Lies Told Under Oath: The Puzzling Story of the Pfanschmidt Murders and of the Surviving Son—Victim or Villain?

The amount of research and detailed coverage of the initial trial is extremely impressive. The facts are presented without a huge editorial bias on whether the author beliefs the suspect is guilty or innocent. Few if any cases have reverberated so much in this Quincy/Payson Illinois area. Beth Lane has done a tremendous job of creating a snapshot of the event that will serve as a vastly important documentation of a infamous murder.

In late September 1912, a father, mother, daughter, and the schoolteacher boarder are murdered at the Pfanschmidt farm outside of Quincy, IL. The bodies are discovered during a house fire, later believed to have been set a full day after the killings.Suspicion falls on the remaining son – twenty years old, engaged to be married, and sliding into financial trouble.Arson investigation, murder investigation, and forensics were sciences in their infancy at the time. Add an extended family divided in their loyalty to the suspect – Ray Pfanschmidt – neighbors, businessmen, and bloodhound handlers milling about the farm during and after the fire and you have a tangle of evidence which even modern methods would have difficulty sorting into sense.The narrative guiding the way through newspaper accounts and official court records together, held my attention. Which witness is lying? In which trial? Was the motivation money? Land?I’ve heard of crimes of this sort before. At least one occurred near the small Midwestern town of my youth. But the multiple trials of the same defendant is what sets this apart from the average arson to cover murder case.

Well written and very dark. Made even more eerie because I grew up in Quincy IL. Had never heard of the case before but others had. Unsolved to this day mysteries are fascinating!

This book covers an event important in my family's history. My grandparents and mother(only 3 at the time) were close neighbors of the slain family. The legends surrounding this case have been plentiful through the years. This book gives a thorough account of a famous trial which goes beyond the community which it traumatized. The author, Beth Lane, gives an unbiased account of the case, which causes prejudiced views to be rethought. While the tedious of repeated testimony and legal maneuvering may be difficult for some readers, it is a spellbinding account of an event which has value and interest far beyond the small community or state in which it happened. Beyond the trial, is insight into the lives of people in a small Illinois farming community in the early 20th century. I commend the author for the ours of investigating the facts and for the readable and suspense built into a factual account of a significant historical legal event.

I purchased this book because of word of mouth. We live close to the region of this horrific event. The book was not well written. A little confusing at times and somewhat disjointed. Some information given toward the end of the book was needed near the beginning to explain the order of events. I was certain who was the murderer but then changed my mind twice. There never was a climax or winding up of events in the story. It was fascinating because I knew where all the locations were. I actually drive by the location of the house where the murder took place and travel daily the very roads Ray traveled. Had this murder happened today, every police procedure & investigative steps & info by journalist would be very different. Who buried those clothes,so prominately figured in the trial, under the dilapidated outhouse? This is indeed a mysterious mystery.

I live in Quincy so I truly enjoyed this book. The author did an fantastic job with the research and the time-line is excellent. If you are not familiar with the Quincy - Payson area..it is very easy to get a current map and know the places referred to in the book. It was fun to go to the areas and see the actual places where the events occured. Pfanschmidt is the O.J. of Quincy., IL. Of course, I have my thoughts that he is guilty...but some of my friends think he is innocent...so it truly makes for a great discussion.

I enjoyed this historical account of small-town western Illinois because I live near Payson and know a few people with the surnames mentioned in the book. The most striking fact of the book is the utter lack of scientific investigation, which hadn't been developed yet. A suspect could be convicted or exonerated based on eyewitness testimony, subject to the viewer's interpretation, long-held grudges, and jealousy. The author did a good job of portraying daily life at the time. Many people were still using horses for transportation, but the automobile was replacing Dobbin. The author's telling of the story lacked a certain "sparkle," but I kept turning the pages.

This is a riveting story. The fact that I am from the area where the story takes place makes it even more fascinating. It did seem to bog down during all the testimony again and again but I stuck with it because I could not wait to find out the ending. really liked the book.