. Not only was her crime heinous but add to that her total lack of conscious. Diane Downs is a truly evil "human being".
On the night of May 19 1983 a woman drives to the hospital emergency room, screaming that she had been attacked by a "Shaggy haired man". The woman was suffering from a gunshot wound to the arm but the nursing staff also noticed that in the car lay 2 critically injured children. A little girl and a boy a toddler who appeared to have been shot, both were in bad shape. Rushing to try to save them the mother informs them that she has 3 kids and they go back to the car and find another little girl Cheryl 7 years old is unfortunately already dead.
And so begins a wild tale of murder, sexual abuse, and mental health. Diane Downs a 28 year old mother shot her 3 kids point blank killing one, paralysing another, and leaving the third with life long injuries. Diane Downs is one of the scariest types of killer, because she's smart, attractive and incapable of understanding the feelings of others. Diane Downs killed her kids because she was sick them and wanted to start over. The prosecution said she did for a man, but I don't think the man mattered that much he was just a means to a end. Her children weren't people to her, they were simply more like toys and like a child once she got bored with her toys she got rid of them.
Ann Rule does a great job of trying to get us to understand what makes Diane tick without building sympathy for her. Diane Downs was diagnosed as having Anti-Social Personality Disorder, Histrionic Personality Disorder and Narcissistic Personality Disorder. I'd never heard of the last two but apparently Diane's diagnosis is a scary combo.
Small Sacrifices is a grisly un-putdownable tale of pure evil. I've heard there's a tv movie based on this case from the 80's and man I wanna see it.
A must read!
Diane Downs is one of the most horrifying murderers I've ever read about. Not only was her crime heinous but add to that her total lack of conscious. Diane Downs is a truly evil "human being".
On the night of May 19 1983 a woman drives to the hospital emergency room, screaming that she had been attacked by a "Shaggy haired man". The woman was suffering from a gunshot wound to the arm but the nursing staff also noticed that in the car lay 2 critically injured children. A little girl and a boy a toddler who appeared to have been shot, both were in bad shape. Rushing to try to save them the mother informs them that she has 3 kids and they go back to the car and find another little girl Cheryl 7 years old is unfortunately already dead.
And so begins a wild tale of murder, sexual abuse, and mental health. Diane Downs a 28 year old mother shot her 3 kids point blank killing one, paralysing another, and leaving the third with life long injuries. Diane Downs is one of the scariest types of killer, because she's smart, attractive and incapable of understanding the feelings of others. Diane Downs killed her kids because she was sick them and wanted to start over. The prosecution said she did for a man, but I don't think the man mattered that much he was just a means to a end. Her children weren't people to her, they were simply more like toys and like a child once she got bored with her toys she got rid of them.
Ann Rule does a great job of trying to get us to understand what makes Diane tick without building sympathy for her. Diane Downs was diagnosed as having Anti-Social Personality Disorder, Histrionic Personality Disorder and Narcissistic Personality Disorder. I'd never heard of the last two but apparently Diane's diagnosis is a scary combo.
Small Sacrifices is a grisly un-putdownable tale of pure evil. I've heard there's a tv movie based on this case from the 80's and man I wanna see it.
A must read!
January 9, 2014
Feels weird to rate a true crime book about a woman who tried to murder her three kids with a "I really liked it". But I was very interested in the story and thought it well written and very balanced between the legal side and the emotional side. As someone who likes to learn about the human psych this was hard to put down. Not sure if there is a more diverse, strange person to study then Diane Downs. This lady is nuts! And even so, even so I could not help the tiny voice in the back of my mind asking what if she did not do it? I think that is a testament at how fairly written this book is. The author makes no secret that she believes Downs did the crime but she lays all the evidence in front of us as if we are the jurors and I liked that. Even with that tiny voice that still won't be quiet I believe she did indeed shoot her kids and made up a horrible story to cover it up. I think that she probably now even believes the lies she has told for so many years. Cannot believe something so horrible could happen, but things like this happen every single day. My heart goes out to the kids that survived and hope they were somehow able to lead happy, normal lives.
September 27, 2010
I remember watching the tv version of Small Sacrifices in the 1980's. There's a scene of Diane Downs (played by Farrah Fawcett's hair) where she's driving the kids to the middle of nowhere for less witnesses (preferably none alive, anyway) to their impending murder. The twin and I loved to panic and yell "This isn't the way home!" whenever in the car with our mom (she loved it), and other such fun scenes from the film. (There's a darker side to that story in that mom whined faaar too much for my comfort about four kids ruining dating chances. "You are rapidly approaching Diane Downs territory again!" "Shut-up." Joking aside, it felt rotten.)
I had a true crime phase in middle school, thanks to my mother. I couldn't possibly remember what all of them are or I'd add (and rate) 'em to goodreads. She'd recommend them and then I'd read so we could have cozy discussions about murder and the nature of nutjobs like Diane Downs. I personally think it was more interesting to talk about than to read in the case of Ann Rule's book. I'm not much for ripped-from-the-headlines so much as interested in the emotional basket cases like this who can do something that heinous and then preen themselves like some kid trying to get away with something they knew was wrong. (I'm freaked out and depressed that there are women who only care about dating chances, as Downs did.)
I had a true crime phase in middle school, thanks to my mother. I couldn't possibly remember what all of them are or I'd add (and rate) 'em to goodreads. She'd recommend them and then I'd read so we could have cozy discussions about murder and the nature of nutjobs like Diane Downs. I personally think it was more interesting to talk about than to read in the case of Ann Rule's book. I'm not much for ripped-from-the-headlines so much as interested in the emotional basket cases like this who can do something that heinous and then preen themselves like some kid trying to get away with something they knew was wrong. (I'm freaked out and depressed that there are women who only care about dating chances, as Downs did.)
February 17, 2019
That's it... I'm done with Ann Rule. Peace, sister.
I've been in the mood for true crime lately, and I was inspired to pick up Small Sacrifices by my fond memories of Rule's The Stranger Beside Me, which I read in high school. I remember really enjoying that book, but after finishing this one I'm doubting my memories. I am SO disappointed with Small Sacrifices.
For the life of me, I don't understand what Rule saw in Diane Downs that made her want to write a five-hundred-page book about her. Diane shot her three young children, killing one and severely injuring the other two, and the story ends there. Nothing about Diane or her life is interesting enough to fill five hundred pages. About one hundred of those pages is spent on Diane's trial, and it reads like a courtroom transcript. Rule's writing adds nothing to the text, but instead the reader must slog through pages and pages of dialogue, which is boring. This whole book is boring, and I'm angry that I spent so much time reading it. If you want to read about this case, check out the Wikipedia page, but please don't repeat my mistake.
This book makes it very clear that Ann Rule is not a journalist. She tries very hard to be objective in her writing, but any objectivity is at odds with Rule's storytelling. She wants to tell you a story, but the story is often one-sided. This was most apparent in Rule's handling of Diane's childhood. Rule briefly mentions that she corresponded with Diane when she was in prison, and she quotes extensively from these letters. The result is that we only get to hear about Diane's early life in Diane's own voice: pages and pages about poor, poor Diane the victim. And it really seems like Rule didn't do any fact-checking. For example, Diane tells Rule about an incident where her father was abusing her while driving around in their car, and they got pulled over by the police. Diane describes in detail what happened at that traffic stop, and Rule briefly mentions that this story couldn't be corroborated by the officer's report. What? One of the themes in this book is that Diane is highly manipulative: she manipulated virtually everyone in her life, especially her boyfriends. She wrote countless letters and diary entries, which Rule warned us should be taken with a grain of salt: Diane used these writings to manipulate. Having established that, it's absurd for Rule to use Diane's account as conclusive evidence on her early life. Rule doesn't acknowledge that Diane could be manipulating her, but instead uses Diane's prison letters to up the word count in her book. If Diane is as hungry for attention as Rule says she is, doesn't it follow that Diane would happily use a writer to get even more attention? It's true that Rule is a former police woman, not a journalist, but this huge blindspot really turned me off.
