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Summary
Summary
Now the Netflix Limited Series Unbelievable, starring Toni Collette, Merritt Wever, and Kaitlyn Dever * Two Pulitzer Prize-winning journalists tell the riveting true crime story of a teenager charged with lying about having been raped--and the detectives who followed a winding path to arrive at the truth.
"Gripping . . . [with a] John Grisham-worthy twist."--Emily Bazelon, New York Times Book Review (Editors' Choice)
On August 11, 2008, eighteen-year-old Marie reported that a masked man broke into her apartment near Seattle, Washington, and raped her. Within days police and even those closest to Marie became suspicious of her story. The police swiftly pivoted and began investigating Marie. Confronted with inconsistencies in her story and the doubts of others, Marie broke down and said her story was a lie--a bid for attention. Police charged Marie with false reporting, and she was branded a liar.
More than two years later, Colorado detective Stacy Galbraith was assigned to investigate a case of sexual assault. Describing the crime to her husband that night, Galbraith learned that the case bore an eerie resemblance to a rape that had taken place months earlier in a nearby town. She joined forces with the detective on that case, Edna Hendershot, and the two soon discovered they were dealing with a serial rapist: a man who photographed his victims, threatening to release the images online, and whose calculated steps to erase all physical evidence suggested he might be a soldier or a cop. Through meticulous police work the detectives would eventually connect the rapist to other attacks in Colorado--and beyond.
Based on investigative files and extensive interviews with the principals, A False Report is a serpentine tale of doubt, lies, and a hunt for justice, unveiling the disturbing truth of how sexual assault is investigated today--and the long history of skepticism toward rape victims.
Author Notes
T. Christian Miller joined ProPublica as a senior reporter in 2008. Before that, he worked for the Los Angeles Times, where he covered politics, wars, and was once kidnapped by leftist guerrillas in Colombia. His first book, Blood Money: Wasted Billions, Lost Lives, and Corporate Greed In Iraq was called one of the "indispensable" books on the war. He teaches data journalism at the University of California at Berkeley and was a Knight Fellow at Stanford University.
Ken Armstrong , who joined ProPublica in 2017, previously worked at The Marshall Project and Chicago Tribune, where his work helped prompt the Illinois governor to suspend executions and empty death row. His first book, Scoreboard, Baby , with Nick Perry, won the Edgar Allan Poe Award for non-fiction. He has been the McGraw Professor of Writing at Princeton and a Nieman Fellow at Harvard.
They have both won numerous awards, including a 2016 Pulitzer Prize for their article "An Unbelievable Story of Rape," written for ProPublica and The Marshall Project.
Reviews (4)
Publisher's Weekly Review
Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative reporters Miller and Armstrong excavate a disturbing strain of misogyny in American culture in this account of the mistreatment of victims of sexual assault in the criminal justice system. The book opens with the aftermath of the 2008 rape of an 18-year-old woman near Seattle. Marie had just aged out of foster care and was living on her own for the first time when a man with a knife broke into her house in the middle of the night and assaulted her. When Marie reported the crime, the authorities and her former foster parents were skeptical of her story. When questioned further by the police, Marie recanted under the impression that she had dreamt up the incident; she was subsequently charged with false reporting. Over two years later, an investigation into a similar crime in Colorado yielded evidence that Marie was indeed raped. The authors use this dramatic, almost unbelievable sequence of events as a springboard to a broader survey of the disturbing ways victims of rape are treated in America. Closely examining how rape is investigated and tried in the U.S., including the development of the rape kit in the 1970s and the origins of the "Hale warning" (an instruction to jurors in rape trials to be wary of false accusations), the book shines a critical light on an urgent and timely subject. (Feb.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
Booklist Review
