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Too Pretty to Live

The Catfishing Murders of East Tennessee

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Too Pretty to Live

By: Dennis Brooks
Narrated by: John Pruden
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About this listen

In this stunning true-crime thriller of Facebook, catfishing, and jealousy, a double murder begins with the click of a button.

When Bill Payne and Billie Jean Hayworth began their romance, they unknowingly set in motion a diabolical plot that would end with them murdered in their own home, Hayworth holding their mercifully unharmed infant.

Chris was a CIA agent who was concerned about Jenelle. Seeing the cyberbullying she had endured, and worried for her safety, Chris got in touch with Jenelle's protective parents and her devoted boyfriend, warning them that Payne and Hayworth were a danger to Jenelle. He got especially close with Jenelle's mother, Barbara, who thought of Chris like a son, though she had never met him. Chris claimed that surveillance of Payne and Hayworth revealed that the two of them were planning on harming Jenelle, that it was imminent, and that something needed to be done immediately. Chris promised that he would have their back if they were to act to protect Jenelle. And so they did. Jenelle's father, Buddy, and her boyfriend, Jamie, broke into the home of Payne and Hayworth and murdered them in their own home.

What the police investigation turned up, though, made this crime all the more terrifying. Jenelle had been Chris the entire time, catfishing her family and her boyfriend to act in vengeance on her behalf. Using forensic linguistics and diving through the brambles that Jenelle laid to cover her tracks, police were able to put together a chilling portrait of a sociopath made all the more ruthless by the anonymity of her online life.

Bizarre and unforgettable, Dennis Brooks examines the crime and trial from all angles, bringing his expertise as the lead prosecutor in this strange and disturbing case.

©2016 Dennis Brooks (P)2016 Blackstone Audio, Inc. Con Artists, Hoaxes & Deceptions Crime Murder True Crime Exciting
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It’s hard to believe this is a true case and that such people exist in the world - how they were able to dress themselves in the morning, let alone plot murders beggars belief. The account is generally well presented but the endless emails are tedious to listen to and perhaps more time could have been spent analysing the people and motivations,

Overly detailed at times

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A really interesting look into small towns, families and mental health. A very insular, paranoid family all play off each others neuroses and two people lost their lives.

Hard to believe people like this exist

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I want to start out this review by saying I already knew of this case and the outcome, but it’s so unbelievable I had to listen to this book. Even after I finish the book it’s hard to comprehend this is actually something that happened.

Sometimes the details in the emails can become overwhelming. I think this is due to the fact the authors of the emails have intellectual challenges and that is made clear in the way the emails were copied and read in this book. I truly felt like I was losing brain cells trying to understand what on earth was happening in the emails half the time because the spelling and grammar was awful. I couldn’t do much else while listening to this book, if I lost focus for a few seconds I was completely lost.

I found myself wishing they had edited the emails to become more understandable to the reader.

However, at the end of the book I was glad they left them original. Frankly, the fact that every single person in this story is an adult is astounding. It’s clear they may have something intellectually wrong, but it actually defies belief that with Jenelle’s clear intellectual problems, she was able to fool absolutely everyone in her life? She can’t spell or write an email to save her life, but somehow she convinced her family to kill 2 people?

Not only that, but the fact the mother was so willing to accept what she was telling her as truth! I assume CIA agents have to show basic intellect when writing reports (or whatever the CIA does), how could her mother have been so dense to blindly trust she was talking to a CIA agent? The mothers rambling emails make it clear she was delusional and suffering some kind of paranoia to believe what she was writing but the fact she didn’t seem to even question the CIA part? Amazing.

Even after listening to this book and hearing word for word readings of the emails, I cannot comprehend that somehow this family was drawn into such a shared delusion that they were communicating with the most illiterate CIA agent who was happy for civilians to murder someone over something so insignificant.

I genuinely cannot imagine being the victims families in court and being the baby who has to grow up and being told about this. I cannot imagine the family of the victims having to sit in court and hear the emails getting read out and having to know this is the reason your loved one was killed.

Finally, I feel for Jenelle’s sister. I don’t know her, but the way the mother spoke about her was absolutely horrific. She seems like a reasonable enough person and her mother was so deluded to wish someone would kill her for life insurance.

Overall this is a heartbreaking case and I pity everyone involved. Frankly it’s hard to believe that all these adults are functioning members of society because this case is so ridiculous that it defies belief that people truly are living like this and thinking it’s normal. It’s a shame this could have been avoided if the family had just sought mental health support that could have possibly pulled them from this delusion before it got to the point it did

A lot of detail

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I know this was a true story but I found it so bizarre in so many ways. I read in one review how it was a shame that Janelle and Barbara didn’t get help for their mental health issues, but to them they didn’t realise they had issues. So pleased the other daughter had sought help. You couldn’t make up a story like this one.

Unbelievable

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The story is reasonably written, but first introductions to the characters is confusing. I actually had to look up the case and write a summary of who was who.

It's not Brooks' fault that some names are similar: like victims Billy and Billie Jean, or Chris the fake CIA agent and Christine the Potters' elder daughter. It IS his fault he didn't use the names consistently. He called Marvin Potter, Marvin, Buddy and Bud. Both victims Billy. Christine Potter he sometimes called Chris - which, of course, was also the fake CIA agent.

I found the performance dreary. The "voice" of Dennis Brooks was fine, but all the emails etc in evidence were read in a slow, jerky monotone. Off-putting and difficult to listen to.

Brooks' narrative inadvertently throws disturbing light on the American justice system. He seems to see his job as securing a conviction; he's not concerned about whether the accused seems to actually be guilty. In this case there's little doubt they are; but I'm disturbed by his "assume guilt and scour the files for ammunition to prove it" attitude.

Yes, in theory the accused's counsel puts the case for NOT guilty, and it's up to the jury to weigh the evidence and decide. But that only works if both lawyers have equal skills and resources. Brooks' only gripe with incompetent defence counsel is the risk of mistrial or appeal - not the wrongful conviction of an innocent person.

I also wanted to hear how it was decided that Barbara and Jenelle were fit to stand trial. Brooks described Barbara as "delusional". A psychologist said Jenelle functions at a fourth-grade level. Clearly neither woman is "normal". I expected that to be a factor in the trial, or at least explained why it wasn't. But, crickets.

An ok read, but not spectacular.

An OK read, but not spectacular.

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This is quite the tale. Beautifully written, it unfolds from one layer of madness to a even crazier one. I highly recommend it. And I’ve read a lot of true crime.

Weirder than fiction.

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Very well written, interesting case of manipulation by 2 very weird chicks ... scarily good

Good listening

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