There were also a lot of little things here that irked me. Diane lived most of her life in Arizona, so of course Rule describes Arizona and the Phoenix metro area endlessly. As an Arizona resident, I cringed every time Rule described the cacti, scorpions, rattlesnakes, and the heat. Which was hundreds of times. I think she was trying to make Arizona seem like an exotic locale, but it just didn't work, especially since so much of it was just wrong. In one scene, Rule mentions that it's 115 at 7 AM in May. There is just no way it was that hot. It gets to be 115 during the heat of the day in July, not during the mornings in May, when it would be cool and breezy. In another scene, Rule describes the climate: "the pH factor of the desert - acid - had eroded the copper and eaten even into the signature lands and grooves..." This is just false. The Sonoran desert is alkaline, the opposite of acidic. Maybe it's a mistake, but even so, a mistake like that just makes me wonder what else Rule got sloppy on.
Everyone says that this is Rule's best book after The Stranger Beside Me. If that's the case, I won't be reading any more Ann Rule. There are so many excellent true crime books out there that are meticulously researched and engagingly written, and this is just not one of them.
I've been in the mood for true crime lately, and I was inspired to pick up Small Sacrifices by my fond memories of Rule's The Stranger Beside Me, which I read in high school. I remember really enjoying that book, but after finishing this one I'm doubting my memories. I am SO disappointed with Small Sacrifices.
For the life of me, I don't understand what Rule saw in Diane Downs that made her want to write a five-hundred-page book about her. Diane shot her three young children, killing one and severely injuring the other two, and the story ends there. Nothing about Diane or her life is interesting enough to fill five hundred pages. About one hundred of those pages is spent on Diane's trial, and it reads like a courtroom transcript. Rule's writing adds nothing to the text, but instead the reader must slog through pages and pages of dialogue, which is boring. This whole book is boring, and I'm angry that I spent so much time reading it. If you want to read about this case, check out the Wikipedia page, but please don't repeat my mistake.
This book makes it very clear that Ann Rule is not a journalist. She tries very hard to be objective in her writing, but any objectivity is at odds with Rule's storytelling. She wants to tell you a story, but the story is often one-sided. This was most apparent in Rule's handling of Diane's childhood. Rule briefly mentions that she corresponded with Diane when she was in prison, and she quotes extensively from these letters. The result is that we only get to hear about Diane's early life in Diane's own voice: pages and pages about poor, poor Diane the victim. And it really seems like Rule didn't do any fact-checking. For example, Diane tells Rule about an incident where her father was abusing her while driving around in their car, and they got pulled over by the police. Diane describes in detail what happened at that traffic stop, and Rule briefly mentions that this story couldn't be corroborated by the officer's report. What? One of the themes in this book is that Diane is highly manipulative: she manipulated virtually everyone in her life, especially her boyfriends. She wrote countless letters and diary entries, which Rule warned us should be taken with a grain of salt: Diane used these writings to manipulate. Having established that, it's absurd for Rule to use Diane's account as conclusive evidence on her early life. Rule doesn't acknowledge that Diane could be manipulating her, but instead uses Diane's prison letters to up the word count in her book. If Diane is as hungry for attention as Rule says she is, doesn't it follow that Diane would happily use a writer to get even more attention? It's true that Rule is a former police woman, not a journalist, but this huge blindspot really turned me off.
There were also a lot of little things here that irked me. Diane lived most of her life in Arizona, so of course Rule describes Arizona and the Phoenix metro area endlessly. As an Arizona resident, I cringed every time Rule described the cacti, scorpions, rattlesnakes, and the heat. Which was hundreds of times. I think she was trying to make Arizona seem like an exotic locale, but it just didn't work, especially since so much of it was just wrong. In one scene, Rule mentions that it's 115 at 7 AM in May. There is just no way it was that hot. It gets to be 115 during the heat of the day in July, not during the mornings in May, when it would be cool and breezy. In another scene, Rule describes the climate: "the pH factor of the desert - acid - had eroded the copper and eaten even into the signature lands and grooves..." This is just false. The Sonoran desert is alkaline, the opposite of acidic. Maybe it's a mistake, but even so, a mistake like that just makes me wonder what else Rule got sloppy on.
Everyone says that this is Rule's best book after The Stranger Beside Me. If that's the case, I won't be reading any more Ann Rule. There are so many excellent true crime books out there that are meticulously researched and engagingly written, and this is just not one of them.
May 20, 2017
Ann Rule wrote mediocre books, good books, and excellent books. This is one of the excellent ones.
It makes an interesting companion to The Stranger Beside Me; Diane Downs is strongly reminiscent of Ted Bundy, even down to the chameleon quality they share; just as with Bundy, any two photographs of Diane Downs might, on a casual glance, seem to be of two completely different people. And, of course, like Bundy, Downs is a sociopath.
(There are a lot of different words to describe people like Bundy and Downs. "Evil" is one. "Antisocial personality disorder," "psychopath," and "narcissist" are others. Downs isn't quite the same sort of sociopath as Bundy; he was, as he himself admitted, addicted to murder, and in a particularly sexual way. Downs simply doesn't care whether, in removing obstacles to her goals, she kills people.)
It's not 100% clear why Downs shot her three children, killing one daughter, very nearly killing the other, and paralyzing her son. The prosecution's best theory was that she thought that, if her children were dead, the object of her sexual obsession would agree to divorce his wife and marry her. Downs herself pointed out that the man, who had been her lover and who she was riding the ragged edge of stalking, was a man who hated fuss and bother, and the attack on her children created a huge dramatic fuss that he was (in point of fact) repelled by.
Downs also has, in the language of the DSM-III, a Histrionic Personality Disorder (to go with Narcissistic and Antisocial), meaning basically that she needs always to be the center of attention and creates drama around herself to ensure that that stays true. My guess, after reading this book, is:
(1) Her children, as they grew older, were becoming less and less the pure sources of unconditional love that she craved (I think it's significant that the child she shot first, the child she made sure was dead, was Cheryl, her least favorite child, her whipping-boy child--dead Cheryl complied with her mother's fantasies much more satisfactorily than living Cheryl had ever been able to; it's also telling that she insisted that her son would be able to walk again through the power of her love--if she was just given access to him--as if she could take away her actions with "love").
(2) As the prosecutor at her trial pointed out, in her head, children were fungible: interchangeable parts. She aborted one baby, but balanced that out with the child she bore as a surrogate mother; she killed Cheryl, but balanced that with the child she got pregnant with just before she was arrested, whom she was planning to name Charity Lynn until her conviction for Cheryl Lynn's murder convinced her that was a bad idea. (She named the baby Amy Elizabeth; the child was adopted, named Rebecca Babcock, and made a lot of headlines in 2010 with the story of how she discovered just who her biological mother was). Just like Downs thought she could cure her son's paralysis with "love," loving the baby in her uterus somehow was supposed to wipe out the anti-loving destruction of the previous child.*
(3) Because she was a sociopath and didn't fully understand how other people's emotions worked, she did think that, without the children, she might be able to get her stalkee back.