*Starred Review* Written by two Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative reporters, this thoughtful work on a sensitive topic is a personal and cultural story of rape and a portrait of a methodical rapist and the police work involved in catching him. In 2008, outside of Seattle, 18-year-old Marie reports being raped by a masked man who broke into her house and held her captive. The story seems improbable to detectives, and in fairly short order, Marie finds herself facing a charge of false reporting. Years later in Colorado, detective Stacy Galbraith is investigating a strikingly similar report and suspects she's looking for a serial rapist, a suspicion confirmed when she hears of another recent case. The authors describe how these cases come together in a highly suspenseful (chapters often end in cliffhangers) and thorough manner that still considers the victims and avoids gratuity. Detailing the difficulty of solving crimes of rape and convicting rapists due to myriad factors, many of which stem from blaming and shaming women, the authors also commend the work of women detectives, who often approach these cases very differently than their male counterparts. This timely, well-researched, highly readable account will appeal to readers interested in true crime and social justice issues.--Sexton, Kathy Copyright 2017 Booklist
New York Review of Books Review
BEHEMOTH: A History of the Factory and the Making of the Modern World, by Joshua B. Freeman. (Norton, $27-95-) Freeman traces two centuries of factory production around the world in ways that are accessible, cogent, occasionally riveting and entirely new. The book should be required for all Americans. A FALSE REPORT: A True Story of Rape in America, by T. Christian Miller and Ken Armstrong. (Crown, $28.) This is the story of a rape investigation - plainly and expertly told - in which the victim is bullied into recanting her story before evidence surfaces, years later, to prove she was telling the truth all along. RISE AND KILL FIRST: The Secret History of Israel's Targeted Assassinations, by Ronen Bergman. (Random House, $35.) Bergman's fast-paced account of Israel's program to assassinate its enemies raises troubling moral and practical questions but also demonstrates that the tactic can be a highly effective tool against terrorist groups. WE THE CORPORATIONS: How American Businesses Won Their Civil Rights, by Adam Winkler. (Liveright, $28.95.) A law professor recounts the history of American companies' radical efforts to shape the law, with the result, he writes, that "today corporations have nearly all the same rights as individuals." THE FRIEND, by Sigrid Nunez. (Riverhead, $25.) The narrator of Nunez's wry novel inherits a Great Dane after her friend and mentor, an aging author, commits suicide. The novel suggests that something larger than writerly passion has been lost in our culture, but itself serves as a tribute to the values it holds dear. WHAT ARE WE DOING HERE? Essays, by Marilynne Robinson. (Farrar, Straus & Giroux, $27.) The novelist's latest collection, featuring talks she gave over the past three years, elaborates an eloquent defense of America's democratic traditions and institutions, with a special focus on public universities, whose original mission, she reminds us, was to "democratize privilege." ETERNAL LIFE, by Dara Horn. (Norton, $25.95.) What are the downsides of living forever? Horn explores this idea through the story of Rachel, who has been alive for 2,000 years and is getting a little tired of it. "The hard part isn't living forever," she says. "It's making life worth living." BEAR AND WOLF, written and illustrated by Daniel Salmieri. (Enchanted Lion, $17.95; ages 4 to 8.) Gorgeous, serene and philosophical, this picture book by the illustrator of "Dragons Love Tacos" features animal friends on a winter night's walk. THE RABBIT LISTENED, written and illustrated by Cori Doerrfeld. (Dial, $17.99; ages 4 to 8.) In this wonderful picture book, little Taylor's block tower falls. Everyone who passes gives advice, but a silent rabbit offers what's really needed: an understanding ear. The full reviews of these and other recent books are on the web: nytimes.com/books
Kirkus Review
The complex account of a young rape victim and the investigators who fought for her justice.Veteran investigative journalists Miller and Armstrong join forces in an expansion of a ProPublica article that won them both the 2016 Pulitzer Prize. This is the story of a suspected rape of a Seattle teenager named Marie. The victim's testimony of her violent sexual abuse at knifepoint became sullied with uncertainty as different renditions sprung forth about the night in question. Her shocking, tearful retraction of the entire event sealed her fate in the eyes of police until dogged detective Stacy Galbraith compared Marie's cold case file with other rapes. Coinciding details and suspicions were shared with veteran detective Edna Hendershot, and Marie's case was reopened. These developments also reclassified the perpetrator as a serial rapist responsible for multiple attacks and a penchant for blackmailing his victims with compromising photographs. Months of diligent, collaborative detective work drives the story, a chilling true-crime documentary and a report on how cops investigate sex crimes, the varying approaches on interrogation techniques, and the