Dead By Sunset: Perfect Husband, Perfect Killer? by Ann Rule
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
10.2.2007
This is my first book that I read by this author. It got me hooked. I own every book by this author, including this one autographed!
10.13.2022
I started a True Crime Book Club. I thought I would choose this one, as this was the start for me of my true crime obsession. Spoilers ahead
Brad Cunningham had everything. He had beautiful women, he had money. However, he was a classic narcissist. He grew up with his father mistreating his mother and stating that women are only good in the kitchen and bedroom. As he became a teenager, he would use and abuse women. When he became a Senior in high school he was dating a steady girl, but he wanted to go to college in Washington State and be on the football team. He did achieve this. Once his high school girlfriend got pregnant, they got married and he got a job at a shady place and starting disappearing. He left college and became abusive. She endured it. She finally got out of the marriage but was severally mentally scarred for life. He kept going….5 wives….But wife number 4… The entire book is about her. She was a successful lawyer that had the means to take care of herself. SO while he could exploit that…so could she. So she ends up dead. Did he do it?
By this point, he had met Dr. Sarah. Successful. SHe made wonderful money and she adored him and the kids. She always believed him when he said that he was innocent. He said Cheryl was unfit and led a shady lifestyle.
As he began an affair behind Sarah’s back, she started to see things clearly. She asked for a divorce. He wanted to now make things work, due to her paying all the bills. So she asked to adopt Cheryl’s boys. He agreed. She had assumed with her back in the picture that the affair would stop, and it did not. So she did leave. She paid all of the bills and did not even live there. She wanted the boys to be happy.
Fast forward several years….They were never able to prosecute Brad on charges for her death, so her lawfirm actually took on a civil suit. He did not even bother to show up for this trial. They found him guilty and awarded $81K to the estate, of course it would never been seen. The jury and hooplah surround this civil trial had people writing in asking for prosecution of Brad for the criminal side.
Did he got prosecuted? What happens with the kids, if so? Is Dr Sarah still in the picture? Would Cheryl’s family still be able to see them?
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