(4) She saw a chance to be the ultimate center of attention, to be the Heroic Young Mother and the Grief-Stricken Parent at the same time, sort of like cashing all your Munchausen's by Proxy chips in at once.
Most of her reasons were bad reasons, but that doesn't mean they weren't her motive.
The other reason to compare Small Sacrifices and The Stranger Beside Me is Rule's attitude toward her subject. When she wrote TSBM, she didn't understand what being a sociopath meant (she says so herself in one of the innumerable afterwords, forewords, and updates that surround the main text in the 2009 paperback); she thought Bundy was mentally ill, which he was not. Sociopaths are sane by both legal and medical definitions; they understand perfectly that what they're doing is breaking the law and going against societal codes, but that just makes them enjoy it more. They completely lack any internalization of societal codes, just as they completely lack empathy, the ability to comprehend another person's feelings as you comprehend your own. A commenter on my review of The Gates of Janus: Serial Killing and Its Analysis left a link to this blogpost about psychopaths and rules (remember that "psychopath" and "sociopath" are words for the same condition; I prefer "sociopath," because "psychopath" leads by connotation and popular usage to Psycho , which is just unhelpful). That study is fascinating, and shows exactly the difference between conscience (internalized societal code) and rules (purely external). I don't think the blogger is right when they say, "I really don't think psychopaths have a choice about being bad, because in order to chose not to be bad, you need to understand what 'bad' is." And I disagree because sociopaths understand extremely well that what they are doing is breaking the rules. For proof, I offer the number of sociopaths (e.g. Donald Harvey (who was beaten to death earlier this year, thirty years into his 28 life sentences)) who do extremely well in prison environments, where all the rules are spelled out and enforced. Sociopaths can choose to follow the rules; they just have to be given a cogent enough reason for doing so. So, no, while they don't have an internalized sense of either ethics or morals--and I agree, must find both, especially "morality," confusing--that doesn't mean that they don't know that what they're doing is wrong. They know, they just don't care. Or, even worse, it gives them pleasure to get away with breaking the rules, which you can see in the homicidal careers of a number of sociopaths, including Bundy, Ridgway, and Brady.
Okay, wow, long digression. My point is that when she wrote TSBM, Rule didn't understand the difference between socio/psychopathy and psychosis, and I don't think she ever fully managed to integrate the signifier of her friend Ted Bundy with the signified of Ted Bundy the serial killer and necrophile (Rule does not talk about his necrophilia). Which is absolutely 100% not a slam. I don't think I could do it, either. But she has no such difficulty with Diane Downs (just as she has no such difficulty with Gary Ridgway); she is very clear that Downs is a chameleon, a gifted mimic who can imitate feelings she neither experiences nor understands. And who is baffled and infuriated when other people don't operate according to her rules (which you also see in Bundy, who kept trying to push emotional buttons long after they had stopped working). So one of the things Rule achieves in Small Sacrifices is working through the contradictions that she could never resolve in her understanding of Ted Bundy. And she's able to loathe Downs whole-heartedly in a way she could never do with Bundy. (To be clear, I think both Downs and Bundy are deserving of whole-hearted loathing. Understanding them is not the same as condoning or forgiving what they did.)
Rule's ability to tell a story shines throughout Small Sacrifices, which is absorbing and full of narrative tension, even when you know how the whole thing turned out. And her portrait, in Diane Downs, of a sociopath is riveting.
---
*I am adamantly pro-choice. And I don't think children are fungible. I'm trying to describe Downs' thought process, not my own.
It makes an interesting companion to The Stranger Beside Me; Diane Downs is strongly reminiscent of Ted Bundy, even down to the chameleon quality they share; just as with Bundy, any two photographs of Diane Downs might, on a casual glance, seem to be of two completely different people. And, of course, like Bundy, Downs is a sociopath.
(There are a lot of different words to describe people like Bundy and Downs. "Evil" is one. "Antisocial personality disorder," "psychopath," and "narcissist" are others. Downs isn't quite the same sort of sociopath as Bundy; he was, as he himself admitted, addicted to murder, and in a particularly sexual way. Downs simply doesn't care whether, in removing obstacles to her goals, she kills people.)
It's not 100% clear why Downs shot her three children, killing one daughter, very nearly killing the other, and paralyzing her son. The prosecution's best theory was that she thought that, if her children were dead, the object of her sexual obsession would agree to divorce his wife and marry her. Downs herself pointed out that the man, who had been her lover and who she was riding the ragged edge of stalking, was a man who hated fuss and bother, and the attack on her children created a huge dramatic fuss that he was (in point of fact) repelled by.
Downs also has, in the language of the DSM-III, a Histrionic Personality Disorder (to go with Narcissistic and Antisocial), meaning basically that she needs always to be the center of attention and creates drama around herself to ensure that that stays true. My guess, after reading this book, is:
(1) Her children, as they grew older, were becoming less and less the pure sources of unconditional love that she craved (I think it's significant that the child she shot first, the child she made sure was dead, was Cheryl, her least favorite child, her whipping-boy child--dead Cheryl complied with her mother's fantasies much more satisfactorily than living Cheryl had ever been able to; it's also telling that she insisted that her son would be able to walk again through the power of her love--if she was just given access to him--as if she could take away her actions with "love").
(2) As the prosecutor at her trial pointed out, in her head, children were fungible: interchangeable parts. She aborted one baby, but balanced that out with the child she bore as a surrogate mother; she killed Cheryl, but balanced that with the child she got pregnant with just before she was arrested, whom she was planning to name Charity Lynn until her conviction for Cheryl Lynn's murder convinced her that was a bad idea. (She named the baby Amy Elizabeth; the child was adopted, named Rebecca Babcock, and made a lot of headlines in 2010 with the story of how she discovered just who her biological mother was). Just like Downs thought she could cure her son's paralysis with "love," loving the baby in her uterus somehow was supposed to wipe out the anti-loving destruction of the previous child.*
(3) Because she was a sociopath and didn't fully understand how other people's emotions worked, she did think that, without the children, she might be able to get her stalkee back.
(4) She saw a chance to be the ultimate center of attention, to be the Heroic Young Mother and the Grief-Stricken Parent at the same time, sort of like cashing all your Munchausen's by Proxy chips in at once.
Most of her reasons were bad reasons, but that doesn't mean they weren't her motive.