ultimate apprehension of violent criminals. Though the authors skip back and forth, they gradually build out the personal histories of Marie and her life as a foster child, Galbraith and Hendershot's law enforcement career paths, some startling statistics on rape victims, and why the broad skepticism and credibility issues encompassing accusers remain a problem. Amplifying the story is the dismaying biography of the rapist, a deranged military man with a twisted obsession with the humiliation, degradation, and enslavement of women. Throughout the book, the authors display meticulous investigative reporting skills, using documents, case files, and interviews with victims and witnesses. Their urgent account delivers absolute vindication in a serpentine crime investigation that initially betrayed its victim.A riveting and disturbing true-crime story that reflects the enduring atrocity of rape in America. Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Excerpts
Excerpts
Chapter 1 The Bridge Monday, August 18, 2008 Lynnwood, Washington Marie left the interview room and walked down the stairs of the police station, accompanied by a detective and a sergeant. She was no longer crying. At the bottom, the police handed her off to the two people who were waiting for her there. Marie belonged to a support program for teenagers aging out of foster care. These two were program managers. So, one said. Were you raped? It had been one week since Marie, an eighteen-year-old with hazel eyes, wavy hair, and braces, had reported being raped by a stranger with a knife who had broken into her apartment and blindfolded, bound, and gagged her. In that week Marie had told the story to police at least five times. She had told them: thin white man, short as five feet six. Blue jeans. Hoodie--gray, maybe white. Eyes--possibly blue. But her story wasn't always the same in the telling. And the police had heard from people in Marie's life who had doubts. And when the police had confronted Marie about those doubts, she had wavered, then buckled, saying she had made the story up--because her foster mom wasn't answering her calls, because her boyfriend was now just a friend, because she wasn't used to being alone. Because she had wanted attention. She'd sketched her history for the police detectives. She'd described growing up with something like twenty different foster parents. She'd told them she had been raped when she was seven years old. She'd told them that being on her own for the first time had made her scared. Her story of being raped by an intruder had "turned into a big thing that was never meant to happen," she'd told the police. Today she had tested whatever patience the police could still summon. She had returned to the station and doubled back, saying she had told the truth the first time, saying she really had been raped. But when pressed in that interview room she had folded once more--admitting, again, that her story was a lie. No, Marie told the managers at the bottom of the stairs. No. I was not raped. The two managers, Jana and Wayne, worked for Project Ladder, a nonprofit program that helped foster kids make the transition to living on their own. Project Ladder taught teenagers--eighteen-year-olds, mostly--the mundane skills of adulthood, from how to shop for groceries to how to manage a credit card. The biggest boost the program provided was financial. Project Ladder subsidized each teen's one-bedroom apartment, making it possible for the kids to get a foothold in the expensive rental market ringing Seattle. Wayne was Marie's case manager. Jana was a program supervisor. If that's the case, the managers told Marie, if you weren't raped, then there's something you have to do. Marie dreaded whatever was next. She had seen it on their faces when she'd answered the question. They weren't thrown. They weren't taken aback. They'd doubted her before, just like the others. It occurred to Marie that from now on, people would think she was mentally ill. She, too, wondered if she was broken, if there was something in her that needed to be fixed. Marie realized just how vulnerable she had become. She worried about losing what little she had left. A week ago, she'd had friends, her first job, her first place to call her own, freedom to come and go, a sense of life unfurling. But now that job and that sense of optimism were gone. The place and her freedom were in jeopardy. And friends she could turn to? She was down to one. Her story had, indeed, turned into a big thing. Last week the television news had been all over it. "A western Washington woman has confessed that she cried wolf," one newscast said. In Seattle the local affiliates for ABC, NBC, and CBS had covered the story. The NBC affiliate, KING 5, zoomed in on Marie's apartment complex--panning up the stairs, lingering on an open window--while Jean Enersen, Seattle's most popular anchor, told viewers: "Police in Lynnwood now say a