Rating: 
Summary: Just think about this: this woman is up for parole in 2006
Review: I read this wonderful book a few years ago and it was truly riveting. i saw the movie this morning and at the end of the movie, which i think was made in the early 90's, that Barbara will be up for parole in 2006- how in the heck did she avoid life in prison without parole?
Rating: 
Summary: She's Very Sorry That She Was Convicted
Review: Good true crime book about a female psychopath. In order to get spending money and get rid of pesky husbands, Barbara killed them in their sleep for their insurance benefits. This book was well-written, descriptive, and in depth. Barbara was apparently an amazing employee and spotless housekeeper, she just couldn't stop competing with the Joneses or stop cheating on her husbands. There was something going on with the relationship with her mother that just wasn't quite right - of course her mother always stuck up for her just like Pat's mother in "Everything She Wanted", by Ann Rule. It's amazing how similar these psychopaths are when you've read as many of these books as I have.I keep remembering how one of her former friends saw her driving around in her convertible, a big grin on her face, just out enjoying herself, right after her second husband's death (before she was arrested). I wonder if her two boys ever realized that she deliberately lied about and kept them from seeing their paternal grandparents. In my opinion, the death penalty should have been carried out on Barbara. She is breathing up other people's air.
Rating:
Summary: She's Very Sorry That She Was Convicted
Review: Good true crime book about a female psychopath. In order to get spending money and get rid of pesky husbands, Barbara killed them in their sleep for their insurance benefits. This book was well-written, descriptive, and in depth. Barbara was apparently an amazing employee and spotless housekeeper, she just couldn't stop competing with the Joneses or stop cheating on her husbands. There was something going on with the relationship with her mother that just wasn't quite right - of course her mother always stuck up for her just like Pat's mother in "Everything She Wanted", by Ann Rule. It's amazing how similar these psychopaths are when you've read as many of these books as I have. I keep remembering how one of her former friends saw her driving around in her convertible, a big grin on her face, just out enjoying herself, right after her second husband's death (before she was arrested). I wonder if her two boys ever realized that she deliberately lied about and kept them from seeing their paternal grandparents. In my opinion, the death penalty should have been carried out on Barbara. She is breathing up other people's air.
Rating:
Summary: From the Same Town
Review: I read this book some time ago. I originally selected it because of my interest in Anne Rule's books. I was in for the surprise of my life when I realized that this story involves the city where I was born and raised (Durham, NC). I became completely engrossed in the story of how someone who grew up and lived in the same town I did could turn out as Barbara did. I felt many chills reading the names of former Durham High School classmates who were character witnesses for Barbara at her murder trial. In looking back, I can say that Durham could be a town where everyone wanted to keep up with the Joneses in whatever manner they wanted to accomplish it. Barbara stepped over the line. I think Mr. Bledsoe wrote an excellent book.
Rating: 
Summary: Great beginning, boring end.
Review: I usually love reading books such as this one but although the book started out as a page turner, it quickly ended up on the lower shelf of my bookcase, the last third unread, for a few months until I finally picked it up just so I could file it away! I will not start another book until I've finished the one I'm reading so I had no choice but to read the ending. Unlike the beginning 2/3's which were exciting, amazing and extremely interesting, the end of the book was surprisingly dull and boring. The court section dragged on and on and it was so predictable too. Everything I guessed would happen, did! If the whole book had been as entertaining as the first two thirds, I would have given it 5 stars and recommended it highly but the author blew it with her rushed last part and very predictable ending.
Rating:
Summary: Will Dana Carvey play her in the TV Movie?
Review: Jerry Bledsoe, one of the upper echelon writers in this genre (along with Gregg Olsen and Ann Rule,) has written another extensively researched and riveting saga of murder in the Tar Heel state. Poor sanctimonious "church lady" Barbara Terry Ford Stager. She keeps "accidentally" shooting her husbands. She literally got away with the murder of Husband #1, but went 1 for 2 when she killed Husband #2. As one of the jurors in her trial said: ""She'll get off in twenty years and she'll get her another one and pop him off." Men of North Carolina: Be careful out there!
Rating:
Summary: Nasty
Review: Not the book, the murderess. Nasty piece of work. Its scary to realise this is a true story. Storys about a greedy woman who can only pay her bills by whacking her husbands in the noggin with a gun. she doesn't get off with it in the end which is good.
Rating:
Summary: The Aging Black Widow
Review: This book was excellent. How sad that this man knew his wife was going to kill him. The one thing that I cannot forget is how she tried to give him sleeping pills that she borrowed from his own Father so that he would not be awake to see her final betrayal. I believe her first husband (and father of her children) looked into her eyes as she was taking his life. Had she gotten away with the second murder, I have to wonder if she would have begun to accumulate life insurance policies on her Sons. It is very sad to see how the murder of her first husband was so poorly investigated.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent book, great story telling and drama
Review: This is a well-researched, well-written book that devotees of the true crime genre will enjoy. The author, Jerry Bledsoe, is right up there with the other true crime greats, Jack Olsen and Ann Rule. The book, which contains eight pages of photographs, reveals an astounding tapestry of deceit, lies, and greed, all of which led to a cold blooded murder of a husband by his seemingly devoted wife. Barbara Stager was a middle-aged woman with expensive tastes. Unfortunately, she and her husband Russ, a high school coach, did not earn the kind of money that could pay for the finer things in life. She needed money. He was insured. So, this church going, ostensibly devoted wife and mother, shot her husband while he slept, claiming that it was an accident. Funny thing, almost the same thing had happened to her first husband, who had died in bed of a gunshot wound, when a gun she claimed he was handling went off accidentally. The investigation following the death of her second husband revealed a web of lies and a private woman far different from her public image. Barbara Stagers was a woman given to sexual licentiousness, excess spending, thievery, and compulsive lying. The investigation of the murder of Russ Stager led the police to believe that the death of her first husband, Larry Ford, a death that had originally been classified as accidental, was also almost certainly murder. The scary thing is that she almost got away with it a second time. This book is a fascinating look at a real life, black widow.
Rating:
Summary: Barbara Stager sickens me
Review: This is a woman who is the ultimate sociopath. So long as she gets what she wants, she could not possibly care less who gets hurt...or murdered in the process. The manner in which she brainwashed her two sons and turned them against their paternal grandparents is indicative of the way her sick mind works. Those oh so "god-fearing" friends and neighbors of hers who thought she was SO "righteous" are as bad as she is! I just hope this vampire doesn't find a third man to marry and murder.
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