Product Description
Written as a loyal crime memoir, Luggage By Kroger is a unique, genre-crossing story which blends discourse with mystery, authorised procedural, as well as psycho-thriller. Fatal Attraction meets Angela’s Ashes as a former Houston journal contributor recounts a main year centered upon his dangerous event with a single of a many appealing femmes fatales of American crime. Forewarned of a dangers though incompetent to resist, he still dives in to a vehement attribute which takes him to a brand new turn of self-awareness as well as explanation as he becomes her aim whilst perplexing to strengthen his disloyal mother as well as their dual daughters from a assault they all know is set to explode. … More >>
Luggage By Kroger: A True Crime Memoir
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5 Comments
I have mixed feelings about this book.
The introduction was intriguing as it related the murder of Doctor George Tedesco. The top suspect is Catherine Mehaffey, who claims to have been Tedesco’s common law (in British terms) wife after having lived with him for only a few months. The police fail to make a strong enough case against her to get a conviction: Catherine then goes to court to claim the estate. This all happens in the first few pages, so I am not giving anything away. It is obvious, during the introduction, that Gary is going to get his life intertwined with this mad and dangerous woman.
There then ensues around a hundred pages of background: the history of Gary’s life up to the point that he gets together with Catherine. This feels too much, but most of it is necessary, so bear with it.
I would have liked a bit more of Catherine’s background, to begin to understand how long she had been this crazy, and why. That would be fascinating.
Gary, himself, is hardly whiter than white, but the reader has to have some sympathy for the poor guy. However, he has himself to blame for many of his troubles, and not just those that he has with Catherine. You think he’d run a mile when he had a good idea of just how dangerous she is, but, every time he takes a serious knock, he keeps coming back for more punishment. Who is the crazy one, Gary?!
Anyway, without revealing any more, and thus ruining the read for anyone who is about to pick up this book, I would say that it is a great read, and so much more so because it is true. Well it is the truth from the viewpoint of one of the central characters. It is gripping, and I recommend it.
I would love for Gary to try to take up the almost impossible challenge of writing the same story from Catherine’s viewpoint. That could be very interesting indeed!
The author, maybe in an attempt to try and be TOO honest, has so far taken the first 30% of this book and made it his entire life history in needlessly excruciating detail. Do we need to know he defecated down a stairwell in college? Do we need to know about all his friends and how long he’s known them, his school and work history? I’m at a stage where he is now referring to himself in third person…and naming all of his various personalities: The Rogue, The Professional, The Domestic…I’m reading this on my Kindle and I’m 30% through it and still waiting to find out who the heck Catherine Mehaffey is and what her story is. The book bounces around a lot and seems to have conflicting information about his history, going back and forth through 3-count them, 3!!-decades of his life multiple times. It’s getting tedious so I’m having trouble getting through it.
The awful writing (he makes a living at it? really?) and the complete charisma-deficiency of the author almost make you hope that Catherine gets another shot at him…
“Luggage by Kroger” is billed as “a true crime memoir,” and thus got my interest. It’s true the protagonist Catherine Mehaffey was a serial murdering femme fatale masquerading as a law-abiding attorney; however, the author’s (Gary Taylor) relationship with her consumes far too much of the book, thereby relegating most of Ms. Mehaffey’s alleged crimes to too fleeting reference.
“Luggage by Kroger” opens in Houston at the scene of anesthesiologist George Tedesco’s murder – the day his ‘divorce trial’ vs. Catherine Mehaffey was to begin. During the past year his former three-month common-law ‘wife’ (per Catherine) had been the target of frequent harassment and theft complaints by Tedesco, and she immediately became the prime suspect. Catherine, in turn, defended herself and spiced up the case alleging Tedesco had an affair with another attorney’s wife and was also a homosexual, broadening the suspect pool. Taylor also briefly references stories of Mehaffey’s past – shooting at a prior husband, using unexpected pregnancies to blackmail lovers, and seemingly wrecking marriages for fun.
Mehaffey lost her civil case claiming the entire Tedesco estate on the grounds that the marriage had been valid, and then began romancing author Taylor. Her initial gambit was to use Taylor’s court contacts for access to more public defender work. He declined to lobby for her or accept payment, but did introduce her to the person in charge of creating the pool of attorneys used for such work.
Then its on and on and on – telling about the author’s prior marriages, schooling, jobs, and affairs. Then on and on and on about his lunches, trips, and trysts with Catherine. Finally she shoots him in the back, escapes an attempted murder charge (hung jury, appeals court reversal of conviction at second trial), and accepts an aggravated assault plea and ten years probation.
Somewhere in all this (I forget exactly where) her presumed accomplice in Tedesco’s murder is found shot in the head. A bad round of Russian roulette, or murder? Authorities are unable to tell. Mehaffey remarries (now Mrs. Shelton), returns to practicing law, and suddenly police are confronted with a husband-wife shooting – the husband dies, and the wife survives. Strangely, the wife (Marisa) formerly worked for Catherine Shelton and remembers a female voice believed to be Catherine’s at the shooting calling out to “shoot her again.” (Ill blood arose between the two after Marisa left Catherine’s firm and they began accusing each other of scamming their immigration clients.) Then a former client was found dead in Shelton’s home – hanging naked in the closet.
Bottom Line: Catherine Mehaffey’s life offers good material for an interesting, sometimes unbelievable, crime memoir. Gary Taylor’s romance with Ms. Mehaffey does not.
How do you stop someone like CM? The short answer is that you don’t. A quick google of her after reading the book proved that her shenanigans are fodder for at least a couple of sequels. The author was lucky to escape with his life. (Forget dignity.) It’s not a GREAT book, but it’s an entertaining read, as well as a cautionary tale for young men-on-the-make.