woman who claimed she was sexually assaulted by a stranger made up the story. . . . Detectives do not know why she made the story up. She could face a charge of false reporting." Television reporters had pounded on her door, tried to get her to answer questions on camera about why she had lied. To get away she'd snuck out, a sweatshirt over her face. Her story found its way into remote corners of the Internet. False Rape Society, a blog that focuses on wrongful accusations, posted twice about the Lynnwood case: "Another in a seemingly endless cavalcade of false rape claims. Once again, the accuser is young--a teenager. . . . To underscore how serious this particular kind of lie is, sentencing for false rape claims needs to be tougher. Much tougher. Only then will the liars be deterred." A Londoner who compiles an "international timeline of false rape allegations" going back to 1674 made the Lynnwood case his 1,188th entry, following a Georgia teenager who "had consensual sex with another student then pointed the finger at an imaginary man who was driving a green Chevrolet," and a teen in England who "appears to have withdrawn her consent after texting him to tell him how much she enjoyed it!" "As will be seen from this database," the compiler writes, "some women will cry rape at the drop of a hat, or more often after dropping their knickers then regretting it." In Washington and beyond, Marie's story became an exhibit in a centuries-long argument about credibility and rape. The news stories hadn't named her. But the people around Marie knew. A friend from tenth grade called and said: How could you lie about something like that? It was the same question the TV reporters wanted to ask. It was the same question Marie got wherever she turned. She didn't answer her friend. She just listened, then hung up--another friendship, gone. Marie had let another friend borrow her laptop computer--one of those old black IBMs--and now the friend refused to give it back. When Marie confronted her, she told Marie: If you can lie, I can steal. This same friend--or former friend--would call Marie and threaten her, telling her she should die. People held Marie up as the reason no one believed real victims of rape. People called her a bitch and a whore. The Project Ladder managers told Marie what she had to do. And they told her that if she didn't do it, she would be cast out of the program. She would lose her subsidized apartment. She would be without a home. The managers took Marie back to her apartment complex and summoned the other teens in Project Ladder--Marie's peers, kids her age with the same kinds of stories to tell about growing up as wards of the state. There were around ten of them. Most were girls. In the front office, near the pool, they gathered in a circle and sat down. Marie stood. She stood and told them--told everyone, including the upstairs neighbor who one week before had made the 911 call to report the rape--that it was all a lie, that they didn't need to worry: There was no rapist out there to be on guard against, no rapist the police needed to be looking for. She cried as she confessed--the sound magnified by the awkward silence surrounding her. If there was sympathy in the room, Marie sensed it from just one person, a girl sitting to her right. In everyone else's eyes she saw a question--Why would you do that?--and a corresponding judgment: That's messed up. In the weeks and months to come, there would be more fallout from Marie's retraction. But for Marie there would be no moment worse than this. She had one friend left to turn to, and after the meeting, Marie made for Ashley's home. Marie didn't have a driver's license--just a learner's permit--so she walked. On the way there, she came to a bridge. The bridge crossed Interstate 5, the state's busiest road, a north-south highway with a ceaseless current of Subarus and eighteen-wheelers. Marie thought about how much she wanted to jump. She took out her phone, called Ashley, and said: Please come get me before I do something stupid. Then she threw her phone over the side. Excerpted from A False Report: A True Story of Rape in America All rights reserved by the original copyright owners. Excerpts are provided for display purposes only and may not be reproduced, reprinted or distributed without the written permission of the publisher.Table of Contents
1 The Bridge | p. 1 |
2 Hunters | p. 7 |
3 Waves and Peaks | p. 21 |
4 A Violent Alchemy | p. 31 |
5 A Losing Battle | p. 53 |
6 White Man, Blue Eyes, Gray Sweater | p. 63 |
7 Sisters | p. 81 |
8 "Something About How She Said It" | p. 103 |
9 The Shadow Within | p. 121 |
10 Good Neighbors | p. 141 |
11 A Gross Misdemeanor | p. 155 |
12 Marks | p. 169 |
13 Looking into a Fish Tank | p. 191 |
14 A Check for $500 | p. 199 |
15 327 1/2 | p. 215 |
Epilogue: Eighteen Wheels | p. 239 |
A Note from the Authors | p. 257 |
Notes | p. 261 |
Acknowledgments | p. 281 |
Index | p. 283 |