The other reason to compare Small Sacrifices and The Stranger Beside Me is Rule's attitude toward her subject. When she wrote TSBM, she didn't understand what being a sociopath meant (she says so herself in one of the innumerable afterwords, forewords, and updates that surround the main text in the 2009 paperback); she thought Bundy was mentally ill, which he was not. Sociopaths are sane by both legal and medical definitions; they understand perfectly that what they're doing is breaking the law and going against societal codes, but that just makes them enjoy it more. They completely lack any internalization of societal codes, just as they completely lack empathy, the ability to comprehend another person's feelings as you comprehend your own. A commenter on my review of The Gates of Janus: Serial Killing and Its Analysis left a link to this blogpost about psychopaths and rules (remember that "psychopath" and "sociopath" are words for the same condition; I prefer "sociopath," because "psychopath" leads by connotation and popular usage to Psycho , which is just unhelpful). That study is fascinating, and shows exactly the difference between conscience (internalized societal code) and rules (purely external). I don't think the blogger is right when they say, "I really don't think psychopaths have a choice about being bad, because in order to chose not to be bad, you need to understand what 'bad' is." And I disagree because sociopaths understand extremely well that what they are doing is breaking the rules. For proof, I offer the number of sociopaths (e.g. Donald Harvey (who was beaten to death earlier this year, thirty years into his 28 life sentences)) who do extremely well in prison environments, where all the rules are spelled out and enforced. Sociopaths can choose to follow the rules; they just have to be given a cogent enough reason for doing so. So, no, while they don't have an internalized sense of either ethics or morals--and I agree, must find both, especially "morality," confusing--that doesn't mean that they don't know that what they're doing is wrong. They know, they just don't care. Or, even worse, it gives them pleasure to get away with breaking the rules, which you can see in the homicidal careers of a number of sociopaths, including Bundy, Ridgway, and Brady.
Okay, wow, long digression. My point is that when she wrote TSBM, Rule didn't understand the difference between socio/psychopathy and psychosis, and I don't think she ever fully managed to integrate the signifier of her friend Ted Bundy with the signified of Ted Bundy the serial killer and necrophile (Rule does not talk about his necrophilia). Which is absolutely 100% not a slam. I don't think I could do it, either. But she has no such difficulty with Diane Downs (just as she has no such difficulty with Gary Ridgway); she is very clear that Downs is a chameleon, a gifted mimic who can imitate feelings she neither experiences nor understands. And who is baffled and infuriated when other people don't operate according to her rules (which you also see in Bundy, who kept trying to push emotional buttons long after they had stopped working). So one of the things Rule achieves in Small Sacrifices is working through the contradictions that she could never resolve in her understanding of Ted Bundy. And she's able to loathe Downs whole-heartedly in a way she could never do with Bundy. (To be clear, I think both Downs and Bundy are deserving of whole-hearted loathing. Understanding them is not the same as condoning or forgiving what they did.)
Rule's ability to tell a story shines throughout Small Sacrifices, which is absorbing and full of narrative tension, even when you know how the whole thing turned out. And her portrait, in Diane Downs, of a sociopath is riveting.
---
*I am adamantly pro-choice. And I don't think children are fungible. I'm trying to describe Downs' thought process, not my own.
October 11, 2019
WHERE IS THE GUN???
November 23, 2022
Crazy Diane Downs! Even crazier, if you Google her, you'll see that her poor father has a website devoted to her innocence. I know it's pitiful and comes from heartbreak and desperation, but it really bugs me when a loved one of an accused killer (Jackie Peterson; Diane's father) actually justify seemingly remorseless behavior with stupid, disingenuous lines like "You can't know how you'll react under those circumstances. Everyone is different". This is just plain incorrect. In fact, we CAN, through one hundred odd years of psychiatric, sociological, and forensic research, know within certain parameters how a person is expected to react, say, when his pregnant wife vanishes. It's called "normal". Pretending to be on the phone from Paris with some trashy whore you seduced on a blind date with strawberries and champagne (that cracks me up, she's such a skank)like Scott Peterson did is not normal. Jammin' along and noddin' your head to "Hungry Like the Wolf" as it was played in the courtroom, when you're on trial for shooting your own children, is not normal. It's a good read, but if you actually think she's innocent, maybe you should stick your head in a gas oven.
If you want to get involved with convicted killers who might actually BE innocent, look into the West Memphis Three. And I'll make you do the work. See? They WERE innocent, and are now out of prison.
If you want to get involved with convicted killers who might actually BE innocent, look into the West Memphis Three. And I'll make you do the work. See? They WERE innocent, and are now out of prison.
February 15, 2022
Diane Downs is the worst kind of narcissistic psychopath. Killing and severely injuring her own children under the guise of multifaceted lies, she held to this story from the beginning of the incident to today, but absolute proof marks her as the attacker and murderer of her children. Her children were viewed as disposable to her, and she never bonded with any of them.
The sickly ironic part of this mentality, was that she loved being pregnant - however, in her eyes, the kids were nothing but a nuisance and objects to be mistreated or left on their own.
She was pregnant yet again with another child even at the time of her court appearance. Being convicted of her crimes, the baby was taken away almost immediately after the birth.
But the story doesn’t end here - we can only hope this woman never gets out of prison.
The sickly ironic part of this mentality, was that she loved being pregnant - however, in her eyes, the kids were nothing but a nuisance and objects to be mistreated or left on their own.
She was pregnant yet again with another child even at the time of her court appearance. Being convicted of her crimes, the baby was taken away almost immediately after the birth.
But the story doesn’t end here - we can only hope this woman never gets out of prison.
January 18, 2019
A fascinating crime will always transfer to a good true crime book as long as its well written and ‘Small Sacrifices’ is pure class. There’s crazy criminals and then there’s Diane Downs who’s way way out there on her own far distant universe. As this is public record I don’t think i’ll be ruining it for anyone when I explain the story. On May 19th 1983 Diane, along with her three children, pulled up at her local hospital in a blood drenched car. All four passengers had gun shot related injuries – Daughter Cheryl was dead, Daughter Christie had suffered a stroke, Son Danny was paralyzed from the waist down and Diane had a wound in her left arm.
She explained she’d been carjacked and shot by a stranger but it quickly became apparent that something was a miss. Just like Jeffrey McDonald, of Fatal Vision fame, her demeanor was all wrong. Nobody can predict how they’d act if several members of their family were shot but I can safely say i wouldn’t be cool, calm and in a mood to make inappropriate conversation.
The research for this book was impeccable from her childhood all the way up to the crime itself you become full immersed in Diane’s world of twisted logic. Even after she is sent down based on eye witness testimony from her surviving daughter there’s still no acceptance of responsibility. There always a surprise witness or a new piece of evidence she is preparing to reveal. You have to read about this crime to truly believe it.
As well as ‘Small Sacrifices’ I’d also recommend ‘Bitter Harvest’ and ‘Everything She Ever Wanted’. These three books are Ann Rule at her best.
She explained she’d been carjacked and shot by a stranger but it quickly became apparent that something was a miss. Just like Jeffrey McDonald, of Fatal Vision fame, her demeanor was all wrong. Nobody can predict how they’d act if several members of their family were shot but I can safely say i wouldn’t be cool, calm and in a mood to make inappropriate conversation.
The research for this book was impeccable from her childhood all the way up to the crime itself you become full immersed in Diane’s world of twisted logic. Even after she is sent down based on eye witness testimony from her surviving daughter there’s still no acceptance of responsibility. There always a surprise witness or a new piece of evidence she is preparing to reveal. You have to read about this crime to truly believe it.
As well as ‘Small Sacrifices’ I’d also recommend ‘Bitter Harvest’ and ‘Everything She Ever Wanted’. These three books are Ann Rule at her best.
March 2, 2024
Such a heartbreaking read!! So very sad that a mother could try to kill all her children. I know one child survived but don’t know if any others did.
February 10, 2018
OMG. I'm about to go on an Ann Rule reading spree. This book was so good I neglected pretty much everything I should have been doing this past week because I could not stop reading it.
The amount of research Rule must have had to do to paint such a complete picture of Diane Downs and all the aspects of her crime and trial just boggles the mind.
