Echoes in the Darkness

My step-father was Ken Reinert, and Karen and Michael were my step-brother and step-sister. My mother married Ken in the early/mid 70's and we became a family, with Karen & Michael spending the weekends and holidays with us. This movie was intense, very emotional, yet ran smoothly, and I still remember sitting in the TV room with Ken, Lynn, my little brother, Wayne, and myself week after week, watching the story of our lives played for all the world to see. It was very hard on my now X-step-father, Ken, and it took many years, a divorce,growing close with my brother,and a new loving girlfriend for him to find true happiness. I know from monthly communicating and seeing him for many years (since his divorce from my mother), that he died happy and in peace with his life finally after all of these years. My brother and I still speak of him often and the one question we don't know that will ever be answered is: "What did Dad marinate his porkloins in that made them taste so good (he was a chef)???"

It was a very impressively directed movie. It was kept clean, as opposed to the graphics that Joseph Wambaugh wrote about in his book. Like my mother stated above in her comment, feel free to contact myself if you have any questions. I actually didn't know there were websites concerning the murders. Thanks for reading this & have a great day! Thanks for caring about our family.

I saw this mini series on television many years ago. I purchased the movie but the movie on DVD is way shorter than the mini series. Does anyone know how I am able to get the mini series.

My heart goes out to the family and all people involved in this crime. Brad field was a mastermind of weaving a web of deceit and lead all those people into a place that would take years of healing if they ever do. I have also read the book and it is very close to the movie. Thanks so very much for the reviews written by the families and relatives of those involved. It is a breath of fresh air to read them after reading the book and getting only a small amount of understanding of what you must have gone through. I have two children also and the thought of that happening to them is absolutely dreadful. God bless all you do and bring peace into your hearts. God had dealt with William Bradfield. Live your lives as fruitful as possible.

Any response greatly appreciated. Thanks and regards

The moral of this excellent series: never mindlessly trust someone who's all charm on the surface no matter how educated or "normal" they appear to be. The educated can be sociopaths too. Also, women shouldn't be so desperate and man-hungry that they'll fall for the first man who gives them affection and attention. How Susan Reinert could have allowed herself to be so easily manipulated and controlled is both puzzling and disturbing, especially since she had two children to consider. Both Peter Coyote and Robert Loggia give outstanding performances, but it's also infuriating that the real-life characters were able to do what they did while Bradfield's minions blindly believed his lies and (obvious) manipulations again and again. Those complicit morons should have been thrown in jail just for their cluelessness and blatant stupidity.

Just happened to see this web site. I was the Lynn Reinert that was featured in the film. My then husband, Ken Reinert, and I had been married about 2 years when all this occured. The movie is very accurate. Joseph Wambaugh sat down with me for a month and interviewed me for the book. It was a nightmare and is still hard to believe that it happened to us at all. If anyone has any questions about the whole thing, I'll try to answer them. Ken died 2 years ago this June. At least now he's with his children and knows what happened to them. It was a very disturbing thing to go thru and something that I hope no one else ever has too. As I said, if anyone has any questions I'll be happy to try to answer them.

The night Part 1 aired on tv, I was inexorably drawn in. When Part 2 aired, I recorded it because I had to work that night. It was the same night a horrible storm hit--when I came home to my VCR, I'd discovered that the entire episode was UNWATCHABLE! This forced me to buy the novel to find out what happened. The novel is much more graphic and involved, but it turned me on to Joseph Wambaugh because it was the only true-life-horror-mystery-tragedy that I actually laughed out loud while reading! The book is very morbidly funny! Years later when I acquired the video, my girlfriend lamented that it was too long--until we started watching it...when Gary Cole utters the final lines of the cliffhanger--"What kids?" then we saw "To Be Continued..." flash across the screen, I jokingly said: "Well, it's late and I need to be leaving, I'll show you Part 2 some other time." She grabbed me and told me that I WASN'T GOING TO LEAVE until we watched the second video! Yes, it's that good! Watch it if you like true crime--but read the book too!