Deadly Blessing - Softcover

The son of a former Texas governor and U.S. senator, Daniel felt himself the inheritor of a family tradition and rose to the speakership of the lower house in Austin before leaving politics. His first marriage was the sort he was expected to contract, to the daughter of a leading Texas family; it ended in divorce. His second marriage was to a waitress in a fast-food restaurant and they seem to have been incompatible from the start. In 1981 she killed him, or so charged the state. The trial for custody of the children preceded the murder trial, so that much of the evidence for the latter was unveiled during the former. The widow won custody of the children and also was acquitted of murder. Salerno (TNS) suggests a miscarriage of justice, perhaps because the case pitted "a poor girl" against a powerful and aristocratic family; hence the title. Photos not seen by PW.
Copyright 1987 Reed Business Information, Inc.

In Texas, the Daniel name means politics and oil. Price Daniel, Jr.a descendent of Sam Houston and son of a former senator and governorhad all the blessings. Yet his political career and first marriage failed. In January 1981, he was shot dead by his second wife, an ex-Dairy Queen waitress. This well-crafted story of Daniel, his marriage, his death, and the two resulting trials focuses on these questions: Was he a wife and child abuser, or was he a hard-working family man, unjustly accused by his histrionic wife? Did Vickie Daniel commit first-degree murder? Should she get custody of the children? Devotees of "true crime" will be eager to read the answers. Recommended.Sandra K. Lindheimer, Middlesex Law Lib., Cambridge, Mass.
Copyright 1987 Reed Business Information, Inc.