Overall Downs was a pretty horrible person, utterly selfish and ceaselessly attention seeking. She supposedly suffered from three different personality disorders: anti-social, histrionic and narcissistic. The author mentions her high IQ a few times but I was not impressed. Diane seemed pretty dumb to me. How did she think she was going to away with killing her kids. Couldn't she see that Lew was just not that into her?
Still, I was not without sympathy for Diane, especially as Rule recounted her early years; the alleged sexual abuse by her father and her quiet loneliness in school, ostracized by the other girls for who knows what reason. The picture of her as a child and adolescent is almost completely at odd with her adult persona however, and it makes you wonder how much of it was really true. After, Diane is nothing if not a liar. It's practically all she does apart from delivering mail and seducing whatever man happens to be around. So you can't help but wonder, did she lie about the abuse, too? But then again, if the abuse didn't happen what is it that made her such a hot mess of a human being?
It's not until the night before she's finally arrested, when she's been kicked out of her parents home and with no place to sleep sits in a booth at a bar until closing writing in her journal, that I felt another twinge of sympathy for Diane. And then I remembered she tried to murder her three children and then lied about it for her own gain and I was over it.
The amount of research Rule must have had to do to paint such a complete picture of Diane Downs and all the aspects of her crime and trial just boggles the mind.
Overall Downs was a pretty horrible person, utterly selfish and ceaselessly attention seeking. She supposedly suffered from three different personality disorders: anti-social, histrionic and narcissistic. The author mentions her high IQ a few times but I was not impressed. Diane seemed pretty dumb to me. How did she think she was going to away with killing her kids. Couldn't she see that Lew was just not that into her?
Still, I was not without sympathy for Diane, especially as Rule recounted her early years; the alleged sexual abuse by her father and her quiet loneliness in school, ostracized by the other girls for who knows what reason. The picture of her as a child and adolescent is almost completely at odd with her adult persona however, and it makes you wonder how much of it was really true. After, Diane is nothing if not a liar. It's practically all she does apart from delivering mail and seducing whatever man happens to be around. So you can't help but wonder, did she lie about the abuse, too? But then again, if the abuse didn't happen what is it that made her such a hot mess of a human being?
It's not until the night before she's finally arrested, when she's been kicked out of her parents home and with no place to sleep sits in a booth at a bar until closing writing in her journal, that I felt another twinge of sympathy for Diane. And then I remembered she tried to murder her three children and then lied about it for her own gain and I was over it.
January 9, 2015
My favorite Ann Rule book. I believe this book convinced me to be a true crime writer. Amazing character development with outstanding research.
May 25, 2021
May 2021 review: So I just re-read a ton of my true crime books. I ended up just going through a binge while I was off for a few days from work. This is still a really good book and it just makes you sad to read about Diane Downs and what she put her children through in order to get a man that was desperate to break away from her. I did find updates (online) about the one child she gave up for adoption.
I remember being a small kid when "Small Sacrifices" was on Lifetime. My mom was watching it and I remember being so confused while watching it. It didn't make sense to my brain that moms could hurt their kids. Now as an adult I decided to read this book by Ann Rule in which she tells the tale of Diane Downs and her children.
Diane Downs recently moved to Springfield, Oregon when she drives to a hospital telling everyone that a tall busy haired stranger had shot her and her three children. Right from the beginning the case made no sense. However, Ann Rule starts to slowly reveal the real Diane Downs to readers. We get to read about Diane's upbringing, her marriage, her ability to go through men. We also get to know her three children through Ms. Rule's writing.
As I have said in another review of Ms. Rule's works she seems to always set up her novels the same way. It starts with the crime itself, the initial investigation, a look at the police and prosecutors lives, then the accused parents, the accused childhood, and works it way back to the crime of the accused. I like how it set up and thought that this novel in particular flew by. With every page turned you found out something else that would literally leave your mouth open.
I thought this was a very good True Crime book and Ms. Rule actually has some updates in the Kindle edition of this book which I thought was great. Readers and others I am sure are very curious what has become of Diane.
I would definitely recommend!
I remember being a small kid when "Small Sacrifices" was on Lifetime. My mom was watching it and I remember being so confused while watching it. It didn't make sense to my brain that moms could hurt their kids. Now as an adult I decided to read this book by Ann Rule in which she tells the tale of Diane Downs and her children.
Diane Downs recently moved to Springfield, Oregon when she drives to a hospital telling everyone that a tall busy haired stranger had shot her and her three children. Right from the beginning the case made no sense. However, Ann Rule starts to slowly reveal the real Diane Downs to readers. We get to read about Diane's upbringing, her marriage, her ability to go through men. We also get to know her three children through Ms. Rule's writing.
As I have said in another review of Ms. Rule's works she seems to always set up her novels the same way. It starts with the crime itself, the initial investigation, a look at the police and prosecutors lives, then the accused parents, the accused childhood, and works it way back to the crime of the accused. I like how it set up and thought that this novel in particular flew by. With every page turned you found out something else that would literally leave your mouth open.
I thought this was a very good True Crime book and Ms. Rule actually has some updates in the Kindle edition of this book which I thought was great. Readers and others I am sure are very curious what has become of Diane.
I would definitely recommend!
June 13, 2015
9/6 - A true crime story of a mother who attempted to get rid of her kids because she believed that the man she was obsessed with would want her more if the kids were gone. I think this story would have been more horrific, would have had more of an impact on a reader when this was first published. Readers really would have been thinking "How could a mother do that to her own children?!" Today it's not that uncommon of a story, Law and Order has covered it many times. I'm not sure whether readers in the 80s would have been fooled, but without reading the back cover description and never having heard of the case I was immediately suspicious of Diane. Her affect at the hospital when she first brought her children in immediately said to me "All is not as it seems with this woman.".
The thing that most shocks me actually is the willingness with which the men at the Chandler post office are ready to put their marriages on the line just for a quick fling or one night stand with Diane. At one point Rule says that Diane's plan was to sleep her way through all the married men at the Chandler post office branch. The way Diane said it and Rule wrote it made it seem as if the men had no say in the matter, as if as soon as they saw her and she made her invitation them having sex was a foregone conclusion. What's wrong with these men that they are so weak?! The whole situation brings to mind Jedi mind control and the idea that Jedi mind control only works on the weak-minded. To be continued...
11/6 - I'm beginning to think maybe Diane didn't personally shoot her kids, that maybe she had a 'bushy-haired' accomplice. The fact that Christie remembered the 'man' coming around from the boot of the car, where Lew last saw Diane's guns. The comment Diane made about the 'man' maybe recognising her. The fact that the gun has gone so completely missing. The fact that Diane's car was seen driving at a snail's pace along the road where she said the shooting happened, an action which I think means that she was driving slowly while waiting for her accomplice to turn up at the pre-arranged location. All these clues lead me to think that Diane was working with a 'bushy-haired man' who took the gun with him after he'd shot the kids. I think this man might have been someone Diane knew from her past, but who she didn't think would remember her (not sure how that's possible, but that was the feeling I got from her comment wondering if he'd recognised her). If Diane had done the shooting herself I don't see how she could have managed the whole thing within the time frame - she had to get rid of the gun in a seemingly undiscoverable place, and she had to either wash her hands of any gun powder or get rid of the gloves she would've had to have been wearing to protect herself from that damning forensic evidence. Even then she couldn't have been sure that she hadn't gotten it on her clothes, so I just don't see how she could have been the only one involved in the crime. To be continued...
