Murder in Connecticut

An incisive, unflinching account of the shocking, summer 2007 Connecticut crime that is still making national headlines, Murder in Connecticut examines what happened to Dr. William Petit, his wife Jennifer Hawke-Petit, and their two daughters, Hayley and Michaela, in the early morning hours of July 23 in the quiet town of Cheshire--and how their community rallied bravely around the sole survivor of this vicious home invasion. Who was the Petit family? How were they marked for murder by their killers, Joshua Komisarjevsky and Steven Hayes? How could these men have dreamed up such a crime? And will these horrifying murders--with startling similarities to the case in Truman Capote's classic In Cold Blood--really be the impetus behind sweeping parole reform laws that will not only affect Connecticut, but all of America?

Michael Benson is the author or coauthor of fifty books, including the Pinnacle true-crime books---Betrayal in Blood and Hooked up for Murder and Lethal Embrace (with Rober Mladinich)--as well as Inside Secret Societies, Who's Who in the JFK Assassination, and Complete Idiot's Guides to NASA, National Security, The CIA, Submarines, and Modern China. His other works include presidential biographies and true crime books for young readers. Originally from Rochester, N.Y., Benson is a graduate of Hofstra University and now resides in Brooklyn.

From the IntroductionThis is not the story of the two nonentities who attacked one summer night, although out of necessity they must appear. It is rather the story of an idyllic little town in central Connecticut--the town of Cheshire, population 29,000, median household income $80,466--a town that could have buckled under, its world sullied forever, a black spot evermore blocking their sun, but instead did not. It is the story of a community that has stuck together and supported one another during the hardest possible times--a community that, only in crisis, has discovered its own formidable strength. It is a story of anger and how even the most liberal of neighbors have rethought their opinions on capital punishment. And it is the story of a husband and father who lost everything yet somehow clung to his sanity, who in a town of thousands of lights became the brightest beacon of all.

An incisive, unflinching account of the shocking, summer 2007 Connecticut crime that is still making national headlines, Murder in Connecticut examines what happened to Dr. William Petit, his wife Jennifer Hawke-Petit, and their two daughters, Hayley and Michaela, in the early morning hours of July 23 in the quiet town of Cheshire--and how their community rallied bravely around the sole survivor of this vicious home invasion. Who was the Petit family? How were they marked for murder by their killers, Joshua Komisarjevsky and Steven Hayes? How could these men have dreamed up such a crime? And will these horrifying murders--with startling similarities to the case in Truman Capote's classic In Cold Blood--really be the impetus behind sweeping parole reform laws that will not only affect Connecticut, but all of America?

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