12/6 - First, thanks to Rule for mentioning The Onion Field by Joseph Wambaugh as another interesting tale of a horrific murder, second, thanks to GR for recommending it to me (because I'm reading Small Sacrifices) and therefore reminding me that I wanted to add The Onion Field to my 'to read' shelf. New true crime book now on the 'to read' shelf. To be continued...
13/6 - What an interesting woman, and by interesting I mean batshit crazy, though not in a 'raving lunatic' clinical diagnosis type of way (doctors said she had numerous personality disorders, but was definitely sane), crazy in the way that she must have been crazy to believe that she could murder her kids and get away with it and crazy to think that all she needed to do to get 'Lew' back for good was to eliminate her children from the picture.
I looked Diane up on Wikipedia this morning and have just spent 13 minutes listening to Diane's second parole board hearing in 2010, she sounds even more confused about what the 'true' story is than ever. She gave the parole board her story of what happened the night of the shootings and it's considerably different from the two different stories that were related in this book. She discussed having a boyfriend, who had never been mentioned before, who claimed to work for the FBI; she said that the reason she and the kids went out that night was to pick up photos for this boyfriend; she forgot the part in her original story where she faked throwing her keys over her shoulder in order to distract the gunman while she jumped in the car and raced off; and she made a slip (maybe a Freudian slip) when she said that the gunman had jumped in the car in order to shoot the children (previously she had said that the gunman was outside of the car with her when the children were shot, that he leaned through the window to shoot them). I don't think you can trust anything this woman says, about anything.
I don't understand why the man that she did this for, Lew Lewiston is the name he's given in Small Sacrifices, has a different name in Wikipedia, there his name is given as Robert Knickerbocker. You might say maybe he changed his name so she couldn't find him if she ever escaped again or was released, but then his name's there in the public domain for anyone on the internet to see. Maybe he asked Rule to change his name for the book?
I'm glad to read that she's still in jail and that as of 2010 she will not be eligible for parole for another 10 years, instead of getting a hearing every two as she had previously (2008 and then 2010).
The thing that most shocks me actually is the willingness with which the men at the Chandler post office are ready to put their marriages on the line just for a quick fling or one night stand with Diane. At one point Rule says that Diane's plan was to sleep her way through all the married men at the Chandler post office branch. The way Diane said it and Rule wrote it made it seem as if the men had no say in the matter, as if as soon as they saw her and she made her invitation them having sex was a foregone conclusion. What's wrong with these men that they are so weak?! The whole situation brings to mind Jedi mind control and the idea that Jedi mind control only works on the weak-minded. To be continued...
11/6 - I'm beginning to think maybe Diane didn't personally shoot her kids, that maybe she had a 'bushy-haired' accomplice. The fact that Christie remembered the 'man' coming around from the boot of the car, where Lew last saw Diane's guns. The comment Diane made about the 'man' maybe recognising her. The fact that the gun has gone so completely missing. The fact that Diane's car was seen driving at a snail's pace along the road where she said the shooting happened, an action which I think means that she was driving slowly while waiting for her accomplice to turn up at the pre-arranged location. All these clues lead me to think that Diane was working with a 'bushy-haired man' who took the gun with him after he'd shot the kids. I think this man might have been someone Diane knew from her past, but who she didn't think would remember her (not sure how that's possible, but that was the feeling I got from her comment wondering if he'd recognised her). If Diane had done the shooting herself I don't see how she could have managed the whole thing within the time frame - she had to get rid of the gun in a seemingly undiscoverable place, and she had to either wash her hands of any gun powder or get rid of the gloves she would've had to have been wearing to protect herself from that damning forensic evidence. Even then she couldn't have been sure that she hadn't gotten it on her clothes, so I just don't see how she could have been the only one involved in the crime. To be continued...
12/6 - First, thanks to Rule for mentioning The Onion Field by Joseph Wambaugh as another interesting tale of a horrific murder, second, thanks to GR for recommending it to me (because I'm reading Small Sacrifices) and therefore reminding me that I wanted to add The Onion Field to my 'to read' shelf. New true crime book now on the 'to read' shelf. To be continued...
13/6 - What an interesting woman, and by interesting I mean batshit crazy, though not in a 'raving lunatic' clinical diagnosis type of way (doctors said she had numerous personality disorders, but was definitely sane), crazy in the way that she must have been crazy to believe that she could murder her kids and get away with it and crazy to think that all she needed to do to get 'Lew' back for good was to eliminate her children from the picture.
I looked Diane up on Wikipedia this morning and have just spent 13 minutes listening to Diane's second parole board hearing in 2010, she sounds even more confused about what the 'true' story is than ever. She gave the parole board her story of what happened the night of the shootings and it's considerably different from the two different stories that were related in this book. She discussed having a boyfriend, who had never been mentioned before, who claimed to work for the FBI; she said that the reason she and the kids went out that night was to pick up photos for this boyfriend; she forgot the part in her original story where she faked throwing her keys over her shoulder in order to distract the gunman while she jumped in the car and raced off; and she made a slip (maybe a Freudian slip) when she said that the gunman had jumped in the car in order to shoot the children (previously she had said that the gunman was outside of the car with her when the children were shot, that he leaned through the window to shoot them). I don't think you can trust anything this woman says, about anything.
I don't understand why the man that she did this for, Lew Lewiston is the name he's given in Small Sacrifices, has a different name in Wikipedia, there his name is given as Robert Knickerbocker. You might say maybe he changed his name so she couldn't find him if she ever escaped again or was released, but then his name's there in the public domain for anyone on the internet to see. Maybe he asked Rule to change his name for the book?
I'm glad to read that she's still in jail and that as of 2010 she will not be eligible for parole for another 10 years, instead of getting a hearing every two as she had previously (2008 and then 2010).
December 28, 2014
I'll never forget the "live"(from prison)interview of the female monster of this book on the "Oprah" show some years back. It was the only time I ever saw (of the few times I ever watched the show,of course(Ha)),Oprah get so angry that had - that woman(monster)of been in studio with her-Oprah wanted to and would have physically beaten her down. Of course,to the delight and cheers of the audience. This book will absolutely put a knot in your stomach,that to some degree, I truly believe never entirely goes away. These feelings are brought back time and time again by such events as just so recently occurred in Colorado. My prayers go out to all of the innocent victims and their loved ones. May"GOD" be with you all; in this, your time of need.
December 6, 2023
Although her Ted Bundy book generated some criticism - if you like true crime books, it is a good read - this book Small Sacrifices came out seven years later in 1987. As for the controversy, Anne Rule had known Ted Bundy while he was committing his crimes, unbeknownst to her, and many in the public believed that Rule was profiting from her connection. Given how quickly she published the book, some of the criticism was valid. For Small Sacrifices she spent many years writing it. Fortunately she did not know Dianne Downs, so this one was heavy on the inside story with the detectives. But Dianne Downs talked all the time, so you feel like you know exactly who she was.
It is in my opinion as good a book as I have read in the true crime category. Many people wanted to know how a mother could shoot her three kids and then think she could get away with it. Rule lays it all out methodically and there are plenty of twists and turns including prison escapes.
If reading about highly disturbed people doesn't make you nauseous, you might like this book.
4.5 stars
It is in my opinion as good a book as I have read in the true crime category. Many people wanted to know how a mother could shoot her three kids and then think she could get away with it. Rule lays it all out methodically and there are plenty of twists and turns including prison escapes.
If reading about highly disturbed people doesn't make you nauseous, you might like this book.
4.5 stars
July 3, 2014
I can see how people would be flabbergasted by the actions of Diane Downs. I can't see how people can think her a person railroaded by the police. Her life story, told by herself and her family, friends, and acquaintances expose an individual of very little self-control. Her transitory desires became her absolute needs in her mind all of her life, and if she couldn't get what she wanted, there were tantrums and rage. As long as she felt she could manipulate someone or force someone into getting her what she wanted, she never quit. On top of that, her constantly revised stories of how her kids got shot while the four of them went for a car ride alone at night, the complete lack of any motive under the circumstances except the one she herself had (her married boyfriend said he didn't want her kids around), and her unbelievable lack of grief, surprise or rage should have put to rest a lot of the uncertainty about her. She was a mama bear when trying to get men into her bed. This persistence was completely lacking in finding the killer of her little girl, and the crippling of her other two children.
Being psychopathically bizarre isn't in itself a crime, but Downs' display of it certainly gives her little credibility about her claim to being a good mother. Her past choices showed her to be similar to the type of person who runs puppy mills. Not only could she not stop breeding, but she could care less about the offspring once they had been born. The reality of other living beings, no matter how young and helpless in reality, was difficult for her to imagine - all she apparently had interest in was satisfying her boredom and her physical/mental comfort.
I think she had something like ADHD along with the 'official' personality disorders she was formally assessed as having by court psychiatrists, which were histrionic, antisocial and narcissistic. She dragged those little kids around as if they were sacks of potatoes, and cared for them very little, often making her 8-year-old girl responsible for laundry, meals and babysitting duties. She bought houses and changed jobs, states and boyfriends as if they were used Kleenex tissues. Yet she asserted constantly how much she loved children, even while giving up all the fetuses she carried for sterile women while acting as a surrogate for $10,000 each (in 1980 dollars), while ignoring or passing her own children around to relatives with as little concern about their lives as if they were pet rocks.
This is one of those cases which caught the public eye. Apparently, the newspapers and television news shows were agog about her trial and the public followed her as if she was a rock star. Many thought her innocent from reading the many news reports which catered to popular sentimental mother-love 'truisms', ignoring her actual irresponsible lowlife behaviors, and from her attractive photographic presentation of a classy young woman. But the court transcripts and Ann Rule's research into Downs' history, along with the few bits of hard evidence, convinced me of her guilt. I googled her today and her interview with the 2010 parole board did not change my mind, as she yet again told another completely different version of that night to exonerate herself from trying to kill her three children. She does not seem able to grasp that reality happens and then it's done. Reality can be reassessed, not cut-and-pasted.
It's kinda scary there are people out there who treat Reality like an exercise of fictional creativity and they don't seem to know that that can't be done and consequently believed by actual witnesses; although, now that I'm thinking about it, I have known people who try to convince everyone that they are not evil murderers of innocents even after they have obviously murdered, and fans who believe in their lies despite maybe seeing with their own eyes the murder, but feel the person's backstory should allow the perpetrator to walk away blameless.
Being psychopathically bizarre isn't in itself a crime, but Downs' display of it certainly gives her little credibility about her claim to being a good mother. Her past choices showed her to be similar to the type of person who runs puppy mills. Not only could she not stop breeding, but she could care less about the offspring once they had been born. The reality of other living beings, no matter how young and helpless in reality, was difficult for her to imagine - all she apparently had interest in was satisfying her boredom and her physical/mental comfort.
I think she had something like ADHD along with the 'official' personality disorders she was formally assessed as having by court psychiatrists, which were histrionic, antisocial and narcissistic. She dragged those little kids around as if they were sacks of potatoes, and cared for them very little, often making her 8-year-old girl responsible for laundry, meals and babysitting duties. She bought houses and changed jobs, states and boyfriends as if they were used Kleenex tissues. Yet she asserted constantly how much she loved children, even while giving up all the fetuses she carried for sterile women while acting as a surrogate for $10,000 each (in 1980 dollars), while ignoring or passing her own children around to relatives with as little concern about their lives as if they were pet rocks.
This is one of those cases which caught the public eye. Apparently, the newspapers and television news shows were agog about her trial and the public followed her as if she was a rock star. Many thought her innocent from reading the many news reports which catered to popular sentimental mother-love 'truisms', ignoring her actual irresponsible lowlife behaviors, and from her attractive photographic presentation of a classy young woman. But the court transcripts and Ann Rule's research into Downs' history, along with the few bits of hard evidence, convinced me of her guilt. I googled her today and her interview with the 2010 parole board did not change my mind, as she yet again told another completely different version of that night to exonerate herself from trying to kill her three children. She does not seem able to grasp that reality happens and then it's done. Reality can be reassessed, not cut-and-pasted.
It's kinda scary there are people out there who treat Reality like an exercise of fictional creativity and they don't seem to know that that can't be done and consequently believed by actual witnesses; although, now that I'm thinking about it, I have known people who try to convince everyone that they are not evil murderers of innocents even after they have obviously murdered, and fans who believe in their lies despite maybe seeing with their own eyes the murder, but feel the person's backstory should allow the perpetrator to walk away blameless.
January 30, 2024
A book that gripped me so much that three years after I first read it I continue to read it each year. And it still fills me with horror, dread and makes me very grateful to have had the loving mother I did.
Having never heard of Diane Downs or read an Ann Rule book before I wasn't sure what this book would be like but the story intrigued me. I went into it with an open mind about the crime in question and decided to let it play out before deciding if I thought Diane had done it. From page one the story hooked me in and I found it hard to put down. Even days after I've finished it I continue to go back and read through certain passages again. Though I found Diane's behaviour strange to say the least in the aftermath of the crime, leaving the hospital while her children are barely alive (one was already dead, another would become clinically dead at one point and miraculously brought back to life) in order to return to the crime scene, then laughing and joking during a re-enactment of the crime. For me I started to realize she was truly guilty while reading diary entries. One written as a letter to her lover back in Arizona read I think I love my kids more than I love you, not something a mother would say. Curious I went online to see if I could find any of these interviews the book said she kept giving and found clips. One look into those cold eyes and I was forever grateful this woman has been locked away for good. When asked about how she felt about that night she seemed more concerned about the scar on her arm and that she couldn't tie her shoe for two months than the fact that her middle child was now dead and her two surviving children crippled and traumatized. I also found the movie and watched it and had mixed feelings about it the name changes were confusing and annoying and I won't get into the acting and "re-sequencing of events" part. But overall I think the book was well written no dull dragging moments here. I was very pleased to hear that the children were able to stay together and found a home where they are loved and cared for and by all accounts are living happy successful lives now despite what happened to them.
Having never heard of Diane Downs or read an Ann Rule book before I wasn't sure what this book would be like but the story intrigued me. I went into it with an open mind about the crime in question and decided to let it play out before deciding if I thought Diane had done it. From page one the story hooked me in and I found it hard to put down. Even days after I've finished it I continue to go back and read through certain passages again. Though I found Diane's behaviour strange to say the least in the aftermath of the crime, leaving the hospital while her children are barely alive (one was already dead, another would become clinically dead at one point and miraculously brought back to life) in order to return to the crime scene, then laughing and joking during a re-enactment of the crime. For me I started to realize she was truly guilty while reading diary entries. One written as a letter to her lover back in Arizona read I think I love my kids more than I love you, not something a mother would say. Curious I went online to see if I could find any of these interviews the book said she kept giving and found clips. One look into those cold eyes and I was forever grateful this woman has been locked away for good. When asked about how she felt about that night she seemed more concerned about the scar on her arm and that she couldn't tie her shoe for two months than the fact that her middle child was now dead and her two surviving children crippled and traumatized. I also found the movie and watched it and had mixed feelings about it the name changes were confusing and annoying and I won't get into the acting and "re-sequencing of events" part. But overall I think the book was well written no dull dragging moments here. I was very pleased to hear that the children were able to stay together and found a home where they are loved and cared for and by all accounts are living happy successful lives now despite what happened to them.
March 6, 2020
Jedne majske noći, 1983. godine, u gradiću Eugene pored Springfielda, u američkoj državi Oregon, mlada majka u Hitnu pomoć dovozi troje teško ranjene djece.
Pritom, ona govori kako ih je na mračnom, zabačenom putu presreo nepoznati čovjek, pokušao da od nje preotme automobil, a zatim upucao djecu.
Ovo je početak duge priče o Diane Downs, ženi koja je zaintrigirala američku javnost, koja je mjesecima okupirala misli policijskih istražilaca, i postala glavna osumnjičena u ovom slučaju koji je svojom požrtvovanošću i empatijom riješio tužilac Fred Hugi.
Autorka Ann Rule do najsitnijih detalja secira ovaj slučaj, na kojem je učestvovala i kao novinar, te nas tako vraća u samo djetinjstvo odbačene Diane, i same žrtve porodičnog nasilja, pratimo njen put u tinejdžerstvo, prvi brak, koji joj je poslužio isključivo za dobijanje djece, a koju je potom nemilosrdno zlostavljala, pa sve do suđenja u ljeto 1984. godine.
Kada na svom radnom mjestu u pošti upozna Lewa, postaje opsjednuta njime, pa iako je on odbija, Diane je uvjerena u duboku ljubav, piše mu pisma, pjesme, prati ga, i učiniće sve kako bi ostala s njim.
U kovitlacu nerazrješenih emocija iz prošlosti, sa brojnim poremećajima ličnosti, ova visokointeligentna žena počiniće neoprostiv zločin prema jedinim osobama koje su je istinski voljele.
Kao pravi dragulj svog žanra Small sacrifices donosi ne samo detaljan uvid u život Diane Downs i ljudi koji su joj bili bliski, već i policijski rad tadašnjeg doba, kao i sudski postupak koji je opisan i prepričan iz ugla svih svjedoka, optužbe i odbrane, te predstavlja svjedočanstvo o jednoj majci, egoisti, čudovištu, koja svijet oko sebe nikada nije sagledala tuđim očima, zaslijepljena svojim pogledom u ogledalu.
Pritom, ona govori kako ih je na mračnom, zabačenom putu presreo nepoznati čovjek, pokušao da od nje preotme automobil, a zatim upucao djecu.
Ovo je početak duge priče o Diane Downs, ženi koja je zaintrigirala američku javnost, koja je mjesecima okupirala misli policijskih istražilaca, i postala glavna osumnjičena u ovom slučaju koji je svojom požrtvovanošću i empatijom riješio tužilac Fred Hugi.
Autorka Ann Rule do najsitnijih detalja secira ovaj slučaj, na kojem je učestvovala i kao novinar, te nas tako vraća u samo djetinjstvo odbačene Diane, i same žrtve porodičnog nasilja, pratimo njen put u tinejdžerstvo, prvi brak, koji joj je poslužio isključivo za dobijanje djece, a koju je potom nemilosrdno zlostavljala, pa sve do suđenja u ljeto 1984. godine.
Kada na svom radnom mjestu u pošti upozna Lewa, postaje opsjednuta njime, pa iako je on odbija, Diane je uvjerena u duboku ljubav, piše mu pisma, pjesme, prati ga, i učiniće sve kako bi ostala s njim.
U kovitlacu nerazrješenih emocija iz prošlosti, sa brojnim poremećajima ličnosti, ova visokointeligentna žena počiniće neoprostiv zločin prema jedinim osobama koje su je istinski voljele.
Kao pravi dragulj svog žanra Small sacrifices donosi ne samo detaljan uvid u život Diane Downs i ljudi koji su joj bili bliski, već i policijski rad tadašnjeg doba, kao i sudski postupak koji je opisan i prepričan iz ugla svih svjedoka, optužbe i odbrane, te predstavlja svjedočanstvo o jednoj majci, egoisti, čudovištu, koja svijet oko sebe nikada nije sagledala tuđim očima, zaslijepljena svojim pogledom u ogledalu.
November 29, 2024
I’ve read a couple of true crime books and this one was quite disturbing. It takes place in 1983 when three children were shot by some random guy on some backroad in Oregon. Diane Downs, the mother of these children, is like no one else you could imagine. I don’t want to give anything away, but I did think this was really well told and would recommend if you like to read true crime.
July 13, 2015
Rule has a number of irritating tendencies as an author, all of which are in full force in this book. I agree that this is certainly one of her better efforts, however, I couldn't help but wish throughout that this story had been written by someone other than Rule. There are lengthy sections dedicated to Downs' journal, often written sort of as chapters from her perspective. Some of that is welcome to shed light on the perpetrator's personality. Here it gets to a point of bloated unnecessary dumps of irrelevant information. The middle section is an agonizing drag of nothing that could have easily been summed up in a single short chapter. Investigation delays, stalling for time by prosecution, budget concerns etc. things I don't care for in depth detail on.
There is something that bothers me about Downs' history. Rule accept's the claim that Downs was abused by her father as a child. That story... Something doesn't ring true with it, particularly in light of the way Downs interacts with her father as an adult. The account read to me like precisely the type of fabrication Downs would use to garner sympathy for herself throughout her life. A story she started using as a teen and would use strategically in years to follow. Is there any evidence at all that it took place? Highway sherif made no report, Downs' father won't dignify it with comment. Only Downs and the people she told the story to. Apologies if I am proven wrong on this issue.
There is something that bothers me about Downs' history. Rule accept's the claim that Downs was abused by her father as a child. That story... Something doesn't ring true with it, particularly in light of the way Downs interacts with her father as an adult. The account read to me like precisely the type of fabrication Downs would use to garner sympathy for herself throughout her life. A story she started using as a teen and would use strategically in years to follow. Is there any evidence at all that it took place? Highway sherif made no report, Downs' father won't dignify it with comment. Only Downs and the people she told the story to. Apologies if I am proven wrong on this issue.
April 13, 2019
This is the first book by Ann Rule that I've read, I listened to the audiobook and Ann Rule narrated it. I like her writing style. She was a great writer. I watched the 20/20 special about Diane Downs a few weeks ago and decided to read this book. I hadn't heard of this case before; Diane is a horrible person. I'll read more by Ann Rule.
April 1, 2022
This was really well written/researched/put together. I read it between breaks at work and had to force myself to put it down. I still find it a bit off-putting when Ann Rule inserts herself/her life into the narrative, though, despite that only happening at the very very end of the book.
August 18, 2024
Small Sacrifices by Ann Rule is the true crime story of Diane Downs and her shooting of her three children. A superb and fascinating account of the horrifying crime and of sociopathic killer Diane Downs.
February 19, 2022
Equal parts heartbreaking and horrifying, Ann Rule tells the the true story of Diane Downs and the unimaginable crime she committed. I don't want to give any spoilers but I highly recommend reading this if you read true crime.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 1,118 reviews